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Category: Report

  • MIL-OSI Global: How a small vaccine drop could see measles becoming endemic again – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anastasia A. Theodosiou, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Academic Clinical Lecturer, University of Glasgow

    Family Stock/Shutterstock.com

    It takes just a spark to start a wildfire, and when it comes to measles, the embers are already glowing.

    A new modelling study published in Jama sounded the alarm: recent drops in childhood vaccination rates could reignite diseases that were nearly extinguished.

    The researchers used a simulation to predict the effect of falling vaccination coverage for measles, rubella, polio and diphtheria. Even at current coverage, measles alone could soon infect more than 850,000 people in the US every year, leading to over 2,500 deaths annually.

    The study also warned how quickly the situation could get worse. A further 10% drop in vaccination rates could lead to more than 11 million cases annually.

    Measles is particularly concerning because of how easily it spreads. It is one of the most contagious diseases known – a single person with measles can infect between 12 and 18 others, each of whom can infect 12 to 18 more, and so on. This is much higher than for diseases such as influenza and COVID, where one person, on average, infects one to four others.

    To stop measles from spreading from person to person, at least 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated. But coverage is falling short – not just in the US, but worldwide. In 2024, less than 84% of five-year-olds in England had received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

    This matters because measles is far from harmless. About one in five children with measles need hospital care, one in 20 develop pneumonia and one in 1,000 suffer encephalitis (a brain infection that can cause seizures and deafness).

    Up to three in every 1,000 children who catch measles will die.

    Although measles poses the greatest immediate threat because of how contagious it is, further drops in vaccination rates could see other serious infections return. Rubella can cause devastating birth defects, polio can lead to permanent paralysis, and diphtheria is fatal in up to 30% of unvaccinated children.

    Before vaccines, these diseases were endemic around the world – circulating constantly, not just in outbreaks. In regions where vaccine coverage has never reached the 95% target, including parts of Africa and south Asia, they remain endemic.

    But in countries where vaccines had all but eliminated them, falling coverage risks undoing decades of progress. And this isn’t just hypothetical – already this year, the US has reported nearly 900 measles cases, including three deaths.

    The MMR vaccine is extremely effective, protecting more than 97% of those who receive both doses. However, some people can’t have the vaccine, including pregnant women, babies and those with a weakened immune system or serious allergy to the vaccine ingredients.

    This is why herd immunity is so important: when over 95% of people in a community are vaccinated, the virus can’t circulate freely, so everyone is protected – including the most vulnerable.

    There are many reasons vaccination rates have fallen. COVID caused the biggest drop in global vaccination in 30 years, and many countries are still catching up. Conflict and natural disasters also contribute, with Yemen reporting over 10,000 measles cases in the past six months.

    Some people choose not to vaccinate their children or themselves. This may be due to vaccine fatigue, concerns about side-effects or underestimating the risks of infection. In this respect, vaccines are victims of their own success – it can be hard to imagine the consequences of infections that have largely disappeared thanks to vaccines.

    As with all medical treatments, vaccines have side-effects, but most are mild and resolve quickly, such as fever, rash and swollen glands.

    Persistent misinformation

    A major contributor to vaccine hesitancy is misinformation, particularly through social media.

    One of the most persistent myths is that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism – a claim based on falsified data in a discredited and retracted study from 1998. Since then, multiple studies have disproved this, including a meta-analysis (a study that combines data from several studies) of over 1.25 million children that found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

    Despite clear scientific evidence, these false claims linger, fanning the flames of doubt with real-world consequences. Indeed, the World Health Organization has listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health.

    No parent takes decisions about their child’s health lightly. It’s natural to want to weigh the risks and benefits. But when vaccination rates drop, it doesn’t just put unvaccinated children at risk. It threatens those who cannot be vaccinated – including all infants under a year old, who are too young for the MMR vaccine.

    Vaccination remains one of the most powerful tools we have to protect the health of all children. Diseases like measles don’t wait for conflicts to end or for trust to rebuild – they simply spread wherever they can.

    We came close to extinguishing measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, but any drop in vaccine coverage is a match to kindling. As this new research shows, it doesn’t take much for the embers to flare into a wildfire beyond our control.

    Antonia Ho receives funding from MRC, UKRI, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Public Health Scotland.

    Chrissie Jones is affiliated with the Immunising Pregnant Women and Neonates (IMPRINT) network, funded by the MRC. She runs clinical trials of vaccines on behalf of the University of Southampton, but does not receive any personal funding for this.

    Anastasia A. Theodosiou 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 a small vaccine drop could see measles becoming endemic again – new study – https://theconversation.com/how-a-small-vaccine-drop-could-see-measles-becoming-endemic-again-new-study-255327

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A robot that you ride like a horse is being developed. It will stretch current limits of engineering

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matías Mattamala, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford

    Kawasaki has recently revealed its computer-generated concept for the Corleo, a “robotic horse”. The video shows the automated equine galloping through valleys, crossing rivers, climbing mountains and jumping over crevasses.

    The Corleo promises a high-end robotic solution to provide a revolutionary mobility experience. Kawasaki’s current motorbikes are constrained to roads, paths and trails, but a machine with legs has no boundaries – it can reach places no other vehicles can go.

    But in the case of the Corleo, how feasible is it to achieve such a level of agility and balance, while safely carrying a human through natural environments? Let’s discuss what would be needed to achieve this.

    A robot is a complex machine with two main components: a body and an information processing unit. The body has a particular morphology that determines the robot’s function, and carries actuators (devices that convert energy into physical motion) and sensors to act in the world and understand it, respectively.

    Kawasaki’s Corleo robotic horse concept.

    The information processing unit is usually a computer, which implements algorithms to process data from the sensors, build representations of the world and determine the actions to be executed, subject to a specific task of interest.

    Simple robots, such as robotic vacuum cleaners satisfy these requirements. They have a suitable body for going under furniture and not getting stuck (their flat top is also useful to give your cats a ride).

    The actuators are the motors that spin the wheels and the vacuum system. It has impact sensors to detect collisions, and some even have cameras for understanding the environment. Owners can set a cleaning routine, and the vacuum’s computer will determine the best way to execute it.

    The Corleo is a quadruped robot, one of the most stable legged robot configurations. The four legs seem strong and capable of flexing forward and backward to run and jump.

    But they seem limited in movements known as abduction and adduction. If I push you on your right side, you will open your left leg – this is the abduction motion helping you keep balance.

    Adduction is the opposite motion – a movement towards the midline of the body. Perhaps this is just a limitation of the concept design but, either way, the Corleo needs this articulation to ensure a safe and smooth ride.

    Next comes actuators. Legged robots, in comparison to wheeled vehicles, need to continuously balance and support their own weight. They also provide a level of suspension that provides cushioning for the rider.

    They need to be strong enough to push the robot’s body forward. On top of that, the Corleo will also carry a person. While this is currently possible, such as with the the Barry robot or Unitree wheeled robots, the Corleo also aims to gallop and jump over gaps. This requires even more dynamic and stronger actuators than the previous examples.

    A manually driven car or motorcycle doesn’t need sensors or a processing unit, because the driver steers the car depending on what they see. But a robotic horse does need more sophisticated control systems to determine how to move the legs, otherwise we would need both hands and even our feet to drive it.

    Locomotion control has been an active area of legged robotics research since the 1940s. Researchers have shown that a legged machine can walk down a slope without motors or sensors (which is called “passive” locomotion).

    If only “proprioceptive” sensors – the types of sensors that tell your phone when to rotate the screen – are used to control balance, it’s called “blind” locomotion because it doesn’t rely on information from the external environment. When a robot also uses “exteroceptive” sensors to determine how to walk, which refers to sensors that pick up information about the environment, it’s called “perceptive” locomotion. This is what Corleo shows.

    From the pictures released, I could not spot any visible cameras or Lidars – laser range finders. They could be hidden, but it would be reassuring to know that the Corleo has a way to “see” what’s in front of it while walking.

    While it will be manually steered (so that it doesn’t need to navigate autonomously), its locomotion system needs sensor data to determine how to step on rocks, or detect if the terrain is slippery. Its sensors should also be reliable under different environmental conditions. This is already a huge challenge for autonomous cars.

    Challenges ahead

    The Corleo is a concept, it does not exist – yet. As a product, it promises to be a more capable version of a quad bike. This can open new opportunities for transportation in remote areas, tourism businesses, new hobbies (for those who can afford it), and even sports.

    But I’m more excited about the technological advances that the achievement of such a platform implies. Legged robots do not necessarily need to look like quadrupeds or humanoids.

    Self balancing exoskeletons, such as Wandercraft’s Personal exoskeleton or Human in Motion Robotics’ XoMotion, are legged robots that are revolutionising the lives of people with mobility impairments. The technological advances implied by the Corleo could have be of major benefit to the development of assistive devices for disabled users, enabling them to achieve independence.

    Current progress in legged robotics suggests that many features proposed by Kawasaki are feasible. But others pose challenges: Corleo will need the endurance to walk in the wild, run effective locomotion algorithms and also implement the safety standards required for a vehicle.

    These are all major hurdles for a reasonably sized robot. If you ask me today, I’d be unsure if this can be achieved as a whole. I hope they prove me wrong.

    Matias Mattamala is currently funded by an EPSRC C2C Grant at the University of Oxford in collaboration with ETH Zurich. He 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 his academic appointment.

    – ref. A robot that you ride like a horse is being developed. It will stretch current limits of engineering – https://theconversation.com/a-robot-that-you-ride-like-a-horse-is-being-developed-it-will-stretch-current-limits-of-engineering-254483

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Pope Francis began the process for Antoni Gaudí’s sainthood – an architect explains why

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Javi Buron Garcia, Associate Professor, School of Architecture & Product Design, University of Limerick

    Wiki Commons/Shutterstock/Canva

    In one of his final announcements before his death, Pope Francis granted Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudí the title of “venerable”, due to his dedication to the design and build of the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona. This recognition is the second of four steps towards sainthood, a process that started more than three decades ago by a secular association founded in Barcelona in 1992 and led by local architects. If this happens, Gaudí would be the first secular architect in history to be declared a saint.

    The Sagrada Família was originally devised by the religious book printer and seller José María Bocabella, who bought the site and founded an association to promote the construction. It was started in 1882, but in just one year the original architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano resigned due to creative differences with the association’s architectural adviser Joan Martorell.

    After declining the job himself, Martorell fervently recommended his protégée Antoni Gaudí who at that time was only 31 years old. He took over and redesigned it entirely, transforming Villar’s predictable neo-gothic design into what the American architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock described as “the greatest ecclesiastical monument of the last hundred years”.

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    From the moment of his appointment, Gaudí worked obsessively on the project. In 1915, once he finished the crypt of the Church of Colònia Güell, his other lifelong project, he devoted himself entirely to the Sagrada Família. He suddenly died in 1926, when he was hit by a tram just a few blocks from the church.

    Gaudí was fully aware that he would never see the construction completed. Since its inception the construction was solely financed by donations, and its progress frequently slowed due to lack of funds.

    The Sagrada Família is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, and it has become a living piece of architectural history, showcasing design methodologies, materials and tools spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

    Visionary techniques

    Though Gaudí was a gifted draftsman, he rarely drew detailed plans as his design methods. Instead, he relied on close working relationships with builders and crafts people. He preferred scaled models and developed all sort of unique techniques to develop and communicate his designs to others.

    Probably one of the most famous are his upside-down catenary curve models which he used to form-find the main structure of some of his buildings.

    In this process, he traced the outline plan of the Sagrada Família on a wooden board at a tenth of the scale and placed it on the ceiling. Then, he tied cords from the points of the plan where the columns were located. Later, he hung small sachets filled with lead to represent the weight that the arches would have to support. Finally, he carefully measured and photographed the resulting model from many angles and turned the photos upside down so the strings hanging in pure tension would represent stone and concrete arches in pure compression.

    The expertise required to construct these models was remarkable. In 1986, it was described in painstaking detail by professor of architecture Jos Tomlow at the Institute for Lightweight Structures under the supervision of the renowned architect and structural engineer Frei Otto.

    Tomlow and Otto analysed the hanging design model for Gaudí’s unfinished church of the Colònia Güell, which took him nearly ten years to complete. The research team made a scaled replica of the model which was instrumental for understanding Gaudí’s empirical design methods and bringing a renewed interest to his unfinished masterpiece.

    Completing the Sagrada Familia

    By the end of the 1980s, the construction of the Sagrada Familia was suffering an impasse. The architects continuing the work, now in their nineties, had completed much of the work started together with Gaudí. But they did not have further models or plans to guide their development, as many of the original models, drawings and photographs were destroyed during the 1936 Civil War.

    Fortunately, a younger generation of architects were able to analyse the existing design vocabulary and extend it to fill out the gaps using groundbreaking parametric design tools. Using parametric design, instead of simply reproducing digitally Gaudí’s existing geometries, endless new variations could be automatically generated by changing predefined variables.

    The Sagrada Familia in 1905.
    Jaume Morera Art Museum

    During the 1990s, the same team introduced newer digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing and robotic stone carving. These were instrumental to keep the construction of Gaudí’s impossible shapes under a reasonable budget and time-frame.

    After several decades of long delays, the temple has experienced a substantial increase in visitors, which has boosted the construction efforts. The latest plans have set the completion for 2033 when it will become the tallest church building in the world. Just seven years after the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death, and probably in perfect timing for his canonisation.

    Javi Buron Garcia 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. Pope Francis began the process for Antoni Gaudí’s sainthood – an architect explains why – https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-began-the-process-for-antoni-gaudis-sainthood-an-architect-explains-why-255147

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Oskar Fischer: the forgotten pioneer of Alzheimer’s disease research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Hornberger, Professor of Applied Dementia Research, University of East Anglia

    Davide Angelini/Shutterstock

    Ever heard of Fischer’s disease? No? Maybe that is not surprising, because it doesn’t exist. But it could have. In fact, the disease we now know as Alzheimer’s disease might just as easily have been called Fischer’s disease or Alzheimer-Fischer disease.

    Back in 1907, Dr Oskar Fischer published detailed research on what we now recognise as Alzheimer’s disease. Fischer described cases of older people who had cognitive symptoms in their lifetime and noted tiny plaque-like structures and fibrous tangles in their brains after their death.

    These changes were the same as those observed by Alzheimer’s at around the same time. But unlike Alzheimer’s brief two-page publication highlighting this new disease in one person, Fischer’s work, published in 1910, was a meticulous and wide-ranging study – spanning more than 100 pages – including several people he investigated. So why have we never heard of him?

    In my new book, Tangled Up: The Science and History of Alzheimer’s disease, I attempt to answer this question.

    A promising mind from Prague

    But before we get to why Fischer was forgotten, let’s look at who he was.

    Oskar Fischer was born in 1876 in a small town near Prague, part of the German-speaking minority in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying medicine in Strasbourg and Prague, he began working at the German University of Prague’s Department of Psychiatry.

    Fischer’s career flourished under the leadership of Professor Arnold Pick – another lesser-known scientific giant. Pick was the first to describe a different kind of dementia, now called frontotemporal dementia. It was in this forward-thinking academic environment that Fischer began his research into dementia.

    Fischer wasn’t working in isolation. At the time, other doctors had also noticed unusual plaques in the brains of people with dementia. Researchers like Paul Blocq and Georges Marinesco in Paris, Emil Redlich in Vienna and Koichi Miyake in Tokyo had all seen similar features.

    But Fischer, like Alzheimer, went a step further: he identified not only plaques but also twisted protein fibres — now known as tau tangles — that disrupt the brain’s function. This combination is still central to how we define Alzheimer’s disease today.

    Oskar Fischer, the forgotten great of Alzheimer’s research.
    Public Domain

    But if both men made this important discovery, why is only one name remembered?

    There are two theories as to why Fischer has been forgotten. One is that Fischer believed these brain changes were specific to a type of dementia called presbyophrenia, which was thought to affect people who showed unusual cheerfulness and confusion in old age.

    He may have limited his own findings by tying them to this narrow diagnosis. Indeed, in the 1920s it was realised that presbyophrenia was not a separate disease but simply how certain people with dementia presented – and the term was not used anymore.

    Another factor might be politics and influence. Alzheimer had a powerful supporter: Emil Kraepelin, one of the most influential psychiatrists of the time, who Alzheimer worked for. Kraepelin included Alzheimer’s work in his bestselling textbook and named the condition after him, helping to cement Alzheimer’s name in medical history.

    There’s no record showing whether Kraepelin knew of Fischer’s similar discoveries. If he did, he never acknowledged them in his textbook.

    Despite his scientific achievements, Fischer’s academic career stalled. In 1919, he was denied a permanent university position, despite his groundbreaking work. He opened a private practice in Prague and continued to teach, but without the recognition he deserved.

    A tragic end

    Then came the darkest chapter of his life. In 1941, during the Nazi occupation, Fischer was arrested by the Gestapo. He was imprisoned at Theresienstadt (now Terezín), a ghetto and transit camp for Jews and political prisoners. It’s unclear why he was targeted – perhaps for his Jewish ancestry or his earlier communist activism. He died there in 1942.

    Oskar Fischer’s story is a reminder that scientific discovery is rarely the work of one lone genius. It’s built on shared ideas, collaboration, and often forgotten contributors.

    It’s somewhat similar to Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace describing the theory of evolution at the same time but most only remember Darwin now. While Alois Alzheimer certainly made important observations, Fischer’s role in defining this devastating disease was just as significant.

    Maybe it’s time we remembered Oskar Fischer and gave him the credit he so rightly deserves.

    Michael Hornberger is the author of Tangled Up: The History and Science of Alzheimer’s Disease, published by Canbury Press.

    – ref. Oskar Fischer: the forgotten pioneer of Alzheimer’s disease research – https://theconversation.com/oskar-fischer-the-forgotten-pioneer-of-alzheimers-disease-research-254815

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Travelling to my ancestral home in China unearthed tragedy tinged by the climate crisis – it inspired me to write Red Pockets

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alice Mah, Professor in Urban and Environmental Studies, University of Glasgow

    My book Red Pockets explores questions of inheritance: what we owe to ancestors and to future generations, and what we owe to the places that we inhabit.

    It was inspired by visiting my ancestral village in Guangdong in south China, after nearly a century of intergenerational separation due to migration, war and revolution. My grandfather wrote about his childhood stay in this rice village in his unpublished memoirs, and I had always wanted to see it.

    In spring 2018, I finally found the chance, during a research trip to study the impacts of petrochemical pollution in Guangdong.

    My trip coincided with the Qingming festival in April, when people return to their ancestral villages to sweep their relatives’ tombs, making offerings of food, incense and burnt paper money to sustain them in the afterlife.

    Remarkably, my ancestral village was still intact, among the rice fields and western-style brick buildings, largely as my grandfather had described it. In fact, there are many similar clan villages in Taishan country, which is known as the “home of overseas Chinese”, due to its history of overseas emigration during the western gold rushes of the late 19th century.

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    It was a moving yet unsettling experience, almost a comedy of errors, navigating different cultural expectations. One of the oldest villagers still remembered my family’s history, which turned out to have been troubled.

    My ancestors had suffered untimely deaths, their tombs were lost, and our ancestral house was expropriated during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. To restore my family’s place in the village would be impossible: we would have to build a new house and give all the clan villagers gifts of money in lucky red pockets. Even then, nothing could repair the ruptures of the past century.

    Observing the Qingming tomb-sweeping rituals on the hills, I wondered: what were the consequences of failing to sweep the tombs every spring?

    When I got home to the UK, I carried stories of pollution and ancestral neglect with me. They stayed with me and began to take on new meanings as I continued my research on toxic pollution and environmental injustice. I learned that in Chinese folk religious beliefs, neglected ancestors become hungry ghosts, unleashing misfortune and environmental destruction.

    As the climate crisis intensified, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the hungry ghosts somehow embodied collective experiences of climate grief, illness and anxiety.

    My idea to write Red Pockets came together in the wake of disappointment over COP26 in Glasgow. As I thought about the “heavy debts that we owe” to past and future generations, two, seemingly separate ideas merged into one – the personal story of my “return” to my ancestral village, and the wider story of confronting the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. I wanted to write a book that would explore the possibility of healing alongside the impossibility of returning to lost worlds.

    The writing process involved wrestling not only with different ideas but with different parts of myself. The hungry ghosts were difficult to summon in a way that felt real.

    At first, I tried a more academic approach, researching Chinese folk religious beliefs about death and burial rituals, and extreme climate disasters unfolding around the world.

    But I soon realised that the metaphor felt too thin in the absence of my own voice, and that I had to talk about hungry ghosts from a personal perspective. Once they came out, they seemed to take on a life of their own.

    Hungry ghosts animate the connections between the material and spiritual, how environmental devastation shows up in body, mind, and Earth: “A divided self, a divided world, a failure to listen, a failure to honour … They want us to face up to our broken obligations.”

    As I moved towards more positive themes in the final chapters of the book, the weight slowly began to lift. I learned that there are ways of living with ghosts, recognising joy alongside despair, possibilities for interconnection despite disconnection, and compassionate actions to “defend our lands and ourselves”. I found what I was looking for: an offering.

    Alice Mah received funding from the Leverhulme Trust (Philip Leverhulme Prize) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 639583) for research on petrochemical pollution and environmental justice.

    – ref. Travelling to my ancestral home in China unearthed tragedy tinged by the climate crisis – it inspired me to write Red Pockets – https://theconversation.com/travelling-to-my-ancestral-home-in-china-unearthed-tragedy-tinged-by-the-climate-crisis-it-inspired-me-to-write-red-pockets-253987

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s first 100 days: economic uncertainty spikes while the president’s approval ratings tank

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow, City Political Economy Research Centre, City St George’s, University of London

    When US president Donald Trump took office in January he inherited a strong economy, which was growing faster than those of many of its rivals. Nevertheless, he won the election in November on the back of strong voter dissatisfaction with the economy, especially the cost of living. This is the legacy of high inflation sparked first by COVID and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    But Trump also won with his appeal to “left-behind” voters, especially working-class people in the US rust belt. This demographic has suffered a long-term decline in living standards as manufacturing jobs in traditional industries like car-making and steel have disappeared.

    Trump claimed during his campaign that high tariffs were the answer to most of America’s economic problems. He promised a revival in domestic manufacturing by blocking imports, while forcing foreign firms to shift production to the US. And there was also the promise of tax cuts paid for with the revenues raised from tariffs.

    But the erratic roll-out of his tariff policies have shattered business and consumer confidence. They have also tanked his poll ratings with respect to his management of the economy. And it is causing chaos to world trade and economic cooperation.


    How is Donald Trump’s presidency shaping up after 100 days? Here’s what the experts think. If you like what you see, sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter.

    The threat of higher prices for imported goods has made US consumers cautious. Businesses are facing the awesome task of rejigging global supply chains established over many decades, with no certainty over where they should invest.

    China was always the main target of Trump’s tariffs, but it is not clear who will win the battle. China has been preparing for this confrontation for years, shifting its exports to other countries and boosting domestic consumption.

    And blocking Chinese exports does not automatically mean that US industry will become more efficient and productive. This is especially true in the absence of any industrial policy and with massive cutbacks in federal support for business, including for research.

    Trouble ahead for Trump

    The dramatic swings in tariff policy are probably less a product of Trump’s deep strategic planning – “the art of the deal” – than a response to conflicting pressures from different factions of Trump’s supporters.

    What Trump probably did not anticipate was the negative reaction of financial markets to his April 2 announcement of massive global tariffs. The precipitous fall in the stock market (which arguably was overvalued already) has wiped US$4 trillion (£3 trillion) off the value of shares. This threatens the pensions of millions of US voters.

    Even more serious has been the reaction of the bond market. Trump’s plan for massive tax cuts for the rich, now being negotiated in Congress, could add nearly US$6 trillion to the already huge and growing stock of US government debt over the next decade. This strategy will only work if international bond holders are prepared to buy a lot more US Treasury bonds.

    But they are now fleeing that market, which is normally the bedrock of the international financial system. This has the effect of forcing up interest rates, both in the US and globally.

    The US president’s attack on the independence of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is further unsettling the markets. The Fed now has the unenviable task of trying both to stop a recession and prevent inflation getting out of hand.

    And the economic damage of Trump’s tariffs is having political consequences. The Democrats are now favoured to retake control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 mid-term elections.

    Targeting welfare may be a cut too far for many US voters.
    Christopher Penler/Shutterstock

    Trump’s popularity will suffer a further blow if Congress is forced to cut government spending even further to finance its tax cuts. One casualty could be Medicaid spending, which faces cuts of US$880 billion. Medicaid provides health insurance for 70 million people on low incomes or with disabilities. The cut has already been included in one version of the budget resolution.



    Read more:
    Trump thinks tariffs can bring back the glory days of US manufacturing. Here’s why he’s wrong

    Trump is now caught between his big business backers, who want to drastically reduce the role of the federal government but keep free trade, and his working-class supporters, who are hoping that his tariffs will restore manufacturing jobs.

    But this group would be deeply upset by cuts to major government programmes such as Medicare and social security, which many depend on for much of their income. These programmes make up a large portion of all government non-defence spending, and without major cuts it will be hard to find enough savings to fund tax reductions.

    With the International Monetary Fund now forecasting a 40% chance of recession in the US, the president’s economic ratings look unlikely to improve any time soon.

    Steve Schifferes 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. Trump’s first 100 days: economic uncertainty spikes while the president’s approval ratings tank – https://theconversation.com/trumps-first-100-days-economic-uncertainty-spikes-while-the-presidents-approval-ratings-tank-255449

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why whale urine is so important to life in the sea

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kirsten Freja Young, Senior Lecturer, Ecology, University of Exeter

    Humpback whales can carry large amounts of nutrients on their long migrations Earth theater/Shutterstock

    Even biologists only capture a glimpse of the lives of whales. There are still many species whose lives are largely a mystery, particularly the deep diving whales.

    But scientists are learning more about the role that whales play in marine ecosystems and the services that they provide. Recent research is showing that even whale urine is important for the planet.

    Previous work suggested that whale faeces was important to ecosystems.
    These giant mammals bring nutrients from the depths where they feed to shallow waters.

    This effect is called the “whale pump” and it can enhance the photosynthetic rate of plankton, which is the basis of the food web. Nutrients are not distributed evenly across the ocean and in some areas, phytoplankton populations are limited because there aren’t enough of specific elements, such as iron.

    Some whale species perform long migrations across the ocean. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) perform the longest migration of any mammal at around 10,000 km, moving nutrients across ocean basins as they travel. To some extent the whale pump influences carbon cycling and storage too.

    Whales can also help cycle nutrients in the ocean when they disturb the seabed as they feed. Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), for example, are known to forage for invertebrates on the seafloor and stir up sediments which release nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron.

    Another key area of research describes the oasis ecosystems that whale carcasses provide to deep sea species, from hagfish (Eptatretus deani) and sleeper sharks (Somniosis pacificus) to crustacea, molluscs, nematodes and bacteria. The great whales have large bodies with high amounts of lipids in their bones. These lipids are food for lots of organisms and whale carcasses create mini ecosystems in the deep.

    But until now, another benefit that whales provided to ecosystems had not been quantified – that of urine.

    A recent study published in Nature Communications indicates that baleen whales’ urine could also have a crucial function in oceans. Some whale species can produce up to 950 liters of urine per day, and this means they can relocate nutrients to tropical grounds low in nutrients. Many baleen whales, such as humpback and gray whales, feed in polar and subpolar regions during summer, then migrate to equatorial breeding areas en masse into relatively small areas during the winter.

    During migration, the whales carry detritus like placenta, urine, faeces and if they die, carcasses. For example, the paper describes how gray whales tend to winter in several feeding grounds across the north Pacific ocean and aggregate in summer in a few small bays on the coast of California.

    The researchers describe how gray, humpback and right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) transport carbon and nitrogen to the tropics, in what they call the “great whale conveyor belt”. Globally, for these species, this process results in more than 46,000 tons of biomass (whales’ total mass and the nutrients they contain) and almost 4,000 tons of nitrogen per year, transferred to poor nutrient grounds.

    Gray whales transport nitrogen to the tropics.
    Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

    Most of this nitrogen transport comes from whale urine, which stimulates phytoplankton growth and photosynthesis. This increase in the rate of photosynthesis could lead to 18,180 tons of carbon being drawn down from the atmosphere. Other large baleen whales probably also contribute to this effect but there is less data on their distributions and ecology.

    Sadly, the study estimates that historical whaling has reduced whale related nutrient transportation to almost one third of its previous potential.

    Other animals that play a crucial role in nutrient flows have also been suffering from the effect of human-related activities. Seabirds and fish that migrate from the sea into freshwater bodies have a significant effect on phosphorus transfer from sea to land, which is also an important nutrient for photosynthesis.

    Bears, otters, eagles and other predators that eat fish which migrate up rivers from the sea, participate in the transport of ocean nutrients to land through their faeces. Moose are also important carriers of nutrients and are known to transfer large amounts from aquatic to land ecosystems as they feed on plants.

    Grazing hippopotamus also transfer nutrients in reverse from land to aquatic systems. But these large animals generally don’t match whales in quantity, or by geographical scale.

    Whales face many threats to their survival today, such as ship strikes, pollution, poorly managed fisheries and climate change. This recent study shows how important it is to protect whales and the ocean they live in.

    The contribution that these animals will make to solving our climate crisis through stimulating photosythesis is under debate and their ability to balance the global carbon budget in the face of human-related emissions may be negligible. However, the more we learn about these ocean giants, the more we understand the ways in which whales are vital to marine ecosystems.

    Kirsten Freja Young is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology at the University of Exeter and also works as an independent consultant to Greenpeace Research Laboratories.

    Marion Rossi 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 whale urine is so important to life in the sea – https://theconversation.com/why-whale-urine-is-so-important-to-life-in-the-sea-254748

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Teachers in South African schools may be slow to report rape of girls: study shows why

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ayobami Precious Adekola, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of South Africa

    2A Images via Getty Images

    In South Africa, the age of consent for sex is 16 years old. Engaging in sexual activity with someone under the age of 16 is considered statutory rape, even if the minor consents as defined under the law that applies to adults.

    In December 2021, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education introduced a policy aimed at reducing the country’s high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexual exploitation. It requires educators to report cases where older sexual partners impregnate learners under 16 years of age.

    We are researchers in sexual and reproductive health who have been working on a decade-long community engagement project focused on improving HIV prevention and related challenges among learners. The project is in the Vhembe district of Limpopo province, South Africa, bordering Zimbabwe. Sexual health practices among young people here remain a pressing concern, due to high rates of unprotected sex, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and unplanned pregnancies.

    As part of the project, we conducted a study of the statutory rape reporting policy for schools. It showed a disconnect between the policy’s intent and implementation. We found that some rural teachers were unaware of the policy, were not sure what they were supposed to do, or faced cultural, social and systemic barriers that left them feeling powerless to act.

    The result is that the child protection law is failing the learners it was designed to safeguard.

    Because teachers are often some of the first adults to become aware of statutory rape cases, it’s crucial to equip them to deal with disclosures appropriately, navigate reporting protocols confidently, and engage support systems effectively and help prevent future sexual abuse of learners.

    Lack of awareness of policy

    Our research was conducted at eight public primary and high schools in the Soutpansberg North school circuit of Limpopo. All the schools are in rural, under-resourced and poor communities. There is a high number of HIV infections and unplanned teenage pregnancies in the schools where the study was conducted. The true incidence rate of rape is different because it’s not always reported.

    We engaged 19 educators (16 of them female) through group discussions.

    Teachers expressed confusion and frustration over the lack of formal communication and training on the statutory rape reporting policy. Some were unaware that such a policy existed. One admitted:

    Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that we had a policy on statutory rape. It’s not something we’ve ever discussed in our school.

    Another teacher said:

    I know there’s a policy, but I’m unsure where to find it or exactly what it says. As educators, we need to be informed about policies, but it feels like no one communicates them effectively to us.

    Cultural and socioeconomic barriers

    Beyond a lack of awareness, the discussions suggested that socio-cultural norms hinder the implementation of the statutory rape policy in rural areas.

    The study highlighted that intergenerational relationships are normalised in some rural communities. In these cases, families may depend financially on the older male partner, making them reluctant to report such relationships as criminal offences.



    Read more:
    Rape culture in South African schools: where it comes from and how to change it

    In some cases, families tacitly support relationships between young girls and older men in exchange for financial support, making such arrangements difficult to challenge.

    A participant shared:

    It’s difficult because some parents tolerate these relationships as normal and support their kids to sleep with older men, who in turn provide for the family.

    Teachers encounter immense social pressure when faced with statutory rape cases. In tight-knit rural communities, reporting a case could mean accusing a neighbour, relative, or local authority figure. This creates a moral dilemma for educators who want to protect learners but fear community backlash.

    As one participant put it:

    If I report it, they might turn against us.

    These socio-cultural dynamics create a culture of silence that protects perpetrators rather than victims.

    What’s missing

    The study also found that a lack of training on statutory rape policies is a barrier to effective implementation. Teachers reported feeling unprepared to handle the legal and emotional complexities of reporting statutory rape cases.

    There’s been no training at all. We hear about the policy, but they don’t teach us how to implement it or what steps to take if something happens.

    Another teacher added:

    There is no formal memo from the circuit office and from our school governing body meetings; it was never introduced as an agenda item.

    The absence of confidential reporting mechanisms further complicates the situation. Teachers fear that reporting cases could lead to retaliation from the community or even threats to their safety. The lack of a standardised anonymous reporting system leaves teachers feeling vulnerable and unsupported.

    Teachers indicated that fear of community backlash led them to prioritise managing learner pregnancies over investigating potential rape cases. Some said it was the parents’ responsibility to report rape.



    Read more:
    South Africa’s stance on teenage pregnancy needs a radical review: what it would look like

    Proposed solutions

    We recommend a few ways to improve reporting of statutory rape:

    Mandatory training for educators: The education department should ensure that all teachers understand their legal obligations and know how to navigate reporting procedures.

    Confidential reporting systems: Establishing secure and anonymous reporting channels.

    Community awareness campaigns: Programmes to help shift harmful cultural norms and make it easier to report statutory rape. Campaigns should emphasise the importance of protecting minors and the legal consequences of statutory rape.

    Interdisciplinary support networks: Schools should collaborate with social workers, legal professionals, and mental health experts to provide educators with the support and resources needed to handle statutory rape cases.

    Bridging the gap between South Africa’s statutory rape policy and what actually happens in rural areas is a social justice imperative that affects the most vulnerable members of society.

    Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi receives funding from the South African Medical Research Council for this study.

    Ayobami Precious Adekola 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. Teachers in South African schools may be slow to report rape of girls: study shows why – https://theconversation.com/teachers-in-south-african-schools-may-be-slow-to-report-rape-of-girls-study-shows-why-253992

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Who do Africans trust most? Surveys show it’s not the state (more likely the army)

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Koffi Améssou Adaba, Enseignant et chercheur en sociologie politique, Université de Lomé

    A recent Afrobarometer study has shown declining trust in
    public institutions over the past decade among African citizens. Study findings call into question the credibility and legitimacy of state institutions like the presidency, parliament and security forces, including the police. The study also shows that many Africans still believe in traditional and religious figures, raising concerns about the effectiveness of governments. It also highlights the disconnect between state officials and the public. The Conversation Africa asked Koffi Améssou Adaba, a political sociologist and one of the authors of the Afrobarometer study, to unpack this loss of trust and its implications.

    What are the main findings of the study?

    The study, conducted by Afrobarometer in 39 countries, reveals a general decline in trust in public institutions in Africa over the past decade.

    The study assessed trust levels in 11 types of institutions and leaders. These are religious leaders, the president, opposition parties, ruling parties, the military, parliament, local councils, national electoral commissions, the police, courts, and traditional leaders.

    Conducted through face-to-face interviews in the language chosen by the respondent, Afrobarometer surveys enable national results to be obtained with margins of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. This analysis of 39 countries is based on 53,444 interviews.

    Surveys have been conducted since 1999. Since 2012, we have observed that trust in most institutions has decreased. Only three institutions still have majority support as reflected by the percentage of respondents who said they trusted those entities. These are religious leaders (66%), the army (61%), and traditional leaders (56%). In contrast, political institutions aren’t earning much public trust. The presidency, parliament, police and courts all have trust levels below 50%.

    This trend differs across regions. East and west Africa report higher levels of trust than central, southern and north Africa.

    At the national level, Tanzania, Niger and Burkina Faso have the highest trust levels. In contrast, Gabon, Eswatini and São Tomé and Príncipe are among the most distrustful countries.

    Since 2011, trust in parliament has dropped by 19 percentage points. The ruling party’s trust level has fallen by 16 points, followed by the presidency (-12) and the courts (-10). Despite the overall decline, some countries – like Tanzania, Togo and Mali – are seeing increased trust in certain institutions.

    What do these trends tell us?

    Institutional trust is vital for political stability and effective governance, regardless of whether a regime is democratic or authoritarian. Even authoritarian governments seek some level of popular support to strengthen their power. When citizens perceive institutions as responsible, transparent and effective, they are more likely to trust and support them. This trust leads people to expect good results when dealing with the state.

    The perception of efficiency, transparency and integrity is fundamental to building this trust. The observed decline in trust could undermine the legitimacy of governments and might hinder development, particularly in developing countries.

    Informal institutions (religious and traditional leaders) and the army enjoy stronger support than official institutions. Trust in religious leaders varies widely – from 34% in Tunisia to at least nine out of ten citizens in countries like Tanzania (94%), Senegal (92%), Nigeria (90%) and Ethiopia (90%).

    This pattern raises important questions about the role of these informal institutions in governance.

    Are there any red flags that need to be addressed?

    Major public institutions like the presidency, parliament, justice system and police should inspire confidence. They are expected to inspire trust because of their direct interactions with citizens. However, the low confidence in these institutions raises doubts about their effectiveness and strengthens the influence of informal institutions.

    The study also highlights a surprising trend: despite widespread rejection of coups d’état, many Africans continue to trust the military. This trust may help explain the acceptance of recent military-led transitions in several countries.

    One reason for this trust could be limited interaction with the military. Unlike the police, who are more present in daily life, the army is less exposed to criticism and tensions. As a result, it enjoys a more favourable image than other institutions.

    How can confidence in institutions be restored?

    Here are some steps to consider:

    • Strengthen transparency and fairness: Improve the performance of institutions and fight corruption to restore public confidence.

    • Engage informal institutions: Include religious and traditional leaders in governance processes, such as mediation and transitional justice efforts.

    • Pursue institutional reforms: Define the role of traditional leaders in public affairs to prevent political interference and enhance their contributions to governance.

    • Improve public services: Citizens’ perceptions are shaped by their direct interactions with institutions. For example, fair and effective policing can boost public trust.

    Citizens trust institutions based on their ability to deliver results. To address the erosion of trust, leaders must promote inclusive governance.

    Trust is fundamental to good governance and democracy. Strengthening it should be a top priority for African governments.

    Koffi Améssou Adaba 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. Who do Africans trust most? Surveys show it’s not the state (more likely the army) – https://theconversation.com/who-do-africans-trust-most-surveys-show-its-not-the-state-more-likely-the-army-252902

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Winning hearts and power: how Mali’s military regime gained popular support

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Morten Bøås, Research Professor, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

    Mali’s interim president, Colonel d’Armée Assimi Goïta, who came to power in a coup on 18 August 2020, enjoys remarkably strong public support. Survey data from pan-African research network Afrobarometer and the Mali-Métre survey, run by Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since 2012, indicate high levels of satisfaction with junta rule. In the 2024 Mali-Métre, nine out of ten respondents considered the country to be moving in the right direction.

    Yet economic conditions are worsening for Malians. In a recent analysis the World Bank pointed out that the junta was finding it difficult to deliver services amid sluggish growth, high inflation and extreme poverty.

    That Malians still seem to be very satisfied with their leader needs some explanation.

    In a recent paper, we draw on our extensive fieldwork experience in Mali. We argue that Goïta has crafted a new social contract based on a strongman narrative, portraying himself as Mali’s defender. The regime has used dissatisfaction with international interventions to frame Goïta as an “exceptional man” in “exceptional times”, in ways that resonate with Malian myths and traditions.

    We show how the regime’s new social contract is based not on public services but on the idea of Goïta as Mali’s defender and liberator. In this way, the regime has established a social bond with the population that places dignity above all.

    A new social bond

    In 2012, Mali experienced a severe crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern regions of the country. Jihadist insurgent groups took over the rebellion, leading to a military coup. International interventions followed. The regional grouping Ecowas, the UN and France made efforts to restore security, stability and peace.

    But the deployment of 5,000 French troops and 15,000 UN peacekeepers failed to prevent a deterioration in security.

    At the same time, Mali’s democratic institutions failed to restore territorial control and address corruption and poverty, despite regular elections being held.

    Mass protests calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta paved the way for the 2020 military takeover.

    These failures offered the junta a rich repertoire to draw on for its own legitimacy. With Goïta came a new narrative, not about liberal state-building and development, but about restoring Malian sovereignty and dignity.

    These ideas are conveyed through speeches at forums like the UN general assembly and public addresses shared through the media, along with an organised network of online influencers.

    Public debates about fighting the forces of neocolonialism and reclaiming sovereignty predate the junta. The regime has harnessed these sentiments. It contrasts decades of indignity, weakness, and dependence on France with a glorified vision of Mali’s ancient past.

    Popular protest movements such as Yerewolo Debout sur le Remparts have long done the same.

    Now, so the narrative goes, Goïta has emerged as a hero capable of leading his people towards a new age in which Mali is treated with respect.

    This framing has rekindled the legacy of Thomas Sankara, the late military leader of Burkina Faso (1983–1987). Often dubbed Africa’s Che Guevara, Sankara was a charismatic revolutionary known for his passionate speeches, bold stance against corruption, and efforts to challenge former colonial powers. He was assassinated in a coup in 1987, but his legacy continues to inspire young Africans.

    Regime figures, particularly foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop, often refer to legends and historical narratives as part of this myth-making:

    According to recent survey data from the Mali-Mètre, 70% of Malians identified combating insecurity as their highest priority. This indicates how many Malians feel they face a threat similar to the one that existed when the Malinke people pleaded with Sunjata to be their saviour.

    Thus, in an environment of chaos, war, confusion and despair, a hunter-warrior hero is needed. This agent can not only save society, but re-set it in an orderly and just manner, bringing dignity to his people if they undergo the necessary sacrifices.

    This story requires a villain. Finding culprits in Mali was not difficult. All it required was harnessing of social frustrations already directed against France and other external forces failing to combat insurgents and restore security.

    A unifying enemy

    As shown by Afrobarometer and Mali-Mètre, many Malians, as poor and destitute as they may be, take comfort from the regime’s confrontations with and – as it is presented to them – victories over such formidable adversaries as France and the UN.

    With nearly 60% of its population under the age of 25, Mali is one of the youngest countries in the world. The Malian case shows a youthful African population that is desperate for social change and willing to endure hardship to reach their promised land.

    The current political landscape in Mali, and in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger where conditions are similar, is an invitation to reconsider local agency. Citizens actively and rationally respond to their political contexts. Writing off people as ignorant or stupid will not advance understanding of the new political terrain.

    Our journal article is part of a forthcoming special issue in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

    Morten Bøås receives funding for the research that this article is based on from the Research Council of Norway – grant number 325236

    Viljar Haavik receives funding from the Research Council of Norway: Grant Number 325236.

    – ref. Winning hearts and power: how Mali’s military regime gained popular support – https://theconversation.com/winning-hearts-and-power-how-malis-military-regime-gained-popular-support-254518

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What have the Democrats achieved in Trump’s first 100 days?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Richard Hargy, Visiting Research Fellow in International Studies, Queen’s University Belfast

    The Democratic response to the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term has been sluggish. It has made many Congressional Democrats, and party members, anxious about what the party can do to push back against the president’s fast-moving agenda.

    “None of this feels like you’re fighting for us … The words are great, but I’m really not seeing any action,” said an exasperated constituent at a town hall event held in March by Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.

    According to reports, much of the anger in the room was aimed at the Democrats lacklustre fightback against Trump, and specifically a decision by some Democratic senators to support a Republican government funding bill in order to avert a federal government shutdown.

    Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to support this bill attracted criticism from within the party. Opponents argued that rejecting the bill and forcing a government shutdown would have required Trump and Republicans to rethink their strategy and negotiate a more palatable deal with Democrats. Schumer, however, argued that it was a far worse option to allow “Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown”.

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a sharp critique of Schumer’s approach, saying “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before — but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way”.

    Some within the party viewed this as a missed opportunity by Democrats to portray themselves as an active opposition to Trump’s agenda, especially as Republicans currently control both parts of Congress – the US House of Representatives and the Senate.

    To progress to a vote on a bill in the Senate requires 60 votes. With 52 yes votes on their government-funding bill, Republicans needed eight Democrats to switch sides. Schumer could have sunk the bill and shut down the federal government. But, as Time magazine’s Philip Elliott said, while Democrats had this option, they “lacked the bandwidth to sell it as the other guys’ fault, or put forth a unified plan on how to reopen the government on better terms”.

    Nevertheless, the outcry within Democrat circles was fierce. Prominent progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said that “there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal”. The fallout exposed wider divisions within the party, as well as friction between Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

    Polling data released in March showed Democrats with a favourability score of 29%, the party’s lowest point since 1992. This came as some of the Democrats’ major financial backers were publicly critical of the party’s ineffective and lethargic opposition and withheld financial backing.

    Democrat Chuck Schumer voted with the Republicans.

    Effective Democratic opposition will require sustained work, which connects with and mobilises voters. Darrell M. West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that previous victories “demonstrated that long-term success involves many steps, from … political alliance-building to candidate recruitment, fundraising, registration drives, and get-out-the-vote efforts”.

    Some Democrats in Congress are trying to hold the Trump administration accountable. Congressman James Raskin of Maryland and California Senator Adam Schiff have convened “shadow hearings” to highlight what they allege to be dubious decisions. Other Democrats have signed onto several court briefs that have challenged some of Trump’s executive orders.


    How is Donald Trump’s presidency shaping up after 100 days? Here’s what the experts think. If you like what you see, sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter.

    Other notable Democrats are mounting a fightback by trying to rally their supporters. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have held a series of rallies that saw huge crowds of over 200,000 people turn out in mainly Republican-supporting states to hear their anti-Trump message. Sanders declared that the “future of the Democratic Party is not going to rest with the kind of leadership that we’ve had”.

    Arguably the defining moment from this turbulent three-month period of Trump’s second term was the president’s “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2, when he imposed sweeping new tariffs on many major trading partners across the world.

    The economic turmoil that followed presented Democrats with a political opportunity. Yet their immediate response was restrained and lacklustre.

    As the economic shock waves from Trump’s tariff blitz reverberated, Jonathan Chait, staff writer at the Atlantic, asked why was Trump facing sharper political attacks from his allies than he is from the putative opposition.

    Weeks of market mayhem have given Democrats an opening to challenge Republican dominance in Washington ahead of next year’s midterm elections. A recent Morning Consult poll showed Democrats, for the first time in four-years, enjoying a three percentage point advantage (46% to 43%) over Republicans on economic competency.

    Democrats will have greater leverage if Trump’s tariff policies lead to inflation, and prices rising or even a recession.

    There’s just over 18 months until the next set of national elections in the US. In that time Democrats face the challenge of reconnecting with voters.

    Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the progressive grassroots organisation, Indivisible, gave an ominous judgement of the party’s current predicament, stating there have been “a lot of episodes over the last few months that have really soured people on whether the Democratic Party has … a clear assessment of the danger it’s facing right now”.

    This warning aside, three elections held at the beginning of April gave Democrats cause for some optimism. In a contest for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the Trump-backed candidate, who was supported financially by the president’s ally Elon Musk, lost by a significant margin in a state that Trump won last November.

    In two congressional races in Florida, while the Republicans held both seats, results were far closer than those seen two years ago, signalling some disapproval of Republican policy.

    Elaine Kamarck, a Brookings fellow, believes that the large demonstrations that have sprung up around the country over the past months have started to alter the mood within the Democratic party, and that’s something they can build on.

    Richard Hargy 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 have the Democrats achieved in Trump’s first 100 days? – https://theconversation.com/what-have-the-democrats-achieved-in-trumps-first-100-days-255139

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From withheld cancer drugs to postcode lotteries in treatment: why people in police custody are missing vital medications

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gethin Rees, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Newcastle University

    NottmCity/Shutterstock

    When someone is taken into police custody, they don’t lose their basic rights, including access to healthcare. But new research suggests that, for many people detained by police in England, getting the care they need can be anything but straightforward.

    Our research investigated healthcare provision inside police custody suites and uncovered a troubling reality: people held in custody often face long delays in receiving vital treatments. In some cases, they’re denied their medication altogether – even when they have serious health conditions.

    This isn’t just a bureaucratic hiccup. These delays and denials can pose real risks to people’s health and wellbeing, especially for those already living with chronic conditions or acute mental health issues.

    Healthcare inside police custody isn’t always provided by the NHS. Instead, police forces across England commission providers through a competitive tender process. These providers then employ healthcare professionals who are responsible for treating detainees and responding to emergencies.

    But our research found that the system doesn’t always work as it should. In many cases, the healthcare professionals are not based full-time at custody suites. Instead, one professional may be expected to cover several sites, often dozens of miles apart. It’s not unusual for a healthcare professional to be responsible for multiple suites spread over 50 miles or more.

    That means when someone in custody needs medical attention – say, for prescribed medication – the healthcare professional may not be there. And even if they are, they’re likely to be balancing demands from several locations and having to try to prioritise those people that need attention most urgently. This triage process, while necessary under current conditions, can result in significant and dangerous delays.

    Delays, denials and disbelief

    Delays are often compounded by another issue: distrust.

    Our data – including interviews with healthcare staff, police officers and people with lived experience – showed that many custody staff are deeply sceptical about detainees’ claims regarding their medication. There’s a strong concern that detainees might be seeking drugs or exaggerating their needs, which leads to staff adopting a highly cautious approach.

    In practice, this means that detainees are often made to wait at least six hours before receiving any medication – because they need to wait until they can be sure that any drugs taken before arrest will have metabolised. This practice is aimed at reducing the risk of overdose, but has been criticised by experts, including the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, a charity founded by the Royal College of Physicians. It also paints every detainee as dishonest by default.

    Across interviews and custody logs, research found repeated examples of vulnerable people missing doses of medication – whether for mental health, diabetes, or pain management.
    Andrii Spy_k/Shutterstock

    Even when people bring their own prescribed medicine, officers and staff may refuse to administer it unless it’s in its original box with the full pharmacy label – a condition that many can’t meet, especially if they were arrested suddenly.

    One person we interviewed described being detained while undergoing treatment for cancer. Despite explaining his situation, he was left without his medication.

    I can live with not having food for a couple of hours, but you can’t live with not having your medication when you’re due it … They had to take me to hospital to make sure I was all right.

    His experience was not an outlier. Across interviews and custody logs, we saw repeated examples of vulnerable people missing doses of medication – whether for mental health, diabetes, or pain management – because the system either didn’t believe them or wasn’t equipped to help them in time.

    Closing the care gap

    Based on our findings, we made a series of recommendations to improve healthcare in police custody. Two are critical to ensure that detainees receive timely access to essential medications.

    First, every custody suite should have a dedicated healthcare professional embedded on site. This would significantly reduce delays in treatment, ensuring that detainees are promptly assessed and cared for by qualified clinicians.

    Second, standardise the list of available medications across all providers police custody healthcare. A universal list of approved treatments would ensure consistency and fairness, no matter where someone is detained.

    These recommendations have already been echoed by the Independent Custody Visitors Association and the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Implementing them could make a real difference to people’s safety and dignity during custody.

    Police custody is often a place of crisis. It receives some of society’s most vulnerable people – those experiencing mental illness, substance use issues, homelessness, or poverty.

    These are people who already face barriers to healthcare in daily life. Detention shouldn’t become another one.

    Timely, appropriate, and compassionate care isn’t just something that is nice to have. It’s a human right. And right now, in too many custody suites, that right is being denied.

    Gethin Rees receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

    – ref. From withheld cancer drugs to postcode lotteries in treatment: why people in police custody are missing vital medications – https://theconversation.com/from-withheld-cancer-drugs-to-postcode-lotteries-in-treatment-why-people-in-police-custody-are-missing-vital-medications-255054

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Italy’s Meloni is positioning herself as bridge between EU and Trump – but will it work?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Associate Professor of Critical Cultural & International Studies, Colorado State University

    Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni looks to thread a divide. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently became the first European leader to visit the United States after President Donald Trump announced a new tariff regime on trading partners, including a 20% levy on imports from the European Union.

    While those tariffs are currently on hold, the ongoing threat of them being enacted provided a telling backdrop for Meloni’s mid-April 2025 visit.

    Controversial and often perceived by critics as calculating, Meloni has walked a tightrope between European Union solidarity and embracing far-right causes since becoming Italy’s prime minister in 2022. She was the only European leader to attend Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 and counts tech titan Elon Musk among her allies.

    In many ways, Meloni reflects Europe’s own identity crisis: a regional power with global ambition. Italy, after all, was a founding pillar of the European Union, hosting the signing of the Treaties of Rome in 1957 establishing the European common market. Yet, for decades, Italy has often stood just outside the core of EU influence, overshadowed by the Franco-German partnership.

    Still, when the moment is right, Italy knows how to wield its leverage, especially as a bridge between clashing camps in Brussels.

    In Washington, Meloni made her pitch to Trump: a tighter ideological alliance over shared disdain for “woke” politics, diversity, equity and inclusion agendas, and lax immigration. She offered a sweetener – more Italian investment in the U.S. as a sop to the transatlantic trade dispute. But she also reiterated her and the EU’s support for Ukraine, a direct contrast to Trump’s skepticism to continued U.S. support in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

    In so doing, Meloni has cast herself as someone who can serve both Brussels and Washington without burning bridges on either side. The gamble? That balancing act could backfire. Trump’s demands over trade and increased defense spending by NATO countries force Meloni to choose between appeasing Washington or staying in line with EU norms. Her overtures to Trump risk alienating key European allies who are wary of his disruptive politics.

    In trying to play both sides, she could end up isolated from both – undermining Italy’s credibility and influence on the world stage.

    Italy was a founder member of the European Union, but it is often a third wheel behind Germany and France.
    Simona Granati/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

    Meloni as a bridge

    The story of modern Italy has been one of playing off sides.

    During the Cold War, Italy walked a fine line between NATO commitments and accommodating a powerful domestic Communist Party.

    Italy was regularly governed by a series of often fraught center-right coalitions that were forced to navigate fractious politics and quid pro quo political violence between the far right and far left. The center-right Christian Democrats that dominated this period married conservatism at home with a strong pro-European outlook.

    In the first decades after the Cold War ended, Italy continued to carve out its own lane – pushing for leniency on issues like immigration and fiscal rules. The period saw Italy oscillate between pro-European integration and bouts of euroscepticism, with successive governments frequently challenging Brussels over budgetary constraints or border management.

    Meloni’s own rise is deeply rooted in the post-2015 tensions, when Italy – overwhelmed by the Mediterranean migrant crisis – felt abandoned by its European partners. Her party’s hard-line stance on immigration capitalized on public frustration. While she now presents herself as firmly pro-EU, it’s a version of Europe that aligns with her own vision: more secure borders, stronger national sovereignty and less technocratic interference.

    Ironically, as the bloc itself drifts rightward on migration, Meloni’s positions no longer seem so fringe – perhaps allowing her to embrace the EU pragmatically, even as she critiques it ideologically. Meloni’s own background and rise reflect this ambiguity and duality. Emerging from a political movement with fascist roots, she now presents herself as a passionate Europeanist and pacifist while maintaining right-wing positions on immigration and cultural issues.

    Meloni has governed in that fashion: cultivating ties with conservative heavyweights like Trump and right-wing European leaders, pushing back against Brussels on contentious policy issues, but also remaining firmly committed to the European project when it suits her. Especially when the economy is at stake.

    Meloni as pragmatic European

    Meloni’s strongly nationalist rhetoric and right-wing cultural views might appear at odds with the EU’s purpose, but her approach to the continent is highly pragmatic.

    While she regularly critiques EU bureaucracy at home, her government remains the largest recipient of EU recovery funds, securing €191.5 billion (US$218 billion) from the EU’s post-COVID recovery plan program. That critical cash infusion for an aging country with persistently sluggish growth comes with a commitment to enact a series of stringent fiscal reforms and austerity measures by 2026. In addition, Italy continues to benefit from long-standing cohesion and structural funds, particularly the economically struggling south,.

    Meanwhile, Meloni’s support for Ukraine helps her stand apart from pro-Russia voices in her coalition and strengthens Italy’s standing with NATO and the EU. It’s another strategic move that boosts her credibility both at home and abroad. Far from being a fringe player, Italy under Meloni is central to the EU’s narrative of unity, solidarity and survival.

    A spaghetti Western alliance?

    While Meloni reconciles her nationalist views vis-a-vis the supranationalist EU, she has also prioritized selling her idea of Italy on a bilateral basis.

    That has largely focused on a shrewd charm offensive in the U.S., particularly since the return of Trump, whose right-wing administration provides any easy fit for Meloni. She has attempted to play both Trump and Musk to Italy’s advantage, leveraging Rome’s geopolitical position to secure economic agreements and ease tensions wrought by Trump tariffs, which Meloni called “wrong.”

    Trump has been quick to praise her stance against “anti-woke” politics, while Meloni promises to help resolve trade issues and boost U.S. gas imports, all while keeping Italy at the forefront of negotiations. With Musk, she has attempted to position Italy as a key partner in tech and energy, navigating the global game with both finesse and ambition.

    Italy runs a substantial trade surplus with the U.S. and underspends on NATO defense – two things that typically trigger Trump’s criticism. Yet with Meloni, Trump has been full of admiration: “She’s taken Europe by storm,” he said in April, agreeing during their last meeting to meet again in Rome in the near future.

    Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, has expressed solidarity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
    Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

    Meloni’s diplomatic ambitions extend beyond the U.S., including making moves in the Middle East, particularly with Saudi Arabia. By promoting Italy as a gateway to Europe, she is securing key investments in energy and infrastructure, while boosting Italian exports and increasing her diplomatic leverage. The fact that many in Europe, and indeed Italy, eye such overtures toward Saudi money with distaste, appears neither here nor there. After all, in Italy there has long been an attitude among leaders that “money does not smell” – or “pecunia non olet” as the locals say – a phrase that by legend was uttered by Emperor Vespasian while slapping a tax on public urinals.

    Will all roads lead to Rome?

    While Meloni’s approach of casting Italy as a bridge between the U.S. and Europe may yield some short-term diplomatic gains, it’s nonetheless a delicate path fraught with risk. Cozying up to Washington under Trump, whose policies – especially on trade – have engendered widespread outrage in Europe, risks ruffling feathers in Brussels. Indeed, while Trump praised Meloni’s leadership, and both sides talked trade with no urgency on tariffs, Europe watched warily.

    Trying to navigate between Trump’s protectionist leanings and the EU’s collective trade stance could leave Meloni unable to satisfy either side. Should Trump push for concessions – like shrinking Italy’s trade surplus with the U.S. or increasing defense spending – Meloni may find herself at odds with EU standards and alienating European partners. But leaning too far into EU alignment – and the bloc’s commitment to Ukraine – risks souring her ties with Trump’s camp, potentially weakening her influence across the Atlantic.

    In trying to please both Washington and Brussels, Meloni could end up with enemies on both fronts – and very few wins to show for it.

    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. Italy’s Meloni is positioning herself as bridge between EU and Trump – but will it work? – https://theconversation.com/italys-meloni-is-positioning-herself-as-bridge-between-eu-and-trump-but-will-it-work-254955

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Oshikatsu, the fandom phenomenon Japan hopes can boost its flagging economy

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Fabio Gygi, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, SOAS, University of London

    Posters in Tokyo’s enormous Shinjuku railway station are normally used for advertising commodities like cosmetics and food, as well as new films. But occasionally you may happen across a poster with a birthday message and a picture of a young man, often from a boy band and typically with impeccable looks.

    These posters are created by specialised advertising companies and are paid for by adoring fans. They are part of a phenomenon called oshikatsu, a term coined in recent years that is made from the Japanese words for “push” and “activity”.

    Oshikatsu refers to the efforts fans engage in to support their favourite oshi, which can mean an entertainer, an anime or manga character, or a group they admire and want to “push”.

    A considerable part of this support is economic in nature. Fans attend events and concerts, or buy merchandise such as CDs, posters and other collectables. Other forms of oshikatsu are meant to spread the fame of their idol by sharing content about their oshi, engaging in social media campaigns, and writing fan fiction or drawing fan art.

    A birthday message for Kogun, a South Korean singer trying to make it in Japan, in 2022.
    Fabio Gygi, CC BY-NC-ND

    Oshikatsu developed out of the desire of fans to have a closer link to their idols. The combination of oshi and katsu first appeared on social media networks in 2016 and became widespread as a hashtag on Twitter in 2018. In 2021, oshikatsu was nominated as a candidate for Japan’s word of the year, a sign that its use had become mainstream.

    Now, it has appeared on the radar of corporate Japan. The reason for this is a burst of inflation in recent years, caused by pandemic supply chain disruption and geopolitical shocks, that has caused Japanese consumers to reduce their spending.

    However, with wages set to rise again for the third time in three years, the government is cautiously optimistic that economic growth can be rekindled through consumer-driven spending. Entertainment and media companies are looking to oshikatsu as a potential driver of this, although it is unclear whether the upcoming pay hikes will be sufficient.

    A widespread phenomenon

    Contrary to popular perception, oshikatsu is no longer the purview solely of subcultures or young people. It has made inroads with older age groups in Japan as well.

    According to a 2024 survey by Japanese marketing research company Harumeku, 46% of women aged in their 50s have an oshi that they support financially. Older generations tend to have more money to spend, especially after their own children have finished education.

    Oshikatsu also signifies an interesting reversal in terms of gender. While husbands in the traditional Japanese household are still expected to be breadwinners, in oshikatsu it is more often women who financially support young men.

    How much fans spend on their oshi depends. According to a recent survey by Japanese marketing company CDG and Oshicoco, an advertising agency specialising in oshikatsu, the average amount fans spend on activities related to their oshis is 250,000 yen (about £1,300) annually.

    This contributes an estimated 3.5 trillion yen (£18.8 billion) to the Japanese economy each year, and accounts for 2.1% of Japan’s total annual retail sales.

    Oshikatsu will drive up consumer spending. But I doubt it will have the impact on the Japanese economy that the authorities are hoping for. For the younger fans, the danger is that government approval will kill any kind of cool clout, making oshikatsu less appealing to these people in the long run.

    And if you support an oshi who has not yet made it, you may have a stronger sense that your support matters. Hence some of the spending will go directly to individuals, rather than to established corporate superstars. But it’s also possible that struggling young oshis may spend more of this money than established celebrities.

    Japan hopes that fandom can help revitalise its economy.
    amri48 / Shutterstock

    The international press is focusing either on the economic side of oshikatsu, or on the quirkiness of “obsessive” fans who get second jobs to support their oshi and mothers spending large sums on a man half their age. But what such coverage misses is the slow yet profound societal transformation that oshikatsu is a sign of.

    Research from 2022 on people engaging in oshikatsu makes clear that “fan activities” address a deep wish for connection, validation and belonging. While this could be satisfied by friendship or an intimate partnership, an increasing number of Japanese young adults feel that such relationships are “bothersome”.

    Young men are leading in this category, especially those who do not work as white-collar corporate workers with relatively stable jobs, the so-called salarymen. Many who work part time or in blue-collar jobs are finding it difficult to imagine a future in which they have families.

    The tertiary sector is thus changing to accommodate an increasing number of services that turn intangible things such as friendship, companionship and escapist romance fantasies into paid-for services.

    From non-sexual cuddling to renting a friend for the day or going on a date with a cross-dressing escort, temporary respite from loneliness can be sought on a per-hour basis. As a result, human connection itself is becoming something that can be consumed for a fee.

    On the other hand, sharing oshikatsu activities can create new friendships. Fans coming together to worship their idols collectively is a powerful way of creating new communities. It remains to be seen how these shifts in the way people relate to each other will shape the future of Japan’s economy and society.

    Fabio Gygi 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. Oshikatsu, the fandom phenomenon Japan hopes can boost its flagging economy – https://theconversation.com/oshikatsu-the-fandom-phenomenon-japan-hopes-can-boost-its-flagging-economy-253853

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 50 years later, Vietnam’s environment still bears the scars of war – and signals a dark future for Gaza and Ukraine

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Pamela McElwee, Professor of Human Ecology, Rutgers University

    During the Vietnam War, the U.S. bombed and defoliated vast areas of forest and protective mangroves. AP Photo

    When the Vietnam War finally ended on April 30, 1975, it left behind a landscape scarred with environmental damage. Vast stretches of coastal mangroves, once housing rich stocks of fish and birds, lay in ruins. Forests that had boasted hundreds of species were reduced to dried-out fragments, overgrown with invasive grasses.

    The term “ecocide” had been coined in the late 1960s to describe the U.S. military’s use of herbicides like Agent Orange and incendiary weapons like napalm to battle guerrilla forces that used jungles and marshes for cover.

    Fifty years later, Vietnam’s degraded ecosystems and dioxin-contaminated soils and waters still reflect the long-term ecological consequences of the war. Efforts to restore these damaged landscapes and even to assess the long-term harm have been limited.

    As an environmental scientist and anthropologist who has worked in Vietnam since the 1990s, I find the neglect and slow recovery efforts deeply troubling. Although the war spurred new international treaties aimed at protecting the environment during wartime, these efforts failed to compel post-war restoration for Vietnam. Current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East show these laws and treaties still aren’t effective.

    Agent Orange and daisy cutters

    The U.S. first sent ground troops to Vietnam in March 1965 to support South Vietnam against revolutionary forces and North Vietnamese troops, but the war had been going on for years before then. To fight an elusive enemy operating clandestinely at night and from hideouts deep in swamps and jungles, the U.S. military turned to environmental modification technologies.

    The most well-known of these was Operation Ranch Hand, which sprayed at least 19 million gallons (75 million liters) of herbicides over approximately 6.4 million acres (2.6 million hectares), of South Vietnam. The chemicals fell on forests, and also on rivers, rice paddies and villages, exposing civilians and troops. More than half of that spraying involved the dioxin-contaminated defoliant Agent Orange.

    A U.S. Air Force C-123 flies low along a South Vietnamese highway spraying defoliants on dense jungle growth beside the road to eliminate ambush sites during the Vietnam War.
    AP Photo/Department of Defense

    Herbicides were used to strip the leaf cover from forests, increase visibility along transportation routes and destroy crops suspected of supplying guerrilla forces.

    As news of the damage from these tactics made it back to the U.S., scientists raised concerns about the campaign’s environmental impacts to President Lyndon Johnson, calling for a review of whether the U.S. was intentionally using chemical weapons. American military leaders’ position was that herbicides did not constitute chemical weapons under the Geneva Protocol, which the U.S. had yet to ratify.

    Scientific organizations also initiated studies within Vietnam during the war, finding widespread destruction of mangroves, economic losses of rubber and timber plantations, and harm to lakes and waterways.

    A photo at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, historically known as Saigon, shows the damage at Cần Giờ mangrove forest. The mangrove forest was destroyed by herbicides, bombs and plows.
    Gary Todd/Flickr

    In 1969, evidence linked a chemical in Agent Orange, 2,4,5-T, to birth defects and stillbirths in mice because it contained TCDD, a particularly harmful dioxin. That led to a ban on domestic use and suspension of Agent Orange use by the military in April 1970, with the last mission flown in early 1971.

    Incendiary weapons and the clearing of forests also ravaged rich ecosystems in Vietnam.

    The U.S. Forest Service tested large-scale incineration of jungles by igniting barrels of fuel oil dropped from planes. Particularly feared by civilians was the use of napalm bombs, with more than 400,000 tons of the thickened petroleum used during the war. After these infernos, invasive grasses often took over in hardened, infertile soils.

    Fires from napalm and other incendiary weapons cleared stretches of forest, in some cases scorching the soil so badly that nothing would regrow.
    AP Photo

    “Rome Plows,” massive bulldozers with an armor-fortified cutting blade, could clear 1,000 acres a day. Enormous concussive bombs, known as “daisy cutters”, flattened forests and set off shock waves killing everything within a 3,000-foot (900-meter) radius, down to earthworms in the soil.

    The U.S. also engaged in weather modification through Project Popeye, a secret program from 1967 to 1972 that seeded clouds with silver iodide to prolong the monsoon season in an attempt to cut the flow of fighters and supplies coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam. Congress eventually passed a bipartisan resolution in 1973 urging an international treaty to prohibit the use of weather modification as a weapon of war. That treaty came into effect in 1978.

    The U.S. military contended that all these tactics were operationally successful as a trade of trees for American lives.

    Despite Congress’ concerns, there was little scrutiny of the environmental impacts of U.S. military operations and technologies. Research sites were hard to access, and there was no regular environmental monitoring.

    Recovery efforts have been slow

    After the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese troops on April 30, 1975, the U.S. imposed a trade and economic embargo on all of Vietnam, leaving the country both war-damaged and cash-strapped.

    Vietnamese scientists told me they cobbled together small-scale studies. One found a dramatic drop in bird and mammal diversity in forests. In the A Lưới valley of central Vietnam, 80% of forests subjected to herbicides had not recovered by the early 1980s. Biologists found only 24 bird and five mammal species in those areas, far below normal in unsprayed forests.

    Only a handful of ecosystem restoration projects were attempted, hampered by shoestring budgets. The most notable began in 1978, when foresters began hand-replanting mangroves at the mouth of the Saigon River in Cần Giờ forest, an area that had been completely denuded.

    Mangroves have been replanted in the Cần Giờ Biosphere Reserve near Ho Chi Minh City, but their restoration took decades.
    Tho Nau/Flickr, CC BY

    In inland areas, widespread tree-planting programs in the late 1980s and 1990s finally took root, but they focused on planting exotic trees like acacia, which did not restore the original diversity of the natural forests.

    Chemical cleanup is still underway

    For years, the U.S. also denied responsibility for Agent Orange cleanup, despite the recognition of dioxin-associated illnesses among U.S. veterans and testing that revealed continuing dioxin exposure among potentially tens of thousands of Vietnamese.

    The first remediation agreement between the two countries only occurred in 2006, after persistent advocacy by veterans, scientists and nongovernmental organizations led Congress to appropriate US$3 million for the remediation of the Da Nang airport.

    That project, completed in 2018, treated 150,000 cubic meters of dioxin-laden soil at an eventual cost of over $115 million, paid mostly by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The cleanup required lakes to be drained and contaminated soil, which had seeped more than 9 feet (3 meters) deeper than expected, to be piled and heated to break down the dioxin molecules.

    Large amounts of Agent Orange had been stored at the Da Nang airport during the war and contaminated the soil with dioxin. The cleanup project, including heating contaminated soil to high temperatures, was completed in 2018.
    Richard Nyberg/USAID

    Another major hot spot is the heavily contaminated Biên Hoà airbase, where local residents continue to ingest high levels of dioxin through fish, chicken and ducks.

    Agent Orange barrels were stored at the base, which leaked large amounts of the toxin into soil and water, where it continues to accumulate in animal tissue as it moves up the food chain. Remediation began in 2019; however, further work is at risk with the Trump administration’s near elimination of USAID, leaving it unclear if there will be any American experts in Vietnam in charge of administering this complex project.

    Laws to prevent future ‘ecocide’ are complicated

    While Agent Orange’s health effects have understandably drawn scrutiny, its long-term ecological consequences have not been well studied.

    Current-day scientists have far more options than those 50 years ago, including satellite imagery, which is being used in Ukraine to identify fires, flooding and pollution. However, these tools cannot replace on-the-ground monitoring, which often is restricted or dangerous during wartime.

    The legal situation is similarly complex.

    In 1977, the Geneva Conventions governing conduct during wartime were revised to prohibit “widespread, long term, and severe damage to the natural environment.” A 1980 protocol restricted incendiary weapons. Yet oil fires set by Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991, and recent environmental damage in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and Syria indicate the limits of relying on treaties when there are no strong mechanisms to ensure compliance.

    Remediation work to remove dioxin contamination was just getting started at the former Biên Hoà Air Base in Vietnam when USAID’s staff was dismantled in 2025.
    USAID Vietnam, CC BY-NC

    An international campaign currently underway calls for an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to add ecocide as a fifth prosecutable crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

    Some countries have adopted their own ecocide laws. Vietnam was the first to legally state in its penal code that “Ecocide, destroying the natural environment, whether committed in time of peace or war, constitutes a crime against humanity.” Yet the law has resulted in no prosecutions, despite several large pollution cases.

    Both Russia and Ukraine also have ecocide laws, but these have not prevented harm or held anyone accountable for damage during the ongoing conflict.

    Lessons for the future

    The Vietnam War is a reminder that failure to address ecological consequences, both during war and after, will have long-term effects. What remains in short supply is the political will to ensure that these impacts are neither ignored nor repeated.

    Pamela McElwee receives funding from the Carnegie Corporation, National Science Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

    – ref. 50 years later, Vietnam’s environment still bears the scars of war – and signals a dark future for Gaza and Ukraine – https://theconversation.com/50-years-later-vietnams-environment-still-bears-the-scars-of-war-and-signals-a-dark-future-for-gaza-and-ukraine-254971

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Pierre Poilievre’s ‘More Boots, Less Suits’ election strategy held little appeal to women

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Professor, Political Studies; Director, Canadian Opinion Research Archive, Queen’s University, Ontario

    Pierre Poilievre stands between two workers — no women in sight — in a photo promoting the Conservative Party of Canada’s ‘More Boots, Less Suits’ campaign policies on the party’s website. (The Conservative Party of Canada website)

    Women represent more than 50 per cent of the Canadian population, and there is no easy path to power without their votes.

    The Conservative Party’s gender gap in support has grown in each election since 2011, when Stephen Harper closed it, paving the way to a majority government after two back-to-back minorities.

    In 2025, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s strategy doesn’t appear poised to achieve the same success in terms of closing the gender gap. In fact, his rhetoric and platform both seem aimed at men, particularly younger and working-class demographics.

    Like Donald Trump and other leaders of the populist right, Poilievre’s and the Conservative Party of Canada’s rise in the polls since 2023 has been in part due to strengthening their appeal to working-class voters, particularly men.

    Poilievre has spent much of his time as CPC leader courting blue-collar workers and shifting the party’s agenda to include pro-worker policies. The culmination of this is its “More Boots, Less Suits” plan, a package of promises to boost training and apprenticeship grants, improve access to EI, harmonize health and safety policies and provide tax write-offs for trades people’s travel and subsistence costs for out of town work.

    Male-dominated sectors

    These may be good proposals, but these policies — and the rhetoric in which they were couched during the election campaign — don’t seem to offer much opportunity for the party to close the sizeable gender gap in voter intention.

    The rhetoric is heavily masculine, including the “More Boots, Less Suits” tagline. The policies in the plan appeal to workers in sectors that are heavily male-dominated.

    Women are estimated to represent about five per cent or less of the skilled trades workers that the CPC’s 2025 platform is designed to woo.

    The role of class in how people vote

    Drawing on my forthcoming chapter “Gender, Class and Voting Behaviour” in The Working Class and Politics in Canada (UBC Press), we can examine a simple question: does class affect men and women differently as they decide how to vote?

    The CPC has considerable support among working-class voters, particularly predominantly non-unionized men, but far less support among working-class women, as my chapter shows based on analyses of the 2019 Canadian Election Study.

    This gender difference arises, in part, because there are many more working-class men, according to occupational definitions, than there are working-class women, as noted above in terms of skilled trades.

    Poilievre has made strong sector- and occupation-based appeals in this campaign, invoking the idea of blue-collar versus white-collar workers and campaigning on pro-trades policies.

    There is a second issue beyond the gender-based occupational segregation in blue-collar jobs. Even among working-class voters, the appeal of the Conservative Party is significantly greater among men compared to women.

    The graph below shows the predicted probabilities of a Conservative vote in 2019 for men and women voters grouped by working-class versus non-working class on a scale of zero to one (with control variables for other factors that influence CPC vote such as income, region and partisanship).

    A gender gap is visible in both working-class and non-working class groups, but is largest in the working-class group, with working-class men heavily supporting the Conservatives.

    What about this election?

    We can assess these numbers as probabilities that can help us think through how voters might cast their ballots today.

    What’s the probability they’ll vote Conservative? Based on the statistical analyses of 37,000 respondents to the Canadian Election Study in 2019, this chart tells us that for working-class men, more than one in two might be expected to vote CPC in 2025, which represents a majority preference.

    In contrast, only one in four non-working-class women would. This makes for a big vote gap — a chasm even — as working-class men form the backbone of the party’s voter base.

    Men and women have distinct pathways to supporting Conservatives. But key parts of the Conservative strategy in 2025 limited the party’s potential to appeal to women, even working-class women. “More Boots, Less Suits” offers little to women specifically, or provides them with an opportunity to see themselves reflected in the policy. The broader CPC platform mentions women only four times.

    One mention of women appears in a promise to end intimate partner violence and consider aggravating factors for violence against vulnerable women.
    The other three are in single policy promising to repeal a federal regulation on the rights of gender-diverse federal offenders.



    Read more:
    Pierre Poilievre’s proposals on intimate partner violence will do little to stop it

    There is a widening gender divide in Canadian electoral politics. The Conservative Party’s appeal to working-class men is clear, consistent and electorally meaningful. But this success comes at the cost of deepening the party’s gender gap, and this gap is not merely symbolic, but structural.

    With women comprising more than half of the electorate, the Conservative Party of Canada’s current trajectory risks locking the party into a limited base. The “More Boots, Less Suits” plan may have mobilized one key demographic, but it did so while alienating another the party couldn’t afford to ignore.

    Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

    – ref. Pierre Poilievre’s ‘More Boots, Less Suits’ election strategy held little appeal to women – https://theconversation.com/pierre-poilievres-more-boots-less-suits-election-strategy-held-little-appeal-to-women-255078

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump administration’s attempt to nix the labor rights of thousands of federal workers on ‘national security’ grounds furthers the GOP’s long-held anti-union agenda

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bob Bussel, Professor Emeritus of History and Labor Education, University of Oregon

    Airline passengers wait at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint before boarding to flights in Denver in 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

    As the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal workforce, slash nonmilitary spending and curb opposition to its policies, it is taking steps beyond the firing and furloughing of thousands of government workers.

    The government is also trying to strip hundreds of thousands of federal employees of their right to bargain collectively and have a voice in their conditions of employment.

    Citing “national security” concerns, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 27, 2025, that canceled collective bargaining agreements at more than 30 federal agencies, commissions and programs, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and the Food and Drug Administration. A judge temporarily blocked the order’s enforcement on April 25.

    Over three decades of researching American unions, I’ve never witnessed such a sweeping assault on collective bargaining rights, which give workers represented by unions the ability to negotiate with employers about the terms of their employment.

    But advocates of strong labor rights should have known what might be in store given the labor policies recommended by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. That document, which Trump disavowed on the campaign trail in 2024 but has embraced in practice during his second term, questions whether public-sector unions should exist at all.

    Keeping Americans ‘safe’

    The Trump administration’s broad attack on federal workers’ rights arrived less than three weeks after an earlier, similar action by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

    On March 7, Noem announced that the government was scrapping collective bargaining rights for all Transportation Security Administration workers, eliminating a 2024 agreement. She cited what she called an “irreconcilable conflict” between union representation for those 47,000 federal workers and national security.

    Only a “flexible, at-will” workforce can possess the “organizational agility” needed to “safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe,” she said. Employers may fire “at-will” workers at their discretion with few limitations.

    Noem’s claim that unions and national security aren’t compatible strikes me as disingenuous.

    Unionized workforces have displayed in recent history both patriotism and dedication in their efforts to keep Americans safe. Unionized firefighters, police officers and other first responders rushed to the World Trade Center attempting to rescue those trapped inside on 9/11, for example.

    Similarly, many unionized public-sector workers risked their health during the toxic cleanup that followed the terrorist attacks.

    It is also worth noting that veterans comprise approximately 30% of the federal workforce. Their history of military service attests, I would argue, to their clear record of demonstrating loyalty and patriotism.

    To my eye, the argument that federal workers belonging to unions compromises national security appears to be more rooted in ideology than evidence.

    Demonstrators rally in support of federal workers outside the Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 14, 2025, in Washington.
    AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

    TSA as a case study

    The TSA emerged as part of President George W. Bush’s administration’s response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001; it designated newly hired airport security officers as federal employees.

    At the time, Bush insisted that TSA security officers should not belong to a union. He invoked national security concerns, arguing that union representation would undercut the “culture of urgency” needed to wage the “war on terrorism.”

    TSA employees finally gained collective bargaining rights during the Obama administration when they joined the American Federation of Government Employees in 2011.

    But after joining a union, TSA workers were still paid less than most federal employees. And they still couldn’t appeal disciplinary cases outside of TSA’s authority to the external board used by other federal employees that they viewed as more impartial.

    However, in recent years, TSA workers have obtained wage increases and stronger rights of appeal, along with other advances contained in a 2024
    collective bargaining agreement that the American Federation of Government Employees described as “groundbreaking.” These gains included uniform allowances, greater input on safety concerns and a pledge to examine expanded child care options.

    Now, the union has sued Noem, another Trump administration official and the TSA itself to block the administration’s rollback of these workers’ rights and protect their 2024 contract.

    JFK empowered federal workers

    Federal employees had historically organized unions to advocate and lobby for their interests.

    However, these unions lacked the formal ability to negotiate with the federal government in a collective bargaining process where, as labor scholar Robert Repas has explained, “decisions are made jointly, rather than unilaterally,” or ultimately at managerial discretion.

    Their members did not gain collective bargaining rights until 1962 when President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order making that possible. Kennedy’s action reflected the view that government employees should not be denied basic union rights enjoyed by their private sector counterparts.

    Acknowledging concerns that union rights might limit the ability to exercise centralized command and control, Kennedy’s directive exempted the FBI, CIA and other agencies charged with national security functions from collective bargaining.

    Federal employees covered by the 1962 executive order were also barred from striking. They could not negotiate over wages and benefits; power to make these decisions remained in the hands of Congress.

    In 1978, Congress passed the Civil Service Reform Act, which expanded the right of federal employees to collectively bargain for better working conditions, which its authors said were “in the public interest.” This law created an authority to oversee federal labor relations and established an appeals board to adjudicate worker grievances.

    Although federal employees did not enjoy as many rights as most union members in the private sector, they did gain a stronger voice in determining their working conditions and accessing grievance procedures to address workplace issues and concerns.

    Reagan and the air traffic controllers union

    Three years later, however, President Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike, even though they lacked the right to do so. The Federal Labor Relations Authority subsequently decertified their union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization – known as PATCO.

    The strike’s failure seriously diminished the economic and political leverage of all U.S. unions for years. Membership in private-sector unions has declined sharply, while public-sector union membership remained relatively stable at about 1 in 3 workers. Overall, just under 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union in 2024.

    Besides seriously diminishing the labor movement’s power and influence, the PATCO strike also had important political consequences. In his book about this labor dispute, historian Joseph McCartin wrote that crushing the PATCO strike led the Republican Party “in the direction of an unambiguous antiunionism” and a heightened antipathy toward unions in the public sector.

    Members of PATCO, the air traffic controllers union, hold hands and raise their arms during a strike in 1981.
    Bettmann/Getty Images

    Long-term goal

    The White House’s attack on federal unions represents an attempt to fulfill a longtime ambition of conservative activists.

    Executive orders, which can be rescinded by any president, lack the power of laws.

    But Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, both Republicans, introduced a bill in March that would enshrine Trump’s executive order in law. If that bill were to become law, it would “end federal labor unions and immediately terminate their collective bargaining agreements,” Lee and Blackburn have said.

    Meanwhile, eight House Republicans have asked the president to reverse course on collective bargaining rights, as have all House Democrats. A bipartisan group of senators has made a similar request.

    As the courts make their determinations and political opposition gathers, the American public has, I believe, an important question to answer. Is the spirit of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 – that “labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest” – worth upholding?

    This question warrants careful consideration and scrutiny. How the courts, Congress and the public respond will have enormous consequences for federal workers and the future of the union movement and the state of American democracy.

    Bob Bussel 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 administration’s attempt to nix the labor rights of thousands of federal workers on ‘national security’ grounds furthers the GOP’s long-held anti-union agenda – https://theconversation.com/trump-administrations-attempt-to-nix-the-labor-rights-of-thousands-of-federal-workers-on-national-security-grounds-furthers-the-gops-long-held-anti-union-agenda-252347

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bureaucrats get a bad rap, but they deserve more credit − a sociologist of work explains why

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michel Anteby, Professor of Management and Organizations & Sociology at Questrom School of Business & College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University

    It’s telling that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration wants to fire bureaucrats. In its view, bureaucrats stand for everything that’s wrong with the United States: overregulation, inefficiency and even the nation’s deficit, since they draw salaries from taxpayers.

    But bureaucrats have historically stood for something else entirely. As the sociologist Max Weber argued in his 1921 classic “Economy and Society,” bureaucrats represent a set of critical ideals: upholding expert knowledge, promoting equal treatment and serving others. While they may not live up to those ideals everywhere and every day, the description does ring largely true in democratic societies.

    I know this firsthand, because as a sociologist of work I’ve studied federal, state and local bureaucrats for more than two decades. I’ve watched them oversee the handling of human remains, screen travelers for security threats as well as promote primary and secondary education. And over and over again, I’ve seen bureaucrats stand for Weber’s ideals while conducting their often-hidden work.

    Bureaucrats as experts and equalizers

    Weber defined bureaucrats as people who work within systems governed by rules and procedures aimed at rational action. He emphasized bureaucrats’ reliance on expert training, noting: “The choice is only that between ‘bureaucratisation’ and ‘dilettantism.’” The choice between a bureaucrat and a dilettante to run an army − in his days, like in ours − seems like an obvious one. Weber saw that bureaucrats’ strength lies in their mastery of specialized knowledge.

    I couldn’t agree more. When I studied the procurement of whole body donations for medical research, for example, the state bureaucrats I spoke with were among the most knowledgeable professionals I encountered. Whether directors of anatomical services or chief medical examiners, they knew precisely how to properly secure, handle and transfer human cadavers so physicians could get trained. I felt greatly reassured that they were overseeing the donated bodies of loved ones.

    Weber also described bureaucrats as people who don’t make decisions based on favors. In other forms of rule, he noted, “the ruler is free to grant or withhold clemency” based on “personal preference,” but in bureaucracies, decisions are reached impersonally. By “impersonal,” Weber meant “without hatred or passion” and without “love and enthusiasm.” Put otherwise, the bureaucrats fulfill their work without regard to the person: “Everyone is treated with formal equality.”

    The federal Transportation Security Administration officers who perform their duties to ensure that we all travel safely epitomize this ideal. While interviewing and observing them, I felt grateful to see them not speculate about loving or hating anyone but treating all travelers as potential threats. The standard operating procedures they followed often proved tedious, but they were applied across the board. Doing any favors here would create immense security risks, as the recent Netflix action film “Carry-On” − about an officer blackmailed into allowing a terrorist to board a plane − illustrates.

    Advancing the public’s interests

    Finally, Weber highlighted bureaucrats’ commitment to serving the public. He stressed their tendency to act “in the interests of the welfare of those subjects over whom they rule.” Bureaucrats’ expertise and adherence to impersonal rules are meant to advance the common interest: for young and old, rural and urban dwellers alike, and many more.

    The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff that I partnered with for years at the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth exemplified this ethic. They always impressed me by the huge sense of responsibility they felt toward all state residents. Even when local resources varied, they worked to ensure that all young people in the state − regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity − could thrive. Based on my personal experience, while they didn’t always get everything right, they were consistently committed to serving others.

    Today, bureaucrats are often framed by the administration and its supporters as the root of all problems. Yet if Weber’s insights and my observations are any guide, bureaucrats are also the safeguards that stand between the public and dilettantism, favoritism and selfishness. The overwhelming majority of bureaucrats whom I have studied and worked with deeply care about upholding expertise, treating everyone equally and ensuring the welfare of all.

    Yes, bureaucrats can slow things down and seem inefficient or costly at times. Sure, they can also be co-opted by totalitarian regimes and end up complicit in unimaginable tragedies. But with the right accountability mechanisms, democratic control and sufficient resources for them to perform their tasks, bureaucrats typically uphold critical ideals.

    In an era of growing hostility, it’s key to remember what bureaucrats have long stood for − and, let’s hope, still do.

    Michel Anteby was during a decade a member of the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth and a former Vice-Chair, and then Chair of the Commission.

    – ref. Bureaucrats get a bad rap, but they deserve more credit − a sociologist of work explains why – https://theconversation.com/bureaucrats-get-a-bad-rap-but-they-deserve-more-credit-a-sociologist-of-work-explains-why-253317

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Detroit’s lack of affordable housing pushes families to the edge – and children sometime pay the price

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Meghan Wilson, Assistant Professor of American Politics and Public Policy, Michigan State University

    Some of Detroit’s unhoused population take refuge in abandoned buildings, cars and parks. Adam J. Dewey/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    As outside temperatures dropped to the low- to mid-teens Fahrenheit on Feb. 10, 2025, two children died of carbon monoxide toxicity in a family van parked in a Detroit casino parking garage.

    We are political scientists who study urban and housing public policies, and in the months since this tragedy, we took a deep look at the trends in homelessness and housing policies that foreshadowed the events of that night.

    More kids are experiencing homelessness

    One important trend is that the number of homeless children in the city reached a record high in 2024. This is true even though the overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the city is declining overall.

    According to the Point-in-Time count, 455 children were experiencing homelessness in Detroit on Jan. 31, 2024, up from 312 the year before. The count captures data for one night each year.

    Most of these children were unhoused but considered sheltered because they had a place to sleep in an emergency shelter or transitional housing, or were able to temporarily stay with family or friends.

    Nineteen of the kids were unsheltered – meaning they were sleeping in places not designed for human habitation, like cars, parks or abandoned buildings.

    A different set of data comes from the Detroit Public Schools. The district looked at the entire 2022-2023 school year and found that roughly 1 in 19 students were unhoused at some point during that nine-month period — more than double the number in the 2019-2020 school year.

    A lack of temporary solutions

    The lack of adequate funding and staffing in the city’s shelter system means unhoused people often struggle to access temporary shelter beds.

    That includes kids. Even though the city prioritizes giving beds to the most vulnerable, the number of unsheltered children of school age has nearly tripled in three years, rising from an estimated 48 in the school year beginning in September 2019 to 142 in the school year beginning in September 2022. These figures align with the rise in unsheltered children recorded in the one-night Point-in-Time count, which increased from four in 2016 to 19 in 2024.

    The end of COVID-era funding that prevented many evictions is likely to increase the need for shelter and put additional strain on Detroit’s response to the crisis.

    Gaps in a vital system

    Children who experience housing insecurity are often caught in the middle of bureaucracy and failed regulation.

    The mother of the children who died in February had reached out to the city in November 2024 when they were staying with a family member. The mother noted that she wanted to keep all five of her children together.

    According to a report issued by the city, the Detroit Housing Authority did not follow up with her. Her situation was not considered an emergency at the time of contact since she was sheltered with family.

    At the time of the call, the family was a Category 2: immediate risk of homelessness – in other words, not the highest priority under the emergency shelter grants guideline. If the city had deemed the situation an emergency, protocol would be to dispatch immediate support for the family.

    The mother moved her family to the van after the request for help failed to provide a solution.

    The Detroit mayor’s office admitted that the family fell through the cracks and promised to expand available shelter beds and require homeless outreach employees to visit any unhoused families that call for help.

    “We have to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Deputy Mayor Melia Howard told local media.

    More than 8 in 10 placed on wait list

    According to records from the Coordinated Assessment Model Detroit, the system responsible for connecting individuals to shelters, 82% of calls do not result in immediate help but rather being placed on a shelter waitlist. Similar to instances across the country, the wait time is long.

    Families in Detroit face an average wait of 130 days, while unaccompanied youth typically wait around 50 days.

    The long wait for shelter has contributed to the rise in people living on the streets or in their vehicles. The number of unsheltered individuals — including both adults and children — doubled from 151 in 2015 to 305 in 2024. This trend of increasing unsheltered homelessness contrasts with the overall decline in the total number of homeless people in the city, which is down from a peak of 2,597 in 2015.

    Children need safety and security to thrive.

    Their access to stable housing depends on their parents and what the adults in their life are able to provide. As rents increase in the city, some children are left vulnerable.

    Stricter regulations

    Over the past decade, Detroit, like many other U.S. cities, has experienced rising housing costs while wages fail to keep up, particularly for long-term residents.

    Since 2021, the number of rentals in the city has increased by 51%.

    Rents are also up. Since 2017, the average rent in Detroit has increased 55% for single-family homes and 43% for multifamily homes.

    While inflation and increased maintenance costs contribute to this rise, stricter rental regulations like the heightened enforcement of housing codes, expanded tenant protections and higher compliance cost for landlords have played an important role.

    Some landlords pass the expense of these regulations on to tenants, making housing less affordable. Others leave their properties vacant, pushing up prices by lessening the supply.

    The current average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Detroit is $1,314 per month. For the typical household in the city, this basic shelter cost, not including utilities, makes up 41% of the household income.

    For the lowest-income households, any unexpected expense can disrupt a delicate financial balance and lead to eviction and homelessness. Children in these situations often face major instability, moving between shelters – or, as in the case of the children who died in February, sleeping in cars.

    This kind of displacement disrupts education, strains mental health and increases exposure to danger.

    Detroit’s stricter housing regulations may have improved conditions for some renters, but a report by Outlier Media shows that only 8% of landlords are in compliance, leaving legacy residents in subpar rentals at higher prices.

    And these new rules have victims who are too often ignored until tragedy strikes.

    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. Detroit’s lack of affordable housing pushes families to the edge – and children sometime pay the price – https://theconversation.com/detroits-lack-of-affordable-housing-pushes-families-to-the-edge-and-children-sometime-pay-the-price-251591

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Pope Francis filled the College of Cardinals with a diverse group of men – and they’ll be picking his successor

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

    The Catholic Church’s 115 cardinal-electors take part in a mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on March 12, 2013, ahead of entering the conclave for a papal election. Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Following the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis on Easter Monday, several cardinals who were already in Rome, or who traveled only short distances to arrive, held the first of several meetings – general congregations – to discuss preparations for the papal funeral and the election to follow.

    The College of Cardinals – which will elect the next pope – has 252 members, but only 135 can vote. Only those younger than 80 as of the day of a pope’s death may cast a ballot. Theoretically, church law allows the College of Cardinals to elect any Catholic man in the world to become the next pope – but in reality, as has been the case for more than 600 years, one of those cardinal-electors will almost certainly be Francis’ successor.

    As a specialist on medieval Catholicism and worship, I have studied how the role of cardinals has developed over time and how it has changed in the 20th and 21st centuries.

    How role of cardinals evolved

    During the early centuries of Christianity, three classes of ordained minsters came about to lead and serve Christian communities: bishops, priests and deacons.

    Bishops supervised local church communities and presided at liturgical ceremonies in the main churches – cathedrals. Priests advised the bishops and led individual communities – parishes. Deacons tended to the needs of the poor, widows and orphans and took care of community finances. They also had a special role during some worship services and often acted as the bishop’s secretaries.

    Over time, seven of these deacons in key Roman churches served as special advisers to the bishop of Rome, the pope. They came to be called cardinals, from Latin “cardo” – meaning hinge – and “cardinalis” meaning key or principal. Later popes would choose priests and bishops to be cardinals as well.

    Electing the pope

    In the earlier centuries, popes would be elected by the clergy and people of the city of Rome. As time went on, these elections could be manipulated by local civic leaders, wealthy families and political leaders outside of Rome and Italy.

    It was not until the 11th century that Pope Nicholas II formulated a process for selecting a new pope: election by an assembly of cardinals. However, it was not always possible for all the cardinals – known as the College of Cardinals – to come together, due to age, illness or distance. Those who had to travel long distances might arrive too late to vote.

    In order to avoid continued outside interference, Pope Gregory X in the 13th century adopted a new procedure: the conclave. Cardinals would remain in a locked location – from the Latin cum clave, “with a key” – in isolation from outside influences until the election concluded.

    The rules governing the conclave changed slightly over the years. The leader of the College of Cardinals is called the dean of the college. Over the centuries, his duties have come to include organizing the conclave, assisted by other Vatican officials. The size of the college has also varied over time but has steadily increased despite efforts to limit its size.

    Starting in the 19th century, popes began expanding the size and geography of the college. Once dominated by European and especially Italian cardinals, popes began to choose new cardinals from different areas of the globe. For example, the first cardinals born in North America were named: John McClosky, archbishop of New York, was named cardinal in 1875; James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore in 1886, and Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, archbishop of Quebec, also in 1886.

    The College of Cardinals receives final instructions from the Grand Marshal before adjourning to the Sistine Chapel to begin voting for a new pope in 1922.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    The expansion of the college gathered momentum in the mid-20th century. The first native-born bishops from Asia were named at this time – for example, from China in 1946, Japan and the Philippines in 1960, and Sri Lanka in 1965. The first native-born cardinals of both Mexico and Uruguay were named in 1958, and the first native-born African of modern times, from Tanzania, was named in 1960. Popes continued this trend through the later 20th and early 21st centuries.

    Different visions

    By the time of his death, Francis had named a large number of new, non-European cardinals, especially from the Global South, where Catholicism is expanding. Currently, out of a total of 252 cardinals, 138 are non-European. Importantly, out of a total 135 cardinals eligible to vote, 82 are not from Europe, which makes a record number of non-Europeans eligible to vote.

    In addition, at this conclave, 80% of the cardinal-electors have been named by Francis: that is 108 cardinals out of 135. This is an overwhelming number, representing a wide variety of Catholic communities from several different cultures. A new pope must be elected with a two-thirds majority of the votes: a total of 90 votes. If no candidate receives 90 votes, balloting continues as scheduled.

    As I see it, there are several issues likely to arise and influence the vote for the upcoming election. Some of the cardinal-electors may want to choose a cardinal with more progressive views. But other cardinals, even if chosen by Francis, still might prefer to choose a more conservative candidate, to moderate what they see as the progressive agenda of the past 12 years. Their appointment by Francis doesn’t mean that they automatically agree with all of his ideas.

    In addition, specific issues facing the church will also shape opinions. Perhaps the most important include dealing with the scandal of clergy sexual abuse cases; the role of women in the church; and the treatment of immigrants and other instances of economic and social injustice.

    Catholics around the world will be praying for the Holy Spirit to guide the hearts and minds of the cardinals as they fill out their ballots. Many will hope for a pope as inspiring as his predecessor, one who can face the challenging problems of an increasingly complex world.

    Joanne M. Pierce 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. Pope Francis filled the College of Cardinals with a diverse group of men – and they’ll be picking his successor – https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-filled-the-college-of-cardinals-with-a-diverse-group-of-men-and-theyll-be-picking-his-successor-254976

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Granular systems, such as sandpiles or rockslides, are all around you − new research will help scientists describe how they work

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jacqueline Reber, Associate Professor of Earth, Atmosphere, and Climate, Iowa State University

    Sand is one type of granular system – hundreds of grains act collectively. Nenov/Moment via Getty Images

    Did you eat cereal this morning? Or have you walked on a gravel path? Maybe you had a headache and had to take a pill? If you answered any of these questions with a yes, you interacted with a granular system today.

    Scientists classify any collection of small, hard particles – such as puffed rice, sand grains or pills – as a granular system.

    Even though everyone has interacted with these kinds of systems, describing the physics of how the particles collectively act when they are close together is surprisingly hard.

    Granular systems sometimes move like a fluid. Think of an hourglass where sand, a very typical granular material, flows from one half of the glass to the other. But if you’ve run on a beach, you know that sand can also act like a solid. You can move over it without sinking through the sand.

    As a geologist, I’m interested in understanding when a granular system flows and when it has strength and behaves like a solid. This line of research is very important for many agricultural and industrial applications, such as moving corn kernels or pills in a pipeline or shoot.

    Understanding when a granular system might flow is also essential for geologic hazard assessments. For example, geologists would like to know whether the various boulders making up the slope of a mountain are stable or whether they will move as a rockslide.

    Transferring forces between grains

    To understand the behavior of a granular system, scientists can zoom in and look at the interactions between individual grains. When two particles are in contact with each other, they can transfer forces between each other.

    Imagine this scenario: You have three tennis balls – the grains in this experiment. You place the tennis balls in a row and squeeze the three balls between your hand and a wall, so that your hand presses against the first ball. The last ball is in contact with a wall, but the middle ball is free floating and touches only the other two balls.

    Tennis balls can act as grains in this simple granular system experiment. When you push against the tennis ball on the end, you exert a force, which acts upon the other two balls and eventually the wall.
    Jeremy Randolph-Flagg

    By pushing against the first ball, you have successfully transferred the force from your hand through the row of three tennis balls onto the wall, even though you’ve touched only the first ball.

    Now imagine you have many grains, like in a pile of sand, and all the sand grains are in contact with some neighboring grains. Grains that touch transfer forces between each other. How the forces are distributed in this granular system dictates whether the system is stable and unmoving or if it will move – such as a rockslide or the sand in an hourglass.

    On the left are photoelastic discs used for two-dimensional experiments (9 mm diameter), and on the right are photoelastic grains used for three-dimensional experiments (14 mm diameter).
    Nathan Coon

    Tracking forces in the lab

    This is where my research team comes in. Together with my students, I study how grains interact with each other in the laboratory.

    In our experiments, we can visualize the forces between individual grains in a granular system. While all granular systems have these forces present, we cannot see their distribution because force is invisible in most grains, such as sand or pills. We can see the forces only in some transparent materials.

    To make the forces visible, we made grains using a material that is transparent and has a special property called photoelasticity. When photoelastic materials are illuminated and experience force, they split light into two rays that travel at different speeds.

    This property forms bright, colorful bands in the otherwise transparent material that make the force visible. The brightness of the grains depends on how much force a grain is experiencing, so we can see how the forces are distributed in the granular system. The particles themselves do not emit light, but they change how fast light rays travel through them when they experience force – which makes them appear brighter.

    On side A is a three-dimensional photoelastic grain without force applied, while on side B is the same grain once force is applied. In this case, we just squish the grain from the top and bottom. The brighter green bands start at the top and bottom of the grain where the force is applied and are the result of the photoelastic property.
    Jacqueline Reber

    Scientists before us have used photoelasticity to visualize force in granular materials. These previous experiments, however, have examined only a single layer of grains. We developed a method to see the forces in not just a single layer of grains but throughout a whole heap.

    Observing the forces on the outside of the heap of grains is pretty easy, but seeing how the forces are distributed in the middle of the pile is a lot harder. To see into the middle of the granular system and to illuminate grains there, we used a laser light sheet.

    To generate a laser light sheet, we manipulated a laser beam so that the light spread out into a very narrow sheet.

    With this light sheet, we illuminated one slice throughout the granular system. On this illuminated slice, we could see which grains were transferring forces, similarly to the previous two-dimensional experiments, without having to worry about the third dimension.

    We then collected information from many slices across different parts of the grain heap. We used the information from the individual slices to reconstruct the three-dimensional granular system.

    This technique is similar to how doctors reconstruct three-dimensional shapes of the brain and other organs from the two-dimensional images obtained by a medical CT scanner.

    In 3D photoelastic experiments, the cart system shown at the top left is used to obtain regularly spaced laser light slices of the experiments, with the middle being sliced. The bottom left shows a schematic on how multiple slices can recreate a 3D object. The right shows three consecutive photos that are 0.7 cm apart – roughly one grain’s radius. The bright green crosshatch pattern shows how the forces are distributed between the individual grains.
    Nathan Coon

    In our current experiments, we’ve been using only a small number of grains – 107. This way we can keep track of every individual grain and test whether this method works to see the force distribution in three dimensions. These 107 grains fill a cube-shaped box that is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide, tall and deep.

    So far, the experimental method is working well, and we’ve been able to see how the force is distributed between the 107 grains. Next, we plan to expand the experimental setup to include more grains and explore how the force changes when we agitate the granular system – for example, by bumping it.

    This new experimental approach opens the door for many more experiments that will help us to better understand granular systems. These systems are all around you, and while they seem so simple, researchers still don’t truly understand how they behave.

    Jacqueline Reber receives funding from the Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Frontier Science Fund.

    – ref. Granular systems, such as sandpiles or rockslides, are all around you − new research will help scientists describe how they work – https://theconversation.com/granular-systems-such-as-sandpiles-or-rockslides-are-all-around-you-new-research-will-help-scientists-describe-how-they-work-251689

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How does soap keep you clean? A chemist explains the science of soap

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Paul E. Richardson, Professor of Biochemistry, Coastal Carolina University

    Be sure to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Mladen Zivkovic/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    How does soap clean our bodies? – Charlie H., age 8, Stamford, Connecticut

    Thousands of years ago, our ancestors discovered something that would clean their bodies and clothes. As the story goes, fat from someone’s meal fell into the leftover ashes of a fire. They were astonished to discover that the blending of fat and ashes formed a material that cleaned things. At the time, it must have seemed like magic.

    That’s the legend, anyway. However it happened, the discovery of soap dates back approximately 5,000 years, to the ancient city of Babylon in what was southern Mesopotamia – today, the country of Iraq.

    As the centuries passed, people around the world began to use soap to clean the things that got dirty. During the 1600s, soap was a common item in the American colonies, often made at home. In 1791, Nicholas Leblanc, a French chemist, patented the first soapmaking process. Today, the world spends about US$50 billion every year on bath, kitchen and laundry soap.

    But although billions of people use soap every day, most of us don’t know how it works. As a professor of chemistry, I can explain the science of soap – and why you should listen to your mom when she tells you to wash up.

    You’ll be amazed at how much work it takes to make a bar of soap.

    The chemistry of clean

    Water – scientific name: dihydrogen monoxide – is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. That molecule is required for all life on our planet.

    Chemists categorize other molecules that are attracted to water as hydrophilic, which means water-loving. Hydrophilic molecules can dissolve in water.

    So if you were to wash your hands under a running faucet without using soap, you’d probably get rid of lots of whatever hydrophilic bits are stuck to your skin.

    But there is another category of molecules that chemists call hydrophobic, which means water-fearing. Hydrophobic molecules do not dissolve in water.

    Oil is an example of something that’s hydrophobic. You probably know from experience that oil and water just don’t mix. Picture shaking up a jar of vinaigrette salad dressing – the oil and the other watery ingredients never stay mixed.

    So just swishing your hands through water isn’t going to get rid of water-fearing molecules such as oil or grease.

    Here’s where soap comes in to save the day.

    Soap, a complex molecule, is both water-loving and water-fearing. Shaped like a tadpole, the soap molecule has a round head and long tail; the head is hydrophilic, and the tail is hydrophobic. This quality is one of the reasons soap is slippery.

    It’s also what gives soap its cleaning superpower.

    The round head and long wiggly tail of the soap molecules work together to eradicate dirt, grease and grime.
    Tumeggy/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

    A microscopic view

    To see what happens when you wash your hands with soap and water, let’s zoom in.

    Picture all the gunk that you touch during the day and that builds up on your skin to make your hands dirty. Maybe there are smears of food, mud from outside, or even sweat and oils from your own skin.

    All of that material is either water-loving or water-fearing on the molecular level. Dirt is a jumbled mess of both. Dust and dead skin cells are hydrophilic; naturally occurring oils are hydrophobic; and environmental debris can be either.

    If you use only water to clean your hands, plenty will be left behind because you’d only remove the water-loving bits that dissolve in water.

    But when you add a bit of soap, it’s a different story, thanks to its simultaneously water-loving and water-fearing properties.

    Soap molecules work together to encapsulate grime within a bubblelike micelle structure.
    TUMEGGY/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

    Soap molecules come together and surround the grime on your hands, forming what’s known as a micelle structure. On a molecular level, it looks almost like a bubble encasing the hydrophobic bit of debris. The water-loving heads of the soap molecules are on the surface, with the water-fearing tails inside the micelle. This structure traps the dirt, and running water washes it all away.

    To get the full effect, wash your hands at the sink for at least 20 seconds. Rubbing your hands together helps force the soap molecules into whatever dirt is there to break it up and envelope it.

    It’s not just dirt

    Along with dirt, your body is covered by microorganisms – bacteria, viruses and fungi. Most are harmless and some even protect you from getting sick. But some microorganisms, known as pathogens, can cause illness and disease.

    Whether liquid or bar, soap gets the job done.
    velvelvel/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    They can also cause you to smell if you haven’t taken a bath in a while. These bacteria break down organic molecules and release stinky fumes.

    Although microorganisms are protected by a barrier – it’s called a membrane – soap and water can disrupt the membrane, causing the microorganism to burst open. The water then washes the remains of the microorganism away, along with the stink.

    To say that soap changed the course of civilization is an understatement. For thousands of years, it’s helped keep billions of people healthy. Think of that the next time Mom or Dad asks you to wash up – which will likely be sometime soon.

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

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Paul E. Richardson receives funding from the NIH and NSF.

    – ref. How does soap keep you clean? A chemist explains the science of soap – https://theconversation.com/how-does-soap-keep-you-clean-a-chemist-explains-the-science-of-soap-247559

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Cancer research in the US is world class because of its broad base of funding − with the government pulling out, its future is uncertain

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jeffrey MacKeigan, Professor of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University

    Without federal support, the lights will turn off in many labs across the country. Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images

    Cancer research in the U.S. doesn’t rely on a single institution or funding stream − it’s a complex ecosystem made up of interdependent parts: academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, federal agencies and private foundations. As a cancer biologist who has worked in each of these sectors over the past three decades, I’ve seen firsthand how each piece supports the others.

    When one falters, the whole system becomes vulnerable.

    The United States has long led the world in cancer research. It has spent more on cancer research than any other country, including more than US$7.2 billion annually through the National Cancer Institute alone. Since the 1971 National Cancer Act, this sustained public investment has helped drive dramatic declines in cancer mortality, with death rates falling by 34% since 1991. In the past five years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved over 100 new cancer drugs, and the U.S. has brought more cancer drugs to the global market than any other nation.

    But that legacy is under threat. Funding delays, political shifts and instability across sectors have created an environment where basic research into the fundamentals of cancer biology is struggling to keep traction and the drug development pipeline is showing signs of stress.

    These disruptions go far beyond uncertainty and have real consequences. Early-career scientists faced with unstable funding and limited job prospects may leave academia altogether. Mid-career researchers often spend more time chasing scarce funding than conducting research. Interrupted research budgets and shifting policy priorities can unravel multiyear collaborations. I, along with many other researchers, believe these setbacks will slow progress, break training pipelines and drain expertise from critical areas of cancer research – delays that ultimately hurt patients waiting for new treatments.

    A 50-year foundation of federal investment

    The modern era of U.S. cancer research began with the signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971. That law dramatically expanded the National Cancer Institute, an agency within the National Institutes of Health focusing on cancer research and education. The NCI laid the groundwork for a robust national infrastructure for cancer science, funding everything from early research in the lab to large-scale clinical trials and supporting the training of a generation of cancer researchers.

    This federal support has driven advances leading to higher survival rates and the transformation of some cancers into a manageable chronic or curable condition. Progress in screening, diagnostics and targeted therapies – and the patients who have benefited from them – owe much to decades of NIH support.

    The Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars of biomedical research funding.

    But federal funding has always been vulnerable to political headwinds. During the first Trump administration, deep cuts to biomedical science budgets threatened to stall the progress made under initiatives such as the 2016 Cancer Moonshot. The rationale given for these cuts was to slash overall spending, despite facing strong bipartisan opposition in Congress. Lawmakers ultimately rejected the administration’s proposal and instead increased NIH funding. In 2022, the Biden administration worked to relaunch the Cancer Moonshot.

    This uncertainty has worsened in 2025 as the second Trump administration has cut or canceled many NIH grants. Labs that relied on these awards are suddenly facing funding cliffs, forcing them to lay off staff, pause experiments or shutter entirely. Deliberate delays in communication from the Department of Health and Human Services have stalled new NIH grant reviews and funding decisions, putting many promising research proposals already in the pipeline at risk.

    Philanthropy’s support is powerful – but limited

    While federal agencies remain the backbone of cancer research funding, philanthropic organizations provide the critical support for breakthroughs – especially for new ideas and riskier projects.

    Groups such as the American Cancer Society, Stand Up To Cancer and major hospital foundations have filled important gaps in support, often funding pilot studies or supporting early-career investigators before they secure federal grants. By supporting bold ideas and providing seed funding, they help launch innovative research that may later attract large-scale support from the NIH.

    Without the bureaucratic constraints of federal agencies, philanthropy is more nimble and flexible. It can move faster to support work in emerging areas, such as immunotherapy and precision oncology. For example, the American Cancer Society grant review process typically takes about four months from submission, while the NIH grant review process takes an average of eight months.

    Ted Kennedy Jr., right, and Jeff Keith raise money for the American Cancer Society in 1984.
    Mikki Ansin/Getty Images

    But philanthropic funds are smaller in scale and often disease-specific. Many foundations are created around a specific cause, such as advancing cures for pancreatic, breast or pediatric cancers. Their urgency to make an impact allows them to fund bold approaches that federal funders may see as too preliminary or speculative. Their giving also fluctuates. For instance, the American Cancer Society awarded nearly $60 million less in research grants in 2020 compared with 2019.

    While private foundations are vital partners for cancer research, they cannot replace the scale and consistency of federal funding. Total U.S. philanthropic funding for cancer research is estimated at a few billion dollars per year, spread across hundreds of organizations. In comparison, the federal government has typically contributed roughly five to eight times more than philanthropy to cancer research each year.

    Industry innovation − and its priorities

    Private-sector innovation is essential for translating discoveries into treatments. In 2021, nearly 80% of the roughly $57 billion the U.S. spent on cancer drugs came from pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Many of the treatments used in oncology today, including immunotherapies and targeted therapies, emerged from collaborations between academic labs and industry partners.

    But commercial priorities don’t always align with public health needs. Companies naturally focus on areas with strong financial returns: common cancers, projects that qualify for fast-track regulatory approval, and high-priced drugs. Rare cancers, pediatric cancers and basic science often receive less attention.

    Industry is also saddled with uncertainty. Rising R&D costs, tough regulatory requirements and investor wariness have created a challenging environment to bring new drugs to market. Several biotech startups have folded or downsized in the past year, leaving promising new drugs stranded in limbo in the lab before they can reach clinical trials.

    Without federal or philanthropic entities to pick up the slack, these discoveries may never reach the patients who need them.

    A system under strain

    Cancer is not going away. As the U.S. population ages, the burden of cancer on society will only grow. Disparities in treatment access and outcomes persist across race, income and geography. And factors such as environmental exposures and infectious diseases continue to intersect with cancer risk in new and complex ways.

    Addressing these challenges requires a strong, stable and well-coordinated research system. But that system is under strain. National Cancer Institute grant paylines, or funding cutoffs, remain highly competitive. Early-career researchers face precarious job prospects. Labs are losing technicians and postdoctoral researchers to higher-paying roles in industry or to burnout. And patients, especially those hoping to enroll in clinical trials, face delays, disruptions and dwindling options.

    Researchers have been rallying to protect the future of science in the U.S.
    AP Photo/John McDonnell

    This is not just a funding issue. It’s a coordination issue between the federal government, academia and industry. There are currently no long-term policy solutions that ensure sustained federal investment, foster collaboration between academia and industry, or make room for philanthropy to drive innovation instead of just filling gaps.

    I believe that for the U.S. to remain a global leader in cancer research, it will need to recommit to the model that made success possible: a balanced ecosystem of public funding, private investment and nonprofit support. Up until recently, that meant fully funding the NIH and NCI with predictable, long-term budgets that allow labs to plan for the future; incentivizing partnerships that move discoveries from bench to bedside without compromising academic freedom; supporting career pathways for young scientists so talent doesn’t leave the field; and creating mechanisms for equity to ensure that research includes and benefits all communities.

    Cancer research and science has come a long way, saving about 4.5 million lives in the U.S. from cancer from 1991 to 2022. Today, patients are living longer and better because of decades of hard-won discoveries made by thousands of researchers. But science doesn’t run on good intentions alone. It needs universities. It needs philanthropy. It needs industry. It needs vision. And it requires continued support from the federal government.

    Jeffrey MacKeigan receives funding from NIH National Cancer Institute. He has consulting agreements with Merck and scholarly activity with the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Van Andel Research Institute.

    – ref. Cancer research in the US is world class because of its broad base of funding − with the government pulling out, its future is uncertain – https://theconversation.com/cancer-research-in-the-us-is-world-class-because-of-its-broad-base-of-funding-with-the-government-pulling-out-its-future-is-uncertain-254536

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: We’re throwing the Moomins a birthday party – and you’re invited

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anna Walker, Senior Arts + Culture Editor

    Tove Jansson published her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, 80 years ago, in 1945. The story follows a family of hippo-like creatures called “Moomintrolls”, who become refugees after a flood washes away their home. Written at the end of the second world war, when millions were displaced, it reflects the struggles of rebuilding lives after disaster.

    The official theme of the anniversary is “the door is always open”, reflecting the themes of acceptance, kindness and chosen families that run through Jansson’s books.

    We’re celebrating 80 wonderful years of her magical creatures with a special screening of the 2014 film Moomins on the Riviera and a panel discussion. Come along to the National Science & Media Museum in Bradford on Friday May 23 to watch the film with us and take part in the Q&A with four expert Moominologists about the theme of the refugee experience in Jansson’s work.

    As a City of Sanctuary and home to one of four public art commissions honouring Moomin 80, Bradford is the perfect place to mark this milestone. Tickets include a free ebook of expert articles about Jansson and her Moominous creations.

    We’d love to see you there, so come along and join in the discussion. Readers of The Conversation get an exclusive 25% off the ticket price – you can book them here using the code Moomins25.

    – ref. We’re throwing the Moomins a birthday party – and you’re invited – https://theconversation.com/were-throwing-the-moomins-a-birthday-party-and-youre-invited-248586

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: One in ten patient safety incidents in hospitals due to poor communication – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jeremy Howick, Professor and Director of the Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare, University of Leicester

    Patients’ lives are being put at risk by poor communication from healthcare professionals in hospitals worldwide, according to new research my colleagues and I conducted.

    Our analysis included 46 studies, published between 2013 and 2024, involving over 67,000 patients across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. And the findings are alarming. We discovered that poor communication was the sole cause of patient-safety incidents in over one in ten cases and contributed to causing incidents in one in four cases.

    These aren’t just statistics, they represent real people harmed by preventable errors.

    In one documented case, a doctor accidentally shut off a patient’s Amiodarone drip (a drug to treat heart arrhythmias) while silencing a beeping pump. The doctor failed to tell the nurse, and the patient’s heart rate spiked dangerously.

    In another example, a patient died after a nurse failed to tell a surgeon that the patient was experiencing abdominal pains following surgery and had a low red blood cell count – clear indicators of internal bleeding. The patient later died from a haemorrhage that could have been prevented with adequate communication.

    These findings confirm what many healthcare professionals have long suspected: communication breakdowns directly threaten patient safety. What’s particularly concerning is that these incidents cut across different healthcare systems worldwide.

    The scale of the problem

    In the UK alone, over 1,700 lives are lost annually due to medication errors, and at least 3 million deaths occur due to medication errors worldwide. At least half of these – often resulting from poor communication – are preventable.

    In the US, communication failures contribute to over 60% of all hospital-based adverse events. Experts believe these figures probably underestimate the true extent of the problem as patient safety incidents are often underreported.

    This research fills an important gap in our understanding. While previous studies had established that poor communication was an issue in healthcare settings, this is the first rigorous analysis to quantify precisely how communication lapses affect patient safety.

    My colleagues and I also conducted a separate analysis of just the high-quality studies in the review, which yielded similar results, strengthening the validity of our findings.

    The critical importance of effective communication has been highlighted in major healthcare investigations. Both the Francis and Ockenden Reports in the UK, which examined serious healthcare failures, cited ineffective communication as a cause of unnecessary deaths at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, respectively.

    Further emphasising this point, the UK’s health ombudsman has identified poor communication as a contributing factor in about 48,000 avoidable sepsis deaths each year.

    Inadequate communication doesn’t just make people feel bad in a nonspecific sense, it causes actual harm. Misunderstandings lead to grave medical errors through misdiagnosis, suboptimal treatments and potentially life-threatening complications.

    Hope for improvement

    Despite these sobering findings, we emphasise that communication can be improved through targeted interventions. When healthcare practitioners receive training to communicate with additional empathy toward their patients, their empathic behaviour improves – and so do patient outcomes.

    Similarly, when healthcare professionals are taught to communicate more effectively with colleagues, measurable improvements follow.

    One notable study found that implementing a structured communication protocol in surgical teams reduced adverse events by 23% over a year. Another demonstrated that using standardised handoff procedures between shifts decreased medical errors by nearly 30%.

    These communication interventions often take as little as half a day to implement and are likely to be highly cost-effective. For a relatively small investment in training, healthcare systems could see significant reductions in preventable harm.

    The evidence is in. It’s time for healthcare leaders, educators and policymakers to act. Communication training must become a universal standard – not an optional extra – in safeguarding patient lives.

    Jeremy Howick receives funding from the Stoneygate Trust, and occasionally receives speaking fees for his talks.

    – ref. One in ten patient safety incidents in hospitals due to poor communication – new study – https://theconversation.com/one-in-ten-patient-safety-incidents-in-hospitals-due-to-poor-communication-new-study-252467

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The world’s first museum was curated by a princess. A tour reveals the origins of the zodiac, calculus and writing

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney

    Archeological excavations at the palace grounds in Ur, modern-day Iraq, uncovered Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum. M. Lubinski/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

    Around 2,500 years ago, a princess living in what is now modern-day Iraq collected a number of artefacts, including a statue, a boundary stone and a mace head. The items, which show signs of preservation, date from around 2100 BCE to 600 BCE. This collection, it is generally thought, was the world’s first known “museum”.

    Between Two Rivers, by Oxford scholar Moudhy Al-Rashid, tells the story of ancient Mesopotamia, a period in world history sometimes known as a “forgotten age”.

    While Mesopotamian history is innately fascinating, Al-Rashid also notes its many historical “world firsts”: the first known writing system, the potter’s wheel, the first record of beer production and advances in agriculture.

    Review: Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History – Moudhy Al-Rashid (Hodder Press)

    The first museum

    The world’s first known museum, and its curator, Ennigaldi-Nanna, are among these many firsts. The daughter of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus, Ennigaldi-Nanna was a priestess at the temple of the moon deity, as well as a princess.

    Both Ennigaldi-Nanna and Nabonidus were keenly interested in history. Indeed, Nabonidus’ interest in excavating old temples and describing his findings once saw him described as the “first archaeologist”. This makes these figures well suited as the book’s central focus.

    At its heart, Between Two Rivers is an ode to the power of history. It builds a persuasive case for history writing as a particularly human impulse, and for how lives of people living thousands of years ago can reflect and shape our modern lives in unexpected ways.

    10 museum objects

    The book is organised around the ten items from Ennigaldi-Nanna’s collection. This structural conceit creates a sense of unity, despite the diversity of topics the book covers. Each chapter is focused on one item. For example, an ancient granite mace head introduces a chapter on warfare, violence and death.

    Moudhy Al-Rashid.
    Hachette

    In chapter one, we are introduced to ancient Mesopotamian history. We’re also introduced to the author herself. Al-Rashid punctuates her prose with personal recollections and humour, as well as touching reflections on her experience of motherhood. She is our companion, tour guide and teacher as we navigate this journey into the past, helping the reader feel a personal stake in the scholarly adventure ahead.

    Other chapters explore cuneiform script (the world’s first known writing), cities, leadership, education (including some of the earliest doodles by bored students), early scientific developments and the gods. The final three chapters look at economics, warfare and curator Ennigaldi-Nanna herself.

    The book offers a useful timeline, though pictures of the ten ancient items and a map would have been useful additions.

    Fun historical facts

    The broad range of subjects, periods and people explored in this book results in the inclusion of many dazzling features of Mesopotamian history, rarely considered together. Indeed, there is a plethora of fun historical facts.

    In the chapter on science, Al-Rashid notes the development of the zodiac and a mathematical precursor to modern calculus.

    Five Amarna letters on display at the British Museum.
    Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

    We get a brief overview of the fascinating diplomatic correspondence between New Kingdom Pharaohs and their West Asian vassals, known as the Amarna Letters. There is also the cuneiform tablet referencing the death of Alexander the Great, and an overview of the practice of divination (including an attempted palace coup).

    These highlights from ancient evidence are balanced against frequent commentary from the author. She notes the less glamorous nature of much of it, such as economic texts and legal agreements.

    Indeed, Al-Rashid is careful to note the limits of the evidence used to build this vivid picture of ancient Mesopotamia. She notes the difficulties of learning Sumerian, the world’s first known language, written in the intricate cuneiform script. In her chapter on leadership, she notes that further evidence for powerful women leaders may yet be discovered, while discussing what is currently known of these figures.

    Sumerian, the world’s first known language, was written in cuneiform – like the script on this clay tablet.
    Louvre, photographed by Gary Todd/Flickr

    The author’s transparency and expert handling of evidence puts the reader at ease, while subtly championing the importance of continued studies in this field. This is timely, as the academic field of Mesopotamian history has seen significant cuts in the last decade.

    Rediscovering cultural riches

    Despite the rich cultural legacy of this region, Mesopotamian history is largely unknown in the modern day. While 21st-century audiences are often familiar with the works of Plato, Homer and Virgil, they may struggle to identify Enheduanna – a princess, priestess, and poetess who lived over 4,000 years ago – as the world’s first known author, or Sin-leqe-uninni as the editor of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

    This is likely due to the circumstances around the recovery of the Mesopotamian writing script, cuneiform. This style of writing faded from use around the 1st century CE, and was only re-deciphered in 1857 CE. This meant that for almost two millennia, awareness of the Mesopotamian cultural legacy almost entirely disappeared.

    This modern lack of awareness of Mesopotamian history is slowly changing. Between Two Rivers is part of an emerging trend in the field of Assyriology — the study of the languages, literature, history, laws and sciences of Mesopotamia — for producing accessible works, for non-specialist audiences.

    Between Two Rivers further demonstrates the usefulness of this approach in bringing the riches of the ancient Near East to modern audiences.

    Changing times


    In recent years, we have seen new translations of the famous Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh, and the first volume dedicated to the works of the world’s first known author, Enheduanna.

    There are new books on Mesopotamian religion and the cuneiform script by Irving Finkel, who has been an ambassador for the discipline for many years. Indeed, Al-Rashid notes his influence.

    To write a book like this one, the author needs to have both mastery over the subject material and an engaging style of communication. Al-Rashid excels in both areas. For general audiences, Between Two Rivers is a fascinating, balanced introduction to this complex – and at times elusive – ancient world.

    Louise Pryke 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 world’s first museum was curated by a princess. A tour reveals the origins of the zodiac, calculus and writing – https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-first-museum-was-curated-by-a-princess-a-tour-reveals-the-origins-of-the-zodiac-calculus-and-writing-246876

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: People trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Eike Schneiders, Assistant Professor, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton

    Alexander Supertramp / shutterstock

    People who aren’t legal experts are more willing to rely on legal advice provided by ChatGPT than by real lawyers – at least, when they don’t know which of the two provided the advice. That’s the key finding of our new research, which highlights some important concerns about the way the public increasingly relies on AI-generated content. We also found the public has at least some ability to identify whether the advice came from ChatGPT or a human lawyer.

    AI tools like ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) are making their way into our everyday life. They promise to provide quick answers, generate ideas, diagnose medical symptoms, and even help with legal questions by providing concrete legal advice.

    But LLMs are known to create so-called “hallucinations” – that is, outputs containing inaccurate or nonsensical content. This means there is a real risk associated with people relying on them too much, particularly in high-stakes domains such as law. LLMs tend to present advice confidently, making it difficult for people to distinguish good advice from decisively voiced bad advice.

    We ran three experiments on a total of 288 people. In the first two experiments, participants were given legal advice and asked which they would be willing to act on. When people didn’t know if the advice had come from a lawyer or an AI, we found they were more willing to rely on the AI-generated advice. This means that if an LLM gives legal advice without disclosing its nature, people may take it as fact and prefer it to expert advice by lawyers – possibly without questioning its accuracy.

    Even when participants were told which advice came from a lawyer and which was AI-generated, we found they were willing to follow ChatGPT just as much as the lawyer.

    One reason LLMs may be favoured, as we found in our study, is that they use more complex language. On the other hand, real lawyers tended to use simpler language but use more words in their answers.

    LLMs might voice their advice more confidently than real lawyers.
    apatrimonio / shutterstock

    The third experiment investigated whether participants could distinguish between LLM and lawyer-generated content when the source is not revealed to them. The good news is they can – but not by very much.

    In our task, random guessing would have produced a score of 0.5, while perfect discrimination would have produced a score of 1.0. On average, participants scored 0.59, indicating performance that was slightly better than random guessing, but still relatively weak

    Regulation and AI literacy

    This is a crucial moment for research like ours, as AI-powered systems such as chatbots and LLMs are becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life. Alexa or Google Home can act as a home assistant, while AI-enabled systems can help with complex tasks such as online shopping, summarising legal texts, or generating medical records.

    Yet this comes with significant risks of making potentially life altering decisions that are guided by hallucinated misinformation. In the legal case, AI-generated, hallucinated advice could cause unnecessary complications or even miscarriages of justice.

    That’s why it has never been more important to properly regulate AI. Attempts so far include the EU AI Act, article 50.9 of which states that text-generating AIs should ensure their outputs are “marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated”.

    But this is only part of the solution. We’ll also need to improve AI literacy so that the public is better able to critically assess content. When people are better able to recognise AI they’ll be able to make more informed decisions.

    This means that we need to learn to question the source of advice, understand the capabilities and limitations of AI, and emphasise the use of critical thinking and common sense when interacting with AI-generated content. In practical terms, this means cross-checking important information with trusted sources and including human experts to prevent overreliance on AI-generated information.

    In the case of legal advice, it may be fine to use AI for some initial questions: “What are my options here? What do I need to read up on? Are there any similar cases to mine, or what area of law is this?” But it’s important to verify the advice with a human lawyer long before ending up in court or acting upon anything generated by an LLM.

    AI can be a valuable tool, but we must use it responsibly. By using a two-pronged approach which focuses on regulation and AI literacy, we can harness its benefits while minimising its risks.



    Read more:
    We asked ChatGPT for legal advice – here are five reasons why you shouldn’t

    Eike Schneiders has received prior funding from UKRI’s Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub and Responsible AI UK.

    Joshua Krook has received prior funding from UKRI’s Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub and Responsible AI UK.

    Tina Seabrooke has received prior funding from UKRI’s Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub.

    – ref. People trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer – new study – https://theconversation.com/people-trust-legal-advice-generated-by-chatgpt-more-than-a-lawyer-new-study-252217

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada’s election

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ali Asgary, Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies & Director, CIFAL York, York University, Canada

    A car attack at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver just two days before Canada’s federal election has killed at least 11 people and injured many more.

    The carnage along a street lined with food trucks took place shortly after one of the men vying to become Canada’s prime minister — New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh — attended the event. A shell-shocked Singh observed a moment of silence in Penticton, B.C., during another campaign stop the next day.

    A 30-year-old Vancouver resident has been arrested, but the motivation behind the attack is unknown.

    Vancouver police say the suspect has mental health issues and was known to police prior to the attack. Police also told a news conference there was no indication there was a need for extra policing at the festival, deeming it to have a “low threat level.”

    What goes into making that calculation, and is a public event ever truly low-risk?

    Vancouver police hold a news conference on the SUV attack. (CTV News)

    Difficulties of crowd management

    The Vancouver SUV attack is now classified as a crowd-related or mass gathering type of disaster. There have been cases of public vehicle-ramming attacks in Canada in the past, in particular the 2018 Toronto van attack that left 10 people dead.

    While it’s not yet known whether the Vancouver attack was targeted, there were clearly weaknesses in crowd management for such a large gathering. These types of attacks have been on the increase over the past decade and are now considered one of the prime threats to mass gatherings in public spaces and streets.

    Unfortunately, many mass gathering events do not allocate either sufficient resources or time for crowd management procedures, particularly those related to risk and emergency management.

    Organizing mass gathering events in public spaces should factor in different threats, including the potential for car ramming, and implement effective mitigation and preparedness measures.

    ‘Soft targets’

    Many public spaces where these events take place are vulnerable to car attacks. Evidence shows that mass gatherings are soft targets, meaning they’re easily accessible to large numbers of people and have limited security, protective and warning measures in place. Extreme precautions are needed to protect the public from such attacks so that they don’t become mass casualty events.

    Those in attendance should be aware that public spaces generally lack physical barriers, or the proper distribution of them, to resist car or vehicle attacks.

    While public awareness programs exist for other hazards such as flooding, earthquakes and extreme weather events, it’s now clear that such awareness and education are needed for mass public gatherings too.

    Police should be aware that relying on limited surveillance may not be sufficient to identify such threats at the scene. Vehicle access and traffic control should be in place throughout such events. Lack of warning systems to quickly inform the crowd about an ongoing attack further increases the impacts of vehicular attacks.

    Much of the focus on these types of events has been on the motivations of the attackers. Since a considerable number of vehicle-ramming attacks have been attributed to terrorism, communities or events with the perception of lower terrorism threats may not pay close enough attention to this type of threat.



    Read more:
    Toronto’s most recent car attack was a targeted crime, not a mass attack

    Impact on the election?

    Canadians aren’t likely to get many more details about the Vancouver attack until after voting day on Monday. Could the tragedy have an impact on the outcome of the federal election?

    Past and recent studies have drawn different conclusions about the impact of disasters on election results.

    According to what’s known as retrospective voting theory, voters judge governments on how they manage disasters, particularly highly publicized, tragic events, when casting their ballots. Voters can evaluate governments based on their handling of the disaster and the amount of effort they have put into minimizing risk.

    Some studies have found that local governments were rewarded after disaster events, including Calgary after the 2013 floods, several Italian municipal governments after earthquakes, local government officials in Brazil amid municipal drought declarations and civic elections in Japan after earthquakes, tsunamis and floods.



    Read more:
    Why Canada needs to dramatically update how it prepares for and manages emergencies

    Voters can and do punish or reward governments and elected politicians based on the effects of recent disasters on them and governments’ responses to them.

    But given how soon the Canadian election is being held after the disaster occurred — and the record number of voters who have already cast their ballots in advance polls — this tragedy isn’t likely to have a substantial impact.

    Hopefully, however, it will have an influence on how organizers, police and other authorities manage public crowds and events at a time when vehicle-ramming attacks are becoming a recurrent threat. Those elected this election should prioritize efforts to ensure communities can have safer mass gathering events.

    Ali Asgary 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. Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada’s election – https://theconversation.com/vancouver-suv-attack-exposes-crowd-management-falldowns-and-casts-a-pall-on-canadas-election-255395

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why seniors’ care should have been on the election agenda

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Pat Armstrong, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, York University, Canada

    I was hopeful that when the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the plight of senior citizens, the attention might result in meaningful change. Instead, seniors seem to be getting blamed for high costs and high living.

    Let me set some context. The Canada Health Act is a remarkable document. It is simple and clear. Provinces must adhere to the principles of universal, reasonable access to comprehensive hospital and doctor care throughout Canada, without charge for medically necessary care and with funding from a publicly administered, non-profit health insurance plan.

    Those with a health-care card can go to any hospital or doctor and do not have to worry about health-care bankruptcy or losing health-care coverage if they change jobs or travel across Canada. Because the rich use the same beds as everyone else, they have a vested interest in all beds being high quality.

    A good start with good principles

    The CHA and the public insurance programs that preceded it dramatically improved access to quality care, quality jobs and — not incidentally in these times — it promoted solidarity across ages, classes and genders through what became Canada’s best loved social program.

    Of course, it was not perfect or perfectly equitable, but it was a good start with good principles.

    However, there are three basic problems with it. First, it was supposed to be the first step towards a system that covered home care, long-term care, eye, dental and pharmaceutical care, but it stalled there until very recently. Second, the principles depended on the federal government using its spending power for enforcement. And third, it failed to prohibit for-profit services being paid public money or doctors from operating in private practices.

    So when the federal government started tinkering with funding, changing from providing cash to match half provincial costs and instead offering provinces tax room, that made both federal contributions and provincial spending harder to track. When Ottawa then failed to keep up funding, provinces and territories started defining hospital and doctor care more and more narrowly, moving care out of the hospitals where the principles no longer applied.

    Increasingly, more necessary care had user fees or lacked public financial support. More of it was for-profit; more of it provided lower quality jobs and lower quality care, undermining solidarity in the process. This is especially the case for seniors, whose care needs are increasingly defined as chronic rather than acute and therefore not requiring hospital care. Racialized and immigrant older women are especially likely to have low incomes, making them unable to buy care.

    Seniors’ election issues

    Which brings me to this federal election and seniors, and to issues that are being swamped by a focus on assembling cars and making tax cuts.

    There are gaping holes in access to care at home and in long-term care as well as to hospital care and primary care services. And equally important, there is less access to good jobs providing this care.

    We hear a lot about how care at home is everyone’s first choice, but staying at home often requires skilled care, special facilities and support for things like food, cleaning and maintenance, as well as help with dressing and walking. Too often, what we mean by care at home is 24/7 care by female relatives, untrained and unpaid for the work, too often doing so to the detriment of their own health and economic future.

    Too often it is about shifting costs and labour to families and individuals, not about choice or overall cost savings. Too often there is no choice.

    There has been new federal money for health care, a significant amount of which is unconditional and thus available for home care. But we have seen little effective expansion.

    The recently appointed Health Workforce Canada seems primarily focused on getting better data and more migrants to provide care, rather than improving the conditions of work that are vital to attracting and keeping the staff.

    If we are serious about home as the place to be, we need to provide the public support for the option, support that needs to go well beyond a few more temporary work permits for care providers.

    Although remaining at home is many people’s first choice, people in long-term care say the benefits include feeling safe, there is company, there are activities, and women especially say there is someone to clean the bathroom and make the meals.
    (Shutterstock)

    Nursing homes

    Which takes me to nursing homes. At the same time as home care is talked about as the first choice, nursing homes are presented as the last and worst choice. We forget though that many people do not have homes, many homes are unsafe physically and/or in terms of abuse, many homes are isolating, and many people have 24-hour extensive care needs that cannot be accommodated in a private home.

    When we ask residents about whether there is anything better about nursing homes compared to their private home, many say yes; they feel safe, there is company, there are activities, and women especially say there is someone to clean the bathroom and make the meals. Of course, we can and should make nursing homes better for people to live, work and visit in them, but we can’t forget that we need them and significantly more of them as well as more people to work in them.

    The federal government did fund the development of new standards for nursing homes but then it has done little with those standards. We need more beds, more staff and enforced standards. As with hospital care, the federal government could use its spending power to play a critical role, doing so through the promised safe long-term care act.

    And we need more community care clinics providing the full range of services. Here too the federal government has signed some targeted funding agreements but we need more and we need to severely limit private practice that contributes to fragmented care.

    Care vs. profit

    And in all these areas, we need to ensure the money goes to care rather than to profit.

    Of course good and fair health care costs money. But we have to remember that investments in care are an investment in the economy, in equity and in solidarity. The money does not go into a hole. It circulates in the economy. And investments in providing good conditions of work can save money at the same time as they promote care, given that the conditions of work are the conditions of care.

    We need to put senior care back on the agenda in the aftermath of this election.

    Pat Armstrong receives funding from SSHRC

    I am a Board member of the Canadian Health Coalition and a member of the economic subgroup of the Ottawa Council on Aging

    – ref. Why seniors’ care should have been on the election agenda – https://theconversation.com/why-seniors-care-should-have-been-on-the-election-agenda-255220

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Social media influencers blur the lines between political content and campaigning, potentially affecting elections

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Louise Stahl, PhD candidate, Communication, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

    Online influencers sharing political content can fall into an unregulated grey zone. (Shutterstock)

    Political commentary occurs regularly on social media. From politicians and parties promoting their platforms to journalists sharing day-to-day news and everyday people sharing their thoughts, there is no shortage of online content commenting on what governments are doing, aren’t doing and should be doing.

    A recent development has been the rise in online content creators, which has become a profession in and of itself. And social media influencers — those content creators who have developed a brand persona around their popular social media accounts — have plenty to say when it comes to politics. They promote politicians, encourage voting, comment on social issues and share political news. They can also be involved in disinformation and foreign interference campaigns.

    Our recent report, Influencers and Elections: The many roles that content creators play in elections, looks at the blurred lines between influencers and advertisers, celebrity endorsers, campaign volunteers, media outlets, data brokers, journalists and lobbyists, and the impact this can have on election outcomes.

    Social media influencers discuss their political views on CBC News.

    Influencing politics

    Influencers play multiple roles in the political communication ecosystem, acting in ways similar to celebrities, journalists, advertisers, activists and others.

    Influencers might be paid for the content or endorse political campaigns voluntarily. Some interview politicians or produce their own commentary. And others express political views independently, without any formal political ties.

    These increasingly blurred lines make it challenging to distinguish between genuine support, co-ordinated marketing or reliable news sources. It also makes it harder for voters to evaluate the credibility and intent behind political messages — which makes it harder for policymakers to regulate it.

    Influencers are increasingly integral to election campaign strategies. Political campaigns work with influencers to reach audiences traditional media often misses, or to target specific groups with tailored messaging. And influencers’ deep understanding of social media platforms enable them to create content that can spread quickly and effectively, maximizing reach and engagement.

    Influencers can act as advertisers who are paid to promote politicians or parties, celebrity endorsers donating their time and reach to campaigns or campaign volunteers sharing content online. Unlike traditional advertisements and celebrities, influencers have more interactive and intimate relationships with their audiences.

    Influencers are invested in appearing authentic, reliable and relatable while also projecting aspirational lifestyles. This makes them particularly persuasive, and their content perceived as genuine and independent, even if it has been paid for or co-ordinated.

    Influencers’ ability to move between personal expression and strategic campaigns makes them extremely powerful. At the same time, they are difficult to regulate or hold accountable. The multiple roles they play, and the flexibility they have in shifting from one role to another, allow them to evade the traditional categories that regulation depends on.

    For instance, it is often difficult to distinguish between authentic support and paid sponsorship. Influencers may endorse a politician because they genuinely support them or as part of a formal campaign. Influencers may be paid to share particular messages or negotiate informal arrangements involving perks like access to exclusive events. Because they do not always disclose these ties, this content can often go unregulated.

    While Canadian election laws are clear that paid advertisement spending needs to be reported, other forms of compensation and co-ordination do not require disclosure. This means that social media users may find it difficult to tell when an influencer’s support is authentic, part of a co-ordinated effort, or sponsored in some way.

    Influencers and journalism

    Influencers have also become central to sharing news, performing a role previously reserved for journalists. Influencers conduct interviews and provide updates and commentary. Research shows that users — especially younger ones — pay more attention to online influencers and celebrities for news than they do traditional news sources.

    In Canada, this trend may have accelerated after the implementation of the Online News Act in 2023, which led Meta to restrict news access on Instagram and Facebook. News influencers are filling this gap.

    Unlike professional journalists, many influencers operate without journalistic training, professional standards, editorial oversight or accountability measures. As such, some become unintentionally involved in the spread of disinformation. Others have been co-opted into disinformation campaigns, which see influencers as a path to plausible deniability, as their content can be presented as opinion rather than a co-ordinated effort.

    While online influencers adapt to these overlapping roles, many politicians and journalists are adopting strategies similar to those of influencers: building personal brands, cultivating authenticity and fostering relationships with their audiences.

    This scenario makes the boundaries between political entities and content creators even more difficult to define.

    Younger people pay more attention to online influencers and celebrities for news than they do traditional news sources.
    (Shutterstock)

    Understanding influencer

    From endorsing candidates to shaping political narratives and mimicking reporters, influencers play multiple political roles in Canada.

    What is organic political support and what is co-ordinated marketing? Who is doing independent political reporting and who is spreading disguised propaganda? And who is being paid? These questions need to be answered to know how to interpret influencers’ content — and how to apply rules around transparency, advertising and political speech.

    Currently, media literacy strategies revolve around teaching users how to find trusted sources, gather information from a range of sources and question how content reaches them.

    When it comes to political information shared by influencers, this means asking whether the influencer is sponsored or collaborating with some political entity. It means considering whether they talk about how they source and verify their information. It also means not relying on a single or small group of influencers who share the same ideas within a given online community.

    Regulating influencers

    Current regulatory frameworks are not equipped to handle influencer political content and its possible effects on elections. Election laws were designed around clear professional categories, media-centric advertising and centralized communication environments. This is no longer the information ecosystem that we exist in.

    The lack of clear definitions and regulatory blind spots creates loopholes that political campaigns can exploit to evade ad transparency and spending laws. Meanwhile, policymakers struggle to find the balance between regulating political advertising via influencers and guaranteeing their freedom of expression.

    Canada’s regulatory framework has to evolve, including clear definitions of political content and advertising, as well as disclosure requirements for paid or co-ordinated political message.

    Elizabeth Dubois receives funding from SSHRC and the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue, University of Ottawa.

    Michelle Bartleman receives funding from SSHRC.

    Louise Stahl 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. Social media influencers blur the lines between political content and campaigning, potentially affecting elections – https://theconversation.com/social-media-influencers-blur-the-lines-between-political-content-and-campaigning-potentially-affecting-elections-255382

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –