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Category: Global

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why your migraine might be making you crave a large Coke and fries

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amanda Ellison, Professor of Neuroscience, Durham University

    A viral social media post suggested a large fries and large coke was an effective migraine treatment Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock

    Whether it’s one or two coffees to get us going in the morning or a bar of chocolate after a stressful day, many of us self-medicate when we’re tired, stressed or sad. But when we have a headache, most of us head straight for the painkillers.

    Lately, though, a viral hack has been making the rounds: that a large Coca-Cola and fries can stop a migraine in its tracks.

    And oddly enough, it’s not total nonsense.

    The caffeine in Coca-Cola acts as a vasoconstrictor, meaning it narrows blood vessels. This helps counteract the dilation of blood vessels that occurs during a migraine – a key trigger for pain.

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    When vessels widen, they can press on and activate nearby pain-sensitive nerves, especially those of the trigeminal system, which carries sensory information about touch, pain and temperature from the head and face to the brain, leading to that familiar throbbing headache. That’s why caffeine is often included in over-the-counter headache medications.

    Meanwhile, the sugar and salt in Coke and fries may help restore balance to blood sugar and electrolytes, both of which can be disrupted during a migraine attack.

    But to really understand why this combo might work, we need to unpack what’s actually happening during a migraine.

    The four stages of migraine

    Migraines can be sparked by a wide range of factors: hormonal shifts, stress, skipped meals, certain foods, even changes in the weather or visual overstimulation. But, once one begins, it follows a specific pathway that makes it distinct from other types of headaches.

    A migraine is no ordinary headache. It’s a full-body experience with four distinct stages – two of which occur before the pain even hits. That means there’s a window in which to stop the episode in its tracks, and many migraineurs (people who suffer from migraines) already self-medicate by doing just that.

    Prodrome

    Prodrome is the first stage, which can begin hours or even days before the headache. You might feel tired, irritable, or unusually low in mood. Most people who get migraines are surprisingly bad at spotting this phase, even though it’s the best time to intervene.

    During prodrome, people often crave certain things. Many migraineurs report yawning more, which helps regulate dopamine, or seeking out hugs and affection, which boost serotonin. Others might drink ice water to calm their autonomic nervous system. Others still might reach for the large Coke and fries.

    These responses aren’t random. All of these are unconscious attempts to rebalance the neurological systems that go haywire during a migraine. Irregular serotonin, dopamine and nervous system function are all known contributors to migraines.

    And that brings us to arguably the ultimate migraine hack: chocolate. While it’s sometimes blamed as a trigger, chocolate is rich in compounds that help raise serotonin levels.

    Because low serotonin is a known factor in migraine onset, a craving for chocolate might be your brain’s way of correcting a chemical imbalance. For some people, a bit of chocolate in the early stages may help ward off an attack.

    Aura

    Aura comes after the prodrome phase, and it’s when some people experience visual disturbances like flashing lights, or odd sensations like pins and needles. About 80% of migraine sufferers don’t experience the aura phase, but the same wave-like changes happen inside their brains.

    These symptoms come from a burst of electrical activity in the brain that is subsequently suppressed, which alters blood flow and causes the constriction of blood vessels. Whether a person notices these effects depends on the structure and sensitivity of their cerebral cortex.

    The brain relies on a stable supply of blood for nutrients and oxygen — but direct contact with blood is toxic to brain tissue. That’s why we have the blood-brain barrier, a filter that protects brain cells.



    Read more:
    Headaches: three tips from a neuroscientist on how to get rid of them

    Pain

    The pain comes next. The body takes vascular changes in the brain seriously and headache pain is one way it warns us that something could be wrong. Any disruption to blood flow – too little or too much – is potentially dangerous. A blocked vessel can lead to ischemic stroke, while a ruptured vessel causes hemorrhagic stroke.

    The pain phase begins when earlier blood vessel constriction gives way to a rebound dilation. This sudden widening of vessels activates pain receptors — and voilà: the familiar, throbbing pain of migraine – and it can be debilitating.

    For many people who suffer from migraines, once the pain hits, food is the last thing on their mind. That’s why many turn to triptan medications instead of fast food, which rebalance serotonin and histamine (another regulator of blood flow) once the migraine is underway.

    Postdrome

    Postdrome kicks in after the worst of the head pain subsides. This migraine hangover is more than just feeling worn out, though – it’s a distinct phase of a migraine attack. Known medically as the postdrome phase, it follows up to 80% of migraine attacks and can bring symptoms strikingly similar to a traditional hangover: nausea, fatigue, dehydration, body aches and mental fog.

    For many people, this lingering phase can be just as disruptive as the migraine itself, making recovery a drawn-out and exhausting process. It can take days or even weeks to transition through all four phases of a migraine.



    Read more:
    Eight ways to reduce your stroke risk – no matter what age you are

    Knowledge is prevention

    Still, prevention is better than cure and recognising the early signs of a migraine, then responding in ways that support the brain’s neurobiology, can make a huge difference.

    Migraines are complex, personal and frustratingly unpredictable. But knowledge is power. And while no single solution works for everyone, recognising the prodrome phase and supporting your nervous system before pain sets in may be your best shot at heading off an attack.

    Whether it’s recognising the craving for chocolate as a biological warning sign, sipping iced water, getting a hug, or yes – even reaching for a Coke and fries – these small interventions have roots in brain science. They reflect our body’s efforts to protect itself. Developing your personal treatments based on how your brain responds can help you stay one step ahead of the pain.

    Amanda Ellison 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 your migraine might be making you crave a large Coke and fries – https://theconversation.com/why-your-migraine-might-be-making-you-crave-a-large-coke-and-fries-256309

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How lichens are bringing stone to life and reconnecting us with the natural world

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nicholas Carter, Lecturer in Physical Geography, University of Oxford

    Lichens at Blenheim Palace. Ian Wallman , CC BY-SA

    Lichens on stone, those “still explosions” as the great American poet Elizabeth Bishop named them, remain unseen to most, which is remarkable when you consider how commonplace they are. It seems these ecologically and culturally significant whatever-they-ares unfairly fall victim to something akin to plant blindness, a known phenomenon and tendency of people to overlook plants, which many of us – when we first encounter lichens – identify them as, even though that’s not what they are at all.

    Part of the problem is that they’re not studied in schools because they’re awkward outsiders and are not perceived to fit in with the objectives of the science curriculum. So I was surprised to see lichens leap into the public imagination following the Just Stop Oil protest at Stonehenge at the summer solstice in June, 2024.

    Just Stop Oil protesters spray an orange substance onto Stonehenge stones.
    Just Stop Oil

    Much of the outrage seemed to be in reaction to a quote from one of the protesters about the stones being inert: “It’s time for us to think about what our civilisation will leave behind – what is our legacy? Standing inert for generations works well for stones – not climate policy.” Inert? “Well, what about the rare lichens growing on them?”, was the response from some people, seeing them as separate from the stone, and for others more important even.

    English Heritage, the current custodians of Stonehenge, talked about the stones as being “testament to the desire of people – from prehistoric times to today – to connect with nature, the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, as well as crucially, each other”. And this very publication printed a response suggesting we should care more about the effects of climate change on our cultural heritage rather than the inconsequential actions of the Just Stop Oil protesters.

    What’s more, a senior druid said he sympathised with the group’s message but was critical of their actions at the sacred site, warning against additional measures to protect the stones, given the summer solstice is the only day in the year that people can “connect with the stones and have a proper relationship”.

    Relationship – a word that is often only reserved for connections between people, or people and animals, or animals and other animals, not people and what would otherwise be something seen – in western eyes at least – as abiotic, or non-living, lifeless, inert stones. Or are they?

    For a lichenologist specialising in saxicolous (or stone) lichens, what’s particularly interesting to me is what lichens have to say about stone and its inertness, its lifelessness, the sweeping “abiotic” label that western thinking assigns to it.

    This is because lichens are transforming our understanding of stone in both ecological and cultural contexts, and this could have major implications not only for the conservation of our cultural heritage, but also the broader field of conservation and how we understand and relate to the natural world.

    The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.

    What exactly is a lichen?

    To start with, how we see lichens themselves is changing. Trying to agree on a definition of lichens that pushes them into one of science’s neat little cubby holes has proved as difficult as trying to distinguish stone from rock. A symbiotic association between a fungus (a mycobiont) and a photosynthetic partner, usually an alga or a cyanobacterium (a photobiont), is where we’d got to. And to accommodate our Linnaean classification system of living things we’ve treated them as we would a single species, naming them after the fungus.

    But the reality is, whereas all those other living things are assigned a single species name to sit at the end of a single branch of Darwin’s tree of life, lichens recline over several, perhaps many branches, giving us the side-eye. They simply don’t fit. This has led some researchers to consider alternative ways of seeing them, including recently defining them as complex ecosystems due to the presence of additional microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria. This sea change has been challenged, however, and the debate about “lichenhood” looks like it will go on as it has done since the mid-1860s.

    More than their biology

    The notion that lichens are ecosystems, or perhaps become ecosystems, really appeals to my geographer sensibilities. It frees the lichen from species-scale thinking yet doesn’t overshadow the symbiosis that also defines certain relationships involved. What we see and define as a lichen, can in fact become more complex over time.

    One of the arguments against the idea that they are ecosystems is that it would require us to include the mineral, soil or plant substratum that the lichen grows on. As scientist William Sanders writes, “For most biologists, a lichen removed from its substratum is still a lichen.”

    I spend a lot of time looking at stone-dwelling lichens through a lens and under a microscope, and to me the co-habitational interplay between the stone, the lichen’s hyphae (or thread-like anchors) and its thallus (or main body) are intimate and dynamic, and ultimately a relationship that defines the lichen itself.

    Lichens become more than their biology, mainly because they are in situ for such an extensive length of time and even often incorporate their substrate into their main body. Depending on the environment, individuals can colonise rock and stone for decades, centuries, thousands of years even; it’s been proposed that some of the oldest found in northern Alaska are in the range of 10-11,500 years old. And so, they blur the boundary between the biotic (living) and the abiotic (non-living), which occur on a continuum when you escape a species-scale view.

    Verrucaria baldensis is an endolithic lichen that embeds in stone. At the surface of the stone, it can leave pits where its fruiting bodies detach. I call it the Moon Lichen because that’s exactly what it looks like up close; the surface of the Moon, the pits becoming craters. But when you look at it from above, or even in cross-section to see how it embeds in the stone, you’d be forgiven for thinking it had vanished, or was actually mainly stone. The relationship between the biology and the geology becomes so close that there seems good reason to consider the two together when observing it.

    Verrucaria baldensis, a lichen that submerges in stone and is reminiscent of the Moon’s surface.
    Nicholas Carter, CC BY

    The moment stone is quarried or exposed in some other way, colonisation of its surface begins, by cyanobacteria, algae and so on. This means that when that stone finds its way into a wall, a building, a monument or sculpture somewhere it has already started transforming, metamorphosing into something that acts alive. And so, at the surface, the stone is taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replacing it with oxygen, contributing to our net zero aspirations.

    And when a lichen forms on it, in time, that stone becomes part of the lichen, and so contributing to the biodiversity of the site. We don’t see it, or think about it even, but it’s happening. We just need to start seeing stone differently, dynamically, more than the mineral. For a Unesco World Heritage Site like Blenheim Palace, where I’ve been conducting lichen surveys and whose vision is partly to enhance the ecological value of the site, seeing stone in this way is highly beneficial.

    Arguably, much of how we define something depends on our relationship with it and how we choose to see it. How we value the living in relation to the non-living plays out in how we define lichens; we need to acknowledge the importance and value of both. In doing so, we are altering our perception of stone and our relationship with it. For there to be effective conservation, we need to value stone and other non-living entities because of the close relationships involved.

    The reverse situation also occurs. In the field of heritage conservation, stone, the abiotic, relocated by humans, is often valued over and above the biotic, for example lichens, which can be found colonising and occupying it. We tend to want to preserve rather than conserve stone when it comes to cultural monuments and structures, so huge sums of money are spent on cleaning historic buildings and sculptures, including on the use of biocides, many of which can be dangerous for human health and the environment.

    Metaphors for resistance and resilience

    It’s when we start to understand the cultural contributions as well as the ecological and conservation benefits of lichens to heritage that we start to lean towards and come up with more effective nature-based solutions in relation to the deterioration of stonework.

    After all, lichens occur in our folklore, and have stories to tell, and so bring a flavour of intangible cultural heritage, as well as sometimes protecting stone surfaces from other deteriorative agents. What’s interesting here is that heritage scientists have often talked about stone in human terms, when diagnosing decay for example. So stone forms blisters and has a memory even, storing past traumas related to environmental pollution.

    And lichens are also influencing a cultural and artistic re-evaluation of stone, such that contemporary artists and writers are exploring the symbiotic relationships lichens have with stone, viewing them as metaphors for resistance, resilience and interconnection. In this way, lichens highlight stone’s living narrative, bridging biology and geology in relation to the human condition.

    There’s an interesting parallel to draw here in terms of life defined by relationships. A developing theme in anthropology focuses on the intra-actions among humans and the mineral world. In her article on this, Nadia Breda’s ethnography discovers a European form of animism that “attributed subjectivity, intentionality, ability and agency to non-humans, revealing an interspecies network of relationships hidden by the western naturalistic worldview”.

    In the company of the Piave, an Italian river where water and stones were described by old gatherers as living beings, Breda signposts an anthropology of life where “stones are living in this moving world of humans, stones and water” in a world where “life is not an intrinsic property of objects but a condition of being dependent on the context, and vitality is not a property of isolated individuals, but of the total field or relationships in which they are interacting.”



    Read more:
    Great Mysteries of Physics 5: will we ever have a fundamental theory of life and consciousness?

    By observing lichens and listening to voices outside of a western perspective, we see stone as something more than lifeless, a way of reconnecting with the natural world – which we desperately need.

    We form relationships and emotional attachments to the biological world with relative ease, but we need to nurture these connections with physical elements too, and not just when they hold cultural or symbolic significance. As such, we need to advocate for soil integrity, for example, as much as for saving endangered species. Ethical debates such as rights and conservation should not just focus on the biological, and what we see as the physical must be spoken about in terms of moral obligations.

    Stone is significant to lichens as well as many human cultures, representing more than inert matter, carrying meaning, history and spiritual significance. Focusing too rigidly on a binary distinction obscures the integrated nature of ecosystems and diminishes these broader environmental and human connections, which can offer valuable insights into sustainability and environmental stewardship. This is less about making distinctions, but building more connections.

    This article was a runner up in The Conversation Prize for writers, run in partnership with Faber and Curtis Brown.

    Nicholas Carter 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 lichens are bringing stone to life and reconnecting us with the natural world – https://theconversation.com/how-lichens-are-bringing-stone-to-life-and-reconnecting-us-with-the-natural-world-250944

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Britain’s net zero construction workforce is already at risk of burnt out

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Simon Addyman, Associate Professor in Project Management, UCL

    Kittirat Roekburi/Shutterstock

    The pressure of decarbonising industrial sectors is weighing on workers.

    The UK’s Labour government seeks a low-carbon and homegrown energy supply by 2030. The scale and pace of this transformation is unprecedented in the country’s power sector, and will involve building twice as much transmission infrastructure (pylons, cables, substations) in the next five years as was built over the last decade.

    Much of the workforce will be drawn from the construction sector, which employs 2.3 million people. Construction forms the dominant supply chain to the 17 major infrastructure projects involved in an overhaul of the electricity grid that will connect new wind farms in the North Sea and northern Scotland to homes and businesses across Great Britain.

    The workers “on the tools” who will carry out much of this transformation are struggling. The latest analysis from the Office for National Statistics suggests that the suicide risk of construction workers is three times higher than the male national average. Scholars of construction project management have identified a toxic workplace culture in the industry, citing aggressive market competition and demanding performance metrics.

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    This is a problem that is largely being ignored. When planners at the National Energy System Operator assessed the UK’s capacity to build a clean power sector by 2030, they considered the absolute number of workers needed, the skills required and how employment is changing in the sector.

    Their assessment failed to consider the broader implications for workforce mental health and wellbeing of such a quick and comprehensive upgrade – but it is people who are going through a rapid transition, not just infrastructure.

    Expect more of these in years to come.
    J R Patterson/Shutterstock

    Going green, feeling blue

    Construction workers already endure long hours and stress due to tight deadlines. A rapid transition to green power will substantially increase their workload, unless managed carefully.

    Our report, published July 2024, looked into wellbeing and suicide in the construction industry. We concluded that the UK government, major infrastructure owners such as National Grid and their supply chain partners who provide specialist design and construction services, must work together to solve this problem.

    Major infrastructure owners offer mental health services, such as confidential counselling, legal advice and financial guidance, to help their own employees manage personal or work-related issues. But most workers on the tools are not directly employed by these owners. Most are self-employed, or hired by construction firms, of which 99% are small- and medium-sized enterprises.

    More than 96% of construction firms have fewer than 15 employees. Smaller suppliers of specialist trade skills, like electrical and mechanical installation, have fewer employment protections and more compressed schedules, and are even less likely to have the capacity to provide these services.

    Some infrastructure owners and big construction companies extend their health and wellbeing services to these smaller suppliers. However, in an industry that is dominated by competitive tendering, which favours suppliers that keep costs low, it is no surprise that uptake has been low.

    Owners of infrastructure assets like electricity pylons and substations can drive workplace improvements by adopting procurement models that prioritise suppliers that are offering measures to improve worker wellbeing.

    Research from one of us (Jing Xu) and fellow project management expert Yanga Wu, has shown that the top-down prescriptive approach traditionally applied to health and safety in construction does not work for wellbeing. This requires a bottom-up approach, that makes it easy for workers to tell managers what they are struggling with and what they think would help.

    The construction sector also faces a shortage of workers and skills required for the green transition. The industry training board forecasts that the industry must attract the equivalent of 50,300 extra workers a year to meet expected levels of work over the next five years.

    The UK is not training enough workers to achieve net zero.
    Paya Mona/Shutterstock

    In the power sector, however, there is the additional complication of an ageing workforce, as well as differences in employment conditions between permanent and contract staff. Key expertise is at risk of being lost with retirements. Older workers often face additional pressure, not only to meet performance targets but also to compensate for gaps in expertise, and all within a fast-paced environment.

    To improve mental health and wellbeing among a diverse workforce requires engaging with workers directly and ensuring their voices are heard. This involves more than upgrading technical skills. Research to better understand how organisations can care for their workforce in the context of increasing pressures due to achieving net zero is also vital.

    Further research and collaboration with infrastructure owners and major construction contractors could help manage the risks and provide valuable insights for other sectors that will need to follow suit, such as heating, transport and agriculture.

    It is imperative to consider what a transition means: the technical transition of replacing outmoded technology, as well as the social transition, which prioritises not only skills but workplace mental health. Without a focus on both policy and people, clean power will not be delivered.

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

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

    Simon Addyman receives funding from University College London.

    Jing Xu receives funding from University College London.

    – ref. Britain’s net zero construction workforce is already at risk of burnt out – https://theconversation.com/britains-net-zero-construction-workforce-is-already-at-risk-of-burnt-out-249328

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Horrific, bizarre, lonely: how women going through the menopause describe their experiences

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jessica Piasecki, Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology, Sport Science Department, Nottingham Trent University

    New Africa/Shutterstock

    Oestrogen and progesterone are the primary sex hormones in females, playing powerful roles throughout life – from puberty and periods to pregnancy and eventually menopause.

    During adolescence, these hormones surge, kick-starting the menstrual cycle. In adulthood, they fluctuate month to month, driving ovulation and menstruation. But between the ages of 45 and 55, their levels start to decline.

    This signals the beginning of perimenopause – the transitional phase leading to menopause, which is officially marked when a woman has gone 12 consecutive months without a period. After that, hormone levels settle at a lower, steady baseline, ushering in the postmenopausal stage.

    However, this hormonal journey is far from one-size-fits-all. Each woman’s hormonal profile is as individual as her fingerprint: pregnancy, breastfeeding, contraceptive use and lifestyle choices can all influence hormone levels in unique ways.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Oestrogen and progesterone don’t just affect the reproductive system, they also act directly on the brain. Both hormones can cross the blood-brain barrier and influence neural function. Oestrogen tends to excite brain activity, enhancing alertness and mood, while progesterone is more calming and balancing.

    When these hormone levels begin to fluctuate during perimenopause, they can disrupt many of the systems they regulate, especially in the brain. Common symptoms like hot flushes, night sweats, memory problems, mood swings, poor sleep and even depression are not just nuisances. They’re signs that the central nervous system is being affected.

    These neurological symptoms can have a domino effect on physical and mental health. In fact, research shows that women are more likely than men to experience frailty and cognitive decline in later life – a trend that may be linked to the hormonal shifts around menopause.

    That’s why it’s so important to approach menopause as a whole-body, whole-brain experience and not just a reproductive event.

    Experiences of menopause

    Along with colleagues from Nottingham Trent and Northumbria universities, I conducted research that explored how women describe their personal experiences of menopause. The findings were eye opening.

    When asked to sum up menopause in one word, participants offered responses like:
    “Anxiety.” “Horrific.” “Bizarre.” “Depression.” Many expressed frustration at the lack of clear, trustworthy information and a feeling of isolation. One woman said: “I don’t know what my body is capable of doing from one minute to the next … the pain, it’s just horrible.”

    Another described overwhelming fatigue: “I haven’t got the energy I had when I was young.” While others reported profound mental health struggles: “I had this thing where I hated myself”, “I would have a rage within me, which wasn’t me normally”, “I had depressive episodes and was very poorly.” One participant reported that she was “feeling overwhelmed and panicked about doing anything, even leaving the house”.

    These stories reveal the reality behind the statistics – menopause can be deeply destabilising, and for some women, life altering.

    The more symptoms women experience, the more their quality of life can be affected. But there is hope. Research shows that higher levels of physical activity are linked to fewer and less severe menopausal symptoms.

    That’s why our research team has taken our findings beyond the lab. Through public events and workshops, we’re helping women learn about how nutrition, brain health, and exercise can support them through the menopausal transition. And the impact goes beyond biology: gaining knowledge has been shown to boost self-confidence and help women feel more in control and less alone.

    There’s still much to learn about the full impact of menopause on the brain and body, but one thing is clear: supporting women through this major life stage is not optional – it’s essential.

    By continuing to share knowledge, break taboos and support one another, we can change the story of menopause from one of confusion and isolation to one of empowerment, understanding and resilience.

    Jessica Piasecki receives funding from The Royal Society and MyAge. She is affiliated with Power Group — National Institute of Women’s Health and Performance and Relative Energy .Deficiency-Sport (RED-S) interest group

    – ref. Horrific, bizarre, lonely: how women going through the menopause describe their experiences – https://theconversation.com/horrific-bizarre-lonely-how-women-going-through-the-menopause-describe-their-experiences-255996

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From M&S to Duolingo: banter between brands on social media gets people buying – but there’s a catch

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Zoe Lee, Reader (Associate Professor) in Marketing, Cardiff University

    The owl that came back from the dead. daily_creativity/Shutterstock

    The line between entertainment and advertising is increasingly blurred thanks to social media. People no longer just consume content, they experience it – laughing, sharing and commenting. And brands have caught on.

    The days when people sat through a 30-second TV ad because they had no choice are long gone. Now they can quickly swipe past anything that feels too much like selling.

    What tends to grab attention are things that feel spontaneous, real or funny. That’s where brand-to-brand banter comes in.

    Instead of posting directly to consumers, brands increasingly engage with each other. They crack jokes, offer praise and even poke fun at competitors. Brands are becoming more human in their interactions – especially with each other.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Brand “banter” doesn’t feel like an ad (even though it has a commercial purpose). It can feel unscripted, human and weirdly fun, cutting through in a way traditional advertising can’t.

    Our research shows that consumers are more likely to notice and engage with these interactions. The content feels less like marketing and more like shared digital culture. It can feel unexpected and entertaining, and invites audiences into a “moment”.

    Humour, especially online, is a powerful emotional hook. It invites people to share the content – great news if you have a product to sell. In a noisy digital world where brands compete for eyeballs, humour helps to get people’s attention.

    But it also fosters emotional connection, and can make brands feel human-like to consumers. When we see brands behaving playfully or being especially complimentary towards each other, our research shows they are more like to engage and remember them. It turns passive scrolling into active participation.

    A good example is the Duolingo Death meme. The brand’s chaotic cartoon owl faked its death on Instagram and the result was viral engagement.

    The post was liked by more than 2.1 million people. Other brands such as Walmart, FedEx, Kellogg’s and Five Guys joined in. Even pop star Dua Lipa paid tribute on X. What felt like spontaneous chaos was actually a smart, strategic move that tapped into meme culture, humour and community trends.

    The same can be said for the caterpillar cake battle between supermarket Aldi and Marks & Spencer. This public brand-to-brand feud over their respective cakes exploded into a public spectacle and legal action from M&S. Despite being locked in a trademark row, Aldi and M&S ribbed each other with witty social media posts.

    But rather than harming either brand, the playful roasting humanised them, drawing attention and affection from consumers.

    In on the joke

    Our research also found that when brands talk to each other, (rather than just talking at consumers), it can be an effective marketing device. These exchanges are more engaging than traditional brand-to-consumer posts because they feel unexpected and unscripted.

    We found that people don’t just enjoy the interactions. They walk away with more positive feelings towards the brand and are more likely to buy from them. These interactions break the “fourth wall” of advertising and let consumers feel like they’ve been let in on a joke.

    Humour often works by violating expectations. But whether consumers find something funny or awkward depends on how we interpret that violation. And there’s a catch: it needs to feel benign rather than malign.

    American fast food chain Wendy’s is renowned for its sharp-witted social media presence, often engaging in playful jabs at competitors like McDonald’s. But one post, in response to McDonald’s promise to use fresh beef in all of its quarter pounders, apparently went too far.

    Wendy’s posted: “So you’ll still use frozen beef in MOST of your burgers in ALL of your restaurants? Asking for a friend.” While many customers found the remark humorous, others viewed it as mean-spirited and unprofessional.

    So banter – when it verges on being aggressive – can risk alienating consumers who prefer respectful brand interactions.

    Of course, the line between clever and cringe-worthy is thin. When brands try too hard to be funny or provocative, they risk being perceived as inauthentic, self-serving or out-of-touch. Worse, they can alienate audiences or trivialise serious issues. The performative nature of online branding means that missteps are both public and memorable.

    And brands must be self-aware. It’s crucial that they understand their brand purpose and identity, their “cool” factor, and who their real customers are.

    As brands seek their place in a saturated landscape, characterised by constant content overload and fleeting consumer attention, these moments of humour and light-hearted engagement can serve as relief valves. But they’re also strategic tools. Brands are using playfulness to build emotional connection, cultural relevance and visibility in an overcrowded digital space.

    So the next time a brand makes you laugh, pause and consider: Was it just a joke, or was it also a very clever move?

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

    – ref. From M&S to Duolingo: banter between brands on social media gets people buying – but there’s a catch – https://theconversation.com/from-mands-to-duolingo-banter-between-brands-on-social-media-gets-people-buying-but-theres-a-catch-256521

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Four lifestyle habits that might just help you live to 100

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Bradley Elliott, Reader in Ageing Physiology, University of Westminster

    Resilience to stress is important when it comes to longevity. Sabrina Bracher/ Shutterstock

    A 115-year-old Surrey woman named Ethel Caterham has officially been handed the title of the oldest living human alive.

    Many people reading this news may wonder what Caterham’s secret is.

    While it isn’t usually a good idea to take health and longevity advice from supercentenarians (as they’re often the exception rather than the rule), there are some lifestyle pointers that we can take from research on groups of long-lived people that might help us increase our chances of living a longer life.

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    1. Physical activity

    Physical activity is good for you – who knew? Research shows that people who are more physically active each day tend to live longer, healthier lives. One study found that going from no physical activity to about 75 minutes per week of brisk walking increased life expectancy by about two years.

    But perhaps less well known is just how bad inactivity is for your health and longevity. It’s a tad difficult to explain, but the positive effects of exercise are actually different from the negative effects of inactivity. That means that you can have a positive influence on your health by being both more active and avoiding being inactive.

    Yet as good as structured exercise is for you, it can’t by itself offset the harms of inactivity and sitting all day. Research even shows that being sedentary is associated with higher risk of premature death from any cause.



    Read more:
    Sitting is bad for your health and exercise doesn’t seem to offset the harmful effects

    If you want to live longer, you should try to avoid sitting for long periods of time if possible. Practical tips for this include standing up every 30 minutes, going to see someone in the office instead of calling or emailing them and standing on public transport during commuting. This, plus the aim to do about 30 minutes moderate exercise most days will help maximise your odds of a long, healthy life.

    2. Eat your veggies

    The advice many kids dread: eat your vegetables if you want to live a long time.

    A recent study that followed around 100,000 people over a 30 year period found that people who made it to 70 years of age in good health (meaning they had no chronic diseases) typically ate more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and fewer trans-fats, red or processed meats, fried foods and sugary foods. Importantly, this study doesn’t say that you must be a vegan, or never eat red meats – it only identifies trends within diets associated with healthy ageing.

    A healthy diet may be key to healthy ageing.
    Tom Wang/ Shutterstock

    When and how much you eat may also play a role when it comes to ageing. Research on caloric restriction and intermittent fasting in animals has shown both can increase lifespan. Our preliminary work in humans has also shown that following a fasting diet for three weeks can cause similar, positive metabolic shifts that match what we’ve seen in animals that will live longer. However, larger studies over longer time-frames are needed to establish effects on healthspan and lifespan in humans.

    3. Sleep

    Regular, good quality sleep is also important for lifelong health and overall longevity.

    In a study of about 500,000 British people, irregular sleep patterns were associated with a 50% higher risk of early death compared to those with regular sleep patterns. Shift workers showed higher risk for strokes, and nurses who worked rotating shifts for decades were less healthy and had earlier deaths at retirement compared to nurses who didn’t work shifts.

    While this data suggests that good quality, regular sleep is important for good health, how much sleep you need and when you should go to bed appears to be highly individualistic. This makes giving population-wide recommendations difficult – which is why the NHS recommends adults get between 7-9 hours sleep.

    4. Stress

    Stress has many effects on your health.

    For instance, increasing evidence shows that early-life stressors (such as loss of a parent, neglect or abuse) can negatively affect health later in life – even down to a molecular and cellular level by increasing inflammation levels in ways that could increase the risk of poor health and premature death in older age.

    Conversely, older adults that show increased psychological resilience to stress are less likely to die from any cause. As little as eight weeks of regular yoga is enough to improve psychological resilience in older adults.

    Possibly linked is the effect of social connections. Those that live more socially active lives also tend to live longer. In fact, people over 65 who are socially active daily are three times more likely to live for five more years compared to those that almost never engage in social activities.

    It’s a common finding that strong social networks appear to enhance longevity. This may be due to the way social connections help us alleviate stressors in our lives.

    The role of genetics

    While there are many lifestyle habits we can change, one thing we can’t control when it comes to our lifespans is genetics. Some research suggests that naturally-occurring mutations in genes associated with longevity are more common in long-lived people.

    Although it’s hard to tease out the role of genetics versus lifestyle when it comes to lifespan, current predictions suggest that longevity is between 20-40% related to genetics.

    But good genetics aren’t everything. Although Ethel Caterham has made it to the remarkable age of 115 – and one of her sisters lived to be 104 – Caterham’s two daughters pre-deceased her at 71 and 83 years of age.

    And even if you do win the genetic jackpot and follow a good lifestyle, you would still be very lucky to make it to Caterham’s grand old age of 115. Cells mutate, clots form, biological luck runs out. Still, if you want to maximise your odds of living longer and staying as healthy as possible, aim to be more physically active each day, eat a good diet, get a good night’s sleep and keep stress levels low.

    Bradley Elliott receives funding from the Physiological Society, the British Society for Research on Ageing, the Altitude Centre, and private philanthropic individuals, and has consulted for industry and government on longevity research. He is on the Board of Trustees of the British Society for Research on Ageing.

    – ref. Four lifestyle habits that might just help you live to 100 – https://theconversation.com/four-lifestyle-habits-that-might-just-help-you-live-to-100-255789

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Insect protein could support healthy ageing and fight climate change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Catherine Norton, Associate Professor Sport & Exercise Nutrition, University of Limerick

    Charoen Krung Photography/Shutterstock

    When we think about the future of food, it’s unlikely that crickets, meal worms or grasshoppers come to mind. But believe it or not, insects might just be one of the most promising answers to two big global problems: feeding a growing (and ageing) population and fighting climate change.
    As the world’s population heads towards 10 billion by 2050, we’re going to need a lot more food – and especially more protein.

    In Ireland, where our research was based, this matters even more because our population is ageing. Older adults need more protein to stay healthy and independent as they age, but often they don’t eat enough of it.

    At the same time, we also have to take care of the planet. Producing traditional protein sources like beef, pork and chicken uses up a lot of land, water and energy – and creates a lot of greenhouse gases.

    So, where do insects fit in?

    Insects are packed with high-quality protein. They also contain good fats, vitamins and minerals like iron and zinc. Some species are just as nutritious, if not more so, than chicken or beef.

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    Even better, they’re much more sustainable. Insects need very little space, water, or food to grow, and they produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. For example, crickets need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein.

    This makes them a great option for countries like Ireland which wants to cut down on its environmental impact while still providing healthy food for everyone, including older adults who need extra protein to prevent muscle loss and frailty.

    Despite all the good things about insect protein, most people in Ireland aren’t exactly rushing out to eat a cricket sandwich. I led a research project, conducted by Sarah Mae Crosse, Aoife Finlay and Sarah Dooley, which looked at what Irish adults think about eating insects. We found that while some people are open to the idea, many still say “no thanks”.

    The main reasons? Disgust, fear of the unknown and not knowing how to cook or prepare them. People also worry about taste and texture. One participant said: “It’s just weird – it makes my stomach turn,” while another admitted they’d be okay with it “as long as I don’t see any legs sticking out”.

    Increasing appeal

    The way insects are served also makes a big difference. People are much more willing to try insect protein when it’s ground up into a powder and added to foods they already like, like protein bars, pasta, bread, or burgers. In this form, it’s just another ingredient and it doesn’t look like a bug anymore.

    Another big factor is education. When people learn about how insect protein can help the environment and support healthy ageing, they’re more likely to give it a go. In our student-led focus groups, some participants changed their minds after hearing about the benefits. “I didn’t realise it was so high in protein or that it’s good for the planet,” one said. “I’d try it now, especially if it tasted okay.”

    Getting more people on board with insect protein isn’t just about making it tasty – it’s also about trust. Clear rules and food safety standards from the government can help people feel more confident about trying something new. Plus, supermarkets and food producers need to make these products easy to find and affordable.

    Schools, colleges and community groups can play a big role too. Cooking demos, taste tests and education campaigns can make insect protein seem less weird and more like a smart, forward thinking choice. As more people try these foods and share their experiences, the idea of eating insects could go from gross to normal.

    It might take time, but insects could become an important part of the Irish diet. They’re good for our health, especially as we get older, and they’re good for the planet too. The key is helping people understand the benefits, get over the “ick” factor and find ways to enjoy them in everyday meals.

    With the right mix of science, education and smart marketing, we might all be munching on insect powered protein foods before long.

    Catherine Norton receives funding from government funding, research council grants and industry.

    With thanks to Sarah Mae Crosse, Aoife Finlay and Sarah Dooley, undergraduate students at the University of Limerick, who conducted this research.

    – ref. Insect protein could support healthy ageing and fight climate change – https://theconversation.com/insect-protein-could-support-healthy-ageing-and-fight-climate-change-255894

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Tove Jansson used her Moomins comic strip to critique the financial and creative pressures of being an artist

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Elina Druker, Professor in Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

    In 1954, the Finnish artist Tove Jansson was commissioned by the Evening News in London to draw comic strips about the Moomintrolls. The strip was syndicated by hundreds of newspapers, introducing the Moomins to an international audience and marking a dramatic turning point in her career.

    Between 1954 and 1959, Tove Jansson drew 21 comics, some in collaboration with her brother Lars Jansson, who continued to draw the comic strip until 1975.

    The success of the Moomin in the Evening News brought Tove Jansson economic security and helped her with the mortgage of her studio in Helsinki. However, over time, the assignment also became a burden on her creative work – a time-consuming and demanding obligation.

    Perhaps because of this personal conflict, the comics often explore themes such as the struggle of artistic creation, the role of the artist and the value of art. Jansson had previously created humorous and satirical commentaries on the art world in various artists’ magazines in Finland, but here she places the Moomin at the heart of the creative process.

    Unlike the novels and picture books, the Moomin comic strips were created for adults and can be described as satire. Jansson uses the compact format to comment on society, including the art world. The growing conflict in her own life, between the Moomintrolls and her artwork, is brought into focus in the comic strips.

    This is part of a series of articles celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Moomins. Want to celebrate their birthday with us? Join The Conversation and a group of experts on May 23 in Bradford for a screening of Moomins on the Riviera and a discussion of the refugee experience in Tove Jansson’s work. Click here for more information and tickets.

    The theme of the purpose of art and artistic creation is playfully introduced in one of the first comic strips, Moomin and the Brigands. Here Moomin and his friend Sniff embark on a quest for fortune. They engage in several schemes, including capturing rare creatures and selling them to the zoo, marketing magic rejuvenation potions and creating modern art.

    While visiting a Hemulen (a really uptight counterpart to the Moomintrolls who love rules), Moomin and Sniff accidentally break several precious items in her home. Among the broken objects is a large statue of Rebecca at the Well, which falls from its pedestal and shatters. Rebecca at the Well is a classic biblical motif, which often portrays a model of feminine virtue, symbolising divine guidance and exemplifying ideals of hospitality and moral character.

    The friends awkwardly attempt to reassemble the statue by gluing it together. The result is a strangely angular and expressive piece of art, referencing fragmented cubist portraits. Cubism, which emerged around 1907 to 1908, aimed to represent reality in a radically new way by bringing together subjects and figures, resulting in objects that appear fragmented and abstracted.

    Sniff immediately sees the potential of the new Rebecca. “She’s more modern now,” he exclaims joyfully. The friends carry the statue to an enthusiastic art dealer who sells it for £500 in his gallery.

    The episode with the deconstructed Rebecca is, of course, a funny caricature of the trend-sensitive art market. But the shattered statue with its intricate shapes was also a commentary on the debates about the “incomprehensible” and “obscure” nature of modernist art in Nordic countries during the time.

    The destruction of the Rebecca can also be seen as an act of iconoclasm – the breaking of icons or monuments – or rather, a parody of it. While usually associated with vandalism, here, the iconoclastic act leads to the creation of something new. This expresses a desire for renewal and a liberation from restrictive conventions. It is, however, worth noting that Rebecca retains her symbol of virtue – the water jug – even after this pivotal encounter.

    Drawing on the work of French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour, iconoclasm can be understood as both destructive and constructive – an ambiguity that also applies to Jansson’s interpretation of the motif.

    Later in the story, the money offered by the modernist Rebecca lures Moomin to the field of the arts. For a brief moment, he assumes the role of a painter and wholeheartedly embodies the romanticised ideal of the poor, misunderstood artist.

    Moomin dons a Rembrandtian black velvet beret, but despite this, appears lost and bewildered in his new role, muttering: “I only want to live in peace and plant potatoes and dream!”

    In a scene of self-parodying metafiction, he is blinded by his oversized beret and ends up tumbling down a cliff, abruptly ending his artistic career.

    Tove Jansson’s Moomin comic strips for the Evening News use satire to explore artistic creation, the role of the artist, and the art world.

    Through Moomintroll’s and Sniff’s pursuit of fame and fortune via the accidental modernist deconstruction of Rebecca, Jansson satirises romantic notions of the artist, the commercialisation of art and the professions surrounding artistic production. These themes are deeply connected to Jansson’s own experiences as an artist and author, constantly balancing between various professional and artistic demands, between children’s books, public obligations and painting.

    Elina Druker is employed as a professor and researcher at Stockholm University, Sweden.

    – ref. How Tove Jansson used her Moomins comic strip to critique the financial and creative pressures of being an artist – https://theconversation.com/how-tove-jansson-used-her-moomins-comic-strip-to-critique-the-financial-and-creative-pressures-of-being-an-artist-256287

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What do MPs really think about immigration? We surveyed them to find out

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mitya Pearson, Assistant Professor, Politics of Climate Change, University of Warwick

    Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, gives a statement to MPs on immigration reform. House of Commons/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

    The UK government has unveiled plans to reform the migration system, making it more restrictive with the aim of reducing the level of net migration into Britain.

    Immigration provides economic opportunities for a country – for example, migration enables employers to recruit the workers they need. This is particularly true in essential but low-paid sectors such as social care and agriculture. Reducing net migration may mean trading off some of these economic benefits.

    The UK government’s official economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, tends to assume that higher net migration has a positive impact on economic growth and tax receipts.

    It is notable, then, that a government elected to make economic growth its primary mission, which has struggled to keep the public finances in line with its fiscal rules, is making policy choices that could make both objectives more challenging. Some have argued that the government’s immigration plans are a sign it has abandoned its goal of boosting economic growth above all other objectives.

    We have just published new research that partly explains this decision. We conducted a survey of 103 MPs and 1,757 local councillors, and compared the attitudes of British politicians with those of members of the public.

    We polled Westminster MPs on what they think about the level of migration into the UK. The timing of this polling matched up exactly with a public poll YouGov had conducted. This enabled us to draw a direct comparison between the two groups.

    We found that broadly, MPs and the public are in agreement on this issue. Both clearly tend to think immigration has been too high in recent years. However, the public (70% support) are even more inclined towards this view than MPs (just under 60% support), and less likely than MPs to think that immigration levels have been “about right” in recent years.


    Author provided, CC BY

    Despite these results, the long-term trend on public attitudes to migration has moved in a more liberal direction. Over decades, the British public has generally become more positive about the benefits of migration.

    However, this is complicated by the fact that anti-immigration voters are often more exercised about the issue than pro-immigration voters. Anti-immigration voters are also more efficiently distributed across a large number of constituencies, whereas more liberal pro-immigration voters are often more concentrated in seats in larger cities.

    Reform UK’s performance in the recent local elections demonstrates the electoral potency of anti-immigration sentiment among some voters.



    Read more:
    What Britons and Europeans really think about immigration – new analysis

    Growth at all costs?

    Ipsos also recently published some interesting polling of MPs and the public. This showed that when it comes to issues such as increased housebuilding and immigration, MPs tended to be more willing than the public to prioritise boosting economic growth over other objectives (such as limiting immigration). Although, MPs were more willing than the public to prioritise protecting the environment over economic growth.

    When Labour was elected into government in 2024, Keir Starmer emphasised the party’s focus on boosting growth. A whole tranche of new Labour MPs were elected with an apparent commitment to this, and many subsequently joined the Labour Growth Group caucus.

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    Such a shift in the composition of who is in the Westminster parliament has enabled substantial policy shifts in a pro-growth direction. For example, some recent Conservative prime ministers would arguably have liked to implement the type of reforms in the current government’s planning and infrastructure bill, but were unable to principally because of resistance among their backbench MPs.

    However, as we’ve explained, polling shows that the public is not always as willing as the current crop of MPs to sign up to things just because they might boost economic growth. There is also a substantial section of the population who would like to see immigration reduced.

    The government’s new white paper setting out its proposed immigration reforms eschews a simple relationship between higher immigration and greater economic prosperity. It emphasises the difference between boosting overall GDP and the size of the labour market versus productivity and per capita GDP, and criticises an economic model reliant on record levels of net migration into the UK.

    Nonetheless, it appears that Labour has diluted its attempt to govern in a purely pro-growth manner in order to respond to public opinion.

    Mitya Pearson the University of Warwick. He has received funding from the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

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

    – ref. What do MPs really think about immigration? We surveyed them to find out – https://theconversation.com/what-do-mps-really-think-about-immigration-we-surveyed-them-to-find-out-256856

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Starmer announces migration ‘return hubs’ on Albania visit, but Albania doesn’t want them – what’s going on?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andi Hoxhaj, Lecturer in Law, King’s College London

    Keir Starmer became the first British prime minister to visit Albania since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1921. During the visit, he announced that the UK plans to set up “return hubs” for asylum seekers whose claims are rejected by the UK.

    Just days after announcing his plans to reduce legal migration to the UK, this move on irregular migration is more evidence of the prime minister’s concern about losing voters to anti-immigration Reform UK.

    Before meeting with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama to sign a strategic partnership agreement between the two countries, Starmer said that the UK has begun formal talks with several countries to set up return migration hubs to send asylum seekers abroad. The specifics are yet to be announced, but it has been reported that these would probably be in the western Balkans.

    The plan has drawn comparison to the Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, but is different in a number of ways.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Under the Rwanda scheme, people who arrived in the UK illegally would have been sent straight to Rwanda where their asylum claims would be processed. If accepted, they’d be offered asylum in Rwanda, not the UK. Starmer cancelled the plan in one of his first moves as prime minister.

    With Labour’s plan, people would only be sent to another country if their asylum claim is rejected and they’ve exhausted all legal options to stay in the UK. The rationale is that they would not be able to disappear into the informal economy and illegal actives in the UK after an asylum claim was not successful.

    The goal of both plans is to act as a deterrent to irregular migration, and to cut the high cost of hosting undocumented migrants and asylum seekers in the UK, which has become a major political issue.

    The return hubs plan also has the approval of the UN refugee agency, which condemned the legality of and the practically of the Rwanda scheme.

    However, it has already hit a roadblock. Albania was one of the UK’s preferred options for a return migration hub. But during a joint press conference with Starmer, Rama said that Albania will not take part in such a scheme.

    This is probably because a similar set-up with Italy has so far been unworkable, legally and politically .

    Under the Italy-Albania migration agreement signed in November 2023, Albania is meant to play host to two Italian processing centres, where they planned to send asylum seekers intercepted at sea. But after facing numerous legal challenges, Italy is instead using them as repatriation facilities to hold those whose claims have already been rejected while they await deportation.

    Partnership with Albania

    The UK has maintained a successful returns arrangement with Albania, set up by the last government.

    In 2022, Albanians accounted for over one-third (around 12,500) of all small boat entries, more than any other country. Arrivals from Albania have dropped by 95% in the last three years. And the number of Albanians returned to the country has more than doubled in the last two years, with 5,294 Albanians returning in 2024.

    The two countries set up a joint task force to tackle organised crime networks that were facilitating the illegal entry of Albanian nationals to the UK. Starmer began his visit at the Port of Durres, where British and Albanian law enforcement officials are stationed as part of the Joint Migration Task Force with Albania.

    Starmer indicated that the task force will be expanded to include the other western Balkan countries. This is because the western Balkan route is one of the main migratory paths into Europe. It was estimated that in 2023, 100,000 people used this route to come to the UK.

    The visit, which comes days after Albania’s parliamentary election, shines a light on some of the political tensions between the UK and Albania.

    The Albanian diaspora community in the UK in recent years has expressed feeling stigmatised and targeted due to inflammatory rhetoric of the last government.

    Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, called Albanians “criminals” while claiming migrants were “invading” the UK. Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, posted videos telling police to find Albanians and “lock them up” and “deport” them.

    In 2024, Albanians made up the highest percentage (13%) of foreign nationals in UK prisons, with over 1,272 people in custody. Along with Albanians, Polish (9%), Romanian (7%), Irish (6%) and Jamaican (4%) nationals account for around 12% of the overall prison population.

    Rama, who just won the election, was fully aware of voters’ sentiment towards the UK. There have also been protests in the country against the current migration arrangement with Italy. Any new agreement, particularly with the UK, could be politically damaging for the Albanian government.

    This visit could be a turning point for mending relations. Starmer declared that his government is fully committed to strengthening ties with Albania, and signed a strategic partnership agreement, with a focus defence and security.

    Starmer and Rama both said that the partnership will expand at the UK-Western Balkan Summit that Starmer will host in London in autumn, and it will include increasing trade, economics investment, education and managing migration.

    Andi Hoxhaj 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. Starmer announces migration ‘return hubs’ on Albania visit, but Albania doesn’t want them – what’s going on? – https://theconversation.com/starmer-announces-migration-return-hubs-on-albania-visit-but-albania-doesnt-want-them-whats-going-on-256831

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Assisted dying: five questions that need answering before it can work in practice

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Suzanne Ost, Professor of Law, Lancaster University

    Collagery/Shutterstock

    An attempt to make assisted dying legal in England in Wales continues to make its way through parliament, with MPs currently scheduled to have a final vote on the bill in June.

    The bill has sparked both passionate support and strong opposition, raising vital questions: how would such a law work in practice? Who would deliver it? And what would it cost?

    While much attention has focused mostly on the ethics of assisted dying, the government’s recently published impact assessment looks at the practical side and it deserves closer attention.

    Of course, we shouldn’t base a decision about life and death solely on financial or logistical grounds. But if assisted dying is to become part of the law in England and Wales, we need to understand how it would work in reality. The report highlights a number of key challenges:

    1. The medication question

    The assessment draws mainly on data from 11 other jurisdictions, especially Oregon, where assisted dying has been legal for years. It found that the drugs used can lead to prolonged and unpredictable deaths, in part due to inconsistent drug availability.

    However, the report doesn’t compare this to Switzerland, where assisted dying must be self-administered and is tightly regulated. There, a single barbiturate is typically used, leading to death within two to ten minutes depending on whether it’s taken orally or via injection. This raises questions about what kind of medications would be used in the UK and how reliably they would work.

    2. Opt-outs: who will deliver the service?

    Experience from countries like Canada shows that most doctors opt out of providing assisted dying. In Canada, over 5,000 assisted deaths were carried out by just 80 people. Similarly, in the US and New Zealand, entire institutions – especially palliative care services – have opted out.

    Kim Leadbeater, the MP sponsoring the bill, has confirmed that it would not oblige hospices to participate. While this protects individual conscience, it may leave patients struggling to find willing clinicians or being discharged home to die.

    3. Can the NHS cope with a new service?

    The bill assumes the NHS would be responsible for delivering assisted dying. But is the system ready?

    Switzerland uses volunteer doctors outside the healthcare system, which may be more sustainable. In the UK, oversight is expected to come from a panel including a senior judge or lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker.

    However, the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has raised serious concerns, both about the role psychiatrists would play and whether there are enough professionals to fulfil that role. The RCP currently opposes the bill.

    4. Funding: a two-tier system?

    The impact assessment suggests assisted dying would be free at the point of delivery. Yet palliative care – the alternative end-of-life support – often receives less than 40% government funding, relying heavily on charity.

    Could this create a two-tier system, where assisted dying is fully funded while palliative care remains under resourced?

    5. Legal costs and challenges

    If passed, the bill could trigger human rights challenges, particularly around mental capacity and access. Legal experts suggest several grounds on which it might be contested and these cases would need to be defended, incurring additional costs.

    Families might also seek judicial review of a panel’s decision to permit a request for assisted dying. And public protests outside clinics or hospitals offering the service could require increased policing and security – all of which have financial and social implications.

    This bill tackles one of the most morally sensitive issues in society. But if it is to succeed, and be implemented safely, it must be built on more than good intentions.

    The government’s impact assessment lays out the many practical hurdles: medication protocols, workforce readiness, conscientious objection, legal protections, and funding disparities. These aren’t technicalities. They’re the framework that would determine whether assisted dying is accessible, safe and ethically delivered.

    As the bill progresses, the debate must move beyond principle alone. The future of this legislation – and its real world impact – will depend on how well we address these deeply human, and deeply complex, practicalities.

    Suzanne Ost has previously received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy for research that she has conducted.

    Nancy Preston receives funding from Horizon Europe but not for her work on assisted dying. She is affiliated with European Association of Palliative Care where she Co-Chairs the Task Force on the role of palliative care professionals in supporting patients and families considering assisted dying.

    – ref. Assisted dying: five questions that need answering before it can work in practice – https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-five-questions-that-need-answering-before-it-can-work-in-practice-256270

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Touch can comfort and heal, but also harm − a psychologist explains why gestures don’t always land as intended

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Brian N. Chin, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Trinity College

    Touch is not always received the way it’s intended. Olga Pankova/Moment via Getty Images

    A hug from a friend. A squeeze of the hand. A steady arm around your shoulders. Many of us are taught to think of touch as comforting – an instinctive way to offer or receive comfort and express a sense of connection.

    But comfort is not always the outcome.

    For some, that same gesture can feel intrusive – even jarring. In moments of stress or vulnerability, even a caring touch can miss the mark, leaving someone feeling unseen, misunderstood or more alone than before.

    As a social-health psychologist, I study how close relationships shape emotional well-being, especially through the ways people give and receive support. Decades of research in psychology and neuroscience show that touch is more than just a physical act – it’s a form of communication. Whether it lands as comforting or off-putting depends on timing, context and the emotional safety of the underlying relationship.

    When touch lands well

    When touch provides comfort, it’s because it communicates safety, understanding and care. It works best when grounded in clarity, respect and emotional timing.

    Trust also matters. Comfort comes most naturally when we feel safe – when we know that someone truly sees us and wants to ease our distress. A hug from a friend after you’ve shared bad news feels good not just because of the gesture itself but because of what it says: “I’m here, and you’re not alone.”

    Sitting quietly next to a partner or child after they’ve had a hard day at school and offering them a steady hand and gentle presence can do more than any question or explanation. It provides a moment of connection that says: “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

    Over time, attuned touch can do more than provide comfort in the moment – it can strengthen relationships, regulate our stress responses and promote well-being. Recent research highlights how affectionate touch may even support better sleep by reducing stress and increasing feelings of emotional safety. These benefits aren’t limited to romantic or parent-child relationships; many people also find comfort through physical closeness with trusted friends or pets. When it’s offered with care and sensitivity to the moment, touch can build connection, both immediately and over time.

    But even in safe relationships, consent and receptivity are essential. Comforting touch should be honest and clear – not ambiguous, not tentative and never assumed. Simple gestures, such as asking “Would a hug help right now?” or offering “It’s OK if you’d rather not” can turn an awkward moment into one that feels safe and seen. And respecting someone’s “no” is just as important as offering touch in the first place. Hearing and honoring that boundary isn’t rejection; it’s attunement.

    Ultimately, the most comforting touch communicates care for the person receiving it, not just the intentions of the person offering it. Small shifts in awareness such as paying attention to body language, asking first or simply waiting for the right moment can be the difference between discomfort and feeling understood. When offered with clarity, warmth and respect, physical closeness can do more than just comfort: It can restore.

    A pediatrician discusses the importance of teaching kids consent from an early age, including for hugs.

    Why touch sometimes backfires

    If touch is a form of communication, it can miscommunicate too. A gesture meant to convey comfort might instead land as pressure, intrusion or something you want to escape.

    Sometimes the issue is timing. One person reaches out with genuine care, while the other just needs space. A partner’s hand on your shoulder mid-argument might feel more like control than comfort. A hug meant to soothe can instead feel jarring, coming across as emotionally tone-deaf or misaligned.

    Research shows that support is effective only when it’s grounded in mutual understanding and appreciation. If the gesture isn’t wanted or the moment is wrong, even well-intended touch can do more harm than good.

    People’s attachment styles also shape how they respond to touch. People with avoidant tendencies often find physical closeness intrusive and may pull away from even small gestures. In contrast, people with more anxious attachment styles may crave the closeness of touch but remain on high alert, wondering whether it’s sincere, if it’s enough or if it will still be there in the future.

    In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic led many people to renegotiate their comfort with touch and spatial boundaries. For some of us, keeping our distance became comforting – a new kind of safety that we’re not ready to give up just yet. And a handshake or hug might not feel like a return to normal – it might feel like crossing a boundary you didn’t know you’d built.

    Ultimately, what makes touch comforting isn’t just the gesture – it’s emotional attunement: how well it fits the moment, the relationship and the person on the receiving end. When that alignment is off, even the most well-meaning touch can fall flat or make things worse.

    The COVID-19 pandemic shifted many people’s level of comfort around space and touch.
    Cheryl Bronson/Moment via Getty Images

    Want your next touch to land as you intended it?

    Like any form of care, how touch is received depends on how, when and why it’s offered. If you want your touch to feel truly supportive, here are a few ways to stay attuned:

    • Who is this for? Ask yourself: Is this really for them or mostly for me? The most comforting touch comes from meeting another person’s need, not your own.

    • Notice what’s unspoken. Physical cues – leaning in, pausing or pulling away – can sometimes tell us more than words. Discomfort doesn’t always need to be spoken to be understood.

    • Offer choice. A simple question like “Would a hug help right now?” is more comforting than reaching out before checking in. And hearing a respectful no doesn’t disrupt connection – it builds trust.

    We don’t have to give up on hugs, hand squeezes or reassuring pats. But comfort doesn’t automatically follow from physical closeness – it comes from the understanding and care behind it.

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

    – ref. Touch can comfort and heal, but also harm − a psychologist explains why gestures don’t always land as intended – https://theconversation.com/touch-can-comfort-and-heal-but-also-harm-a-psychologist-explains-why-gestures-dont-always-land-as-intended-255725

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why we fall for fake health information – and how it spreads faster than facts

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Angshuman K. Kashyap, PhD candidate in Health Communication, University of Maryland

    Should you share that health-related Instagram post? Catherine McQueen/Moment via Getty Images

    In today’s digital world, people routinely turn to the internet for health or medical information. In addition to actively searching online, they often come across health-related information on social media or receive it through emails or messages from family or friends.

    It can be tempting to share such messages with loved ones – often with the best of intentions.

    As a global health communication scholar studying the effects of media on health and development, I explore artistic and creative ways to make health information more engaging and accessible, empowering people to make informed decisions.

    Although there is a fire hose of health-related content online, not all of it is factual. In fact, much of it is inaccurate or misleading, raising a serious health communication problem: Fake health information – whether shared unknowingly and innocently, or deliberately to mislead or cause harm – can be far more captivating than accurate information.

    This makes it difficult for people to know which sources to trust and which content is worthy of sharing.

    The allure of fake health information

    Fake health information can take many forms. For example, it may be misleading content that distorts facts to frame an issue or individual in a certain context. Or it may be based on false connections, where headlines, visuals or captions don’t align with the content. Despite this variation, such content often shares a few common characteristics that make it seem believable and more shareable than facts.

    For one thing, fake health information often appears to be true because it mixes a grain of truth with misleading claims.

    For example, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, false rumors suggested that drinking ethanol or bleach could protect people from the virus. While ethanol or bleach can indeed kill viruses on surfaces such as countertops, it is extremely dangerous when it comes into contact with skin or gets inside the body.

    Stopping to check the facts helps stem the spread of misinformation.
    World Health Organization adaptation from Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris in The Spinoff, CC BY-SA

    Another marker of fake health information is that it presents ideas that are simply too good to be true. There is something appealingly counterintuitive in certain types of fake health information that can make people feel they have access to valuable or exclusive knowledge that others may not know. For example, a claim such as “chocolate helps you lose weight” can be especially appealing because it offers a sense of permission to indulge and taps into a simple, feel-good solution to a complex problem. Such information often spreads faster because it sounds both surprising and hopeful, validating what some people want to believe.

    Sensationalism also drives the spread of fake health information. For instance, when critics falsely claimed that Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to the president at the time, was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, it generated a lot of public attention.

    In a study on vaccine hesitancy published in 2020, my colleagues and I found that controversial headlines in news reports that go viral before national vaccination campaigns can discourage parents from getting their children vaccinated. These headlines seem to reveal sensational and secret information that can falsely boost the message’s credibility.

    The pull to share

    The internet has created fertile ground for spreading fake health information. Professional-looking websites and social media posts with misleading headlines can lure people into clicking or quickly sharing, which drives more and more readers to the falsehood. People tend to share information they believe is relevant to them or their social circles.

    In 2019, an article with the false headline “Ginger is 10,000x more effective at killing cancer than chemo” was shared more than 800,000 times on Facebook. The article contained several factors that make people feel an urgency to react and share without checking the facts: compelling visuals, emotional stories, misleading graphs, quotes from experts with omitted context and outdated content that is recirculated.

    Visual cues like the logos of reputable organizations or photos of people wearing white medical coats add credibility to these posts. This kind of content is highly shareable, often reaching far more people than scientifically accurate studies that may lack eye-catching headlines or visuals, easy-to-understand words or dramatic storylines.

    But sharing content without verifying it first has real-world consequences. For example, studies have found that COVID-19-related fake information reduces people’s trust in the government and in health care systems, making people less likely to use or seek out health services.

    Unfounded claims about vaccine side effects have led to reduced vaccination rates globally, fueling the return of dangerous diseases, including measles.

    Check it out before you share.

    Social media misinformation, such as false claims about cinnamon being a treatment for cancer, has caused hospitalizations and even deaths. The spread of health misinformation has reduced cooperation with important prevention and treatment recommendations, prompting a growing need for medical professionals to receive proper training and develop skills to effectively debunk fake health information.

    How to combat the spread of fake health information

    In today’s era of information overload in which anyone can create and share content, being able to distinguish between credible and misleading health information before sharing is more important than ever. Researchers and public health organizations have outlined several strategies to help people make better-informed decisions.

    Whether health care consumers come across health information on social media, in an email or through a messaging app, here are three reliable ways to verify its accuracy and credibility before sharing:

    • Use a search engine to cross-check health claims. Never rely on a single source. Instead, enter the health claim into a reputable search engine like Google and see what trusted sources have to say. Prioritize information from established organizations like the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Children’s Fund or peer-reviewed journals like The Lancet or Journal of the American Medical Association. If multiple reputable sources agree, the information is more likely to be reliable. Reliable fact-checking websites such as FactCheck.org and Snopes can also help root out fake information.

    • Evaluate the source’s credibility. A quick way to assess a website’s trustworthiness is to check its “About Us” page. This section usually explains who is behind the content, their mission and their credentials. Also, search the name of the author. Do they have recognized expertise or affiliations with credible institutions? Reliable websites often have domains ending in .gov or .edu, indicating government or educational institutions. Finally, check the publication date. Information on the internet keeps circulating for years and may not be the most accurate or relevant in the present context.

    • If you’re still unsure, don’t share. If you’re still uncertain about the accuracy of a claim, it’s better to keep it to yourself. Forwarding unverified information can unintentionally contribute to the spread of misinformation and potentially cause harm, especially when it comes to health.

    Questioning dubious claims and sharing only verified information not only protects against unsafe behaviors and panic, but it also helps curb the spread of fake health information. At a time when misinformation can spread faster than a virus, taking a moment to pause and fact-check can make a big difference.

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

    – ref. Why we fall for fake health information – and how it spreads faster than facts – https://theconversation.com/why-we-fall-for-fake-health-information-and-how-it-spreads-faster-than-facts-250718

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Cultivating obedience: Using the Justice Department to attack former officials consolidates power and deters dissent

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joe Wright, Professor of Political Science, Penn State

    Miles Taylor, center, a Homeland Security official during the first Trump administration, wrote an op-ed in September 2018 that criticized Trump. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

    During President Donald Trump’s first three months in office, his administration has targeted dozens of former officials who criticized him or opposed his agenda.

    In April 2025, Trump directed the Department of Justice to investigate two men who served in his first administration, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, because they spoke out against his policies and corrected his false claims about the 2020 election that he lost.

    Further, Trump revoked the security clearances for advisers and retired generals who publicly criticized him during the 2024 election campaign.

    On their face, such moves appear to be a coordinated campaign of personal retribution. But as political science scholars who study the origins of elected strongmen, we believe Trump’s use of the Justice Department to attack former officials who stood up to him isn’t just about revenge. It also deters current officials from defying Trump.

    More than revenge

    Like all presidents, Trump needs allies who will faithfully implement his policy agenda. For most presidents, this means surrounding themselves with longtime friends.

    For example, Don Evans, George W. Bush’s commerce secretary and close confidant, worked with Bush for decades before becoming a fixture in his White House.

    But to carry out a power grab, incumbent leaders also need allies who will stay silent or, better yet, endorse their attempts to consolidate control.

    In El Salvador, for example, President Nayib Bukele’s legislative allies gave him free rein in 2023 to run for president a second time despite constitutional provisions banning reelection.

    Recall that Trump only left office in January 2021 because key Republican officials defied his attempts to overturn an election he lost.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence, facing violent threats from a Trump-fueled mob, refused Trump’s request to overturn the election he lost. And Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refused Trump’s entreaties to stuff the ballot boxes in Georgia with another 11,000 votes for Trump.

    An audio recording of President Donald Trump talking to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is played in Washington, D.C., on Oct, 13, 2022.
    Alex Wong/Getty Images

    Notably, both men first won political office on their own, without an endorsement from Trump. This means they were less reliant on Trump for access to political power. Therefore, they were more likely to prioritize their loyalty to the Constitution over their loyalty to Trump.

    Attacks enforce loyalty

    In authoritarian contexts, loyalty is not an intrinsic quality. Authoritarian leaders do not necessarily select those with whom they have long work experience that leads to mutual trust.

    For instance, during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961, the head of intelligence, Johnny Abbes, was plucked from obscurity in Mexico and in 1958 began to lead the dictator’s repression machine.

    Instead, the challenge for authoritarian leaders is finding people to do their bidding. And the best people for this job are those who never would have earned their position in politics without the leader’s influence.

    Unqualified appointees who can’t ascend to political power based on their merits have little choice but to stick with the leader. These people appear loyal, but only because their careers are tied to the leader staying in power.

    A litany of failed politicians

    This logic, where people with few career prospects outside of the leader express the most loyalty, explains why Trump has appointed a number of political candidates who have lost elections.

    The head of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler, though briefly appointed as a U.S. senator from Georgia, lost her first Senate election to Raphael Warnock in 2021.

    Doug Collins, Trump’s secretary of Veterans Affairs, lost to Loeffler in a Georgia Senate primary during the same election cycle.

    Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, lost a 2016 primary contest for a congressional seat in a heavily Republican district in Florida.

    And don’t forget Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s nominee to head a politically crucial federal judicial office. Her political career derailed 20 years ago when she came under federal investigation for “scheming to catch a cheating spouse in the act.” She lost an attorney general race in New York in 2006 to Andrew Cuomo.

    Jeanine Pirro lost the 2006 New York attorney general race.
    AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh

    Trump also picked two politicians who had failed presidential runs as Democrats – Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – to act as director of national intelligence and secretary of Health and Human Services.

    For appointees who can’t win elections, the only shot at power is steadfast alignment with the leader. This dynamic, in turn, provides a strong incentive for these officials to remain loyal, even when the leader breaks the law or orders them to do the same.

    When leaders place loyalists in charge of federal law enforcement, attempts to conjure votes for the president out of thin air or to seize ballot boxes in opposition districts are more likely to succeed.

    The Trump administration’s attacks on former Republican officials who criticized him, such as Taylor and Krebs, reinforces this dynamic. It sends a signal of future punishment to current Justice Department officials should they speak out against Trump or refuse to carry out illegal orders.

    Attacks also target opposition power

    Of course, the Trump administration’s political attacks haven’t stopped with officials in his previous administration who have fallen out of favor.

    They have expanded to include independent institutions such as universities, not-for-profit media and law firms.

    As research on authoritarian regimes shows, the goal of attacking independent institutions this way is to sap their capacity to resist the incumbent government’s attempts to cheat in future elections.

    After Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, had rewritten his country’s Constitution and reined in the courts, he changed the electoral rules to ensure he won reelection in 2022. Along the way, Orban forced an entire university into exile after failing to subdue it.

    In these ways, incumbents’ acts of retribution toward people and organizations that oppose their agenda reinforce loyalty among their allies. They also undermine and weaken their opponents and ultimately facilitate incumbents’ efforts to consolidate power.

    Joe Wright has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and private foundations.

    Erica Frantz has received funding from the US Agency for International Development and private foundations.

    – ref. Cultivating obedience: Using the Justice Department to attack former officials consolidates power and deters dissent – https://theconversation.com/cultivating-obedience-using-the-justice-department-to-attack-former-officials-consolidates-power-and-deters-dissent-256397

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Putin is testing how far he can push Trump by not turning up for Istanbul talks

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex

    Over three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the countries are finally meeting for direct peace talks in Istanbul. Vladimir Putin will be not be attending.

    Ironically, given his no-show, it was Putin who suggested the peace talks instead of immediately agreeing to a proposed 30-day ceasefire. But like Russia’s 2024 presidential elections, from the outside the peace talks appear to be a total farce. Putin is not just stringing the international community along, he is also testing his “friendship” with the US president, Donald Trump.

    Trump ran on a platform that he would he end the war in Ukraine quickly (in 24 hours), arguing that he was the only one with the gravitas and strength to handle the Russian leader. Yet Putin has repeatedly ignored Trump’s warnings.

    Two days after Trump was inaugurated, the US president posted that new sanctions would be imposed on Russia if the conflict did not end quickly. Then in early and late March, Trump again threatened sanctions if there was no ceasefire. Most recently, on May 8, Trump called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, warning that violations would be met with sanctions.

    Putin disregarded every threat, and Trump did nothing to follow through. The pattern seems to be repeating itself.

    Now, Trump is trying to save face by claiming that peace talks are only possible if he and Putin meet in person. If that was the case, why didn’t Trump himself attend? He was only a four-hour plane flight away, making billion dollar deals in the Gulf. But as recently as Thursday, Trump floated the idea that he would only attend if “something happened”.

    Given how important these peace talks should be, it’s odd that there’s so much confusion about why Putin and Trump are not attending. US special envoy Keith Kellogg stated that if Putin had attended, Trump would be there. Trump, meanwhile, has framed Putin’s snub the other way around, claiming the only reason Putin did not attend was because he was not there.


    Institute for the Study of War, CC BY-ND

    Meanwhile, Europeans had warned Putin that if he did not attend and the talks failed to produce a ceasefire, he would face tougher sanctions. But Putin was never going to attend these peace talks even as his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, goaded him to do so by arriving in Ankara a few days ahead of time.

    What could still happen?

    Representatives from the Turkish, Ukrainian and American delegations were due to meet on the morning of May 16, followed by a session with Russia. Reportedly, Turkey is doing everything it can to get the two sides in the same room.

    But hopes are not high for any breakthrough. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he has no expectations, and Zelensky believes Russia is not serious about achieving anything at these talks.

    Though Putin was the one who suggested the peace talks “without preconditions”, he has sent a low-level delegation. Zelensksy promised to attend if Putin did, but has interpreted the Russian president’s absence as a sign of disrespect.

    Given this backdrop, what can be achieved? Putin has sent his aide (and former minister of culture) Vladimir Medinsky, who Zelensky describes as a “theatre prop”. In Zelensky’s place, the Ukrainian delegation is led by Kyiv’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov.

    Umerov has an impossible task, but will be trying to use the peace talks to take the first steps towards de-escalation. The only real winner in these talks is Turkey, which is playing a much bigger role than expected on the international stage as a power broker and mediator, since Putin didn’t come. Turkey also has good relationships with both Putin and Zelensky.

    It’s certainly hard to take peace talks seriously when there is an awkward back-and-forth just about who is going to attend. And while Trump thinks peace is only possible through bilateral meetings between himself and Putin, it’s clear he can’t even influence Putin to show up to peace talks that the Russian president himself suggested.

    This should give the world little confidence that Putin will agree to a 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine’s main proposal, let alone ever agree to any wider concessions. What’s not clear is what Trump is going to do about it.

    Natasha Lindstaedt 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. Putin is testing how far he can push Trump by not turning up for Istanbul talks – https://theconversation.com/putin-is-testing-how-far-he-can-push-trump-by-not-turning-up-for-istanbul-talks-256820

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Assisted dying: five questions that need answering before it can work in pratice

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Suzanne Ost, Professor of Law, Lancaster University

    Collagery/Shutterstock

    An attempt to make assisted dying legal in England in Wales continues to make its way through parliament, with MPs currently scheduled to have a final vote on the bill in June.

    The bill has sparked both passionate support and strong opposition, raising vital questions: how would such a law work in practice? Who would deliver it? And what would it cost?

    While much attention has focused mostly on the ethics of assisted dying, the government’s recently published impact assessment looks at the practical side and it deserves closer attention.

    Of course, we shouldn’t base a decision about life and death solely on financial or logistical grounds. But if assisted dying is to become part of the law in England and Wales, we need to understand how it would work in reality. The report highlights a number of key challenges:

    1. The medication question

    The assessment draws mainly on data from 11 other jurisdictions, especially Oregon, where assisted dying has been legal for years. It found that the drugs used can lead to prolonged and unpredictable deaths, in part due to inconsistent drug availability.

    However, the report doesn’t compare this to Switzerland, where assisted dying must be self-administered and is tightly regulated. There, a single barbiturate is typically used, leading to death within two to ten minutes depending on whether it’s taken orally or via injection. This raises questions about what kind of medications would be used in the UK and how reliably they would work.

    2. Opt-outs: who will deliver the service?

    Experience from countries like Canada shows that most doctors opt out of providing assisted dying. In Canada, over 5,000 assisted deaths were carried out by just 80 people. Similarly, in the US and New Zealand, entire institutions – especially palliative care services – have opted out.

    Kim Leadbeater, the MP sponsoring the bill, has confirmed that it would not oblige hospices to participate. While this protects individual conscience, it may leave patients struggling to find willing clinicians or being discharged home to die.

    3. Can the NHS cope with a new service?

    The bill assumes the NHS would be responsible for delivering assisted dying. But is the system ready?

    Switzerland uses volunteer doctors outside the healthcare system, which may be more sustainable. In the UK, oversight is expected to come from a panel including a senior judge or lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker.

    However, the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has raised serious concerns, both about the role psychiatrists would play and whether there are enough professionals to fulfil that role. The RCP currently opposes the bill.

    4. Funding: a two-tier system?

    The impact assessment suggests assisted dying would be free at the point of delivery. Yet palliative care – the alternative end-of-life support – often receives less than 40% government funding, relying heavily on charity.

    Could this create a two-tier system, where assisted dying is fully funded while palliative care remains under resourced?

    5. Legal costs and challenges

    If passed, the bill could trigger human rights challenges, particularly around mental capacity and access. Legal experts suggest several grounds on which it might be contested and these cases would need to be defended, incurring additional costs.

    Families might also seek judicial review of a panel’s decision to permit a request for assisted dying. And public protests outside clinics or hospitals offering the service could require increased policing and security – all of which have financial and social implications.

    This bill tackles one of the most morally sensitive issues in society. But if it is to succeed, and be implemented safely, it must be built on more than good intentions.

    The government’s impact assessment lays out the many practical hurdles: medication protocols, workforce readiness, conscientious objection, legal protections, and funding disparities. These aren’t technicalities. They’re the framework that would determine whether assisted dying is accessible, safe and ethically delivered.

    As the bill progresses, the debate must move beyond principle alone. The future of this legislation – and its real world impact – will depend on how well we address these deeply human, and deeply complex, practicalities.

    Suzanne Ost has previously received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy for research that she has conducted.

    Nancy Preston receives funding from Horizon Europe but not for her work on assisted dying. She is affiliated with European Association of Palliative Care where she Co-Chairs the Task Force on the role of palliative care professionals in supporting patients and families considering assisted dying.

    – ref. Assisted dying: five questions that need answering before it can work in pratice – https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-five-questions-that-need-answering-before-it-can-work-in-pratice-256270

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Urban environments significantly increase risk of developing asthma – new research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Zhebin Yu, Postdoctoral researcher in Environmental Medical Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet

    The ‘urban exposome’ has a significant impact on asthma risk. Bobex-73/ Shutterstock

    Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide, affecting around 260 million people.

    Researchers have long know that environmental factors, such as air pollution and lack of green spaces, are linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma. But the joint impact of these various environmental factors on a person’s risk of developing asthma has, until now, remained unclear.

    Our study is the first to reveal the joint impact of multiple environmental factors in urban areas, known as the urban exposome, on the risk of developing asthma. We found that air pollution, lack of green space and areas built primarily from concrete and asphalt are linked with significantly greater risk of developing the condition.

    To conduct our study, we analysed data from 349,037 participants from across 14 cohorts in Europe. Participants ranged in age from birth to 70 years old.

    We also linked three major external environmental factors – air pollution, the built-up environment (such as the amount of green space a person had access to or the amount of artificial light they were exposed to at night) and ambient temperature – to participants’ home addresses at the beginning of the study.

    Participants were then grouped based on their exposure levels to the three major environmental factors. This allowed us to examine how exposure was linked to the onset of asthma and also calculate what a person’s risk of developing asthma would be if exposed to these environmental conditions.

    We also accounted for factors that might have affected the results, such as a person’s age, sex, ethnic background, weight, socioeconomic status and whether they smoked (or were exposed to smoke).

    We found that adults living in areas with high levels of air pollution had a 13% higher risk of developing asthma compared to people living in low pollution areas. Children living in high pollution areas had an 18% greater risk of developing asthma.

    Adults living in areas that lacked green space had a 15% greater risk of developing asthma, while children had a 38% greater risk.

    But one of the most significant findings of our study was just how much joint exposure to these environmental factors contributed to new asthma cases in both children and adults.

    Three aspects of urban environments have a major influence of asthma risk.
    Holiday62/ Shutterstock

    We found that the most hazardous urban environments were those characterised by high levels of air pollution, limited access to green spaces and those that were built primarily from concrete and asphalt. This increased an adult’s risk of asthma by 27% and a child’s risk of asthma by 35%.

    Even areas without high levels of air pollution, but which were built primarily from concrete and asphalt and lacked green spaces, increased asthma risk by as much as 36%.

    Urban planning and asthma risk

    Our findings are generally consistent with what previous studies have found on the effects of urban environments, air pollution and green space on asthma risk. However, our study is the first to look at asthma incidence in both adults and children.

    It’s also the first study to cover the entire life-course and illustrate how multiple aspects of the urban exposome affect asthma incidence in all age groups.

    It underscores the critical role that urban environments play in shaping respiratory health. We calculated that a significant proportion of asthma cases – almost 12% – could be directly attributed to urban environments.

    Exposure to a combination of air pollution, poor urban planning and extreme temperatures are a significant driver of asthma risk across a person’s lifespan.

    With more people moving to cities every year, it’s essential that we rethink how we design and manage urban spaces to prioritise health and wellbeing. Cities can help prevent asthma and improve quality of life by introducing policies that aim to reduce air pollution, expand green spaces and design infrastructure that is more resilient to extreme temperatures.

    Zhebin Yu receives funding from Swedish Research Council and Swedish Research Council for Health, Well-being and Welfare.

    Erik Melen receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and Region Stockholm. Melen has also received advisory board or lecture fees from ALK, AstraZeneca, Chiesi and Sanofi outside the present study.

    – ref. Urban environments significantly increase risk of developing asthma – new research – https://theconversation.com/urban-environments-significantly-increase-risk-of-developing-asthma-new-research-256715

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Governments continue losing efforts to gain backdoor access to secure communications

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Richard Forno, Teaching Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Assistant Director, UMBC Cybersecurity Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Signal is the poster child for strong encryption apps. AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato

    Reports that prominent American national security officials used a freely available encrypted messaging app, coupled with the rise of authoritarian policies around the world, have led to a surge in interest in encrypted apps like Signal and WhatsApp. These apps prevent anyone, including the government and the app companies themselves, from reading messages they intercept.

    The spotlight on encrypted apps is also a reminder of the complex debate pitting government interests against individual liberties. Governments desire to monitor everyday communications for law enforcement, national security and sometimes darker purposes. On the other hand, citizens and businesses claim the right to enjoy private digital discussions in today’s online world.

    The positions governments take often are framed as a “war on encryption” by technology policy experts and civil liberties advocates. As a cybersecurity researcher, I’ve followed the debate for nearly 30 years and remain convinced that this is not a fight that governments can easily win.

    Understanding the ‘golden key’

    Traditionally, strong encryption capabilities were considered military technologies crucial to national security and not available to the public. However, in 1991, computer scientist Phil Zimmermann released a new type of encryption software called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). It was free, open-source software available on the internet that anyone could download. PGP allowed people to exchange email and files securely, accessible only to those with the shared decryption key, in ways similar to highly secured government systems.

    Following an investigation into Zimmermann, the U.S. government came to realize that technology develops faster than law and began to explore remedies. It also began to understand that once something is placed on the internet, neither laws nor policy can control its global availability.

    Fearing that terrorists or criminals might use such technology to plan attacks, arrange financing or recruit members, the Clinton administration advocated a system called the Clipper Chip, based on a concept of key escrow. The idea was to give a trusted third party access to the encryption system and the government could use that access when it demonstrated a law enforcement or national security need.

    End-to-end encryption and backdoor access explained.

    Clipper was based on the idea of a “golden key,” namely, a way for those with good intentions – intelligence services, police – to access encrypted data, while keeping people with bad intentions – criminals, terrorists – out.

    Clipper Chip devices never gained traction outside the U.S. government, in part because its encryption algorithm was classified and couldn’t be publicly peer-reviewed. However, in the years since, governments around the world have continued to embrace the golden key concept as they grapple with the constant stream of technology developments reshaping how people access and share information.

    Following Edward Snowden’s disclosures about global surveillance of digital communications in 2013, Google and Apple took steps to make it virtually impossible for anyone but an authorized user to access data on a smartphone. Even a court order was ineffective, much to the chagrin of law enforcement. In Apple’s case, the company’s approach to privacy and security was tested in 2016 when the company refused to build a mechanism to help the FBI break into an encrypted iPhone owned by a suspect in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

    At its core, encryption is, fundamentally, very complicated math. And while the golden key concept continues to hold allure for governments, it is mathematically difficult to achieve with an acceptable degree of trust. And even if it was viable, implementing it in practice makes the internet less safe. Security experts agree that any backdoor access, even if hidden or controlled by a trusted entity, is vulnerable to hacking.

    Competing justifications and tech realities

    Governments around the world continue to wrestle with the proliferation of strong encryption in messaging tools, social media and virtual private networks.

    For example, rather than embrace a technical golden key, a recent proposal in France would have provided the government the ability to add a hidden “ghost” participant to any encrypted chat for surveillance purposes. However, legislators removed this from the final proposal after civil liberties and cybersecurity experts warned that such an approach would undermine basic cybersecurity practices and trust in secure systems.

    In 2025, the U.K. government secretly ordered Apple to add a backdoor to its encryption services worldwide. Rather than comply, Apple removed the ability for its iPhone and iCloud customers in the U.K. to use its Advanced Data Protection encryption features. In this case, Apple chose to defend its users’ security in the face of government mandates, which ironically now means that users in the U.K. may be less secure.

    Apple pulled its advanced encryption service from the U.K. market rather than grant the U.K. government backdoor access.

    In the United States, provisions removed from the 2020 EARN IT bill would have forced companies to scan online messages and photos to guard against child exploitation by creating a golden-key-type hidden backdoor. Opponents viewed this as a stealth way of bypassing end-to-end encryption. The bill did not advance to a full vote when it was last reintroduced in the 2023-2024 legislative session.

    Opposing scanning for child sexual abuse material is a controversial concern when encryption is involved: Although Apple received significant public backlash over its plans to scan user devices for such material in ways that users claimed violated Apple’s privacy stance, victims of child abuse have sued the company for not better protecting children.

    Even privacy-centric Switzerland and the European Union are exploring ways of dealing with digital surveillance and privacy in an encrypted world.

    The laws of math and physics, not politics

    Governments usually claim that weakening encryption is necessary to fight crime and protect the nation – and there is a valid concern there. However, when that argument fails to win the day, they often turn to claiming to need backdoors to protect children from exploitation.

    From a cybersecurity perspective, it is nearly impossible to create a backdoor to a communications product that is only accessible for certain purposes or under certain conditions. If a passageway exists, it’s only a matter of time before it is exploited for nefarious purposes. In other words, creating what is essentially a software vulnerability to help the good guys will inevitably end up helping the bad guys, too.

    Often overlooked in this debate is that if encryption is weakened to improve surveillance for governmental purposes, it will drive criminals and terrorists further underground. Using different or homegrown technologies, they will still be able to exchange information in ways that governments can’t readily access. But everyone else’s digital security will be needlessly diminished.

    This lack of online privacy and security is especially dangerous for journalists, activists, domestic violence survivors and other at-risk communities around the world.

    Encryption obeys the laws of math and physics, not politics. Once invented, it can’t be un-invented, even if it frustrates governments. Along those lines, if governments are struggling with strong encryption now, how will they contend with a world when everyone is using significantly more complex techniques like quantum cryptography?

    Governments remain in an unenviable position regarding strong encryption. Ironically, one of the countermeasures the government recommended in response to China’s hacking of global telephone systems in the Salt Typhoon attacks was to use strong encryption in messaging apps such as Signal or iMessage.

    Reconciling that with their ongoing quest to weaken or restrict strong encryption for their own surveillance interests will be a difficult challenge to overcome.

    Richard Forno has received research funding related to cybersecurity from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the US Army during his academic career since 2010.

    – ref. Governments continue losing efforts to gain backdoor access to secure communications – https://theconversation.com/governments-continue-losing-efforts-to-gain-backdoor-access-to-secure-communications-253016

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Placenta bandages have far more health benefits than risky placenta pills − a bioengineer explains

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Marley Dewey, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, Santa Barbara

    With some bioengineering, placentas can be recycled for various medical treatments. mikroman6/Moment via Getty Images

    Eating a placenta may not give you the health benefits some people want you to believe it has, but using it as a bandage might.

    The placenta is an organ created during pregnancy that provides nutrients to a growing fetus through an umbilical cord. It’s usually large and relatively flat, composed of blood vessels, stem and immune cells, and collagen. It doesn’t look particularly appetizing to most people, and those who have eaten placentas often mention an unpleasant taste or smell.

    But in the early 2000s, the practice of mothers eating their placenta after childbirth, claiming health benefits and mood improvement, gained mainstream attention. This trend typically involves putting your placenta into capsules you can take as pills, and there are even companies selling custom-made and do-it-yourself products online.

    While some mammals may eat their own placentas due to limited nutritional resources in the wild, the benefits people might get from eating placentas is unclear.

    If boiled and dehydrated, the useful components of the placenta may be altered and reduced. If ingested raw, pathogens may remain on the surface of the placenta. In 2016, after a newborn was hospitalized multiple times from an infection potentially resulting from the mother ingesting her placenta, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended mothers avoid taking placenta pills.

    I can’t personally speak to the taste of placentas. However, as a bioengineer who designs materials to regenerate injured bones and other tissues, I along with my colleagues have uncovered a much clearer picture of the benefits placentas can offer as a biomaterial to repair wounds – if used properly.

    The placenta contains many medically useful components – just not when eaten.
    Sinhyu/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Placenta as biomaterial

    Biomaterials are materials designed to interface with your body to repair damage. If you burned your skin, for example, your doctor may use a biomaterial such as a skin graft to help your body repair the damaged tissue, ideally providing nutrients to the damaged area to promote cell growth.

    Researchers have been exploring recycling placentas, which are often thrown away after delivery, as a type of biomaterial to regrow wounded tissue in patients. Because the placenta is rich in nutrients and stem cells that give it antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and pro-regenerative properties, this organ is a particularly good candidate for medical applications.

    Your body normally responds to a wound with inflammation, which is an immune reaction that clears harmful stimuli and pathogens, often resulting in swelling and pain around the injury site.

    Unfortunately, sometimes this inflammatory process can get out of hand and lead to chronic wounds and prevent healing. But the active biomolecules within the placenta work with your immune system to promote repair by reducing inflammation and preventing scar formation.

    For example, chronic diabetic foot ulcers are a challenging injury that sometimes never closes and leads to foot amputation. Researchers found that using biomaterials made of parts of the placenta to treat these injuries resulted in a wound closure rate 6.24 times higher than conventional treatments. Researchers have also found that placenta-based biomaterials can reduce scarring after heart injury.

    I have used human placentas in my own research to study how they work in a variety of wound repair scenarios. I can take a volunteer patient’s donated placenta and remove factors that may negatively affect healing, such as all cells, blood and other components that may cause inflammation. Then I can take the material that’s left – primarily containing essential growth nutrients and the tissue foundation that cells used to live in – and use it to improve bone or tendon repair.

    Placentas undergo significant processing before they can be used in biomaterials.
    Kolliopoulos et al./Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, CC BY-SA

    Moreover, placentas contain stem cells that can also be useful for medicine. These cells are able to turn into various other types of cells of your body. This can be particularly helpful for repairing organs that are difficult to directly harvest cells from, such as the heart, liver and nerves. For example, placental stem cells can be added to an injured heart and become heart cells themselves to aid in repair.

    Researchers have also used stem cells from the placenta and the umbilical cord for applications such as stem cell transplantation to treat disease and injury. Studies have found that placenta-derived stem cells transplanted into rats could reverse Parkinson’s and nerve death. Stem cells from the placenta can also serve as a more promising source of cells for cell transplantation therapies compared with stem cells from fat and bone marrow.

    On your skin, not in your stomach

    So placentas do have some clear health benefits. But why are they more useful as a biomaterial bandage than as a pill or food, taste considerations aside?

    Unlike placenta products that are ingested – pills, dried jerky or raw placenta – biomaterials have undergone rigorous testing to ensure they are safe and effective. They are processed and handled in a controlled laboratory environment and often sterilized to ensure no bacteria or other pathogens can enter the patient. The Food and Drug Administration has approved several placenta-based biomaterials for use in the clinic, including to treat diabetic foot wounds, surgical wounds and tissue replacement.

    In contrast, placentas and placenta products eaten at home may not receive proper treatment to kill the many harmful pathogens that may be present during transport. The processing to turn placentas into something ingestible may also damage their beneficial components, leading to increased health risks and reduced benefits. No ingested placenta products have received FDA approval to date.

    Eating placentas won’t make you any healthier. But science says applying a lab-processed, placenta-based biomaterial to a recent wound might speed up healing and result in smoother, scar-free skin.

    Marley Dewey receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

    – ref. Placenta bandages have far more health benefits than risky placenta pills − a bioengineer explains – https://theconversation.com/placenta-bandages-have-far-more-health-benefits-than-risky-placenta-pills-a-bioengineer-explains-256075

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Landing on the Moon is an incredibly difficult feat − 2025 has brought successes and shortfalls for companies and space agencies

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Zhenbo Wang, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Tennessee

    Several missions have already attempted to land on the lunar surface in 2025, with more to come. AP Photo

    Half a century after the Apollo astronauts left the last bootprints in lunar dust, the Moon has once again become a destination of fierce ambition and delicate engineering.

    This time, it’s not just superpowers racing to plant flags, but also private companies, multinational partnerships and robotic scouts aiming to unlock the Moon’s secrets and lay the groundwork for future human return.

    So far in 2025, lunar exploration has surged forward. Several notable missions have launched toward or landed on the Moon. Each has navigated the long journey through space and the even trickier descent to the Moon’s surface or into orbit with varying degrees of success. Together, these missions reflect both the promise and difficulty of returning to the Moon in this new space race defined by innovation, competition and collaboration.

    As an aerospace engineer specializing in guidance, navigation and control technologies, I’m deeply interested in how each mission – whether successful or not – adds to scientists’ collective understanding. These missions can help engineers learn to navigate the complexities of space, operate in hostile lunar environments and steadily advance toward a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

    Why is landing on the Moon so hard?

    Lunar exploration remains one of the most technically demanding frontiers in modern spaceflight. Choosing a landing site involves complex trade-offs between scientific interest, terrain safety and Sun exposure.

    The lunar south pole is an especially attractive area, as it could contain water in the form of ice in shadowed craters, a critical resource for future missions. Other sites may hold clues about volcanic activity on the Moon or the solar system’s early history.

    Each mission trajectory must be calculated with precision to make sure the craft arrives and descends at the right time and place. Engineers must account for the Moon’s constantly changing position in its orbit around Earth, the timing of launch windows and the gravitational forces acting on the spacecraft throughout its journey.

    They also need to carefully plan the spacecraft’s path so that it arrives at the right angle and speed for a safe approach. Even small miscalculations early on can lead to major errors in landing location – or a missed opportunity entirely.

    Once on the surface, the landers need to survive extreme swings in temperature – from highs over 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in daylight down to lows of -208 F (-133 C) at night – as well as dust, radiation and delayed communication with Earth. The spacecraft’s power systems, heat control, landing legs and communication links must all function perfectly. Meanwhile, these landers must avoid hazardous terrain and rely on sunlight to power their instruments and recharge their batteries.

    These challenges help explain why many landers have crashed or experienced partial failures, even though the technology has come a long way since the Apollo era.

    Commercial companies face the same technical hurdles as government agencies but often with tighter budgets, smaller teams and less heritage hardware. Unlike government missions, which can draw on decades of institutional experience and infrastructure, many commercial lunar efforts are navigating these challenges for the first time.

    Successful landings and hard lessons for CLPS

    Several lunar missions launched this year belong to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. CLPS is an initiative that contracts private companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. Its aim is to accelerate exploration while lowering costs and encouraging commercial innovation.

    An artist’s rendering of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander, which navigated and avoided hazards during its final descent to the surface.
    NASA/GSFC/Rani Gran/Wikimedia Commons

    The first Moon mission of 2025, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, launched in January and successfully landed in early March.

    The lander survived the harsh lunar day and transmitted data for nearly two weeks before losing power during the freezing lunar night – a typical operational limit for most unheated lunar landers.

    Blue Ghost demonstrated how commercial landers can shoulder critical parts of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon later this decade.

    The second CLPS launch of the year, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, launched in late February. It targeted a scientifically intriguing site near the Moon’s south pole region.

    An artist’s rendering of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, which is scheduled to land near the lunar south pole for in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the Moon.
    NASA/Intuitive Machines

    The Nova-C lander, named Athena, touched down on March 6 close to the south pole. However, during the landing process, Athena tipped over. Since it landed on its side in a crater with uneven terrain, it couldn’t deploy its solar panels to generate power, which ended the mission early.

    While Athena’s tipped-over landing meant it couldn’t do all the scientific explorations it had planned, the data it returned is still valuable for understanding how future landers can avoid similar fates on the rugged polar terrain.

    Not all lunar missions need to land. NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, a small lunar orbiter launched in February alongside IM-2, was intended to orbit the Moon and map the form, abundance and distribution of water in the form of ice, especially in shadowed craters near the poles.

    Shortly after launch, however, NASA lost contact with the spacecraft. Engineers suspect the spacecraft may have experienced a power issue, potentially leaving its batteries depleted.

    NASA is continuing recovery efforts, hoping that the spacecraft’s solar panels may recharge in May and June.

    An artist’s rendering of NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft. If recovered, it will orbit the Moon to measure the form and distribution of water on the lunar surface.
    Lockheed Martin Space

    Ongoing and future missions

    Launched on the same day as the Blue Ghost mission in January, Japanese company ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience) is on its way to the Moon and has successfully entered lunar orbit.

    The lander carried out a successful flyby of the Moon on Feb. 15, with an expected landing in early June. Although launched at the same time, Resilience took a longer trajectory than Blue Ghost to save energy. This maneuver also allowed the spacecraft to collect bonus science observations while looping around the Moon.

    The mission, if successful, will advance Japan’s commercial space sector and prove an important comeback for ispace after its first lunar lander crashed during its final descent in 2023.

    The Resilience lunar lander days before its launch in the payload processing facility at the U.S. Space Force station. The Resilience lander has completed its Earth orbit and a lunar flyby. It is now completing a low-energy transfer orbit and entering an orbit around the Moon.
    Business Wire

    The rest of 2025 promises a busy lunar calendar. Intuitive Machines plans to launch IM-3 in late 2025 to test more advanced instruments and potentially deliver NASA scientific experiments to the Moon.

    The European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder will establish a dedicated lunar communications satellite, making it easier for future missions, especially those operating on the far side or poles, to stay in touch with Earth.

    Meanwhile, Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission-1 is scheduled to deliver NASA’s VIPER rover to the Moon’s south pole, where it will directly search for ice beneath the surface.

    Together, these missions represent an increasingly international and commercial approach to lunar science and exploration.

    As the world turns its attention to the Moon, every mission – whether triumph or setback – brings humanity closer to a permanent return to our closest celestial neighbor.

    Zhenbo Wang receives funding from NASA.

    – ref. Landing on the Moon is an incredibly difficult feat − 2025 has brought successes and shortfalls for companies and space agencies – https://theconversation.com/landing-on-the-moon-is-an-incredibly-difficult-feat-2025-has-brought-successes-and-shortfalls-for-companies-and-space-agencies-256046

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Manu jumping’: The physics behind making humongous splashes in the pool

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Pankaj Rohilla, Postdoctoral Fellow in Fluid Dynamics, Georgia Institute of Technology

    Maybe you’ve unknowingly tried to do a manu jump. Isabel Pavia/Moment via Getty Images

    Whether diving off docks, cannonballing into lakes or leaping off the high board, there’s nothing quite like the joy of jumping into water.

    Olympic divers turned this natural act into a sophisticated science, with the goal of making a splash as small as possible. But another sport looks for just the opposite: the extreme maximum splash, one as high, wide and loud as possible.

    Welcome to the world of “manu jumping.” Although not a familiar term in the United States, manu jumping is beloved throughout New Zealand. The sport originated in the Māori community, where popping a manu is a way of life. There, manu jumpers leap from bridges, wharves and diving platforms to make the giant splashes.

    The sport is playful yet competitive. At the Z Manu World Champs, you win based on the height and width of your splash. The current record: a splash more than 32 feet high (10 meters).

    The concept sounds simple, but like Olympic diving, it turns out there’s a science to manu jumping.

    In New Zealand, manu jumping is an obsession.

    The Worthington splash

    As fluid dynamicists, we study the way living organisms interact with fluids – for instance, how flamingos feed with their heads underwater,
    or how insects walk on water.

    So when we stumbled upon viral videos of manu jumping on TikTok and YouTube, our curiosity was triggered. We launched a scientific investigation into the art of making a splash.

    Our research was more than just fun and games. Optimizing how bodies enter fluids – whether those bodies are human, animal or mechanical – is an indispensable branch of science. Understanding the physics of water entry has implications for naval engineering, biomechanics and robotics.

    We discovered that creating the perfect manu splash isn’t just about jumping into the water. Instead, it’s about mastering aerial maneuvers, timing underwater movements and knowing exactly how to hit the surface.

    The microsecond the manu jumper hits the water is critical. Two splashes actually occur: The first, the crown splash, forms as the body breaks the surface. The next, the Worthington splash, is responsible for the powerful burst of water that shoots high into the air. Manu jumping is all about triggering and maximizing the Worthington splash.

    So we analyzed 75 YouTube videos of manu jumps. First, we noticed the technique: Jumpers land glutes first, with legs and torso scrunched up in a V-shaped posture.

    But the moment they go underwater, the divers roll back and kick out to straighten their bodies. This expands the air cavity, the space of air created in the water by the jump; then the cavity collapses, detaching itself from the body. This period of detachment is known as “pinch-off time” – when the collapse sends a jet of water shooting upward. All of this happens within a fraction of a second.

    The science behind making a big splash.

    Answers from Manubot

    We found that jumpers entered the water at a median V-angle of about 46 degrees. Intrigued, we recreated these movements in a lab aquarium, using 3D-printed, V-shaped projectiles to test different V-angles.

    The result? A 45-degree angle produced the fastest, tallest splashes, virtually matching what we observed in the human jumpers. V-angles greater than 45 degrees increased the risk of injury from landing flat on the back. We found it interesting that the jumpers very nearly hit the optimal angle largely through what appeared to be intuition and trial and error.

    Note how the splash of the V-shaped projectiles was highest at 45 degrees.

    Digging deeper, we then built Manubot, a robot that mimics human body movements during manu jumps. It’s able to switch from a V-shape to a straight posture underwater. This is how we learned the optimal timing to maximize splash size.

    For instance, for someone who’s 5-foot-7 and jumping from 1 meter, opening their body within 0.26 to 0.3 seconds of hitting the water resulted in the biggest splash. Open too soon or too late, and splash size is compromised.

    Here’s how the Manubot worked.

    One caveat: Humans are far more complex than any 3D-printed projectile or a Manubot. Factors such as weight distribution, flexibility and anatomical shape add nuance that our models can’t yet replicate.

    For now, though, our findings highlight a simple truth: Creating the perfect manu splash isn’t the result of luck. Instead, it relies on a carefully tuned symphony of aerial and underwater maneuvers. So the next time you see someone spray everyone in the pool with a gigantic jump, remember – there’s a beautiful science behind the splash.

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

    – ref. ‘Manu jumping’: The physics behind making humongous splashes in the pool – https://theconversation.com/manu-jumping-the-physics-behind-making-humongous-splashes-in-the-pool-255837

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: New chancellor, old constraints: Germany’s Friedrich Merz will have a hard time freeing the country from its self-imposed shackles

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mark I. Vail, Worrell Chair of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has had an uncertain start to his tenure. John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

    Friedrich Merz received a rude shock on the morning of May 6, 2025, as he prepared to lose the “in-waiting” qualifier from his title as German chancellor.

    After weeks of negotiations following February’s federal election, Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) had struck a coalitional bargain with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), giving the bloc a thin majority of 13 seats in the 630-member Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament. Yet, Merz still struggled to ratify his chancellorship.

    He fell short of the majority he needed on the first vote, with 18 members of his coalition voting against him.

    Though he was elected on a second ballot, the initial “no” vote was unprecedented for an incoming chancellor in the postwar federal republic, with insiders claiming that some of those voting “no” were conservatives opposed to Merz’s push to loosen German fiscal rules. Aside from the immediate political embarrassment, the vote was symptomatic of something else: a more deep-seated weakness in both the new chancellor and his government. As a scholar of German politics and history and the author of a forthcoming book on German state traditions and economic governance, I see Merz’s problems, and those of his country, as having deep historical roots.

    Taking the brakes off?

    For Germany and Europe, the stakes in the run-up to the vote to ratify Merz as chancellor could not have been higher – a cascade of crises confronts both. As SPD’s parliamentary leader Jens Spahn noted in the run-up to the May 6 vote: “All of Europe, perhaps the whole world, is watching this ballot.”

    The German chancellor is looking to strengthen both Europe and Germany through firm leadership and heavier spending. He has promised a massive increase in defense outlays in order to create the “strongest conventional army in Europe,” to counter the threat from a bellicose Russia and the United States’ wavering over traditional security commitments to the continent.

    This broad vision, however, is confronted by a number of obstacles, most importantly the so-called “debt brake.” Adopted after the 2008 financial crisis, this “brake” limited annual deficits to a paltry 0.35% of gross domestic product and proscribed any debts at all for the German “Länder,” or regions.

    In March, soon after the February election but before the seating of the new Bundestag, then-presumptive Chancellor Merz called for an exemption to the debt brake for defense spending above 1% of annual gross domestic product, with a promise to do “whatever it takes” to bolster Germany’s military and verbally committing to spend up to US$1.12 trillion (1 trillion euros) over 10 years. The outgoing parliament agreed and also created a $560 billion (500 billion euros) fund dedicated to rehabilitating Germany’s crumbling infrastructure.

    But Merz’s plans to revitalize Germany’s military and infrastructure could be seriously undermined by domestic forces – both within and outside of his coalition. It runs up against long-standing German norms and ideologies that threaten to hamper the state’s capacity and the government’s ability to act decisively.

    Ambivalence about state power

    This wobbly start to the new government hearkens back to old and deeply rooted divisions about the character of the post-World War II German state.

    In the late 1960s, West German Chancellor-to-be Willy Brandt quipped that the federal republic had become an “economic giant but a political dwarf.”

    Though the phrase would become a cliché, it captured both the fraught legacies of World War II and older German ambivalence about state power, which had long been associated with authoritarian politics under both the Nazis and the Wilhelmine Reich following German unification under Bismarck in 1871.

    U.S. President John F. Kennedy, left, rides through the streets of Berlin with West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, center, and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
    Bettmann/Contributor

    Until the 1980s, such constraints posed relatively few problems. The country’s postwar “economic miracle” legitimized the fledgling democratic state, while empowering capital and labor within the export sectors that fueled the boom. This effectively devolved political power to economically strategic actors.

    These institutional features also reflected a distinctive postwar model of German politics that weakened centralized power. Achieved in the late 1940s by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, West German sovereignty was fragmented: domestically by federalism and decentralized political institutions, and internationally through integration into NATO and the European Economic Community.

    This “semi-sovereign state,” in political scientist Peter Katzenstein’s famous formulation, helped reclaim German moral credibility from the ashes of fascism and genocide. A decentralized state with robust checks and balances was viewed as both a bulwark against authoritarianism and a recipe for export-led growth and political stability.

    Even after the restoration of full sovereignty with German reunification in 1990, German officials still trod lightly. Their concern was that a more assertive Germany would reawaken old fears about German militarism. Moreover, they were content to privilege economic rather than military power as the coin of their peculiar realm.

    A nation of Swabian housewives?

    The historical ambivalence about the German state’s role and related dilemmas about German power will not be easy for Merz to resolve.

    With respect to Germany’s capacity for decisive leadership, the past three years suggest that much work remains to be done. Confronted with a series of unprecedented shocks − from Russian military aggression in Ukraine, to the attendant energy crisis that exposed German dependence on imported Russian gas, to the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) − Merz’s predecessor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, called in 2022 for a “Zeitenwende,” or “epochal change,” in defense and energy policy.

    But instead, Scholz’s “traffic light coalition” of (yellow) Liberals, Greens, and (red) Social Democrats dithered and bickered, eventually succumbing to a rare – in German politics – public interparty squabble that ultimately brought down the government in late 2024.

    Reluctant to send its most advanced weapons – notably long-range Taurus cruise missiles – to Ukraine, and unable to overcome the Liberals’ hostility to badly needed fiscal expansion, Scholz was criticized for leading from behind, wary of backlash from pacifist currents in the German electorate and captive to long-held German concerns over expanding the national debt.

    Merz is looking not to repeat the same mistakes. But to accomplish his vision of a revitalized and more secure Germany, he has to overcome both the debt brake and, even more important, the deep ideological currents that gave rise to it.

    These factors intensified long-standing constraints on defense spending, which had failed to keep up with inflation for much of the 2000s and remained far below the NATO norm of 2% of annual gross domestic product.

    The “brake” was subsequently embraced by governments of both left and right, from SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s “Red-Green” coalition of 1998 to 2005 to the governments of Christian Democrat Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2021. As is abundantly clear in the pages of Merkel’s recent memoir, the proverbial character of the frugal “Swabian housewife” was one that she relished rather than resisted.

    But to many observers, this fetishization of austerity has contributed to decades of underinvestment in domestic infrastructure − from roads, to schools, to public buildings, to broader public services − failures which the AfD has been eager to exploit. And as promising as it seems, Merz’s commitment of $560 billion (500 billion euros) is approximately equivalent to the country’s existing needs, without accounting for future depreciation.

    Far-right activists gather near the Ostkreuz railway station in Berlin, Germany, on March 22, 2025 .
    Omer Messinger/Getty Images

    Even Germany’s traditionally punctual train service has become a laughingstock, with jokes about late or canceled trains now standard fare for German comics.

    Going beyond rhetoric

    It remains unclear whether Merz’s rhetorical shift and a constitutional change that permits but does not in itself create more robust defense spending augur a new direction in German politics, or whether Europe’s largest economy will continue to be hobbled by self-imposed constraints and parliamentary squabbling. If the latter happens, Germany risks both continued economic decline and bolstering the AfD, whose support comes disproportionately from economically stagnant former Eastern regions, and which last month surpassed Merz’s CDU in public opinion polls.

    And despite Merz’s commitments, not a single euro of the promised military and infrastructure funds has yet been budgeted. And even if it were, that would not address the country’s yawning needs in other areas, such as state-funded research and development and education.

    Europe, too, needs Merz’s words to turn into action − and soon. The threat of Russia to the east and the turning tide of relations with Trump’s America to the west has put the EU in a bind and in need of strong leadership.

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

    – ref. New chancellor, old constraints: Germany’s Friedrich Merz will have a hard time freeing the country from its self-imposed shackles – https://theconversation.com/new-chancellor-old-constraints-germanys-friedrich-merz-will-have-a-hard-time-freeing-the-country-from-its-self-imposed-shackles-256048

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Time for NZ media to ditch the propaganda and stand against genocide

    COMMENTARY: By Saige England in Christchurch

    “RNZ is failing in its duty to inform the public of an entirely preventable humanitarian catastrophe.”

    Tautoko to Jeremy Rose, Ramon Das and Eugene Doyle for this critique of a review of RNZ’s coverage of a genocide.

    Sadly, this highlights RNZ’s failure to report the genocide from the perspective of the very real victims — more journalists killed in Gaza than the whole of World War Two, aid workers murdered and buried, 17,000 children, including babies, who will never ever grow.

    I respect so many RNZ journalists and have always supported this important national broadcaster but it is time for it to pull up its pants, ditch the propaganda and report from the field of truth.

    I carry my Jewish ancestors in standing against genocide and calling for reports that show the truth of the travesty.

    For reporting on protests I have been pepper sprayed by thugged-up police donning US-style gloves and glasses (illegally carrying pepper spray and tasers).

    I was banned from my own town hall when I tried — with my E Tu press card — to attend the deputy leader Winston Peters’ media conference.

    This government does not want the truth reported, it seems.

    I have reported from the fields of invasion and conflict. I’ve taught journalism and communications. Good journalists remember journalism ethics. Reports from the point of view of the oppressor support the oppressor.

    Humanitarianism means not reporting from the perspective of a mercenary army — an army that has been enforcing apartheid for decades, and which is invoking a policy of extermination for expansion.

    Please read this media review and think of how you would feel if someone demanded that you leave your home. Palestinians have faced oppression and apartheid and “unhoming” for decades.

    Think of the intolerable weight of grief you would carry if a sniper put a bullet between the eyes of a child you love and know.

    Report on the victims. And stop subscribing to propaganda.

    Saige England is a journalist and author, and a member of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). She is a frequent contributor to Asia Pacific Report. This was first published as a social media post.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s vision for Air Force One will turn it from the ‘Flying White House’ to a ‘palace in the sky’

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Janet Bednarek, Professor of History, University of Dayton

    Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy helped design Air Force One’s color scheme, which has been used since her husband’s presidency. Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images

    Since President Donald Trump excitedly announced that he would be accepting a US$400 million plane from the Qatari government to serve as the next Air Force One, even members of his own party have expressed alarm.

    There’s the price tag of refurbishing the plane with top-secret systems – upward of $1 billion, according to some estimates. Then there are the conflicts of interest from accepting such a large present from a foreign nation – what some say would be the most valuable gift ever given to the U.S.

    But it would also mark a striking departure from tradition.

    While they’re often variants of commercial planes, presidential planes have almost always been U.S. military aircraft, flown and maintained by the Air Force.

    The first White Houses in the sky

    I’m an aviation historian who once worked in the United States Air Force’s history program for three years, so I’m well-acquainted with the history of presidential aircraft.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to fly while in office. In January 1943, he boarded the Navy-owned, civilian-operated Boeing Dixie Clipper – a sea plane – for a trip to Casablanca to meet with Allied leaders.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first presidential flight on a Dixie Clipper, a sea plane built by Boeing.
    Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    The security measures needed to safely transport the president – especially during wartime – spurred the creation of the first custom-built aircraft for presidential use, a heavily modified VC-54 Skymaster. Though officially named “The Flying White House,” the new presidential aircraft became better known by its nickname, the “Sacred Cow.”

    President Harry Truman used the Sacred Cow as his presidential aircraft through much of his first term in office.

    In late 1947, the U.S. Air Force ordered a second custom-built presidential aircraft, a modified DC-6, which Truman named the Independence.

    While in office, Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman flew on a modified Douglas C-54, nicknamed the Sacred Cow.
    Museum of Flight/Corbis via Getty Images

    During Dwight D. Eisenhower’s two terms, the president flew on two different planes operated by the Air Force: the Columbine II, which was a customized, military version of Lockheed’s commercial airliner the Constellation, and the Columbine III, which was a Super Constellation.

    Embracing the jet age

    In the 1960s, the use of jet engine technology in U.S. commercial aircraft revolutionized air travel, allowing planes to fly higher, farther and faster. Jet travel became associated with the glamorous and the elegant lifestyles of the “jet set” crowd.

    So it’s fitting that President John F. Kennedy – who was sometimes called the “the first celebrity president” – was the first White House occupant to fly in a jet, the Boeing 707.

    Kennedy’s aircraft was also the first painted in the distinctive light blue-and-white scheme that’s still used today. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy developed it with the help of industrial designer Raymond Loewy.

    It would go on to serve eight presidents before leaving the presidential fleet in 1990, when Boeing delivered the first of two modified Boeing 747s.

    These are the aircraft that continue to serve as the president’s primary plane. Boeing signed a contract to provide two new aircraft in 2017, during Trump’s last term. In 2020, the company decided to refurbish two existing aircraft that were originally built for another customer.

    The refurbishment has been more cumbersome and expensive than building a new aircraft from scratch. But it’s the only option because Boeing closed its 747 assembly line in late 2022.

    A nickname sticks

    On a trip to Florida, the crew of Columbine II first used “Air Force One” as the plane’s call sign to clearly distinguish the plane from other air traffic.

    While the public has associated the name Air Force One with the modified Boeing 707s and 747s and their distinctive colors, any plane with the president aboard will carry that call sign.

    They include several smaller aircraft, also operated by the Air Force, such as the North American T-39 Sabreliner used to transport Lyndon B. Johnson to his ranch in Texas and the Lockheed VC-140B JetStars, the fleet of backup planes used by several presidents, which Johnson jokingly called “Air Force One Half.”

    A cultural and political symbol

    Air Force One has long served as a symbol of the power and prestige of the presidency.

    It became an indelible part of U.S. history in November 1963, when Johnson took his oath of office from Air Force One’s cabin while Kennedy’s body lay in rest in the back of the aircraft.

    Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president aboard Air Force One following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
    Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Air Force One carried President Richard M. Nixon to China and the Soviet Union for historic diplomatic missions. But it also famously flew him from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to his home state, California, after he resigned from office. On that day, the plane took off as Air Force One. But it landed as SAM 27000, the plane’s call sign used when the president wasn’t on board.

    Trump has been compared to Nixon in more ways than one.

    And Trump’s complaint that Arab leaders have bigger and more impressive airplanes than the current Air Force One is reminiscent of Nixon’s own concerns of being outclassed on the world stage.

    The Nixon family boards Air Force One to fly to California on Aug. 9, 1974, following President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
    Wally McNamee/Corbis via Getty Images

    When president, Nixon strongly advocated for American supersonic transport – a 270-passenger plane designed to be faster than the speed of sound – that he hoped could be modified to serve as a new Air Force One. He feared the failure to develop an SST would relegate the U.S. to second-tier status, as other world leaders – particularly those from England, France and the USSR – traversed the globe in sleeker, better performing aircraft.

    Trump’s concerns about Air Force One seem less focused on safety and security and more on size and opulence. His longing for a “palace in the sky” is befitting for a president drawn to soaring skyscrapers, lavish parades and gold ornamentation.

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

    – ref. Trump’s vision for Air Force One will turn it from the ‘Flying White House’ to a ‘palace in the sky’ – https://theconversation.com/trumps-vision-for-air-force-one-will-turn-it-from-the-flying-white-house-to-a-palace-in-the-sky-256745

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s battle with elite universities overlooks where most students actually go to college

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Amy Li, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Florida International University

    There are nearly 20 million undergraduate college students in the United States. Anadolu/Getty Images

    Headlines often mention the ongoing power struggle between President Donald Trump’s administration and private colleges such as Columbia University and Harvard University.

    But such elite universities educate only a small portion of America’s total undergraduate population, which stood at 20 million in fall 2024.

    As an associate professor of higher education, I have published research on policies that affect college access, retention and graduation. My work has examined data across different types of higher education institutions.

    The Ivies and other elites

    Less than 1% of American college students attend elite private colleges.

    A small group of colleges, consisting of Ivy League schools and other highly selective universities known as “Ivy-Plus,” fit in this category.

    The Ivy League consists of eight private schools that formed an athletic conference in the 1950s. The member universities are known for their academic excellence.

    The Ivy-Plus are highly prestigious colleges located across the country with similar reputations for outstanding academics such as Stanford University, Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    These colleges have extremely competitive admissions, often accepting less than 10% of applicants.

    They enroll students from high-income backgrounds more than any other type of institution. Students from upper-income families represent 60% to 70% of attendees at elite privates.

    Elite private universities confer undergraduate and graduate degrees and focus on research.

    Elite public colleges

    Elite public colleges, such as the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia, are near the top of the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. They also are often the flagship university in their state, such as the University of Michigan.

    These colleges have highly selective admissions processes as well and often accept about 10% to 20% of applicants.

    The largest portion of revenue at public universities, roughly 40%, comes from government sources that include federal, state and local government grants, contracts and appropriations, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

    Students from upper-income families constitute 50% to 55% of attendees at elite public colleges.

    Like elite private colleges, elite public colleges confer undergraduate and graduate degrees and focus on research.

    Community colleges

    There are 1,024 community colleges in the U.S., serving 39% of undergraduate students.

    These public, two-year colleges grant associate degrees and occasionally bachelor’s degrees. They also offer certificates, workforce training and noncredit courses to prepare students for college-level courses.

    Community colleges have a strong teaching focus and a mission to serve their communities. They tend to guarantee admission to anyone who wants to enroll and offer lower tuition and fees.

    Community colleges are also critical entry points for students from lower-income households and those who identify as racial or ethnic minorities or who are the first in their family to attend college.

    Like other public institutions, community colleges depend heavily on state funding, as well as local property taxes.

    Regional universities

    Roughly 70% of undergraduate students who attend public, four-year institutions enroll at regional public universities.
    Newsday RM via Getty Images

    Of all undergraduates who attend public, four-year institutions, roughly 70% enroll in regional institutions.

    They include colleges in state-run systems such as the State University of New York and California State University.

    There is wide variation in acceptance rates among regional public universities, but they tend to be moderately selective, accepting between half and 70% of applicants.

    Regional public universities offer a wide range of academic programs mostly at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. They also depend heavily on state funding.

    Small private colleges

    Small, less selective private colleges often have acceptance rates of 60% or higher and enroll 3,000 or fewer students.

    Their budgets depend primarily on tuition and fees.

    Some of these types of colleges have suffered from enrollment declines since the early 2000s, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Many of these institutions lacked the large endowments that allowed elite privates to weather the financial challenges brought on by the pandemic.

    A number of small private colleges, such as Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, have closed or merged with other universities due to financial difficulties.

    These small private colleges often offer academic programs at the bachelor’s and master’s levels.

    Private for-profit

    About 5% of students attend private for-profit colleges.

    These colleges offer courses in convenient formats that may be attractive to older adult students, including those with full-time jobs.

    For-profit college students disproportionately identify as older, Black and female. Students who attend these colleges are also more likely to be single parents.

    In recent years, the federal government has cracked down on false promises some for-profit institutions made about their graduates’ job and earnings prospects and other outcomes.

    The enforcement led to the closure of some colleges, such as ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges.

    Minority-serving institutions

    Minority-serving institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities, have a mission to serve certain populations.
    Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

    Minority-serving institutions have a mission to serve certain student populations.

    Minority-serving institutions include historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, such as Morehouse College; Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs, such as Florida International University; Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander-serving institutions, or AANAPISIs, such as North Seattle College; and tribal colleges and universities, or TCUs, such as Blackfeet Community College, which serve Native American students.

    The federal government determines which colleges fit the criteria.

    These are primarily two- and four-year colleges, but some grant graduate degrees.

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

    – ref. Trump’s battle with elite universities overlooks where most students actually go to college – https://theconversation.com/trumps-battle-with-elite-universities-overlooks-where-most-students-actually-go-to-college-254680

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Giant: John Lithgow’s masterful turn explores Roald Dahl’s antisemitism – and wider questions about children’s literature

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kristina West, Lecturer in Children’s Literature, Royal Holloway University of London

    Back in 2023, a bitter debate erupted over the editing of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. His publishers, Puffin Books, had worked with Dahl’s estate (now owned by Netflix) to remove references to violence, body size, mental health, gender and skin colour. Now, a new play about an incident in Dahl’s later life is focusing on another controversy.

    Giant (written by Mark Rosenblatt) is playing at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre until August 2. It features a masterly performance by John Lithgow in the role of Dahl. The play tracks the fallout from his 1983 review of God Cried, a photographic book by Catherine Leroy and Tony Clifton about the Israeli army’s siege of west Beirut.

    However, in Rosenblatt’s blend of fact and fiction, the very real controversy arose not from the review, but from an interview Dahl gave that many Jewish and non-Jewish readers objected to as antisemitism (others saw it as a justified critique of Israel’s actions during the Lebanon war). This is melded with an imaginary situation in which Jewish representatives from Dahl’s British and American publishers visit his home to calm the backlash.

    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.

    Rosenblatt explores the tensions in this response both as it related to Dahl and to conversations across the world on the recent and ongoing attacks in Palestine and Israel.

    Perhaps reflecting the controversy over Dahl’s language in his children’s books, this play, too, is engaged with conversation, language and word choices. The words we use about others, how that language is interpreted and meaning is formed, and discussions about language are all at the centre of the story. As is the discourse between different forms, styles, and times of writing, and the tension between spoken and written language.

    While Rosenblatt’s script is centred on Dahl’s comments on Israel and Jewish people, it also engages with his spoken misogyny. This includes his repeated insulting epithets for American publisher Jessica Stone (Aya Cash) and his hectoring of housekeeper Hallie (Tessa Bonham Jones). It is no coincidence that the play is set right before the release of The Witches (1983), now a centre of complaints about Dahl’s written misogyny.

    The trailer for Giant.

    And while the play begins with some genuinely comic moments, the night I saw it the audience audibly gasped during the scene in which Dahl told The New Statesman that “even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on [the Jews] for no reasons”. It’s a quote taken directly from Dahl’s real interview with journalist Michael Coren in 1983.

    In its engagement with the power of language and the potential effects of a political statement on the sales of Dahl’s books, the play returns viewers to the debate over cancel culture and the place of politics in and around children’s literature.

    Today, such controversy centres on Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and the impact of her position on transgender rights on her millions of child and adult fans. But such criticisms of children’s authors for being too political have been made for decades.

    Cancel culture

    Lithgow’s performance as Dahl adds another layer of complexity to the debate on age appropriateness and the validity of political comment. He centres his aged Dahl in a time of flux, unsettled and unwell, dealing with the renovation of his house. This is reflected in some clever staging in which the house as a place of sanctuary, work and rest has become a claustrophobic space in which people are on top of each other, nothing is where it belongs, and the only solace to be had is in a decent glass of wine.

    He is also about to marry his long-term mistress, Felicity Crossland (Rachael Stirling), after divorcing his even longer-term wife. You can almost hear the creak of his knees as he moves around and feel the aches in his back as he stretches that gaunt frame.

    Lithgow’s performance of age seems to explain some of Dahl’s crabby responses. As such, perhaps, the audience is tempted to ask questions that have been asked about “classic” literature before: is old age justification for prejudicial viewpoints? Is misogyny acceptable when someone was born in 1916? Is antisemitism excusable if someone is unwell?

    While Rosenblatt and Lithgow may open the door to questions such as these, they close that door pretty firmly by the end of the play. The shock value of Dahl’s phone interview in which he exerts an agency belying his age and clearly demonstrates his antisemitism leaves the audience in little doubt as to the final message.

    But with Dahl damned by his own antisemitism, what next? Is the play calling on cancel culture for Dahl? Is it claiming that his political views and language choices mean that we shouldn’t read The Witches to our children, in edited form or not?

    Perhaps it leaves us rather back where we began: with questions over language, with debate, with more discussion on intent, and meaning, and appropriateness of language. We also need to question the rights of an individual – especially a celebrated children’s author – to express controversial views against the rights of an individual or group, especially when demonstrably abhorrent. And this conversation isn’t going to end any time soon.

    Giant is at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre until August 2 2025.

    Kristina West 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. Giant: John Lithgow’s masterful turn explores Roald Dahl’s antisemitism – and wider questions about children’s literature – https://theconversation.com/giant-john-lithgows-masterful-turn-explores-roald-dahls-antisemitism-and-wider-questions-about-childrens-literature-256530

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A trial is testing ways to enforce Australia’s under-16s social media ban. But the tech is flawed

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Alexia Maddox, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Education Futures, La Trobe University

    De Visu/Shutterstock

    Australia’s move to ban under-16s from social media is receiving widespread praise. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore and Japan, are also now reportedly considering similar moves.

    The ban was legislated in November 2024 and is due to take effect in December 2025. The law says social media platforms can’t use official IDs such as passports to check Australian users’ ages, and shouldn’t track Australians. But it doesn’t specify the alternative.

    To test alternative methods, the federal government commissioned a trial of currently available technologies designed to “assure” people’s age online. Run by the Age Check Certification Scheme, a UK-based company specialising in testing and certifying identity verification systems, the trial is in its final stages. Results are expected at the end of June.

    So what are the technologies being trialled? Are they likely to work? And how might they – and the social media ban itself – alter the relationship all of us have with our dominant forms of digital communication?

    Dead ends for age verification

    Age verification confirms a person’s exact age using verified sources such as government-issued IDs. Age assurance is a broader term. It can include estimation techniques such as analysing faces or metadata to determine if users meet age requirements.

    In 2023 the federal government rejected mandating verification technologies for age-gating pornography sites. It found them “immature” with significant limitations. For example, database checks were costly and credit card verification could be easily worked around by minors.

    Nonprofit organisation Digital Rights Watch also pointed out that such systems were easily bypassed using virtual private networks – or VPNs. These are simple tools that hide a user’s location to make it seem like they are from a different country.

    Age assurance technologies bring different problems.

    For example, the latest US National Academies of Sciences report shows that facial recognition systems frequently misidentify children because their facial features are still developing.

    Improving these systems would require massive collections of children’s facial images. But international human rights law protects children’s privacy, making such data collection both legally and ethically problematic.

    Flawed testing of innovative tech?

    The age assurance technology trial currently includes 53 vendors hoping to win a contract for new innovative solutions.

    A range of technology is being trialled. It includes facial recognition offering “selfie-based age checks” and hand movement recognition technologies that claim to calculate age ranges. It also includes bespoke block chains to store sensitive data on.

    There are internal tensions about the trial’s design choices. These tensions centre on a lack of focus on ways to circumvent the technology, privacy implications, and verification of vendors’ efficacy claims.

    While testing innovation is good, the majority of companies and startups such as IDVerse, AgeCheck, and Yoti in the trial, will likely not hold clout over the major tech platforms in focus (Meta, Google and Snap).

    This divide reveals a fundamental problem: the companies building the checking tools aren’t the ones who must use them in the platforms targeted by the law. When tech giants don’t actively participate in developing solutions, they’re more likely to resist implementing them later.

    Google recently proposed storing ID documents in Google Wallet for age verification.
    nitpicker/Shutterstock

    Unresponsive tech companies

    Some major tech companies have shown little interest in engaging with the trial. For example, minutes from the trial’s March advisory board meeting reveal Apple “has been unresponsive, despite multiple outreach attempts”.

    Apple has recently outlined a tool to transmit a declared age range to developers on request. Apple suggests iOS will default the age assurance on Apple devices to under 13 for kids’ accounts. This makes it the responsibility of parents to modify age, the responsibility of developers to recognise age, and the responsibility of governments to legislate when and what to do with an assured age per market.

    Google’s recent Google Wallet proposal for age assurance also misses the mark on privacy concerns and usefulness.

    The proposal would require people over 16 to upload government-issued IDs and link them to a Google account. It would also require people trust Google not track where they go across the internet, via a privacy-preserving technology that remains a promise.

    Crucially, Meta’s social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram also do not let you login with Google credentials. After all, they are competitors. This raises questions about the usefulness of Google’s proposal to assure age across social media platforms as part of the government’s under-16s ban.

    Meanwhile, Google is also suggesting AI chatbots should be directly targeted and available to children under 13, creating something akin to a “social network of one”, which are out of scope of the ban.

    Rather than engage with Australian age verification systems, companies such as Apple and Google are promoting their own solutions which seem to prioritise keeping or adding users to their services, or passing responsibility elsewhere.

    For the targeted platforms that enable online social interactions, delay in engagement fits a broader pattern. For example, in January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg indicated Meta would push back more aggressively against international regulations that threaten its business model.

    A shift in internet regulation

    Australia’s approach to banning under-16s from using social media marks a significant shift in internet regulation. Rather than age-gating specific content such as porn or gambling, Australia is now targeting basic communication infrastructure – which is what social media have become.

    It centres the problem on children being children, rather than on social media business models.

    The result is limiting childrens’ digital rights with experimental technologies while doing little to address the source of perceived harm for all of us. It prioritises protection without considering children’s rights to access information and express themselves. This risks leaving the most vulnerable children being cut off from digital spaces essential to their success.

    Australia’s approach puts paternal politics ahead of technical and social reality. As we get closer to the ban taking effect, we’ll see how this approach to regulate social communication platforms offers young people respite from the platforms their parents fear – yet continue to use everyday for their own basic communication needs.

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

    – ref. A trial is testing ways to enforce Australia’s under-16s social media ban. But the tech is flawed – https://theconversation.com/a-trial-is-testing-ways-to-enforce-australias-under-16s-social-media-ban-but-the-tech-is-flawed-256332

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Media Council makes ‘stop Telikom PNG silencing journalists’ plea to PM Marape

    The Media Council of Papua New Guinea (MCPNG) has called on Prime Minister James Marape to stop Telikom PNG silencing and suppressing media personnel.

    Telikom PNG, which is 100 percent government-owned, has two key outlets: FM100 radio and EMTV.

    Recently, it sacked FM100 talkback host Culligan Tanda after he featured opposition East Sepik Governor Allan Bird on his show, following the most recent vote of no confidence.

    Local media report that Tanda was initially suspended for three weeks without pay on April 22, and subsequently terminated.

    MCPNG president Neville Choi said this was just the latest example of media suppression by Telikom PNG going back to 2018.

    He said that he himself was sacked in 2019 after EMTV had run a story quoting the former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying she would not be riding in one of the PNG government’s luxury Maseratis during an APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in Port Moresby.

    Choi said the story, though correct, was perceived as painting the government of the day in a “negative light”.

    ‘Free, robust media essential’
    He said a “free, robust, and independent media is an essential pillar of democracy”.

    “It is the cornerstone of allowing freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.

    “Being in a position of power and authority gives no one, especially brown-nosing public servants wanting to score brownie points with the sitting government administration, the right to suppress media workers who are only doing their jobs, and doing it well,” he said.

    The council also reminded the management’s of state-owned media organisations, that the Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) defined corrupt conduct by public officials and the dishonest exercising and abuse of official functions.

    According to a PNG Haus Bung report, Marape has directed his chief of staff to get to the bottom of the issue.

    He has also denied government interference, according to a report by Exeprenuer.

    “We don’t get down that low as to editorial content,” Marape was quoted as saying by the the online magazine.

    In December, Marape gave “full assurance that my government will not dilute the media’s role.”

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

    Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Disarming Hezbollah is key to Lebanon’s recovery − but the task is complicated by regional shifts, ceasefire violations

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mireille Rebeiz, Chair of Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Francophone and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Dickinson College

    Slain Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah looms large in Lebanon. Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images

    Within a span of two weeks from late April to early May 2025, Israel launched two aerial attacks ostensibly targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon: The first, on April 27, struck a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs; the second, an assault in southern Lebanon, left one person dead and eight others injured.

    While the attacks may not be an aberration in the long history of Israel’s military action in Lebanon, the latest episodes were notable given the context: Israel and Hezbollah have been nominally locked in a truce for five months.

    As an expert on Lebanese history and culture, I believe the latest violations clearly show the fragility of that ceasefire. But more importantly, they complicate the Lebanese government’s mission of disarming Hezbollah, the paramilitary group that remains a powerful force in the country despite a series of Israeli targeted killings of its senior members. That task forms the backbone of a nearly 20-year-old United Nations resolution meant to bring lasting peace to Lebanon.

    The long road to a ceasefire

    In the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah vowed solidarity with the Palestinian movement, resulting in a running series of tit-for-tat attacks with Israel that escalated into a full-blown war in the fall of 2024.

    On Oct. 1, 2024, Israel invaded Lebanon – the sixth time since 1978 – in order to directly confront Hezbollah. That operation led to the killing of an estimated 3,800 Lebanese people and the displacement of over 1 million civilians. The damage to Lebanon’s economy is estimated at US$14 billion, according to the World Bank.

    Hezbollah lost a lot of its fighters, arsenal and popular support as a result. More importantly, these losses discredited Hezbollah’s claim that it alone can guarantee Lebanon’s territorial integrity against Israel’s invasion.

    The United States and France brokered a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Nov. 27, 2024. The agreement was based in part on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in 2006 to end that year’s 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. The resolution had as a central tenet the disarmament of armed militias, including Hezbollah, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

    The 2024 ceasefire built on that resolution. It required Hezbollah’s retreat beyond the Litani River, which at its closest point is about 20 miles from northern Israel. In return, and by February 2025, Israel was to gradually withdraw from Lebanese territories in order to allow the Lebanese army to take control of areas in the south and to confiscate all unauthorized weapons – a nod to Hezbollah’s arsenal.

    Yet, Israel maintained the occupation of several posts in southern Lebanon after that deadline and continued to launch attacks on Lebanese soil, the most recent being on May 8, 2025.

    The challenge of disarming Hezbollah

    Despite these violations, large-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah has not resumed. But the next step, a lasting peace based on the laying down of Hezbollah arms, is complicated by a series of factors, not least the sectarian nature of Lebanese politics.

    Since its inception in 1920, Lebanon’s governance has been defined by a polarized and formally sectarian political system, which seeded the roots of a decades-long civil conflict that began in 1975. A series of invasions by Israel in response to attacks from Lebanese-based Palestinian groups exacerbated sectarianism and instability.

    From this mix, Hezbollah emerged and became a powerful force during the late 1980s.

    The Taif Agreement, ending Lebanon’s civil war in 1989, formally recognized the state’s right to resist the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories – and with it Hezbollah’s presence as a force of resistance. An uneasy coexistence between the government and Hezbollah emerged, which often spilled over into violence, including assassinations of important public figures.

    More recently, Hezbollah was responsible for a two-year political vacuum as it mobilized members to repeatedly block opposition candidates for the vacant presidency in the hopes of installing a leader that would support its agenda.

    A view from the southern Lebanese district of Marjeyoun shows smoke billowing from the site of Israeli airstrikes on May 8, 2025.
    Rabih Daher/AFP via Getty Images

    In January 2025 that standoff ended when Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun, a Maronite Christian, as president.

    The acquiescence of Hezbollah and its allies was in part a sign of how much the power of the Shiite militia had been diminished by Israel during the conflict.

    But it is also the result of a widespread general understanding in Lebanon of the need to end the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s war. The new president has brought much-needed hope to a battered country – one that has been plagued by numerous crises, including a collapsed economy that by 2019 had pushed 80% of the population into poverty.

    But Aoun’s presidency signals the changing political environment in another key way; unlike his predecessors, Aoun has not endorsed Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance movement.

    Further, Aoun has announced his intentions to disarm the group
    and to fully implement resolution 1701.

    To this end, Aoun has made impressive gains. According to state officials, the Lebanese army had by the end of April 2025 dismantled over 90% of Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani River and taken control over these sites.

    Yet Hezbollah’s chief, Naim Kassem, doggedly rejects calls to disarm and integrate the group’s fighters into the Lebanese armed forces.

    Even in Hezbollah’s weakened position, Kassem believes only his movement, and not the Lebanese state, can guarantee Lebanon’s safety against Israel. And Israel violations of the ceasefire only play into this narrative.

    “We will not allow anyone to remove Hezbollah’s weapons,” Kassem said after one recent airstrike, vowing that the group would hand over weapons only when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon and ended it’s air incursions.

    Can Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, untangle the Gordian knot of Lebanese politics?
    Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

    The challenge going forward

    Yet countries including the United States and Qatar – not to mention Israel – consider Hezbollah’s disarmament a prerequisite to both peace and much-needed international assistance.

    And this makes the task ahead for Aoun difficult. He will be well aware that international aid is desperately needed. But pressing too hard to accommodate either Israel’s or Hezbollah’s interests risks, respectively, exacerbating either domestic political pressures or jeopardizing future foreign investment.

    To complicate matters further, the situation in Lebanon is hardly helped by developments in neighboring Syria.

    The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024 has added another element of regional uncertainty and the fear in Lebanon of further sectarian violence. Although Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has vowed to protect all religious groups, he was not able to prevent the massacre of Alawite civilians in several coastal towns – an attack that triggered a fresh wave of refugees heading toward Lebanon.

    The removal of Assad was another blow for Hezbollah, a strong Assad ally that benefited from years of Syrian interference in Lebanon.

    The challenge of international relations

    For now, a return to full-scale war in Lebanon does not appear to be on the table.

    But what comes next for Lebanon and Hezbollah depends on many factors, not least the state of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and any spillover into Lebanon. But the actions of other regional actors, notably Saudi Arabia and Iran, matter too. Should Saudi Arabia be encouraged down the path of normalizing relations with Israel – a process interrupted by the Oct. 7 attack – then it would impact Lebanon in many ways.

    Any deal would, from the Saudi perspective, likely have to include a solution to the question of Palestinian statehood, taking away one of Hezbollah’s main grievances. It would also likely put pressure on Lebanon and Israel to find a solution to its long-standing border dispute.

    Meanwhile, Iran, too, is seemingly turning to diplomatic means to address some of its regional issues, with nascent moves to both improve ties with Saudi Arabia and forge forward with a new nuclear deal with the U.S. This could see Tehran turn away from a policy of trying to impose its influence throughout the region by arming groups aligned with Tehran – first among them, Hezbollah.

    Mireille Rebeiz is affiliated with the American Red Cross.

    – ref. Disarming Hezbollah is key to Lebanon’s recovery − but the task is complicated by regional shifts, ceasefire violations – https://theconversation.com/disarming-hezbollah-is-key-to-lebanons-recovery-but-the-task-is-complicated-by-regional-shifts-ceasefire-violations-255671

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The rebrand that went full circle: HBO Max to New HBO Max

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Omar H. Fares, Lecturer of Marketing in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University

    The HBO Max rebrand saga highlights how quickly brand equity can be undermined when recognition cues are disrupted. (Shutterstock)

    Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) recently announced the streaming app Max will revert to the name HBO Max this summer. The move comes only two years after HBO was dropped from the brand name.

    The announcement has sparked a wave of commentary of social media, including self-aware humour. HBO’s social media team posted memes from shows like Friends and Euphoria, joking that the company had finally “come home.”

    HBO Max launched in 2020, promising big-budget series alongside the Warner film catalogue. In May 2023, the service’s name was shortened to “Max” after the US$43 billion merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery.

    Many viewers and analysts questioned the loss of a label long associated with award-winning television. When WBD CEO David Zaslav announced the return to HBO Max on May 14, he argued the original three letters still carry unique weight with audiences worldwide.

    The major U-turn offers a clear lesson for marketers: when a rename threatens familiarity, consistency and clear messaging, customers will push back.

    Brand familiarity: A memory shortcut

    The HBO Max rebrand saga highlights how quickly brand equity can be undermined when recognition cues are disrupted. Although the 2023 name change aimed to reflect a broader content mix, it unintentionally distanced the platform from its most recognizable asset.

    HBO, as both a name and a legacy, had become shorthand for a specific kind of quality — one that audiences weren’t ready to see stripped away.

    Brand familiarity may be described as the ease with which consumers recognize, recall and understand a name based on prior experience. In marketing, brand familiarity is a key factor in driving consumer confidence and supporting stronger emotional ties.

    In other words, when the existing memory structures are already in place, it reduces the cognitive effort that typically results in a more favourable action. Dropping “HBO,” a label linked to award-winning dramas for decades, removed a trusted shortcut and left viewers asking whether the service had changed its focus.

    Consistency as a pillar of trust

    One of the key drivers of brand engagement is brand consistency, which is the uniform application of brand elements such as colours, logo and tone. This consistency is typically associated with trust and loyalty.

    The shift from HBO Max to Max disrupted this consistency, leading to confusion about the platform’s identity and offerings. Consumers who associated HBO with certain types of content were unsure what to expect from Max.

    To make matters even more challenging, Max not only changed its name but shifted from the purple-and-black palette of HBO Max to blue, then to silver-on-black before finally circling back. Each redesign forced viewers to get used to a new look and tone, eroding the sense of continuity that subscription services rely on.

    Keeping the audience informed

    Missteps in messaging can sink even well-researched rebrands. Communications firm Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer points out that silence during change amplifies speculation and negative assumptions.

    The quick collapse of Gap’s 2010 logo makeover offers a classic example. The retailer unveiled a new mark without preparation, then reverted within a week after a backlash.

    A direct parallel can be drawn between that episode and the confusion that followed the Max launch, where any reasoned arguments for the shorter name never reached much of the audience.

    By contrast, the 2025 reversal was accompanied by plain statements from Warner Bros. Discovery, intensive press outreach and humour that admitted the misstep which is a communication style more likely to rebuild trust.

    Lessons for marketers

    Customer research should always precede radical changes to familiar signals, because the goodwill embedded in a long-running name is not easily replicated.

    Any shift in title or visual identity must be matched by consistent deployment across every touch point, from app icons to ad copy, otherwise confusion undercuts the strategy.

    Finally, customer perceptions cannot be an afterthought. Clear, timely messages that are supported by a tone that suits the brand’s personality will help audiences understand what is changing and why it benefits them, turning potential backlash into renewed engagement.

    Omar H. Fares 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 rebrand that went full circle: HBO Max to New HBO Max – https://theconversation.com/the-rebrand-that-went-full-circle-hbo-max-to-new-hbo-max-256777

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –