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  • MIL-OSI Global: Christian Zionism hasn’t always been a conservative evangelical creed – churches’ views of Israel have evolved over decades

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Shalom Goldman, Professor of Religion, Middlebury

    Participants in a ‘United for Israel’ march, led by The Pursuit NW Christian Church, stand on the University of Washington’s campus in May 2024. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

    During confirmation hearings, Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Israel, told senators that he would “respect and represent the President,” not his own views. But the Baptist minister’s views on the Middle East – and their religious roots – came through.

    “The spiritual connections between your church, mine, many churches in America, Jewish congregations, to the state of Israel is because we ultimately are people of the book,” he said on March 25, 2025, in response to a question from a senator. “We believe the Bible, and therefore that connection is not geopolitical. It is also spiritual.”

    Huckabee is one of the GOP’s most prominent “Christian Zionists” – a phrase often associated with conservative evangelicals’ support for Israel.

    But Christian Zionism is much older than the 1980s alliance between the Republican Party and the religious right. American Christian attitudes toward the idea of a Jewish state have been evolving and changing dramatically since long before Israel’s creation.

    Theologians for Israel

    Zionism’s modern form emerged in the late 19th century. Its declared aim was to create a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine, then under control of the Ottoman Empire. This was the land from which Jews were exiled in antiquity.

    The “founding father” of the modern movement was Theodore Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish intellectual and activist who convened the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. While most of the 200 attendees were Jews from various parts of the world, there were also prominent Protestant Christian leaders in attendance: church leaders and philanthropists who supported “the restoration of the Jews to their land.” Herzl dubbed these allies “Christian Zionists.”

    Most delegates at the first Zionist Congress were Jewish, but the gathering also included Christians.
    Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Catholic leaders, however, were not among the supporters of a Jewish state. The prospect of a Jewish state in the Christian Holy Land challenged the church’s view of Judaism as a religion whose people were condemned to permanent exile as punishment for rejecting Christ.

    Eventually, in the wake of the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel, attitudes shifted. In 1965, reforms at the Vatican II council signaled a radical change for the better in Catholic-Jewish relations.

    But it would be three decades until that change was reflected in the Vatican’s diplomatic recognition of the Jewish state.

    In contrast, Protestants were more open to Jews’ aspiration to return. In 1917, the British foreign secretary published the Balfour Declaration, announcing government support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” With the British victory over the Ottoman Empire, the area soon fell under British control in the form of the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine.

    In the U.S., the idea elicited enthusiasm among conservative Christians who hoped that the Jews’ return to Israel would help hasten the end times, when they believed Christ would return. Within a few years, Congress endorsed the Balfour Declaration.

    Pastor W. Fuller Gooch summed up the evangelical reaction to the Balfour Declaration: “Palestine is for the Jews. The most striking ‘Sign of the Times’ is the proposal to give Palestine to the Jews once more. They have long desired the land, though as yet unrepentant of the terrible crime which led to their expulsion.” This “terrible crime” refers to Jews’ rejection of Jesus – one of multiple anti-Jewish tropes in the sermon.

    Pivotal moment

    Two decades later, prominent American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr declared himself a supporter of political Zionism. Unlike evangelicals, Niebuhr’s support for a Jewish state was based on pragmatic grounds: Considering the dangerous situation in 1930s Europe, he argued, Jews needed a state in order to be safe.

    A 1963 photo of Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most influential theologians from the U.S.
    AP Photo

    In the early 1940s, Niebuhr wrote a series of articles titled “Jews After the War” for The Nation magazine. His biographer Richard W. Fox called these articles “an eloquent statement of the Zionist case: The Jews had rights not just as individuals, but as a people, and they deserved not just a homeland, but a homeland in Palestine.”

    Thus, in the 1930s and ‘40s, two different types of American Christian Zionism emerged. Some liberal Protestants, while giving qualified support to Zionism, expressed concern for the fate of the Palestinian Arabs. Conservative evangelicals, on the other hand, tended to be more hostile to Arab political aspirations.

    In 1947, on the eve of the United Nations’ vote on the partition of Palestine, Niebuhr and six other prominent American intellectuals wrote a long letter to The New York Times, arguing that a Jewish state in the Middle East would serve American interests. “Politically, we would like to see the lands of the Middle East practice democracy as we do here,” they wrote. “Thus far there is only one vanguard of progress and modernization in the Middle East, and that is Jewish Palestine.”

    In 1948, the U.S. government, at President Harry Truman’s direction, granted the newly declared state of Israel diplomatic recognition, over the objections of State Department officials.

    There were, of course, prominent Americans who objected to recognizing Israel, or to embracing it so strongly. Among them was journalist Dorothy Thompson, who had turned against the Zionist cause after a Jewish militant group bombed Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1946. These opponents made the case for supporting emerging Arab nationalism and Palestinian autonomy and asserted that recognizing Israel would deepen America’s entanglement in the unfolding Middle Eastern conflicts.

    But by the late 1950s and ‘60s, American criticism of Israel was increasingly muted. Liberal Christians, in particular, viewed it as a beleaguered democratic state and ally.

    Rightward shift

    Conservative Christian Zionists, meanwhile, continued to often view “love of Israel” through a biblical lens.

    In the late ’60s, the American journal Christianity Today published an article by editor Nelson Bell, father-in-law of famous evangelist Billy Graham. Jewish control of Jerusalem inspires “renewed faith in the accuracy and validity of the Bible,” Bell wrote.

    Rev. Jerry Falwell, on the right, listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech to a conservative Christian group in Washington in 1998.
    William Philpott/AFP via Getty Images

    Fifteen years later, televangelist Jerry Falwell told an interviewer that Jewish people have both a theological and historical “right to the land.” He added, “I am personally a Zionist, having gained that perspective from my belief in Old Testament scriptures.”

    These Christians, like some Jewish religious Zionists, saw “the hand of God” in Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War of 1967. They considered any territorial compromise with Arab states and the Palestinians to be an act against God.

    During the 1980s, as the Republican Party forged alliances with the emerging religious right, Israel would become a core cause for the GOP. Some liberal Jews who supported Israel grew alarmed by these ties and by the rightward shift in Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

    Yet this brand of Christian Zionism is clearly the forerunner to today’s – and holds sway in Washington. Today, 83% of Republicans view Israel favorably, compared with 33% of Democrats. Republicans in Congress are pushing to use the biblical terms “Judea and Samaria” instead of “the West Bank.” Evangelical Christian Zionists continue to call for support of the Israeli right and of settlers in the occupied territories.

    And in Huckabee, they see a potential ambassador who shares their views.

    In 2009, when Huckabee was considering a presidential campaign, he visited Israel and met with settler leaders. On hearing of Huckabee’s presidential aspirations, a rabbi said, “We hope that under Mike Huckabee’s presidency, he will be like Cyrus and push us to rebuild the Temple and bring the final redemption.” The rabbi was referring to the biblical story of Cyrus, King of Persia, and his proclamation that the exiled Jews be allowed to return to Zion.

    Seven decades after the state of Israel’s founding, evangelical Christian Zionism’s influence is greater than ever. This turn to the political right is very far from the mid-20th century Zionism of Truman, Niebuhr and the Democratic Party.

    Shalom Goldman 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. Christian Zionism hasn’t always been a conservative evangelical creed – churches’ views of Israel have evolved over decades – https://theconversation.com/christian-zionism-hasnt-always-been-a-conservative-evangelical-creed-churches-views-of-israel-have-evolved-over-decades-249314

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Research shows that a majority of Christian religious leaders accept the reality of climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stylianos Syropoulos, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University

    A multi-faith assembly of religious leaders and lay people in Manhattan in 2023 protest investments in fossil fuel. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

    Nearly 90% of U.S. Christian religious leaders believe humans are driving climate change. When churchgoers learn how widespread this belief is, they report taking steps to reduce its effects, as we found in our research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    We examined data collected in 2023 and 2024 from a nationwide survey of 1,600 religious leaders in the United States. The sample included religious leaders from fundamentalist and evangelical churches, Baptists, Methodists, Black protestants, Roman Catholic denominations and more – all recruited to match the proportions of churches across the country. The survey assessed religious leaders’ beliefs about climate change and whether they discuss climate change with their congregations.

    According to that data, while the overwhelming majority of Christian religious leaders accept the human-driven reality of climate change, nearly half have never mentioned climate change or humans’ role in it to their congregations. Further, only a quarter have spoken about it more than once or twice.

    Why it matters

    When it comes to climate change, faith communities are often seen as divided. There is an assumption that religious conservatism and climate skepticism go hand in hand. This assumption is based on religious beliefs such as that the Earth was created by God and therefore humans cannot and should not alter it, along with rejection of climate science and diminished concern about climate change.

    We then surveyed a sample of Christian Americans from major denominations across the country and found they think roughly half of Christian leaders in the U.S., and in churches like their own, deny that humans cause climate change. Given the actual number is closer to 1 in 10 based on the data we examined, it appears Christians overestimate the prevalence of climate denial among their leaders by around five times the level found in polling.

    Churchgoers who think their religious leaders don’t believe humans cause climate change report being less likely to discuss it with fellow congregants and less interested in attending events that aim to address climate change or raise awareness of the issue.

    The research also tested what would happen if we informed churchgoers of the true level of consensus among their religious leaders who accept that climate change is driven by humans. In a brief survey, Christians were told the percentage of Christian leaders nationally, and among their denomination specifically, who accepted that human activities cause climate change. As a result, we found, their perceptions and attitudes toward climate change shifted in a variety of ways.

    Specifically, churchgoers who were informed about the actual consensus among religious leaders in accepting climate change were more likely to state that “taking action to reduce climate change” was consistent with their church’s values.

    Churchgoers who received this information were also more likely to feel it would be inconsistent with their church’s values to vote for a political candidate who opposes actions that could slow climate change.

    These findings highlight that religious leaders have a unique power to influence climate action – but only if they let their beliefs be known.

    Religious leaders have a unique power to influence climate action.
    Mascot/Digital Vision via Getty Images

    What’s next

    These findings are not focusing on what is going on in specific churches and denominations. We provided churchgoers only with information on the consensus of acceptance of human-made climate change among Christian religious leaders across the U.S. A natural next step is to conduct research with religious leaders to examine the impact of their communication directly with their congregations, including if they convey the consensus described in this work.

    Religious leaders, often viewed as moral guides, have the ability to reshape climate discourse within faith communities. If they vocalize their acceptance of human-made climate change, we believe they can correct widespread misperceptions, foster dialogue and encourage action in ways that secular authorities may struggle to achieve.

    The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

    Stylianos Syropoulos is affiliated with DearTomorrow, the See Change Institute, the Applied Cooperation Initiative and Think Beyond The Pump.

    Gregg Sparkman receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    – ref. Research shows that a majority of Christian religious leaders accept the reality of climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations – https://theconversation.com/research-shows-that-a-majority-of-christian-religious-leaders-accept-the-reality-of-climate-change-but-have-never-mentioned-it-to-their-congregations-253303

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 23andMe is potentially selling more than just genetic data – the personal survey info it collected is just as much a privacy problem

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kayte Spector-Bagdady, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan

    For companies like 23andMe, consumers are as much the product as the DNA test kits. Veronika Oliinyk/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    As soon as the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on March 23, 2025, concerns about what would happen to the personal information contained in its massive genetic and health information database were swift and widespread. A few days after, a U.S. judge ruled that the company could sell its consumer data as part of the bankruptcy.

    The attorneys general of several states warned their citizens to delete their genetic data. California urged its citizens to request that 23andMe delete their data and destroy their spit samples. Michigan’s attorney general released a statement warning that “23andMe collects and stores some of the most sensitive personal information, our genetic code.”

    When customers originally signed up for 23andMe, they agreed to terms and conditions and a privacy notice that allows the company to use their information for research and development as well as share their data, in aggregate, with third parties. If consumers consented to additional research, which the vast majority did, the company can additionally share their individual information with third parties. 23andMe has also been clear that if it is involved in a bankruptcy or sale of assets, consumer information might be sold or transferred.

    While 23andMe has warned customers all along about everything that is currently happening, many are still surprised and concerned.

    I’m a lawyer and bioethicist who has been studying direct-to-consumer genetic testing for almost a decade. Understanding what information 23andMe has been collecting, and how it might be used if sold or shared, can help clarify concerns for consumers.

    What is 23andMe?

    In 2007, 23andMe, named after the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in a human cell, was one of the first direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies to open in the United States. It was backed by a large investment by Google, which quickly attracted the interest of other investors, allowing 23andMe to thrive when many other direct-to-consumer genetic companies went quickly out of business.

    The direct-to-consumer business model is fairly straightforward: A consumer orders a genetic test kit online, spits into a tube that comes in the mail, returns it to the company and accesses their results in an online portal. Over 15 million consumers bought 23andMe, and the vast majority consented to its research. At its peak, the company was valued at US$6 billion.

    The fate of the trove of personal information 23andMe has gathered over the years has wide-ranging implications for consumers.

    While the market initially believed in the value of 23andMe’s business model, its stock has been in decline for years, and the company owes hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors.

    Reasons for this rapid decline include a decrease in the sale of test kits after a 2023 hack of almost 7 million people’s data, as well as a failure to profit enough from providing data access to other private sector companies. Lack of private interest in 23andMe data may be related to the fact that much of the information the company collects is self-reported, which is often considered less reliable than information written down by a doctor in a medical record.

    What kind of data does 23andMe collect?

    While the saying goes “If you’re not paying, you’re the product,” 23andMe managed to convince its consumers to both pay for AND be the product. It did this by selling genetic testing kits to consumers as well as collecting a massive amount of their valuable data.

    And 23andMe collected more than just genetic data generated from consumers’ spit. Eighty-five percent of customers consented to 23andMe research, allowing their individual-level data to be used for studies. The company then collected information from survey questions about their personal health and beyond, such as drinking habits and risk tolerance.

    This means that not only does 23andMe possess the genetic data of 15 million people, but it also possesses almost a billion additional data points associated with this genetic information. This makes the 23andMe dataset potentially very private – and very valuable.

    At first, drug companies seemed to agree. For example, in 2018, 23andMe granted pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline an exclusive license to use consented customer data to develop new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline also made a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe. When 23andMe went public in 2021, its $6 billion valuation reflected the promise of this business model.

    But for over a decade, scholars, including me, have been warning that allowing 23andMe to collect and use personal data was not one that customers fully understood, or were actually comfortable with.

    What should 23andMe customers worry about?

    In response to current public concern about data privacy, 23andMe has stated that there will be no changes to how it stores and protects data during its bankruptcy proceedings. But once that stage is through, what exactly should customers worry about?

    First, law enforcement could use genetic information in civil or criminal cases. This happened in 2018, when police used the genetic testing company GEDmatch to help identify the Golden State Killer. Police pretended they were customers looking for genealogy data and sent in an old crime scene blood spot. This allowed them to connect to known suspects with blood relatives who had given their genetic information to the company as consumers. While this was in violation of GEDmatch’s own policies, the evidence was successfully used in court.

    Second, genetic information could be used to discriminate against customers if it shows that they have or are at high risk of developing a genetic disease or disorder. The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers and employers from asking about genetic information or using it to discriminate in work or health insurance decisions. It does not, however, protect against discrimination in long-term care or life insurance.

    Giving someone your genetic, medical and personal information gives them opportunities to exploit you.
    Westend61/Getty Images

    Many of the warnings from the media and attorneys general are focused on genetic information because it is unique to only one person. But direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies also retain a massive amount of personal information from the surveys consumers are asked to complete. Much of this information could be embarrassing if it were inadvertently or intentionally revealed, such as a person’s intelligence.

    In the 2025 book “Careless People,” former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams reported that Facebook would use indications of self-consciousness about personal appearance, such as deleting a selfie, to promote beauty products. If companies know such intimate details about a person, they could not only be used to sell products, but also potentially manipulate them over social media or the internet in ways they do not even realize. It could be used for targeted advertising or to build algorithms that exploit a person’s vulnerabilities.

    I believe consumers are right to be worried about how their genetic data could be misused. But the survey data containing all sorts of other personal information are at least as much, if not more, of a privacy problem. This is particularly concerning if the data is pooled together with other information available on the internet, like a dating profile, to create a more detailed – and personal – picture of an individual.

    I am deleting my own 23andMe data. In the future, I would also warn consumers against freely gifting the private sector with information about their fears, hopes, limitations and successes.

    That information is valuable to more people than just you.

    Kayte Spector-Bagdady receives funding from the National Center for Advancing Transnational Sciences and the Greenwall Foundation.

    – ref. 23andMe is potentially selling more than just genetic data – the personal survey info it collected is just as much a privacy problem – https://theconversation.com/23andme-is-potentially-selling-more-than-just-genetic-data-the-personal-survey-info-it-collected-is-just-as-much-a-privacy-problem-253220

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Feeling FOMO for something that’s not even fun? It’s not the event you’re missing, it’s the bonding

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jacqueline Rifkin, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Cornell University

    They had so much fun without me. Milko/E+ via Getty Images

    Imagine you’ve planned the trip of a lifetime for your animal-loving family: a cruise to Antarctica with the unique opportunity to view penguins, whales and other rare wildlife. Your adventure-loving kids can kayak through fjords, plunge into icy water and camp under the Antarctic sky.

    But rather than being ecstatic, as you anticipated, your kids whine about skipping an after-school scout meeting at a neighbor’s house. Missing this ordinary weekly event triggers such intense FOMO – “fear of missing out” – for them that they don’t want to go on your amazing expedition.

    If this kind of debacle sounds familiar to you – or at least if you find it perplexing – you’re not alone. The three of us are marketing professors and social psychologists who focus on how consumers make decisions and how this shapes well-being. We’ve been studying FOMO for over a decade and recently published our work in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Over the years, we’ve learned what really drives intense feelings of FOMO – which explains why a run-of-the-mill meeting might feel more crucial than an over-the-top vacation.

    FOMO’s real trigger

    People use the term FOMO in many different ways. In our research, we focus on a very specific type of FOMO: the kind that occurs when people miss out on events that involve valued social connections.

    With this kind of FOMO, we found that the pain of missing out is not related to missing the actual event or opportunity – although that could be there as well. The FOMO we study happens when people miss the chance to bond with friends, co-workers or teammates they care about.

    So, the critical part of FOMO is missing out on interactions with people you value. FOMO about a group dinner at a restaurant isn’t really about the food and great lighting. Nor is FOMO about a concert just about the band’s performance. Instead, it’s about the lost opportunity to connect and make memories with people who are important to you.

    Why is this upsetting? Imagine the scenario where all your best friends go out to dinner without you. They bond and make lasting memories with each other – and you’re not there for any of it.

    If they get closer to each other, where does that leave you? What happens to your social relationships and your sense of belonging? Do you become a less important friend? Less worthy of future invites? Or even kicked out of the group altogether? The anxiety of FOMO can begin to spiral.

    People with what psychologists call an anxious attachment style chronically fear rejection and isolation from others. Because FOMO involves anxiety about future social belonging, it may not come as a surprise that people who are naturally more anxious about their friendships tend to get more intense FOMO. When we asked people in one of our studies to scroll social media until they encountered something social they missed, we found that the more anxiously attached a participant was, the more intense FOMO they experienced.

    They’ll always remember that summer cookout – and you weren’t there.
    Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    Not just missing Coachella

    Getting FOMO for an amazing event you can’t attend makes sense. But if FOMO is less about the event itself and more about the social bonding, what happens when you miss something that’s not really fun at all?

    We find that people anticipate FOMO even for unenjoyable missed events. As long as there is some form of missed social bonding, feelings of FOMO emerge. One of our studies found that people anticipated more FOMO from missing an un-fun event that their friends would be at, than a fun event without their friends.

    For better or for worse, sad and stressful events can often be emotionally bonding: Going to a funeral to support a friend, cleaning up the mess after a party, or even white-knuckling through a harrowing initiation ceremony can all offer opportunities to forge stronger connections with one another. Stressful contexts like these can be fertile grounds for FOMO.

    How to fend off FOMO

    Popular discussions about the negative consequences of FOMO tend to focus on the FOMO people feel from compulsively scrolling on social media and seeing what they missed out on. Consequently, much of the suggested advice on how to mitigate FOMO centers on turning off phones or taking a vacation from social media.

    Those recommendations may be tough for many people to execute. Plus, they address the symptoms of FOMO, not the cause.

    Our finding that the core of FOMO is anxiety about missed social relationships yields a simpler strategy to combat it: Reminding yourself of the last time you connected with close friends may provide a sense of security that staves off feelings of FOMO.

    In an experiment testing multiple interventions, we asked 788 study participants to look through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. We asked about 200 of these participants to immediately rate how much FOMO they were feeling. They averaged a 3.2 on a 1-to-7 scale.

    Another group of about 200 participants also scrolled through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. But before indicating how much FOMO they were feeling, we asked them to think back to a prior experience socializing and bonding with their friends. Encouragingly, this reflection exercise seemed to curtail FOMO. Their average FOMO rating was 2.7 out of 7, a significant drop.

    Reminding yourself about other good times with your pals can help keep FOMO at bay.
    AJ_Watt/E+ via Getty Images

    With the remaining participants, we tested other strategies for mitigating FOMO – thinking about the next time they might see their friends or imagining what they’d say to a FOMO-suffering friend – but the simple reflection exercise was by far the most promising.

    So, reminding yourself of the meaningful relationships you already have and reaffirming your social belonging in the moment may help combat the rush of anxiety that is characteristic of FOMO.

    And missing out on social bonding experiences doesn’t have to be anxiety-provoking. In fact, in our activity-packed, hectic lives, missing some “must-attend” events may be a welcome relief – especially if you remind yourself that your social belonging is not in jeopardy. Cue a recent wave of counter-FOMO programming called JOMO, or “Joy of Missing Out.”

    To quote Stuart Smalley, the fictional self-help guru of 1990s “Saturday Night Live,” reminding yourself that “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” might be just the trick to mitigate FOMO.

    Jacqueline Rifkin received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).

    Barbara Kahn received funding from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) and research support from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

    Cindy Chan received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).

    – ref. Feeling FOMO for something that’s not even fun? It’s not the event you’re missing, it’s the bonding – https://theconversation.com/feeling-fomo-for-something-thats-not-even-fun-its-not-the-event-youre-missing-its-the-bonding-247047

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Do union endorsements make a difference in election campaigns?

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Larry Savage, Professor, Labour Studies, Brock University

    Nearly one in three workers in Canada is covered by a union contract, making union members a potentially powerful voting bloc at election time. It should therefore come as little surprise that federal parties have been making overt efforts to secure endorsements from labour unions and the votes of their members as election day nears.

    The Canadian Union of Public Employees, United Steelworkers and Amalgamated Transit Union have already declared support for the New Democratic Party (NDP), while the Boilermakers union has endorsed the Conservatives. All parties are expected to pick up more union endorsements before election day.

    But do union endorsements actually make a difference at the ballot box?

    Our forthcoming survey-based research suggests that while most union members in Canada indicate their voting preferences are not swayed by union endorsements, satisfaction with one’s union significantly enhances the likelihood they’ll support union-endorsed candidates in federal, provincial and local elections.

    Shifts in party-union relations

    The NDP was viewed as the political arm of the labour movement and secured the lion’s share of union resources and endorsements for much of its history. However, as ties between the NDP and unions have loosened, so too have unions’ political allegiances.



    Read more:
    The NDP turns 60: It’s never truly been the political arm of organized labour

    In recent years, unions in Canada have made political endorsements that don’t align with traditional patterns. For example, after a decade of backing the provincial Liberals, many construction unions endorsed Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s re-election in the 2022 Ontario provincial election.

    Although most other unions endorsed the opposition NDP, Ford’s union support garnered significant attention and was presented as an impressive game-changer by the media and political pundits.

    In the 2025 Ontario election campaign, Ford used his commanding lead in the polls and a transactional brand of politics to lock down endorsements from an even broader cross-section of the union movement, winning additional support from firefighters, a Toronto-based hotel worker union, police unions and three large Unifor locals.

    The union endorsements were symbolically significant for the Conservative campaign because they fractured labour movement opposition to Ford and provided pro-worker cover for a government with a decidedly mixed record on labour rights.

    The Unifor endorsements, in particular, raised eyebrows because Canada’s largest private sector union had long championed anti-Conservative strategic voting, backing a mix of Liberal, NDP and Bloc candidates in election campaigns over the past decade.

    These shifts have encouraged Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to appeal more to blue-collar union members, especially in male-dominated industries, to broaden his party’s working-class support.



    Read more:
    Pierre Poilievre is popular among union members. What’s it really all about?

    The Conservatives have also no doubt been inspired by the success of United States President Donald Trump this regard.

    In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the vast majority of unions endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris over Trump. But exit polls indicated Trump still managed to win an impressive 45 per cent of the votes from union households, highlighting a potential disconnect between union leaders and their members on the question of endorsements.

    The influence of union endorsements

    Not all union endorsements carry the same weight, but they can play a strategically critical role in election campaigns depending on the dynamic.

    Our survey-based research, to be published in an upcoming volume of Labour/Le Travail, reveals that while a small majority of union members in Canada feel union endorsements won’t impact their vote, such endorsements do modestly influence a good number of union members.

    Outside of Québec, 37 per cent of surveyed union members report being “somewhat” or “much more likely” to vote for union-endorsed candidates. In Québec, the figure is slightly lower at 27 per cent. Conversely, only a small portion of members (11 per cent in the rest of Canada and 13 per cent in Québec) indicate a union endorsement will make them less likely to vote for their union’s preferred candidate.

    Importantly, workers who indicated satisfaction with their union in the workplace are significantly more likely support union-endorsed candidates in election campaigns.

    Satisfaction with one’s union matters much more to whether union members respond to an endorsement favourably than demographic factors such as age, gender, income or education level.

    The survey results also suggest that union type does not make a significant difference in assessing the influence of endorsements on union members’ voting intentions. Members of public-sector unions are no more likely to respond favourably to union endorsements than members of private-sector unions, nor are members of construction unions or members of NDP-affiliated unions.

    Lessons for parties and unions

    Even with modest impacts on voting preferences, union endorsements may prove decisive in closely contested elections, especially in communities with large numbers of union voters.

    For unions to maximize their political influence, however, they must first earn their members’ trust through effective workplace representation. Building this trust enhances the impact of endorsements by increasing member support for union-endorsed candidates.

    In short, having strongly supported unions in the workplace helps to build strong unions in the political arena with improved capacity to deliver union members’ votes.

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

    – ref. Do union endorsements make a difference in election campaigns? – https://theconversation.com/do-union-endorsements-make-a-difference-in-election-campaigns-253296

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ethiopia’s civil war: what’s behind the Amhara rebellion?

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Amanuel Tesfaye, Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki

    Ethiopia is in the grip of a civil war between federal government forces and the Fano, a loose alliance of ethnic-based militia in the Amhara region.

    This conflict in Ethiopia’s north erupted less than a year after the devastating Tigray war, which ended in 2022.

    The Amhara are one of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups and played a leading role in the making of the Ethiopian state. Amharic serves as the country’s working language.

    The region shares a border with Tigray. During the Tigray war, which began in 2020, various Fano groups allied with the federal government. A peace deal in 2022 to stop the war sidelined the Amhara militia groups, which strained relations with the government.

    The Amhara conflict began as minor sporadic clashes with government forces in April 2023. This rapidly escalated into a full-scale insurgency by August when Fano forces launched a full blown attack in an effort to control the region’s major cities.

    The violence since has displaced more than 100,000 people and left 4.7 million children out of school.

    The death toll from the conflict is piling up. In March 2025, the government claimed to have killed more than 300 Fano fighters.

    We are researchers studying ethnic nationalism, social movements and insurgency in Ethiopia, with a focus on Amhara. Based on our studies into the Fano and ongoing research on Ethiopia’s political reforms process, we see three factors behind the escalating armed struggle in Amhara:

    • a mismanaged political transition from 2018 to 2020

    • fallout from the 2020-2022 Tigray war

    • a hollow pursuit of peace.

    Mismanaged transition

    Between 1991 and 2018, Ethiopia was governed by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. This was a powerful coalition of four ethno-national parties representing Tigray, Amhara, Oromo, and Southern nations, nationalities and peoples.

    Faced with a political crisis and growing unrest in 2014 following opposition clampdowns and arbitrary arrests, the coalition needed a change. Two members – the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation and the Amhara National Democratic Movement – joined forces to oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front from its dominant position. They did this by leveraging youth-led protests, which played out between 2015 and 2018.

    Following the resignation of prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn in 2018, the two parties orchestrated Abiy Ahmed’s ascent to power.

    For a moment, the relationship between the Oromo and Amhara wings of the coalition looked like one of equals. This didn’t last. In December 2019, Abiy merged the coalition into a single party, the Prosperity Party.

    The Oromo wing positioned itself as the core of the Prosperity Party. It monopolised key political positions and economic opportunities. This included asserting control over the capital, Addis Ababa.



    Read more:
    Abiy Ahmed gained power in Ethiopia with the help of young people – four years later he’s silencing them

    Amhara’s outspoken leaders who criticised this dominance faced removal, arrest or exile. The region’s president, Ambachew Mekonnen, was assassinated in June 2019.

    Harassment, kidnappings for ransom and arrests were daily experiences for Amhara region residents trying to enter Addis Ababa. Members of the Amhara community also faced ethnic-based violence in various parts of the country.

    These incidents provoked anti-government protests throughout Amhara.

    Fallout from the Tigray war

    A peace agreement signed in 2022 in South Africa ended a brutal two-year war in Tigray and neighbouring regions. However, it deepened the sense of marginalisation in Amhara.

    While the agreement silenced the guns in Tigray, it sidelined Amhara constituencies by denying them representation in the talks despite the region being affected by the war. The agreement’s ambiguity regarding the fate of territories disputed between Amhara and Tigray, such as Welkait, further fuelled distrust.

    The last nail in the coffin came in April 2023. The government decided to dismantle regional special forces. This was ostensibly aimed at consolidating the country’s fighting forces.

    However, with unresolved territorial disputes and Oromo nationalist ambitions at the centre, disarming the Amhara Special Forces was interpreted as a move to weaken Amhara defences. Additionally, the more than 200,000-strong Tigray Defence Forces were left intact. This contributed to a sense of vulnerability in neighbouring Amhara.

    Public protests led to clashes with government forces. These protests morphed into an insurgency by the Fano in the following months.

    The insurgency has expanded its reach and has public support across the region and in the diaspora.

    The Fano insurgency is taking place in a territory three times the size of Tigray, stretching the federal army.

    Various Fano factions cite objectives that range from the protection of Amhara interests to constitutional change and overthrowing the federal government.

    However, the insurgency is still in its infancy. It lacks unified leadership, a cohesive structure or a chain of command. Factional divisions and competition persist, and there are no clear objectives.

    Hollow pursuit of peace

    The government seems determined to crush the Fano insurgency by force. A state of emergency was declared in August 2023 for six months. It was later extended.

    While the state of emergency in Amhara officially ended in June 2024, some restrictions remain in place. This includes de facto curfews in major cities, including the capital Bahir Dar.

    The counterinsurgency relies on heavy Ethiopian National Defence Forces deployments and drone strikes.

    On the other hand, the government has indicated its openness to peace talks. However, it has avoided meaningful confidence-building measures, such as releasing Amhara political prisoners. A Peace Council established to mediate between the Fano and the government has proven ineffective. Its spokesperson has noted federal reluctance to negotiate.



    Read more:
    Ethiopia’s war may have ended, but the Tigray crisis hasn’t

    The government’s peace efforts have centred on repeated calls for insurgents to surrender. There are reports that the government wants to talk to different Fano factions separately in the hope of fragmenting the insurgency further. Secret talks with one faction of the Fano are an indication of this strategy.

    The path forward

    The government’s violent counterinsurgency and occasional peace overtures are unlikely to succeed. The Prosperity Party is not popular in Amhara. A meaningful peace process – rather than calls for surrender or attempts to co-opt factions – is essential. This should start with measures like releasing arbitrarily detained Amhara activists, journalists, academics and politicians.

    The federal government also needs to be part of a multi-stakeholder negotiation involving all Fano factions, civil society, community leaders, and domestic and diaspora-based opposition groups. Unbiased mediation from regional and international players may also be useful. Past attempts at piecemeal talks with factions of armed groups – be it in Tigray or Oromia – have prolonged insurgencies or fostered new ones. Only a comprehensive, all-inclusive dialogue can address the crisis.

    Such a process needs to address deep-seated structural challenges. This includes ensuring the protection of Amhara minorities living in other regions, and the region’s representation within local, regional and federal government structures. Territorial disputes need to be addressed through a process rooted in historical context, constitutional principles and the consent of the people concerned.

    Ultimately, enduring peace requires ending the cycle of ethnic dominance in Ethiopia’s federal governance arrangement.

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

    – ref. Ethiopia’s civil war: what’s behind the Amhara rebellion? – https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-civil-war-whats-behind-the-amhara-rebellion-252425

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Val Kilmer’s macho action figures held a melancholy just below the surface

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Aaron Humphrey, Lecturer, Media and Digital Humanities, University of Adelaide

    Leading man of 1990s Hollywood, Val Kilmer, has died at 65 from pneumonia. Battling cancer since 2014, he has not been a frequent presence on our film screens for most of this century. While he has recently done some interesting projects, he never recaptured his fame and box-office draw of the 1980s and ‘90s, when he appeared in iconic films such as Top Gun (1986) and Batman Forever (1995).

    His standout performance as Tom Cruise’s swaggering, self-assured rival Iceman in Top Gun made him a star. But the film that really cemented his reputation as a leading man was Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), in which he played Jim Morrison to astonishing effect. He is the best thing about that film.

    Kilmer starred as Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone – a kind of cross between a superhero film and a western.
    IMDB

    In 1993, he starred as Doc Holliday in Tombstone, a stylish modern western, which he co-headlined with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. It was perhaps the most ’90s of the ’90s westerns. Kilmer’s performance was crowd-pleasing and critically acclaimed. His 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry, took its name from a line Kilmer spoke in the film.

    In some ways, it is a superhero film with cowboys – as you can see so clearly in the poster. It was this performance that put Kilmer on the radar of Warner Bros when they were looking to cast a new Batman after Michael Keaton abandoned the suit.

    Batman Forever

    We’ve got used to superhero films having cinematic universes and narrative continuity between films, but in the 1990s that had not quite been established.

    Warner Bros had struck cinematic gold with the first modern superhero blockbuster, Superman (1978) starring Christopher Reeve, but faced diminishing critical and financial returns with each subsequent film in the series. After Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) failed to connect with audiences, the studio turned to Batman to be its cinematic icon. In those days, one superhero film every couple of years was seen as sufficient. Fortunately, Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), two dark takes on the Batman story both starring Michael Keaton, were hits.

    However, Batman Returns was regarded by audiences and critics as too “dark”, and too Burton. Both Burton and the studio felt a change of pace was needed for a third film. Joel Schumacher was brought on as director and, perhaps due to the departure of Burton, Keaton also chose to leave the series.

    Fresh off Tombstone, Kilmer was cast as the superhero.

    Batman Forever took a goofier tone, inspired just as much by the campy 1960s TV series as the dark gothic noir style of Burton. It is still brooding, but the film is more bombastic, more colourful. Noted for performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey as the villains – and the costumes that famously featured nipples and codpieces – Kilmer’s performance got lost.

    Val Kilmer and Chris O’Donnell in Batman Forever (1995).
    IMDB

    Worse for Kilmer, rumours of being difficult to work with on the set of Batman may have set his career back in subsequent years. But, despite these difficulties, Kilmer makes a good Batman.

    He performed the role with a brooding physicality, as well as playfulness. He was underrated, and certainly better than George Clooney, who took over in Batman and Robin (1997) after Kilmer declined to return.

    The non-Keaton Batman films are sometimes overlooked by fans, or not seen as living up to the heights of the Burton movies. In recent years, Burton’s movies have become more or less canonised as the “real” Batman of the era. A series of comic books, Batman ’89, has been published since 2021 that continues the story from Batman Returns, bypassing the developments of Kilmer’s Batman Forever and Clooney’s Batman and Robin.

    Keaton has since reprised his role as the caped crusader on the silver screen as a major supporting character in The Flash (2023), which also featured cameos from Batman alumni Clooney and Ben Affleck as alternate universe versions of the Dark Knight. Kilmer and Christian Bale were the only retired big-screen Batmans not to appear in the film.

    But Batman Forever stands the test of time. It is an entertaining film that walks the line between the dark and brooding Batman from Burton, and the parody of the 1960s television series starring Adam West.

    Soulful melancholy

    Batman Forever was the pinnacle for Kilmer in terms of critical and commercial success. He followed it with great performances in films such as The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), but he was often the supporting character rather than the lead. These films, too, weren’t box-office smashes like his films up to and including Batman had been.

    One of his best performances of the 2000s was in the David Mamet film Spartan (2004). Kilmer plays a retired marine corps sergeant in a good leading turn. He gave a muscular performance that still had a soulful melancholy at its heart, which can be seen in a lot of his roles. He plays action figures who are tough and macho on the outside, but have a melancholy just below the surface.

    Although he never reprised his role as Bruce Wayne, a fitting coda for Kilmer’s career was the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022), in which he gives a cameo as an ailing version of Iceman.

    Kilmer will be missed for his iconic roles as the quintessential performer of the late 1980s and ’90s. In 2021, a documentary about Kilmer, Val, was released, based on decades of archive footage. I would recommend it to audiences who want to know more about the man, his life, his career and his health battles over the past decades.

    Aaron Humphrey 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. Val Kilmer’s macho action figures held a melancholy just below the surface – https://theconversation.com/val-kilmers-macho-action-figures-held-a-melancholy-just-below-the-surface-253631

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Europeans have more flexible views on how to respond to irregular migrants than policymakers think – new research

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Martin Ruhs, Professor of Migration Studies, European University Institute

    With an estimated minimum of 2.6 to 3.2 million irregular migrants in Europe and fierce public debates about them, policymakers face the difficult question of how to ensure migrants’ basic rights of protection from exploitation, destitution and ill health while also establishing effective migration controls. However, we know surprisingly little about how Europeans think about this policy dilemma.

    In our study, the first of its kind in Europe, we surveyed 20,000 people across Austria, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK to understand their preferences on policies regarding access to healthcare, social welfare and labour protections, as well as the obtainment of regular legal status or “regularisation” for irregular migrants.

    The results challenge the idea that public attitudes toward irregular migrants’ rights are simply “for” or “against”. Instead, we find that variations in policy design matter – and when policies include both migration controls and protections for migrants, public support often increases.

    Our method

    To study public preferences for policies relating to irregular migrants, we conducted a conjoint survey experiment. In it, respondents were presented with different multidimensional “policy packages” that randomly varied in how they regulated opportunities for regularisation, as well as legal rights to access primary health care, financial support in low-income situations, and back pay of withheld wages.

    Respondents were shown two policy packages at a time, and then asked to rate and indicate which of the two they preferred. For each respondent, this process was repeated five times. This method allowed us to study how a change in a particular policy feature – e.g., a change in how access to primary healthcare is regulated – affects individuals’ support for the overall policy package.

    So, what do Europeans think? Here are some of our key results.

    • People favour selective regularisation

    Our results suggest that the public prefers targeted pathways for regularisation for irregular migrants. Across all five countries we analysed, respondents consistently preferred policies that allow irregular migrants to acquire legal status based on certain conditions, including a clean criminal record and a minimum length of stay in the host country. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no consistent preference between a five-year or ten-year minimum residence period.

    • Healthcare gets more support than financial assistance

    We found that giving irregular migrants access to healthcare is far less controversial than giving access to financial support for those living on low incomes. This aligns with findings from the US, where such support has remained politically divisive.

    • Some migration controls boost support for access to rights – but not all rights

    We also found greater support for irregular migrants receiving health care and back pay for withheld wages when these rights were linked to a migration control measure: obligations for public sector employees to report irregular migrants to authorities.

    This suggests, as existing literature highlights, that many people experience an internal conflict between humanitarian concerns and a desire for stricter migration controls.

    However, the pattern in our data does not hold for all rights: even when combined with reporting obligations, the provision of cash assistance for irregular migrants still does not generate public support.

    • A preference for essential workers

    Not all irregular migrants are viewed equally: our findings show that people are more supportive of rights and regularisation opportunities for migrants who previously worked legally in the host country – especially in essential roles like elder care. This reflects broader research on attitudes toward welfare deservingness, which found that public perception of migrants’ past contributions to society shape views on whether they should get access to rights.

    How do attitudes differ across countries?

    While there are many similarities in public views on regularisation opportunities and access to rights for irregular migrants across the countries we studied, there are also some notable differences. For example, support for providing primary healthcare varied: respondents in the UK were the least supportive, and respondents in Italy were the most. Similarly, while respondents in most countries opposed the provision of low-income support, Italian respondents were more ambivalent, showing no strong preference for or against this right for irregular migrants.

    Overall, respondents in Italy showed the greatest preferences for inclusive policies, including the strongest support for allowing irregular migrants to apply for legal status. While our analysis does not investigate the reasons for this, it may reflect Italy’s history of regularisation programmes in recent decades, which may have made Italian respondents more open to and supportive of such programmes.

    Rethinking public attitudes about irregular migrants

    Public attitudes matter – they influence which policies are feasible and sustainable over time. Our research shows that EU and UK residents don’t default to blunt and one-sided policies such as blanket opposition to irregular migrants ever gaining legal status. Instead, people are selective, and prefer policies that distinguish between giving irregular migrants different types of rights. People also have specific views about when and why irregular migrants should have access to healthcare, social welfare, labour protections and legal status.

    This does not mean that survey respondents wanted to offer unconditional legal status and access to rights to all irregular migrants. Instead, respondents often preferred an approach that combines selective access to rights with enforcement of migration rules. What our study indicates is that the public has more nuanced views on how migration should be managed than policymakers generally give them credit for. This suggests there may be more room for selective and inclusive policymaking than often assumed.

    This article is based on a research paper co-authored by Lutz Gschwind (Uppsala University, UU), Martin Ruhs (EUI), Anton Ahlén (UU) and Joakim Palme (UU). The paper is part of the international “PRIME” project that analyses the conditions of irregular migrants in Europe. PRIME is funded by the European Union Horizon Europe programme. Views and opinions expressed, however, are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the EU or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the EU nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

    The author has received support from the European Union Horizon Europe funding programme for research and innovation (project number 101095113).

    – ref. Europeans have more flexible views on how to respond to irregular migrants than policymakers think – new research – https://theconversation.com/europeans-have-more-flexible-views-on-how-to-respond-to-irregular-migrants-than-policymakers-think-new-research-253473

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: US Senator Cory Booker just spoke for 25 hours in Congress. What was he trying to achieve?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Bruce Wolpe, Non-resident Senior Fellow, United States Study Centre, University of Sydney

    The Democrats have been under intense pressure to find an effective way to challenge US President Donald Trump without control of either chamber of Congress or a de facto opposition leader.

    They may have just found one. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took the Senate floor on Monday evening in Washington to give a speech lambasting Trump’s actions. He didn’t stop talking – aside for the occasional question from a fellow Democrat – until Tuesday night, 25 hours later.

    So, how common are these types of speeches in the US Congress, and what’s the point?

    Cory Booker reportedly did not leave the chamber to use the toilet and sipped from two glasses of water.

    Filibusters throughout history

    Booker’s speech set a new record for the longest continuous speech in the Senate, surpassing Senator Strom Thurmond’s 24-hour speech in 1957 to try to prevent the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

    This was during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during the second world war. The army was the great desegregation force in the 1940s, and Eisenhower, as president in the 1950s, was strongly in favour of civil rights.

    Strom Thurmond.
    Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division/Wikimedia Commons

    In 1957, Congress was going to pass a civil rights bill that would make it harder for officials in southern states, in particular, to prevent Black people from voting. So Thurmond, the South Carolina senator and fierce proponent of segregation, launched what was (until today) the longest speech in Senate history to oppose it.

    Thurmond’s speech was a filibuster, an extended speech in the Senate to attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill or confirmation. Thurmond, however, was unable to stop enactment of the bill.

    Senators engage in filibusters when they know they’re going to lose, especially when it’s a piece of legislation they really dislike or disagree with. Because they can’t stop the passage of the bill, they use the filibuster to call attention to their opposition to it. The intention is to rally the troops and say, “I’m standing with you, even if this vote goes the other way”.

    In 2016, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who represents the state of Connecticut where the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School took place, launched a nearly 15-hour filibuster to force the Republican Senate leadership to allow votes on two gun control measures.

    Republican Senator Ted Cruz also spoke all night – 21 hours in total – against Obamacare in 2013. It wasn’t all focused on health policy; he filled the time by reading the children’s book, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss.

    Highlights from Ted Cruz’s filibuster.

    What Booker was trying to achieve

    Booker’s speech was not technically a filibuster – he wasn’t holding the floor to talk against a specific bill, as Thurmond was. He was giving time to his Democratic colleagues to just control the shape of the general debate about Trump.

    Senators use speeches like this when they’re losing on a issue, and Booker feels the Democrats are currently losing to Trump. They have been unable to stop any of his executive actions, so they feel they need to cut through in some way to reach the American people.

    Trump has been “flooding the zone” from the moment he took office in January with hundreds of policies and executive actions – and he has been extremely successful at it. These actions cut across so many areas, it’s been very hard for the Democrats, on any given day, to pick out the top things to fight against.

    Because they don’t have control of the House or Senate, and there is no opposition leader, there is no single, principal Democrat who can stand up day by day and say, “This is what happened, this was what the threat to the country is, this why we’re opposing it and this is the way we’re going to attack it”.

    Trump is controlling the narrative and the media environment. And the Democratic leadership has been unable to counter it, even though, at the grassroots level, Democrats and many others who voted for Trump are really angry.

    As Booker put it during his speech:

    Moments like this require us to be more creative or more imaginative, or just more persistent and dogged and determined.

    There comes a certain point in a human drama that transcends partisanship when you’re looking at someone speaking from the heart, speaking their convictions and you can come to respect them.

    Booker ran for the presidency in 2020 and ultimately yielded to Joe Biden, and I expect we’ll hear much more from him in 2028 when the next presidential election occurs. He is most likely going to run again.

    Bruce Wolpe receives funding, as a non resident senior Fellow, from the United Statses Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He served for ten years on the Democratic staff in the US House of Representatives.

    – ref. US Senator Cory Booker just spoke for 25 hours in Congress. What was he trying to achieve? – https://theconversation.com/us-senator-cory-booker-just-spoke-for-25-hours-in-congress-what-was-he-trying-to-achieve-253616

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Martina Calçada Kohatsu, PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology, McGill University

    In ‘Adolescence,’ a communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity. (Netflix)

    This story contains spoilers about the Netflix series ‘Adolescence.’

    In the Netflix series Adolescence, we have no idea why Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested at the beginning of the first episode. The tension from seeing a helpless 13-year-old boy escorted to a police station and interrogated holds us to the screen. Every minute of the one-hour episode, shot in a single continuous take, makes us feel like we are in the police station with the Miller family, viewing things through his parents’ disorientation.

    As the plot unfolds, we are given clues to explain the inexplicable, but we can’t fully appreciate the show’s magnitude until the very last scene, a dramatic moment where we see the boy’s father (Stephen Graham) cry over his son’s teddy bear while asking it for forgiveness.

    From an educational psychology angle, the show is ripe for analysis. One could comment on the premature sexualization of young girls and boys or the obsolete sense, for parents, that they can assume kids are safe when they’re at home in their rooms.

    However, as a doctoral student in educational psychology, I am mostly concerned with human learning — both the cognitive development that must accompany successful learners, and how children and youth understand the world through relationships.

    The state of Jamie’s cognitive development and of teenagers in general may help us understand his frame of mind — or the “why” that detective Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) pursues.

    For parents, this show raises serious questions about the crisis in parent-child communication and how the internet is shaping children’s behaviour and minds. I suggest turning to the practice of dialogue as a way for parents to strengthen their communication with their children and learn about each other and the world.

    Trailer for ‘Adolescence.’

    Children’s minds

    According to the government of Canada, “any human being below the age of 18” is defined as a child. Children can’t be recruited to join the Armed Forces, sign legal contracts, drive, vote, marry, drink alcohol and so on. As adults, we understand that these prohibitions not only protect them but also us.

    Setting aside ethical reasons why children shouldn’t do any of these things, the major reason is due to the developmental state of their minds.

    To better understand this, we must consider executive function, also called cognitive control. Executive function refers to the unconscious cognitive processes of abstract thinking, inhibition, impulse control and planning that allow us to consciously control and direct our thoughts to goals, actions and emotions.

    Think of executive control as interconnected paths in the brain. In an adolescent’s brain, these paths resemble more of a labyrinth, with difficult and sometimes non-working passages.

    Children and adolescents’ cognitive development are in “sensitive periods” in which their brains are more plastic and susceptible to environmental influences. Besides not having full control of their thought processes, research has also shown that abstract and more “neutral” cognitive skills develop earlier than those that involve motivated or emotionally charged actions.

    Ability to weigh options still developing

    Adolescents might be mature enough to solve complex math problems, but still feel helpless when needing to be polite to someone they believe offended them (not an easy task for adults either). In such a case, one would need to “step back” from the situation, and weigh options to respond.

    An adult might think “maybe I misinterpreted what this person said” or “if I offend them back, I risk losing my job/friendship/reputation.” By dwelling on different course of actions, they don’t act impulsively.

    This is precisely the ability that adolescents are still developing.

    Adolescent brains have not fully matured in ways that enable them to calculate risk.
    (Netflix)

    Virtual selves and threats

    When adolescents engage with social media, they can be exposed to a threatening environment where they must assert their virtual selves and deal with bullying and inappropriate content, while lacking full control of their thought processes.

    Yet, as American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has chronicled, our society has allowed adolescents to take part in this at grave risk. With maturing cognitive capabilities, teens are at risk in an online environment that thrives on extreme views and hijacks emotions.

    As a victim of cyberbullying, Jamie was probably not equipped with the cognitive abilities to step back from the situation and seek help. Instead, he responds to cruelty he experienced with cruelty he knew.

    With unregulated internet use, in terms of both content and unrestricted time spent online, communication with parents atrophies. At its core, Adolescence is a painful wake-up call to the effects of unregulated internet usage in teens, and how the communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity.

    Clueless adults, aware teens

    Nowhere in the show is this distance more evident than when police detectives move cluelessly through Jamie’s school trying to understand his motives, while the students seem cynically aware of what really happened.

    The detective’s son clues him into interpreting signs of incel subculture.
    (Netflix)

    In a typical moment reflecting contemporary intergenerational dynamics in which the Gen Zs explain stuff to their analog parents, Bascombe’s son is the one to enlighten him about incel subculture and what certain emojis represent.

    It becomes clear that pop-cultural references mean different things to a younger generation. For example, “red pill” was appropriated from The Matrix and is now used for those who “see the truth” and reject feminism.

    Generations are comfortable communicating in different ways. Teens, for example, are clever texters. They use images, edit reels and create memes to convey subtle and often complex feelings.

    In contrast, teens’ discomfort with face-to-face conversations is explicit in the last episode of Adolescence, when the Miller family drives to a hardware store. The parents play a song from their prom and reminisce. The oldest daughter is with them, but not present, focused on her phone and only sporadically joining the conversation.

    Why dialogue matters

    Parents and their children may find direction through dialogue. This ancient practice is based on the view of the world as becoming, with infinite internal and external contradictions that must be overcome so that new understandings of reality may emerge.

    Dialogue was famously advanced as an educational practice by philosopher of education, Paulo Freire.

    Freire believed people must come together to share their meanings of the world, and through this push and pull of ideas, reasons and opinions, conceptualize new forms of understanding. For parents, this means that without trying to understand what teens are saying and, importantly, how they are saying it, we can’t possibly create a better future for all of us.

    Open channel needed

    Engaging in dialogue involves two things: asking and answering questions. It is not a matter of merely extracting information (although knowing what children are doing is important), but rather of mutually sharing interests and letting it guide discovery.

    When parents and children find a channel, communication opens and for as long as the mutual interest is there, they can steadily build meaningful connections that transform how they see the world and their relationships.

    With renewed urgency, dialogue that validates the interests and knowledge of both parents and children can offer a way out of the polarization created between them by long hours spent online.

    Martina Calçada Kohatsu 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. ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-on-netflix-a-painful-wake-up-call-about-unregulated-internet-use-for-teens-253068

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trips to the playground and jigsaw puzzles: five surprising ways to help children learn to write

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sinéad McCauley Lambe, Assistant Professor, School of Inclusive and Special Education, Dublin City University

    Rachaphak/Shutterstock

    It’s a milestone that leaves parents beaming with pride: the first time their child shakily writes out their own name. And it’s the start of many more key childhood moments, from Christmas lists to writing their own stories.

    If you’re keen to help your child learn to write, you might think about asking them to try to copy shapes, or trace over the dotted outline of a letter. But there’s a lot more that goes into writing. It requires fine motor skills using the hands – and this can be practised through threading beads, rolling playdough and stacking blocks.

    However, while fine motor skills play a central role in getting children ready to write, it doesn’t end there. Handwriting is a complex developmental process, and preparation for handwriting also involves the development of key gross motor skills, as well as visual-perceptual skills.

    I’m a researcher who works on how children learn to write. Below are five ways to help your child to prepare for handwriting that you might not have considered.

    Take them to the playground

    It might not seem that obvious, but a trip to the playground is perfect preparation for handwriting. All that open space and climbing equipment provide ample opportunities for young children to develop their gross motor skills.

    Gross motor skills involve the body’s large muscles and are needed for balance and stability as well as posture and coordination. Think monkey bars – a fantastic and fun way to develop shoulder stability which allows for greater control of the small motor movements of the hands and fingers.

    Another important element of gross motor skills is what’s known as crossing the midline. The midline is an imaginary line that runs down the centre of a child’s body. It plays a central role when developing hand dominance as children learn to reach across their bodies to write. Can your child hang from the monkey bars with their hands crossed? That’s great practice in crossing the midline.

    And all that open space, interspersed with bulky and busy playground equipment, provides the ideal opportunity for children to develop spatial awareness as they duck and dive, swerving to avoid oncoming obstacles. Spatial awareness plays a key role in letter formation, placement and size, as well as spacing and page alignment.

    Lots of blank space

    Through early mark making and scribbling, children explore a range of movements and shapes. This early stage of mark making is essential in laying the foundations for handwriting development as the child develops a growing awareness of space and their place within it.

    Give children space for mark making.
    AnikaNes/Shutterstock

    Look for large blank spaces in and outside of your home that children can use for mark making and drawing. Forget colouring books, and instead think large sticks of chalk on big open pavements, rolls of paper across open floor space, or large sheets of blank paper on an easel.

    Teach them how to look carefully

    Think about asking a young child to copy a shape, or a letter using their pencil. “Just copy the shape” – it’s simple, isn’t it?

    The problem is, it’s not simple. At all.

    It begins with visual perception – the process whereby the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see. This makes a collection of lines into a square, for instance. Visual-motor integration is the ability to be able to coordinate fine motor skills and visual-perceptual skills to produce that letter, shape or number in a legible manner.

    The visual component enables children to discriminate between letter shapes to recognise each letter’s specific characteristics, and to identify their orientation. The motor element allows the child to carry out the necessary sequence of movements to form the letter.

    By exposing young children to lots of opportunities to develop their visual-perceptual skills, you can help to prepare them for handwriting. Think richly illustrated picture books, jigsaw puzzles and Where’s Wally books – these help children sort out the meaning in marks and shapes. Picking out shapes, numbers and letters on the street as you walk to the shop together is a good opportunity, too.

    Shapes before letters

    It might be tempting to pick up a colourful ABC practice book with a neat “wipe clean” whiteboard feature to help your child learn to write. But hold off putting it in your shopping basket for now. Before children are ready to write letters formally, they should first be able to copy nine geometric shapes.

    Pre-writing shapes.
    The Conversation

    The ability to copy geometric forms is recognised in research as an indication of writing readiness in a young child. Formal handwriting training should be delayed until a child can successfully copy a vertical line, a horizontal line, a cross, a circle, a right oblique line, a square, a left oblique line, an oblique cross and a triangle.

    Ditch the broken crayons

    There are few things more frustrating for a young child than fading markers, blunt colouring pencils or a box of broken and bruised crayons. My research has found that the quality of writing materials matters when it comes to motivating the reluctant writer to give it a go.

    Providing children with a variety of novel and fun writing materials leads to increased motivation and enjoyment of writing. These could be brightly coloured felt pens, gel pens, highlighters, magic markers and even scented markers and pencils, and don’t forget the finger paints. The messier the better.

    Sinéad McCauley Lambe is the author of Move Write – A Whole-body Sensorimotor Approach to Handwriting programme.

    Move Write is published by Just Rewards Publications.

    – ref. Trips to the playground and jigsaw puzzles: five surprising ways to help children learn to write – https://theconversation.com/trips-to-the-playground-and-jigsaw-puzzles-five-surprising-ways-to-help-children-learn-to-write-250225

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Barry Lyndon at 50: why Kubrick’s most overlooked masterpiece deserves another viewing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University

    Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, struggled at the box office when it was released. It remains one of the director’s most under-appreciated films. Unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Shining, which have been endlessly dissected in books and essays, Barry Lyndon has received relatively little scholarly attention – just a single book.

    Perhaps its cool reception can be traced to its slow, contemplative pacing, its meticulously crafted but emotionally restrained storytelling, or its three-hour runtime. It also arrived at an inopportune moment, in the same year as Jaws, a film that would reshape Hollywood forever.

    Yet, Barry Lyndon deserves a second look, not only as one of Kubrick’s most visually striking films but also as an intensely personal project that offers rare insight into the director himself.

    The film follows the rise and fall of Redmond Barry, an ambitious Irishman who reinvents himself as Barry Lyndon in his pursuit of wealth and status. After fleeing his homeland following a duel, Barry navigates the treacherous world of 18th-century Europe.

    He serves as a soldier, a gambler and ultimately marries into aristocracy. However, his social ascent is marred by personal missteps, betrayals and the cold realities of high society.

    The project was born out of failure. Kubrick had spent years preparing for a grand epic about Napoleon, amassing an enormous archive of research and developing meticulous pre-production plans.

    But no studio was willing to finance the project. Unwilling to abandon his obsession with the late 18th century, he turned instead to The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a lesser-known 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.

    The Barry Lyndon trailer.

    The choice of Thackeray was in keeping with his taste for English writers like Arthur C. Clarke (2001) and Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange). But this was a leap.

    Those previous writers were contemporaries and, Paths of Glory and Spartacus apart, nearly all of Kubrick’s previous films took place in the recent past, near present, or the future. Now he would try his hand at what would essentially be a costume drama. He would be recreating the past rather than creating the future.

    Some saw Barry Lyndon as a mere consolation prize. The film critic Alexander Walker called it a project “born on the rebound,” while production designer Ken Adam described it as a “dress rehearsal” for Napoleon. But Kubrick’s fascination with the Napoleonic era was evident in the film’s DNA.

    Thackeray himself had been fascinated by the French emperor, incorporating him into his novel, Vanity Fair, and writing The Second Funeral of Napoleon in 1841. Barry Lyndon draws heavily from the same historical themes, exploring the illusions and brutal realities of social ambition.

    What captivated Kubrick about Thackeray was his ability to expose the cruelty beneath the polished facade of aristocratic life. The rigid etiquette of the 18th century – a period described variously as an age of gentility, sensibility and enlightenment – demanded an emotional detachment that fascinated the director.

    Thackeray was, in many ways, a 19th-century sociologist, dissecting the class system, conspicuous consumption and the mercenary nature of marriage. These themes resonated deeply with Kubrick, whose films often explored power structures, status and manipulation.

    An outsider’s perspective

    Some critics have noticed a similarity between Kubrick and his lead character. As an American Jew living in north London, married to a German woman, Kubrick felt one step removed from the society around him, perhaps even somewhat of a social pariah. Ryan O’Neal’s casting as Barry was largely a commercial necessity – Kubrick needed a bankable star – but it also added a personal layer.

    Like Kubrick, O’Neal’s Barry is an outsider, the lone American in a European cast, a social climber forever out of place. The novel’s narrator observes that “those who’ve never been out of their country…” lack a certain perspective. It was something that Kubrick, a Bronx-born autodidact who had taught himself everything from chess to classical music, could surely relate to.

    The battle scene from Barry Lyndon.

    This theme of the outsider striving for greatness runs through much of Kubrick’s work. In 1960, he spoke admiringly of “the outsider who is passionately committed to action against the social order,” whether criminals, maniacs, revolutionaries, or dreamers.

    From Johnny Clay in The Killing, to Colonel Dax in Paths of Glory, and from Spartacus to Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick’s protagonists are often men on the fringes of society. Barry Lyndon fits this mould perfectly, though his ambitions ultimately lead to his downfall.



    Read more:
    Stanley Kubrick redefined: recent research challenges myths to reveal the man behind the legend

    But Barry Lyndon is also, unexpectedly, one of Kubrick’s most emotional films. For all its detachment, it contains what might be his most heartbreaking scene, namely Barry’s devastation at the death of his son. In this moment, the film’s rigid, painterly compositions soften, revealing a rare vulnerability in Kubrick’s work.

    Ultimately, Barry Lyndon was more than a historical exercise. It was a deeply personal film, pursued at great financial and artistic risk. Kubrick created a film that is as much about social mobility and exile as it is about 18th-century Europe. If 2001 is a space odyssey, Barry Lyndon is a spatial odyssey, a film that turns the past into something mesmerising yet achingly real.

    Nathan Abrams receives and has previously received external funding, including government funding, foundation, charity and research council grants for this and similar work.

    – ref. Barry Lyndon at 50: why Kubrick’s most overlooked masterpiece deserves another viewing – https://theconversation.com/barry-lyndon-at-50-why-kubricks-most-overlooked-masterpiece-deserves-another-viewing-248484

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: William Wordsworth’s last home is up for sale – returning it to a private residence would be a loss for the UK’s cultural heritage

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amy Wilcockson, Research assistant, University of Glasgow

    Until recently, fans of William Wordsworth could visit his final home, Rydal Mount and Gardens, nestled in the heart of England’s green and beautiful Lake District. Renowned as one of the most prominent British poets, the works of Wordsworth (1770-1850) include what is widely regarded as the most famous poem in the English language, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

    So it’s not surprising that his immaculately maintained house and gardens, with breathtaking views of Lake Windermere and Rydal Water, once attracted 45,000 visitors a year.

    However, rising costs, a fall in visitor numbers to 20,000 or fewer per year, and the residual effects of the pandemic have placed the future of the museum in question.

    The current owners have put Rydal Mount on the market for the first time since 1969 for £2.5 million – meaning this important piece of literary heritage, depending on who buys it, could become closed to the public.

    The house was bought by Mary Henderson, Wordsworth’s great-great-granddaughter, in 1969 and opened as a writer’s house museum a year later.

    Rydal Mount was originally a small 16th-century cottage. By 1813, there was enough room for Wordsworth, his wife Mary and three surviving children, plus Wordsworth’s sister-in-law Sara and sister Dorothy – author of the Grasmere Journal, which detailed the household’s life.

    Leaving the cramped conditions of the more famous Dove Cottage behind them, it was at Rydal Mount that Wordsworth truly settled, building a “writing hut” and extensively landscaping the grounds to his own design.

    This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

    Next to Rydal Mount is Dora’s Field, which also has literary significance. Here, the poet is believed to have planted 1,847 daffodils to mark his daughter Dora’s memory, following her death from tuberculosis aged 42. These daffodils still bloom every spring.

    While living at Rydal Mount, Wordsworth revised his epic “The Prelude” and wrote many other popular poems. This too is the house where he died in 1850. It was only when Mary died in 1859 that the family’s tenancy of the house came to an end.

    Visitors get to step into the house where all this happened and see a wealth of rare objects, including a rare portrait of Dorothy and Wordsworth’s letter to Queen Victoria refusing the job of Poet Laureate (which he later accepted).

    Owning England’s heritage

    Visitors go to literary museums to experience the “spirit of the place”, to “encounter” the author and absorb some of their creativity. One recent visitor to Rydal Mount was so disappointed not to meet Wordsworth personally that they wrote a disparaging review, telling of their confusion that the poet “wasn’t in” and “when [they] asked when he would be home, all [they] got was blank stares.”

    Wordworth is so closely connected to the Lake District that marketing strategies have used him to promote the area since the 1800s. Rydal Mount has had an integral role in maintaining these traditions. The estate agent’s advert is keen to stress the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of England’s heritage” and the “superb gardens … designed by Wordsworth himself”.

    In selling the museum as it is, there is a real risk that Rydal Mount could become a private home lost to the public eye – much like Greta Hall, the home of Wordsworth’s fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which has long been privately owned.

    Prospective closure is not uncommon for smaller museums in 2025. A recent report noted that three in five small museums fear closure because of declining revenue and footfall. 2020 was the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth and should have been a bumper year of events and tourism for the Lake District. Instead, the pandemic ravaged the celebrations and left tourist attractions in financial peril that many have not recovered from.

    William Wordsworth lived at Rydal Mount for 37 years and died there.
    Wikimedia, CC BY

    Critics will argue that even if Rydal Mount does close, there are still three more Wordsworth homes open to visitors (Dove Cottage, the favourite of tourist guides, Wordsworth House and Garden, and Allan Bank). Even Wordsworth’s old school is a museum.

    The closure of Rydal Mount would inevitably boost these other sites’ visitor numbers – particularly Dove Cottage, which is on the same (albeit long) road as Rydal Mount. And the condition of Wordsworth’s last home could potentially be improved by a private owner with ample funds to upkeep the house.

    However, it is also true that public appreciation of museums remains high, with 89% of adults in a 2024 YouGov survey advocating for their importance to UK culture, and 54% registering disappointment if their local museum were to close.

    While the British Museum has experienced its highest visitor numbers since 2015, more needs to be done to save regional museums and writer’s house museums from closure. The sale of Rydal Mount into private hands may prove a severe loss to literary history, leaving the Lake District much the poorer for it.

    Amy Wilcockson 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. William Wordsworth’s last home is up for sale – returning it to a private residence would be a loss for the UK’s cultural heritage – https://theconversation.com/william-wordsworths-last-home-is-up-for-sale-returning-it-to-a-private-residence-would-be-a-loss-for-the-uks-cultural-heritage-253561

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How controversial nutritionist John Harvey Kellogg pioneered the path to modern plant-based eating

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lauren Alex O’Hagan, Research Fellow, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University

    MVelishchuk/Shutterstock

    When you hear the name Kellogg, Corn Flakes might be the first thing that comes to mind. But John Harvey Kellogg is famous for more than just breakfast cereals.

    In many respects, this American doctor, nutritionist, inventor and entrepreneur was ahead of his time. Perhaps the first wellness influencer over a century before Gwyneth Paltrow got in on the act, he advocated startlingly similar treatments and practices.

    But Kellogg was also a divisive figure due to his strong support for eugenics and “racial hygiene”. Driven by concerns about what he termed “race degeneracy”, he founded the Race Betterment Foundation in 1914 – a stance that has since blighted his reputation.

    Kellogg believed that food was medicine. Undoubtedly the pioneer of today’s plant-based movement, he may have been impressed by the explosive growth of the global meat substitute market over the past decade.

    As more people seek ethical, sustainable and health-conscious lifestyles, the demand for plant-based products has skyrocketed. In response, major food corporations have re-branded or developed new offerings to meet this shift in consumer preferences.

    What was once a niche market is now mainstream, with 4,965 products launched worldwide between 2019 and 2021. Today, the global meat substitute market is valued at over US$13 billion (£10 billion), and projections suggest it could reach nearly US$88 billion by 2032.



    Read more:
    A fixation on ‘clean eating’ can be harmful – and perfectionists may be at greater risk of taking it too far

    Kellogg’s game-changing invention

    As director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Kellogg redefined the connection between food, bodies and health. His philosophy of “biologic living” led him to experiment with a diverse range of health treatments. On the practical end, he championed fresh air, bathing and foods containing live bacteria. On the more eccentric side, he explored bizarre methods including yoghurt enemas, vibrating chairs and even genital mutilation.

    Inspired by the Progressive clean-living movement, Kellogg developed the Battle Creek diet system, which promoted vegetarianism as a way to counter the negative effects of meat on digestion and the nervous system.

    With his wife Ella, he set up an experimental kitchen to explore plant-based alternatives to meat. He was convinced that nuts and grains could provide healthier and more sustainable protein sources.

    In 1896, the US Department of Agriculture approached Kellogg with a request to create a plant-based food product that could serve as a safe, nutritious alternative to meat. Kellogg embraced the challenge and created several innovative products. These included Nuttose, made from ground-up nuts and cereal grains; Granose, a solid-wheat based biscuit; and Protose, a blend of wheat gluten, cereal and ground peanuts.

    Recognising their commercial potential, Kellogg launched the Sanitas Nut Food Company in 1899. By 1912, Sanitas was shipping over 65,000kg of its “vegetable meat” annually across the US. The Chicago Tribune boldly declared that Kellogg had solved “the meat problem”.

    The power of ‘shockvertising’

    Sanitas embarked on a major marketing campaign across popular US press outlets. Its advertisements relied on “shockvertising” to stir fear about meat consumption, often including disturbing images of animal suffering to drive home that message.

    One memorable advert, titled “Why Slay to Eat”, showed a chained, bleeding cow kneeling before a man wielding a mallet. Another took aim at readers, calling them “Pigarians” and claiming that eating pork made a man “piggified” with a “hoggish expression”. Others warned that unsanitary slaughterhouses and food contamination made meat toxic and caused diseases like tapeworm and trichinosis.


    The Vegetarian magazine vol.4 no.11, August 1900. Courtesy of HathiTrust

    Adverts also relied on testimonials from famous sports stars and leading medical figures, praising the health benefits of meat substitutes which were presented as a panacea that could make people fitter, stronger and more youthful. Calls to “return to nature” and eat like our ancestors were also frequent – what food scholars today refer to as “nutritional primitivism”.

    To reassure anxious consumers, the adverts emphasised the products’ similarity in taste and appearance to meat. They also suggested that meat substitutes could make housewives’ lives easier, as they required little preparation and could be served in a variety of ways.

    Meat substitutes today

    Today, many meat substitute products are made by large food corporations that also sell meat. Because of this, marketing has evolved, with meat substitutes often positioned as part of a wider range of dietary choices, rather than simply replacements for meat.

    As a result, the bold, critical ads of the past that attacked meat consumption have become less common. Instead, today’s adverts often focus on environmental concerns and the ethics of eating meat, linking bodily health with the health of the planet.



    Read more:
    Lab–grown and plant–based meat: the science, psychology and future of meat alternatives – podcast

    However, many still highlight how meat substitutes look and taste like real meat. This can unintentionally reinforce the idea that “good” nutrition is based on meat, and diminish the value of meat substitutes in their own right.

    I believe today’s adverts could do more to educate people about the nutritional benefits and variety of meat-free foods, while also raising awareness about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. This shift could help meat substitutes stand on their own as viable food choices, moving them beyond the trend cycle and into mainstream diets.

    Lauren Alex O’Hagan 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 controversial nutritionist John Harvey Kellogg pioneered the path to modern plant-based eating – https://theconversation.com/how-controversial-nutritionist-john-harvey-kellogg-pioneered-the-path-to-modern-plant-based-eating-252960

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is the risk of brain injury from contact sports being overstated by the media?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christian Yates, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Biology, University of Bath

    PeopleImages/Shutterstock

    More and more people are worried about the long-term effects of contact sports on the brain. In football (soccer), studies have found that repeatedly heading the ball can lead to memory problems and an increased risk of serious brain diseases. This has led to rules limiting heading the ball in youth leagues and calls to protect professional players in similar ways.

    In American football, research shows a high number of former players have a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This has prompted the National Football League (NFL) to change some rules and introduce better safety equipment.

    Rugby, a sport known for its hard collisions, is also becoming more aware of head injuries. As a result, new rules require players to rest after a concussion – and there are stricter rules about preventing head contact during games.

    Some older players are taking legal action because of the brain injuries they suffered. Lawyers are representing over 500 former players from both rugby union and rugby league, claiming that repetitive head impacts during their careers caused long-lasting brain damage.

    The lawyers argue that the sports’ governing bodies failed to protect these former players from the effects of blows to the head.

    A recent BBC article said that “almost two-thirds of the claimants in a concussion lawsuit against rugby league authorities” had symptoms of CTE. Two-thirds is a lot, but is it really that surprising?

    It’s important to remember that the players in this lawsuit are a self-selecting sample. These people have been chosen for inclusion in the class action lawsuit precisely because they have evidence of brain damage. We should expect a high prevalence of conditions like CTE in this sample. So we must be careful not to infer something about all rugby players that is not supported by the data.

    However, perhaps the BBC article is not so troubling, since the condition for selection – that the players were part of the lawsuit – is clearly stated. More problematic are articles in which the conditions for the selection of the studied sample are not so clearly laid out.

    Another BBC article, published in 2023, summarised the results of studies investigating the prevalence of CTE in the brains of deceased rugby players. It reported that “68% of the brains had traces of the brain condition CTE”. This might suggest to readers that CTE is very common among all rugby players.

    In American football, the problem appears to be even more prevalent. In 2017, the BBC ran an article with the headline: Brain disease affects 99% of NFL players in study. The piece led with the sentence: “A study of American football players’ brains has found that 99% of professional NFL athletes tested had a disease associated with head injuries.”

    This sounds extremely alarming and might lead readers to surmise that nearly all professional NFL players will develop CTE. The study also surveyed the brains of college and high-school students, concluding: “Of the 202 total players, 87% were found to have traces of CTE,” giving the impression that most American football players at all levels might expect to develop CTE.

    Selection bias

    CTE research is difficult because the disease can only be diagnosed by examining samples of a patient’s brain tissue after their death. Consequently, for the NFL study, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine, who conducted the research, drew their sample from the VA Boston Healthcare System’s “brain bank”.

    The bank, established to better understand the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma, holds hundreds of donated brains potentially damaged through sporting or military activities.

    And herein lies the problem. Many of the brains held in the bank were donated by families who suspected that their loved ones had CTE. The study hugely overrepresented players who were likely to have CTE in comparison to the general American football-playing population.

    To their credit, the scientists who conducted this research were at pains to point out their sample was not representative and should not be used to draw population-level conclusions.

    In particular, the conclusion that many sports fans reading the headlines will have come to – that a huge proportion of American football players will suffer from CTE – is not supported by the study. Somehow, that message got lost between the research article and the media’s reporting of it.

    The eye-catching statistics about the prevalence of CTE in rugby players, derived from a study at the University of Glasgow, are the result of a similar misrepresentation of the underlying research. In this case, the brains that were analysed came from three brain banks (from Scotland, the US and Australia).

    All of these repositories take donations of brains from people who were more likely to have suffered from neurological conditions, and so are unlikely to be representative of the underlying population of ruby players.

    The weight of evidence linking repetitive blows to the head to brain harm (particularly to CTE) is growing stronger. Studies comparing footballers to the general population show the increase in neurological conditions among football players is probably not a statistical fluke.

    However, if we seek to truly understand the risks of undertaking these contact sports, loved by billions, then we need to look beyond the startling headlines. Selection bias, caused by a disparity in the reasons why brains are donated for study, means it’s not enough just to sample from the brains we have available in order to establish an estimate of the prevalence of such diseases.

    Instead, we need to understand who is missing from the studied population, and use that information to infer how a potentially biased sample might cause the statistics we read in the headlines to be unrepresentative.

    Christian Yates 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. Is the risk of brain injury from contact sports being overstated by the media? – https://theconversation.com/is-the-risk-of-brain-injury-from-contact-sports-being-overstated-by-the-media-253378

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Activists living in exile could strengthen Canada’s democracy — if given the right support

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Philip Leech-Ngo, Visiting Professor, Ethics and International Development, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

    Mounting threats to Canadian sovereignty, particularly — but not exclusively — from United States President Donald Trump, have sparked renewed calls for national resilience.

    Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico and inflammatory rhetoric have fuelled a wave of patriotism and nationalism.

    However, true independence goes beyond economic concerns. It’s about cultivating, committing to and preserving democratic values, including the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, and ways of governance that ensure every person is valued, represented and belongs.

    Historically, Canada has provided refuge to those who have risked everything to oppose authoritarian regimes, including activists living in exile.

    Activists-in-exile are individuals who have been forced to flee their countries due to their work defending human rights, advocating for democratic governance, rooting out corruption, peacebuilding, demanding environmental protection and practising independent journalism, among other endeavours.

    These individuals bring with them not only their personal stories and attitudes of resilience, but also their expertise in governance, human rights and social justice. As Canada faces growing challenges and uncertainty, they represent a tremendous potential asset to help Canada defend democracy and promote sustainable peace and development.

    A vital force for democracy

    Despite their displacement, activists-in-exile continue to play a crucial role in global democratic movements. Unlike traditional diaspora groups focused on cultural preservation, activists-in-exile engage in direct political advocacy and often work to expose foreign interference, counter disinformation and support democratic movements from afar.

    Our initiative, Voices in Exile, researches activists-in-exile and amplifies their contributions and advocates for policies that recognize their particular roles in defending democracy and social justice. Their efforts combat corruption, foster peace and protect human rights and well-being.

    An introduction to the Voices in Exile project.

    These individuals have championed women’s rights, campaigned against genocide and fought for free expression and accountable governance. Many continue their advocacy in exile, shaping public discourse and influencing policies both in Canada and abroad.

    By welcoming these activists, Canada could strengthen its own institutions — domestically and abroad — and make them more resistant to the forces that undermine democracy, justice and freedom worldwide. Their work is critical in resisting authoritarianism and countering both digital and physical foreign interference.

    Overlooking activists-in-exile

    Despite their potential, activists-in-exile are often overlooked or met with skepticism in Canada.

    Some Canadian politicians, like federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, have framed their views of patriotism as a matter of national security and economic self-sufficiency, warning against foreign influences. Poilievre recently said immigrants should “leave the war behind” when coming to Canada, implying their past struggles should be forgotten upon arrival.

    This is certainly easier said than done, especially in an age where technology can keep people instantly connected across borders. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect newcomers simply to forget who supported them in their hour of need or the communities that continue to suffer in their absence. They are also unlikely to surrender ongoing interests or their basic values.

    Through our work with Voices in Exile, we have learned that many newcomers involuntarily leave behind family, livelihoods and status, only to face significant hurdles re-establishing themselves in Canada. While some activists-in-exile persist and continue to be impactful, they often do so under unnecessary constraints that limit their full potential.

    If legitimate concerns about professional qualifications and social stability exist, they can be addressed through tailored support systems. While Canada provides resettlement for a limited number of human rights defenders, there is no program to engage with them once they arrive. This needs to change.

    At the same time, activists-in-exile should not be treated solely as victims or as potential risks, particularly in light of growing transnational repression. Instead, their specialized knowledge and skills should be recognized as a force to strengthen democracy both in Canada and their countries of origin.

    A strategic investment

    Recognizing and supporting activists-in-exile would be a strategic investment for Canada, not an act of charity. Many have become educators, researchers and policymakers, shaping debates on governance and security.

    Others have founded organizations, launched media platforms and built networks that support democracy movements globally. As our project Voices in Exile shows, many activists-in-exile also contribute to Canada’s economy, and work in law, social and psycho-social services, and the media landscape.

    Beyond being a matter of principle, welcoming activists-in-exile is a move that would strengthen Canada’s leadership in the global fight for democracy. Their integration into Canadian society aligns with Canada’s longstanding role in promoting democratic ideals on the world stage.

    Yet, despite their vast potential, there is no tailored public policy or dedicated institution to harness this human capital in a way that aligns with Canada’s democratic commitments. The existing guidelines for supporting human rights defenders are insufficient for supporting activists-in-exile.

    Canada should support exiled activists by facilitating collaboration among these individuals and Canadian public, academic, community, government and civil society organizations. In addition, Canada should establish a legal framework that allows activists-in-exile to contribute to the development of foreign policy. A dedicated fund should also be created that offers financial support for their activist efforts.

    As global authoritarianism continues to rise, the question is not whether we should acknowledge activists-in-exile — it is whether we have the wisdom to lead by example and invest in recognizing and supporting them.

    Philip Leech-Ngo receives funding from Open Societies Foundation

    Frederick John Packer has received funding from SSHRC and OSF.

    Nadia Abu-Zahra has received funding from SSHRC and OSF.

    – ref. Activists living in exile could strengthen Canada’s democracy — if given the right support – https://theconversation.com/activists-living-in-exile-could-strengthen-canadas-democracy-if-given-the-right-support-251440

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Dogs see their world through smell – and scientists are starting to translate it like never before

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jacqueline Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University

    Lorenzooooo/Shutterstock

    Scent is how dogs largely experience the world, a lot like the way we humans rely on sight. We know little about how dogs interpret scent, but thanks to a recent study, we may be getting closer to understanding what a dog’s nose actually knows.

    Dogs are primed to detect smells. The average dog’s nose has more than 10 million scent receptors in their nose, compared to humans, who only have about 6 million.

    This makes the canine nose more than 10, 000 times better at detecting scents than we are. They can detect minute quantities of scent. For example, forensic detection dogs can detect 0.01 microlitres of gasolene. A microlitre is one millionth of a litre.

    Humans have exploited dogs’ olfactory superpowers in a number of ways, which has no doubt contributed to the deep relationship we have developed with our canine companions over 40,000 years living together.

    Dogs still join us as hunting partners, sniffing out food. They work beside us as vital members of crime-fighting teams, finding illicit substances, as medical colleagues for disease detection, and as partners in conservation efforts, finding rare and endangered species.

    Despite the widespread involvement of dogs as natural scent detectors, we remain largely oblivious as to how dogs interpret what they smell and how they perceive the world in which they live.

    We don’t know much about dogs’ experience of smell – but we know they’re good at it.
    Sundays Photography/Shutterstock

    Exploring the brain activity of dogs when they are exposed to specific smells can help identify which of their brain regions are associated with scent detection. This helps scientists understand what the dog is experiencing, which might help us enhance the selection and training of sniffer dogs.

    Until now, scientists needed expensive equipment to study dogs’ brains and research methods that required dogs to stay still. This means we know less about the brains of active working dogs who might struggle to remain motionless for long periods.

    But we can’t simply apply the data from dogs who can cope with sitting still since dog breeds have differences in their training and scenting skills.

    Sensing scents

    The recent study I mentioned at the beginning of this article uses a new, cheap and non-invasive method to explore how the canine brain responds to scent. The researchers think that this method – known as AI speckle pattern analysis – will help us identify how dog brains react to scents and what it means for how dogs perceive and respond to the world around them in future research too.

    The researchers developed an optical sensor to target three brain areas involved in canine scent discrimination: the amygdala, olfactory bulb and hippocampus. The amygdala is responsible for emotional responses to stimuli.

    The olfactory bulb is involved with odour processing and the hippocampus is associated with memory formation.

    The equipment used in the study consisted of a high resolution digital camera linked to a computer, plus a green laser. Laser light, capable of penetrating dog fur and skull bone, was shone on the heads of four relaxed, blindfolded study dogs who were exposed to four different scents: alcohol, marijuana, menthol and garlic. These substances all appear to evoke similar olfactory responses in dogs.

    As laser light was reflected from the three brain areas, the camera detected interference as a distinct “speckle” pattern. The camera made recordings for five seconds, repeated four times for each scent.

    AI analysed differences in the speckle patterns from the different brain regions to create models of how the brain regions of the dogs responded to each scent.

    It’s not just sniffing

    The study results highlighted the importance of the amygdala for canine scent discrimination. This suggests that there could be an emotional component to how dogs sense their environment. Taste and odour detection are also known to be linked to memory formation and emotional state in humans.

    Because dogs appear to experience emotional responses to scents, training methods and experiences might need to take this into consideration. For example, dogs often link the characteristic aroma of the veterinary surgery with less-than-fun situations.

    Dogs in training for scent detection would also probably benefit from being in a positive emotional state when they are exposed to training odours.

    This research could even pave the way to developing specialised equipment for detecting and translating the olfactory responses of dogs. Mobile equipment that works rapidly could allow us to interpret what dogs’ noses are telling them in real time.

    This isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. If you’ve seen the Disney movie Up, you probably remember Dug the dog who wore a bark translation collar. Well, scientists have developed a real collar that claims to tell you what your dog’s vocalisations mean.

    It’s difficult to say how accurate it is without analysing the data the collar’s AI was trained on, but the database is growing as more dogs use the collars. If the collars do prove accurate, it might not be too long before wearable technology can tell us exactly what our dogs are saying and smelling.

    Jacqueline Boyd is affiliated with The Kennel Club (UK) through membership and as advisor to the Health Advisory Group. Jacqueline is a full member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT #01583) and she also writes, consults and coaches on canine matters on an independent basis, in addition to her academic affiliation at Nottingham Trent University.

    – ref. Dogs see their world through smell – and scientists are starting to translate it like never before – https://theconversation.com/dogs-see-their-world-through-smell-and-scientists-are-starting-to-translate-it-like-never-before-252659

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: East Asia is challenging Silicon Valley – by being like Silicon Valley used to be

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Vice Dean, Global Engagement | Associate Professor in Political Economy and Entrepreneurship, King’s College London

    East Asia’s tech scene is enjoying considerable success. imtmphoto / Shutterstock

    Silicon Valley has been a universal symbol of innovation for decades. Because of its reputation, governments around the world have tried to foster their own versions by investing heavily in tech hubs.

    These efforts, which include Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, Silicon Island in Malaysia and Silicon Roundabout in the UK, have not always worked. But some places, particularly parts of east Asia, have seen their own Silicon Valleys flourish.

    China has the world’s second-largest venture capital market, scores of startups, and cutting-edge tech to challenge Silicon Valley. Japan and Korea have also become some of the most active corporate venture capital investors in the world.

    At the same time, these challenger ecosystems possess some of the attributes of Silicon Valley in its heyday. More, in some ways, than Silicon Valley itself does these days.

    The scale of Silicon Valley remains unparalleled, at least for now. In 2024, the region’s market capitalisation (the value of companies’ publicly traded shares) had reached US$14.3 trillion (£11 trillion). This is comparable to the entire GDP of China, the world’s second-largest economy.

    But Silicon Valley is no longer a counter-cultural world of startups in garages, where small, disruptive organisations build world-changing products on a shoestring. It has morphed into a land of Goliaths, not Davids.

    Cups of instant noodles have, for many, been replaced by açaí bowls, and office all-nighters with wellbeing workshops and digital detox retreats. Stalwart investors, such as Sequoia’s Mike Moritz, have complained that Silicon Valley tech workers have become “lazy and entitled”.

    Silicon Valley is a region in northern California that is a global centre for technology and innovation.
    Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock

    Meanwhile, the work ethic and laser focus of tech workers elsewhere has advanced. About ten years ago, Chinese tech’s working hours were described as “996” – working from 9am to 9pm six days a week. They are now referred to as “007”, a schedule where employees work from midnight to midnight, seven days a week.

    ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal’

    The history of Silicon Valley is one of hungry challengers disrobing the big, boring incumbents. Apple raised equity investment from Xerox, then a leading print production corporation, and used the access to Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center to take inspiration from the company’s plans for a computer that had a graphical user interface. Apple later refined the software for the Macintosh, giving it its edge.

    In 1996, Jobs famously said: “Picasso had a saying – ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”

    Today, the Goliaths leading Silicon Valley have huge intellectual property portfolios to defend. And they are outraged when their tech is taken. OpenAI, the American company that made ChatGPT, has even asked the US government to declare Chinese AI firm DeepSeek “state controlled” and to outlaw its use in the US. Huawei and Bytedance’s TikTok have faced similar calls in the past.

    In western media, much of the focus on the moment DeepSeek disrupted the AI landscape has been about how it rattled Silicon Valley. But there has been less coverage on how it has instigated instant rivals within China.

    Days after Deepseek’s release, Chinese tech company Alibaba announced that its AI model was superior. And China recently launched Manus, a fully autonomous AI agent that fully replaces rather than assists humans.

    China’s answer to Silicon Valley is what Taiwanese businessman, Kai-fu Lee, calls “gladiatorial entrepreneurship”. This is where founders constantly innovate because as soon as their product is released, they know it will be copied and reverse engineered. The system as a whole benefits from the intense competition, the way Silicon Valley did in its ascent.

    The students have become the teacher

    Silicon Valley used to be known for its counter culture and its outsized vision of how tech can transform the globe. This is epitomised by Masayoshi Son, a former student of Silicon Valley from east Asia who is the founder and CEO of Japanese firm SoftBank.

    He first came to Silicon Valley in the early 1980s and quickly integrated into the Silicon Valley way of business. Son launched his own startup when he returned to Japan, modelled on what he experienced in the few years he lived in California. With this, Softbank was born as a software distributor.

    SoftBank’s Vision Fund is now the largest venture capital fund in the world, with over US$100 billion (£77.5 billion) in capital. Son’s giant fund and impatient style of investing have contributed to change in Silicon Valley. Ballooning valuations and the use of exploding term sheets (investment offers that expire within a matter of days) are increasingly the norm.

    Son is stylised as a classic outsider. Gambling Man, a recently published book from the former editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, details how Son is not “really Japanese” (he’s ethnically Korean) and has long touted this challenger narrative.

    Now as one of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, he is pushy, confrontational and has a huge vision for how technologies such as AI can change the world. He is the purveyor of that grand vision and an advocate for the risk-taking that is synonymous with “classic” Silicon Valley.

    Meanwhile, China’s AI gladiators innovate constantly in their bid to overtake the once hungry American behemoths who are now forced to call on the state to help shore-up their position. The contrasting trajectories raise questions about who should now become more like whom if they are to win the global technology race.

    Robyn Klingler-Vidra 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. East Asia is challenging Silicon Valley – by being like Silicon Valley used to be – https://theconversation.com/east-asia-is-challenging-silicon-valley-by-being-like-silicon-valley-used-to-be-251854

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Salafi Muslims are going into politics instead of trying to change the world through religious education or jihadi violence

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Guy Robert Patrick Eyre, Research Fellow, Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh

    Pseudonyms are used in this article to protect the anonymity of the research participants.

    I met Sheikh Ahmed at a small mosque in central Morocco in October 2016. He told me: “We used to believe that Islam forbids all modern politics. We believed that politics was a western practice that divides Muslims and distracts them from worship.”

    Ahmed is a proponent of Salafism, a form of Islamic “fundamentalism” and one of the most influential religious movements of the past 40 years. He continued: “But from 2011, we began to understand that Islam in fact requires us to enter politics.”

    Salafi attacks perpetrated by al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State (IS) have led to enormous interest in Islamic fundamentalism among western analysts, policymakers and journalists. This commentary has tended to understand Salafism to be a broadly static global ideology, inherently opposed to modern politics and largely detached from what is happening in the neighbourhoods in which its followers live and worship.

    During eight years of in-depth research on Salafi groups in north Africa, I found something significant. In response to the “Arab Uprising” protests that shook north Africa and the wider Arab world between 2010 and 2012, many north African Salafis – including Ahmed – began to rethink their ideological convictions. Many decided their goal of changing the world required neither “apolitical” religious education nor violence. Instead, many began to participate in parliamentary politics.

    Also known as “Wahhabism”, Salafism emerged in Islamic institutions and universities in Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab Gulf by the 1960s. Despite being widely regarded as a Saudi Arabia-centred ideology, Salafism has since been adopted – and, importantly, adapted – by a large number of pious Muslims in north Africa, the wider Muslim world, and the west.

    Salafis share a religious doctrine that calls on Muslims to revive an “authentic” approach to Islam centred on strict monotheism. Salafis have traditionally argued, therefore, that Muslims should reject modern politics. Instead, they must dedicate themselves to applying the beliefs and practices of the first generations of Muslims in all aspects of their lives.

    Nevertheless, Salafis have long disagreed over how exactly to apply this doctrine to society and politics. Should they focus on religious education and preaching in an effort to form an “authentic” Muslim community? Or should they criticise their political rulers or revolt?

    Jihadi Salafis respond to this dilemma by supporting the use of revolutionary violence. They see it as a means of fighting westernisation and unseating “un-Islamic” rulers. By contrast, mainstream “quietist” Salafis reject both politics and violence as “immoral” practices. Instead, they seek to change the world through religious preaching and by offering strict loyalty to political rulers as a matter of faith.

    From the late 1970s until the late 2000s, Salafism gradually spread from the Arab Gulf into North Africa. This took place as Moroccan, Tunisian, Libyan and Egyptian students returned to their countries of origin after studying in Saudi Arabia and the broader Arab Gulf. Back home, many established quietist Salafi movements.

    To different extents, North African regimes thought their “apolitical” beliefs and loyalty to governments made them useful allies. Consequently, quietist Salafis were generally allowed to expand their religious activities. By the late 1990s, they had gained significant local followings.

    In tandem, North African jihadi Salafis returned from the insurgency in Afghanistan (1978-92) and also built followings in their home countries. Jihadi Salafi militants led violent attacks against both local and western targets in north Africa. Consequently, they were harshly repressed by security forces.

    After the Arab Spring: choosing politics

    The Salafi rejection of politics was dramatically upended by the Arab Uprising protests between late 2010 and 2012. Dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt were swiftly deposed. While the Moroccan monarchy was not overthrown, to appease the demonstrators it relinquished some control over the political system and introduced limited reforms.

    Determined to take advantage of these new political openings, many quietist and former jihadi Salafis across North Africa suddenly turned political. They established political parties, ran for political office, and forged new political alliances. Perhaps most spectacularly, a new Salafi party in Egypt captured a quarter of the vote in the 2011-12 parliamentary elections.

    In neighbouring Libya, mounting political instability following the downfall of its former president, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011 saw quietist and former jihadi Salafis win positions within local ministries and establish informal police forces. Quietist and former jihadi Salafis in Morocco and Tunisia also joined, formed alliances with, and established political parties.

    This rapid politicisation of North African Salafism challenges long-held assumptions about Islamic fundamentalism. Salafis are not inherently apolitical, and their approach to politics and violence is not set in stone by a global, Saudi Arabia-influenced religious doctrine.

    Rather, they are pragmatic and flexible. The large political openings in North Africa brought about by the Arab Uprisings pushed them to rethink their core religious beliefs as they sought to expand their influence.

    As such, rather than being an idiosyncratic and uniquely dogmatic movement, Salafis are much like other ideological religious movements. They are savvy political players who can adjust their strategies and “universalist” worldviews according to the current situation, wherever they live.

    Dr. Guy Robert Eyre receives funding for his research on North African Salafism from the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

    – ref. Salafi Muslims are going into politics instead of trying to change the world through religious education or jihadi violence – https://theconversation.com/salafi-muslims-are-going-into-politics-instead-of-trying-to-change-the-world-through-religious-education-or-jihadi-violence-247259

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: When farmers and scientists collaborate, biodiversity and agriculture can thrive – here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Charles Masquelier, Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Exeter

    The Burren mountains, Ireland. Pusteflower9024/Shutterstock

    The Burren region of County Clare, Ireland, is famous for its distinctive limestone habitat, coastal landscape, rich wildlife and unusual archaeology. Several hundred farmers also manage livestock on this land.

    As social scientists, we’ve been investigating how farmers engage with environmental management and biodiversity renewal in England and Scotland because there is an ongoing nature crisis, with accelerating species extinctions, loss of habitat and harmful pollution.

    Our findings show that giving farmers greater opportunities to draw on their knowledge and experiences encourages better environmental results than conventional farming incentives.

    Many environmental campaigners, including author and Guardian columnist George Monbiot, don’t see farming as a way to help solve the biodiversity crisis.

    But one EU-funded initiative, the BurrenLife project, has revolutionised how farmers and scientists collaborate by tackling reluctance or wariness and shifting mindsets through the practice of “conservation farming”. This developed into an “agri-environment” (nature-friendly farming) initiative called the Burren Life programme which incentivises farmers in Ireland to prioritise nature by boosting endangered bird populations or restoring specific habitats.

    Most (70%) of UK land is used for agriculture. Therefore success in tackling the biodiversity crisis depends on the active involvement of farmers.

    From the 1980s successive UK governments have paid farmers to restore nature and mitigate the effects of climate change in the form of voluntary agri-environment schemes. These schemes, such as Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive, provide financial incentives for farmers to help restore biodiversity by, for example, planting flower-rich hay meadows.

    But despite the billions of pounds invested and significant uptake by farmers, biodiversity continues to decline and more work needs to be done to improve farmers’ participation.

    Research suggests that the lack of effectiveness of those schemes is influenced by their limited capacity to inspire long-term changes in farming practices.

    The clash between local knowledge and scientific expertise concerns us. Existing agri-environment schemes are prescriptive with limited options for farmers. This, combined with polarisation between farmers and conservationists about rewilding for example, means that local knowledge of farmers tends to be excluded from environmental decisions.

    While conservation scientists hold essential knowledge for tackling the biodiversity crisis, farmers know their land best. Often this knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. Historically, however, agri-environmental management in the UK has operated on the basis of prescriptions informed by scientific expertise that don’t consider the land characteristics or specific context of particular farms.

    Wildflower strips along the edges of field provide valuable habitat for pollinators such as bees.
    yanikap/Shutterstock

    By joining an agri-environment scheme, farmers are expected to take actions such as planting crops that can manage soil erosion and improve soil health, or managing hedgerows, which can act as wildlife highways. While farmers can choose which actions to take, such payment-by-action schemes don’t offer much scope to adapt environmental solutions to their knowledge of the land.

    Crucially, the lack of consistent monitoring provides farmers with few opportunities to report back on the success or failure of actions they have taken to recover nature. According to our research, farmers often feel their valuable on-the-ground knowledge is being ignored.

    Unusually, the Burren Life programme relies on environmental targets that are co-designed by scientists and farmers. The co-design process involves farmer and adviser jointly walking the farm. Farmers explain what they’d willingly do to improve the condition of the land. The adviser then maps the activities they think will bring environmental benefits and devises an environmental plan accordingly.

    Every year, farmers are given the opportunity to decide what they’d like to do. The presence of a local office of advisers means that support for management decisions is always available and feedback aimed at improving their environmental plan is consistently encouraged. Farmers are also involved in the monitoring of other farmers’ actions.

    Secrets of success

    Our research undertaken as part of the Renew project, which aims to develop solutions for biodiversity renewal in the UK, shows a strong appetite in the English uplands for the kind of flexible, farmer-centred, results-based approach promoted by the Burren Life programme.

    The Burren Life programme was highly successful in many respects. It delivered major improvements in habitat quality and fostered long-term behaviour change among participating farmers.

    It incentivised farmers to take ownership of their actions for nature conservation and restoration. They were encouraged to share their local knowledge through farm visits, annual programme reviews, feedback opportunities and monitoring exercises. That local knowledge could then be considered alongside scientific expertise by people making management decisions. The Burren Life programme effectively reconciled the farming perspective with the scientific one, in the form of conservation farming.

    It has delivered impressive value for money. The total amount spent on the Burren Life programme totalled €12.3 million (£10.3 million). Over ten years, this has resulted in habitat and landscape improvements worth €32.8 million.

    Despite its success, several Burren farmers still regard environmental programmes as antithetical to farming so co-creation is a key step in inspiring people to get involved in projects like these. And replicating conservation farming beyond the Burren will require a tailored approach that considers the environmental and cultural characteristics of each countryside community.

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

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Charles Masquelier receives funding from the government-funded body know as UKRI. This funding is for the RENEW project, which adopts a ‘people-in-nature’ approach to biodiversity renewal across the UK.

    Carolyn Petersen receives UKRI funding as part of the RENEW project, which adopts a ‘people-in-nature’ approach to biodiversity renewal across the UK. She is also involved in a Defra-funded evaluation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies in England.

    Matt Lobley receives UKRI funding as part of the RENEW project and us involved in evaluations of Defra Environmental Land Management schemes

    – ref. When farmers and scientists collaborate, biodiversity and agriculture can thrive – here’s how – https://theconversation.com/when-farmers-and-scientists-collaborate-biodiversity-and-agriculture-can-thrive-heres-how-250333

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Urban cemeteries are at capacity – here’s how they can be more sustainable

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniela Pianezzi, Associate Professor in Work and Organization Studies, University of Verona

    Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock

    Approximately 170,000 people die every day around the world – that’s around 62 million deaths in 2024 alone. The cumulative effect of this has led to what has been termed a “burial crisis”, with most urban areas where burial remains the norm expected to run out of interment space by the 2050s, some much earlier – as in, now.

    Major cities, including London and Sydney anticipate severe space shortages within the next decade. Smaller community cemeteries, such as Nuneaton cemetery in Warwickshire have already reached full capacity and begun directing families elsewhere. Finding culturally acceptable yet ethically responsible, accessible and sustainable ways of laying to rest, mourning and honouring our loved ones has become an urgent global issue.

    However, the cemetery sector has only recently begun to seriously consider the environmental consequences of how we handle our bodies after death. The sense of urgency coincides with a significant cultural shift, as cremation increasingly replaces traditional burial methods. This is due to societal secularisation, shifts in religious doctrines (including Catholicism lifting past bans) and its affordability compared to burial.

    In the UK, the percentage of cremations has risen from 9% of total burials in 1946 to 80.64% in 2023.

    Yet, cremation is far from a sustainable alternative to burial. It releases substantial amounts of pollutants, notably carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, so regulation is necessary. Technologically advanced techniques, such as water cremation – a process that uses an alkali-water-based solution to reduce a body to bones – have only recently begun to emerge as possible alternatives and remain niche.

    For several years, we have been studying cemeteries in Italy and the UK. Despite the deeply different burial traditions in these two countries (unlike the UK, Italy remains a burial culture) both face the same environmental challenges.

    A tale of two cemeteries

    A few sites do offer environmentally conscious alternatives to traditional burial. One is in Liguria, a densely populated region in northwestern Italy that has suffered significant losses due to climate change, particularly from soil erosion caused by decades of reckless coastal construction.

    Here, a group of environmentally conscious volunteers transformed a woodland called Boschi Vivi (the name means living woods) into a cemetery, creating Italy’s first forest cemetery. Though it involves cremation, this initiative is particularly groundbreaking in a country where cemeteries have historically been conceived as monumental or architectural structures.

    Often, they are heavily reliant on marble, a traditional hallmark of Italian craftsmanship, significantly reducing green spaces in urban areas. The mining of marble also creates huge greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.

    In contrast, the cimitero bosco (forest cemetery) of Boschi Vivi follows a different philosophy. Instead of traditional tombstones, only a small plaque is placed near each tree where ashes have been scattered, marking the final resting place of the deceased.

    A tree tomb in the woodland of Boschi Vivi, Liguria, Italy.
    Daniela Pianezzi, CC BY-NC-ND

    Currently, this remains a grassroots initiative that’s starting to emerge in the US and Canada too. Hopefully, more Italian public administrations will adopt this model as traditional cemeteries become increasingly financially and environmentally unsustainable.

    For three decades, Oakfield burial ground in Wrabness, Essex, UK has adopted a similar approach. Oakfield wood is a seven-acre natural woodland burial site along the banks of the river Stour in north Essex, managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. Instead of headstones or conventional memorials, a native broadleaf tree is planted for each burial, accompanied by a simple wooden plaque at its base. The site forms part of a larger nature reserve, fostering a rich habitat for wildlife.

    Unlike municipal cemeteries or other burial sites, which are often subject to redevelopment or reuse, Oakfield enjoys long-term protection under the Essex Wildlife Trust. This means that burials here are conducted in perpetuity, ensuring that the site remains undisturbed. The trust plans to manage Oakfield solely as a nature reserve once it reaches full capacity, although this will not be for many decades to come.

    Despite these promising initiatives, sites such as Boschi Vivi and Oakwood risk remaining isolated cases unless a radical rethinking of burial takes place. Whether cemeteries are perceived as eerie, macabre spaces (like in Shakespeare’s Hamlet) or as places of peace and reconciliation, as in the final scene of Forrest Gump, they are still dominated by the idea that graves should be organised as a series of permanent markers of individual lives.

    Our research shows that it’s only by considering human beings as part of nature that the growing burial crisis might be averted. That fundamentally involves moving from a human-centred or “ego-logical” ethos to an ecological one.

    The most viable response to the environmental challenges facing not just Nuneaton cemetery, but burial sites across the world, might be simply a new awareness. One that recognises both life and death as integral parts of nature. So, remembrance is not preserved through permanence, but rather through a return to the natural cycle of life.

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

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

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

    – ref. Urban cemeteries are at capacity – here’s how they can be more sustainable – https://theconversation.com/urban-cemeteries-are-at-capacity-heres-how-they-can-be-more-sustainable-252711

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mark Satta, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Law, Wayne State University

    No president other than Franklin D. Roosevelt has held office for more than two terms. Walter Leporati/Getty Images

    Only one person, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever served more than two terms as president of the United States. This is for two reasons.

    First, prior to Roosevelt’s election to a third term in 1940 there was a longstanding American tradition that presidents not serve more than two terms.

    This tradition was established by the decisions of early presidents such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison not to seek a third term. This tradition was later adopted by other presidents.

    Second, after Roosevelt died in office in 1945 during his fourth term, Congress and the people of the United States decided to turn the long-standing tradition that presidents should not serve more than two terms into a part of constitutional law.

    This was done through the passage and ratification of the 22nd Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1951.

    Only after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, who died in 1945 in his fourth term and whose casket is seen here, did the U.S. codify the two-term limit on presidents.
    AP photo

    Intent is clear

    The key provision of the 22nd Amendment reads as follows: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

    The intent is clear. No one is supposed to serve more than two full terms as president.

    The only way someone can serve more than two terms is if they served less than two years in a previous term in which they weren’t elected president.

    Here’s an example: If a vice president becomes president during the final year of a term because the president died, that vice president could still run for two terms. But that exception is still meant to bar anyone from serving more than a total of 10 years as president.

    It is worth understanding why the two-term tradition was considered so important that it was turned into constitutional law the first time it was violated.

    Starting the tradition

    Commentators often cite George Washington’s decision not to seek a third term as president as establishing the two-term tradition. Political scientist and term limit scholar Michael Korzi gives a lot more credit to the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.

    Jefferson was outspoken in favor of the two-term tradition. As Korzi notes, this was, in part, because “Jefferson saw little distinction between a long-serving executive in an elective position and a hereditary monarch.” In other words, a president without term limits is too much like a king.

    John Trumbull’s portrait of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who believed that a president who was willing to break the two-term tradition was too ambitious.
    John Trumbull/GraphicaArtis, Getty Images

    Jefferson saw a president who was willing to break the two-term tradition as power hungry, and he hoped that the American people would not elect such a president. This led him to write in his autobiography in 1821 that “should a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views.”

    Jefferson also worried that without term limits, presidents would stay in office too long into their old age and after they had lost their ability to govern effectively. This led him to write that without term limits, there was a danger that “the indulgence and attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair after he becomes a dotard.”

    Subsequently, presidents tended to abide by the two-term tradition. And in the few cases where presidents decided to seek a third term, their own parties would not give them the nomination.

    That remained true until Roosevelt ran for, and won, both a third and a fourth term as president during World War II.

    The 22nd Amendment

    Roosevelt’s violation of the two-term tradition prompted Congress and the states to turn the tradition into a formal matter of constitutional law.

    A major concern motivating the amendment was the same one that motivated Jefferson: to prevent a president from becoming a king. Multiple members of Congress identified the same concern during congressional sessions in the 1940s.

    Sen. Chapman Revercomb from West Virginia stated that power given to a president without term limits “would be a definite step in the direction of autocracy, regardless of the name given the office, whether it be president, king, dictator, emperor, or whatever title the office may carry.”

    Similarly, Rep. Edward McCowen from Ohio said that the 22nd Amendment would be “a great step toward preventing a dictatorship or some totalitarian form of government from arising.”

    And Rep. John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee stated that only by adoption of the 22nd Amendment “can the people be assured that we shall never have a dictator in this land.”

    Congress passed the 22nd Amendment on March 21, 1947. It took less than four years for the necessary three-fourths of the states to ratify the amendment, which became law on Feb. 27, 1951.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about getting a third term as president.
    Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    Tyrants and term limit violations

    In the 1980s, political scientist Juan Linz identified that presidential systems are less stable than other forms of democracy, such as parliamentary systems. The difference seems to be that presidential systems concentrate more power in the hands of a single person, the president. This makes it easier to remove the checks and balances that democracies depend on.

    As scholars have noted, violation of presidential term limits and other methods of increasing executive power are a common form of democratic backsliding – state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions that sustain a democracy.

    Law professor Mila Versteeg and her colleagues have shown that in recent years presidents around the globe have used various tactics to try to violate presidential term limits. These tactics include trying to amend their country’s constitution, trying to get the courts to reinterpret the constitution, finding a replacement leader who the former president can control once out of office and attempting to delay elections.

    They note that most of the time when a president’s attempt to violate term limits fails it is “because the attempt encountered widespread popular resistance.” They conclude that this finding implies that “broad resistance movements” may be the best means to prevent violation of presidential term limits.

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

    – ref. Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment – https://theconversation.com/why-a-presidential-term-limit-got-written-into-the-constitution-the-story-of-the-22nd-amendment-253421

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From barriers to belonging: How supporting inclusivity enhances the well-being of people with disabilities

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mohsen Rasoulivalajoozi, PhD candidate, Individualized Program, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University

    To create truly inclusive cities, policy-makers and experts need to go beyond minimum standards and critically examine how our urban spaces continue to exclude people with disabilities. (Shutterstock)

    What does it mean for a city to be accommodating to all its citizens?

    This requires understanding how individuals feel included and valued in the places they live, and responding to their needs by emphasizing genuine inclusivity. For people with mobility challenges, it means feeling no different from others. This applies both to navigating urban spaces and engaging in social interactions.

    Despite efforts to improve accessibility in Canada, many urban spaces still fall short, leaving wheelchair users facing subtle but persistent barriers. We wanted to understand the different challenges and barriers people with disabilities face when using mobility aids.

    To do this, we interviewed 12 experienced physiotherapists in Iran to identify gaps in how mobility aid serve the needs of those who use them, and offer recommendations based on their extensive interactions with users.

    Given the universal needs of mobility aid users — emotional well-being, social integration and functional independence — and the common challenges they face accessing health-care systems around the world, our findings can are relevant for many people around the world, including in Canada.

    Inclusive design

    To create truly inclusive cities, it is vital for policymakers and experts to go beyond minimum standards and critically examine how our urban spaces continue to exclude people with disabilities.

    Marketing professors Vanessa Patrick and Candice Hollenbeck have developed the DARE framework — design, appraisal, response and experience — and propose three levels of inclusive design aimed to make spaces more inclusive for people with disabilities.

    Level 1 ensures accessibility through industry regulations, meeting minimum standards. Level 2 fosters engagement and equity, rooted in social justice principles, by validating user experiences and emphasizing empathy. Level 3 aims to minimize mismatches between users and design, promoting human flourishing through seamless interaction among individuals, the design and their environment.

    Our study outlines how people perceive the inclusivity of mobility aids based on the cost, how they are built and how effective they are in different environments.

    We also considered perceptions of trustworthiness, support and contextual factors, including the social interpretations and representations of these devices. We highlight gaps in users’ needs and provide recommendations to address them. Through this analysis, we identified four key themes that offer valuable insights for enhancing inclusivity.

    Financial burden

    For some, mobility aids can be an added financial burden. Financial constraints may limit access to mobility aids, often forcing users to seek alternatives or delay rehabilitation, potentially worsening their conditions. For example, individuals might resort to second-hand mobility aids which may not be fitted correctly for them.

    Globally, only five to 35 per cent of the 80 million people who need a wheelchair have access to one depending on where they live, with high costs being a primary barrier.

    The high cost of advanced electric wheelchairs further restrict access. This marks a gap at the first level of inclusivity in the DARE framework, where market-driven prices fall short of meeting mobility aid users’ needs.

    Initiatives like the European Union’s Rehabilitation Policy Action Framework have called for increased governmental financial support for mobility aid users. This framework offers 48 options across six domains to translate political goals into action, such as reallocating health-care funds to expand rehabilitation and improve inclusivity.

    Mobility aid users, like all individuals, deserve equal consideration in design and planning.
    (Shutterstock)

    Mismatches between users and mobility aids

    In using mobility aids, a user will typically evaluate two aspects: the design features of the aids themselves and how well they function in their environment.

    If the mobility aid is slightly mismatched with their requirements, the user may find alternative solutions, such as adding padding to a wheelchair to relieve pressure. However, severe mismatches can lead to negative outcomes and result in unmet mobility needs. Furthermore, inadequate anthropometric and ergonomic adjustments can lead to discomfort.

    Similarly, environmental mismatches, such as barriers that disrupt navigation, can reinforce negative stereotypes and condescending attitudes. These barriers can hinder a person’s mobility and ultimately deter them from going out and engaging in social activities.

    New developments and technologies can not only address and mitigate certain mismatches but also positively impact users’ psychological and social needs. However, integrating new technologies requires careful consideration, as assistive devices can also attract social stigma.

    Therefore, it is important to identify which technological or esthetic features of mobility aids evoke positive emotions and minimize stigma.

    Mobility aid users, like everyone, deserve equal consideration in design and planning. Programs like Europe’s Design for All (DfA) and Singapore’s Barrier-Free Accessibility (BFA) promote barrier-free design for all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

    Improving trust

    Trustworthiness is a critical factor in the use of mobility aids, particularly in unfamiliar settings where users may feel uncertain.

    To address this, users seek continuous reassurance about the reliability of their aids, often depending on the support of physiotherapists to navigate mismatches between their needs and their surroundings. Such professional support enhances confidence and mental well-being. Physiotherapists, as trusted experts, can remarkably shape users’ perceptions and acceptance of mobility aids.

    Ensuring trustworthy designs is also crucial, as perceived fragility can undermine user trust. Validating experiences, building trust across environments — including trust in physiotherapists and mobility aid products — is essential to alleviating doubts about how effective they might be.

    Sociocultural influences

    Sociocultural context and the causes of a disability play a significant role in shaping perceptions of mobility aids.

    Regardless of users’ personal experiences, others tend to view mobility aids through the lens of prevailing societal attitudes toward disability. For some, mobility aids may reinforce stereotypes about disabilities. This highlights the critical role of esthetics in shaping public perceptions and social interactions.

    For example, incorporating esthetic refinements into the design can help counter negative perceptions. By addressing negative representations and promoting designs that reflect dignity and inclusivity, interventions can align with inclusively goals and enhance positive social engagement.

    Raising public awareness is key to challenging stereotypes and building empathy. To create an inclusive society, design and planning should consider both the physical and social barriers to accessibility. Achieving this requires a multi-disciplinary effort, and the active participation of people who use mobility aids.

    This article was co-authored by Morteza Farhoudi, an inclusive designer specializing in public transportation studies.

    Mohsen Rasoulivalajoozi receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    Carmela Cucuzzella receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. From barriers to belonging: How supporting inclusivity enhances the well-being of people with disabilities – https://theconversation.com/from-barriers-to-belonging-how-supporting-inclusivity-enhances-the-well-being-of-people-with-disabilities-249339

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How do coconuts get their water?

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Gaston Adoyo, Lecturer and researcher, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

    Coconut trees are iconic plants found across the world’s tropical regions. They’re called “nature’s supermarket” or the “tree of life” in several cultures because every part of the coconut tree is used. Its leaves can be used to thatch homes, its heart can be eaten and its roots have medicinal uses.

    The refreshing liquid found within a young green coconut is a highly prized component of the coconut palm. Coconuts are unique in the world of fruits because they have a large internal cavity filled with water. Other fruits typically store water within individual cells or pulp.

    I’m a food scientist who has carried out research on the properties of coconuts.

    All coconut palms produce water, though some, like tall varieties, will produce more than others, like dwarf varieties. The water is sourced from the trees’ immature, green coconuts. As the coconut matures, the developing white flesh absorbs the water, resulting in less liquid in a fully ripe brown coconut.

    So, how is this water reservoir created, and what factors influence it?

    A coconut’s structure

    To better understand how coconut water is formed, it is essential to grasp its anatomical structure. The coconut fruit is classified as a drupe, meaning it has three layers: the exocarp (the smooth, green outer layer seen in unripe coconuts), the mesocarp (a fibrous husk beneath the exocarp), and the endocarp (the hard, woody inner shell that protects the white flesh inside).

    Within the endocarp, there are two components: the flesh (endosperm, a soft, jelly-like material in immature coconut that hardens as it matures) and the clear coconut water that fills the cavity. This water is a nutritive fluid nourishing the developing seed and is formed naturally during the development of the coconut fruit.

    The water is a filtered sap that’s drawn up from the roots and transported through the tree’s vascular system (its water and nutrient transport system), specifically the xylem tissue.

    The coconut tree’s extensive root system, ranging from 1 to 5 metres deep, absorbs groundwater – with dissolved nutrients – from the surrounding soil. The absorbed water is then transported upwards through the trunk and branches and finally to the fruit.

    The fruit retains this water, stored in the cavity of the coconut. The accumulated water, with its rich nutrients, provides food to the developing endosperm (white flesh).

    Therefore, coconut water is neither rainwater nor seawater stored inside, but carefully filtered and nutrient-rich clear liquid formed by the tree itself.

    What is coconut water made of?

    About 95% of coconut water is simply water, making it an excellent hydrating fluid.

    The rest of the water is made up of various components, which are useful for us too.

    Minerals (like sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) nourish human nerves and muscles; proteins (amino acids and enzymes) can help in metabolism in both the tree and humans; sugars (fructose and glucose) are responsible for the light sweetness and there are trace amounts of vitamins (vitamin C and B vitamins).



    Read more:
    Is coconut water good for you? We asked five experts

    Coconut water levels

    Many factors can influence the amount and quality of water in a coconut.

    The age of the coconut is a critical determining factor. Immature, green coconuts (six to eight months) are usually full of water: between 300 millilitres and 1 litre. Mature coconuts (12 months and older) have low water levels as the liquid is partially absorbed by the endosperm.

    High rainfall encourages greater accumulation of water, while drought conditions reduce the amount of water that can be transported to the fruit.

    Healthy soils packed with minerals lead to high-quality and nutrient-rich coconut water. Poor or salty soils, lacking in minerals that can travel up the coconut tree to the fruit, will lead to low quality water.

    Finally, unhealthy or diseased trees produce smaller-sized coconuts with little water.

    Protecting coconuts

    Coconut trees and coconut water are important to tropical economies across south-east Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean Sea territories, as well as the coastlines of central America and Africa.

    Conserving the trees and their environment is therefore essential.

    Sustainable farming practices, like soil management – including soil testing and organic composting – should be implemented to maintain the proper nutrient profile, which results in high-quality coconut water.



    Read more:
    The end of coconut water? The world’s trendiest nut is under threat of species collapse

    Additionally, protecting freshwater aquifers from saltwater intrusion along coastlines where coconuts grow is crucial for preserving the quality of this refreshing fluid. Drip irrigation and mulching can help maintain soil moisture for the required coconut water production.

    Pest and disease management techniques (like intercropping coconuts with bananas or legumes), as well as integrated pest management, can contribute to healthy trees that produce large coconuts with ample water.

    Gaston Adoyo 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 do coconuts get their water? – https://theconversation.com/how-do-coconuts-get-their-water-252673

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Marine Le Pen verdict ‘represents an effort to make democracy better’ in France – interview

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Luc Rouban, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Sciences Po

    Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party and a three-time presidential candidate, has been found guilty of misappropriating public funds and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and five years of ineligibility for public office, with immediate effect. Despite her decision to appeal, the March 31 ruling in a Paris court will probably eliminate her from the 2027 presidential race. Political scientist Luc Rouban analyses this major political development in an interview with The Conversation France.

    The Conversation: Marine Le Pen’s sentence of immediate ineligibility came as a surprise and a shock. Some legal experts had imagined that a heavy sentence would fall but doubted that the judge, under pressure, would take the logic of ineligibility to its conclusion – despite the fact that it is enshrined in the law.

    Luc Rouban: Yes, it’s a surprise and I don’t think the RN was expecting this decision. For the rule of law, it’s a form of revenge on a certain style of political life that, for decades, operated on the basis of arrangements, on the basis of the inner circle. That’s what we were used to during the Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand periods, when there were dangerous links between politicians and certain members of the business class. It also brings to mind – of course – the more recent Nicolas Sarkozy affair. Today we are witnessing a historic turnaround. Marine Le Pen was no doubt expecting a suspended sentence, a slightly symbolic sentence. But this sentence is not symbolic at all. She is no longer part of the old style of political life.

    Is this ruling a good thing for democracy, with a judge who applies the law without trembling? Or is it a problem, as RN president Jordan Bardella, right-wing members of parliament Eric Ciotti and Laurent Wauquiez, and left-wing political leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have said – and as Elon Musk, Viktor Orban, Geert Wilders, Matteo Salvini and the Kremlin have also said?

    Luc Rouban: This ruling represents an effort to make democracy better. Reaffirming the rule of law is absolutely essential and legitimate. The French democratic system is very fragile, much more so than in other European countries. Public confidence in politicians and the justice system is very low and needs to be restored. One way of doing this is to ensure that the law is applied to public figures who embezzle millions of euros, not just to supermarket cashiers who are fired and prosecuted for stealing a chocolate bar. The conviction of Marine Le Pen is undeniable progress for our democracy: it’s a sign that the relationship with politics is changing, that politics has become a professional activity like any other, subject to regulations and laws.

    Of course, there will be attacks on the judiciary, we will have the Trumpist argument of “government by judges”. But it’s important to remember that judges simply apply the law. We must also remember that the figures, including Marine Le Pen, who are criticising ineligibility penalties, had applauded the Sapin 2 law, which passed unanimously in 2016 following the Cahuzac affair (editor’s note: ex-budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac was ruled guilty of tax fraud in a Paris court).

    What does the future hold for Marine Le Pen and the RN? Is Jordan Bardella capable of replacing her?

    Luc Rouban: Barring the uncertain scenario of a favourable ruling on appeal before the presidential election, Marine Le Pen is likely to hand over her position as RN candidate to Bardella. But is Bardella capable of replacing her? That’s the question.

    Internally, he hasn’t really managed to establish himself within the party, particularly in terms of renewing the leadership and structuring the movement. As soon as Marine Le Pen was absent – which was the case after the death of her father (editor’s note: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front) – the party seemed to collapse.

    What’s more, Bardella is Marine Le Pen’s heir apparent. The party’s “normalisation” could involve a form of “de-lepenalisation”. The Le Pen family has totally structured the party, which is very vertical, very organised around itself and its immediate entourage. This oligarchic model and this verticality are obviously going to be called into question. Will Bardella suffer as a result? Other RN leaders, such as Sébastien Chenu or Jean-Philippe Tanguy, who have established themselves in the media, may try to overtake him in the presidential race. However, this would require a break with Marine Le Pen in a party where dissidents are quickly excluded. The likelihood of such a challenge therefore remains low.

    What about Marion Maréchal? Could she take over?

    Luc Rouban: I don’t believe so because Maréchal (editor’s note: Marine Le Pen’s niece, who was elected to the European Parliament in 2024 on the ticket of the far-right Reconquest party, to which she no longer belongs) plays the Trump card and makes the RN feel uncomfortable. The RN electorate is too attached to France’s sovereignty, and has evolved toward a form of labour rights that is far removed from hard-line liberalism. The Reconquest electorate is more middle-class, older, better educated and wealthier than that of the RN.

    Will the RN benefit from this verdict or lose voters?

    Luc Rouban: It is possible that some abstentionist voters whose backgrounds are similar to those of RN voters will express their dissatisfaction with Marine Le Pen’s conviction by choosing to vote for the future candidate of the RN.

    But among the right-wing, upper middle classes who voted RN in the 2024 legislative elections, the vote could shift back to Les Républicains (editor’s note: the historic French right-wing party).

    Furthermore, for whoever becomes the future candidate of the RN, there will be a problem of support. To win a presidential election, you need to have support in the business world. But dragging around a party whose main leaders have been convicted of criminal offences is not a good look. Fundamentally, the RN was already isolated from the social elites. It could be even more so tomorrow.

    How might public opinion react to this major event, which deprives millions of voters of their candidate? Should we expect large-scale responses, possibly violent ones?

    Luc Rouban: As far as society in general is concerned, there may be hostile reactions for a while, isolated incidents, but I don’t think there will be mass movements like in the 1930s. The lack of enthusiasm for political life is obvious: who is going to take physical risks and engage in violent action to defend a political party and its representative? Not many people, I think.

    David Bornstein conducted this interview.

    Luc Rouban ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Marine Le Pen verdict ‘represents an effort to make democracy better’ in France – interview – https://theconversation.com/marine-le-pen-verdict-represents-an-effort-to-make-democracy-better-in-france-interview-253551

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Adolescence’ on Neflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Martina Calçada Kohatsu, PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology, McGill University

    In ‘Adolescence,’ a communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity. (Netflix)

    This story contains spoilers about the Netflix series ‘Adolescence.’

    In the Netflix series Adolescence, we have no idea why Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested at the beginning of the first episode. The tension from seeing a helpless 13-year-old boy escorted to a police station and interrogated holds us to the screen. Every minute of the one-hour episode, shot in a single continuous take, makes us feel like we are in the police station with the Miller family, viewing things through his parents’ disorientation.

    As the plot unfolds, we are given clues to explain the inexplicable, but we can’t fully appreciate the show’s magnitude until the very last scene, a dramatic moment where we see the boy’s father (Stephen Graham) cry over his son’s teddy bear while asking it for forgiveness.

    From an educational psychology angle, the show is ripe for analysis. One could comment on the premature sexualization of young girls and boys or the obsolete sense, for parents, that they can assume kids are safe when they’re at home in their rooms.

    However, as a doctoral student in educational psychology, I am mostly concerned with human learning — both the cognitive development that must accompany successful learners, and how children and youth understand the world through relationships.

    The state of Jamie’s cognitive development and of teenagers in general may help us understand his frame of mind — or the “why” that detective Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) pursues.

    For parents, this show raises serious questions about the crisis in parent-child communication and how the internet is shaping children’s behaviour and minds. I suggest turning to the practice of dialogue as a way for parents to strengthen their communication with their children and learn about each other and the world.

    Trailer for ‘Adolescence.’

    Children’s minds

    According to the government of Canada, “any human being below the age of 18” is defined as a child. Children can’t be recruited to join the Armed Forces, sign legal contracts, drive, vote, marry, drink alcohol and so on. As adults, we understand that these prohibitions not only protect them but also us.

    Setting aside ethical reasons why children shouldn’t do any of these things, the major reason is due to the developmental state of their minds.

    To better understand this, we must consider executive function, also called cognitive control. Executive function refers to the unconscious cognitive processes of abstract thinking, inhibition, impulse control and planning that allow us to consciously control and direct our thoughts to goals, actions and emotions.

    Think of executive control as interconnected paths in the brain. In an adolescent’s brain, these paths resemble more of a labyrinth, with difficult and sometimes non-working passages.

    Children and adolescents’ cognitive development are in “sensitive periods” in which their brains are more plastic and susceptible to environmental influences. Besides not having full control of their thought processes, research has also shown that abstract and more “neutral” cognitive skills develop earlier than those that involve motivated or emotionally charged actions.

    Ability to weigh options still developing

    Adolescents might be mature enough to solve complex math problems, but still feel helpless when needing to be polite to someone they believe offended them (not an easy task for adults either). In such a case, one would need to “step back” from the situation, and weigh options to respond.

    An adult might think “maybe I misinterpreted what this person said” or “if I offend them back, I risk losing my job/friendship/reputation.” By dwelling on different course of actions, they don’t act impulsively.

    This is precisely the ability that adolescents are still developing.

    Adolescent brains have not fully matured in ways that enable them to calculate risk.
    (Netflix)

    Virtual selves and threats

    When adolescents engage with social media, they can be exposed to a threatening environment where they must assert their virtual selves and deal with bullying and inappropriate content, while lacking full control of their thought processes.

    Yet, as American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has chronicled, our society has allowed adolescents to take part in this at grave risk. With maturing cognitive capabilities, teens are at risk in an online environment that thrives on extreme views and hijacks emotions.

    As a victim of cyberbullying, Jamie was probably not equipped with the cognitive abilities to step back from the situation and seek help. Instead, he responds to cruelty he experienced with cruelty he knew.

    With unregulated internet use, in terms of both content and unrestricted time spent online, communication with parents atrophies. At its core, Adolescence is a painful wake-up call to the effects of unregulated internet usage in teens, and how the communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity.

    Clueless adults, aware teens

    Nowhere in the show is this distance more evident than when police detectives move cluelessly through Jamie’s school trying to understand his motives, while the students seem cynically aware of what really happened.

    The detective’s son clues him into interpreting signs of incel subculture.
    (Netflix)

    In a typical moment reflecting contemporary intergenerational dynamics in which the Gen Zs explain stuff to their analog parents, Bascombe’s son is the one to enlighten him about incel subculture and what certain emojis represent.

    It becomes clear that pop-cultural references mean different things to a younger generation. For example, “red pill” was appropriated from The Matrix and is now used for those who “see the truth” and reject feminism.

    Generations are comfortable communicating in different ways. Teens, for example, are clever texters. They use images, edit reels and create memes to convey subtle and often complex feelings.

    In contrast, teens’ discomfort with face-to-face conversations is explicit in the last episode of Adolescence, when the Miller family drives to a hardware store. The parents play a song from their prom and reminisce. The oldest daughter is with them, but not present, focused on her phone and only sporadically joining the conversation.

    Why dialogue matters

    Parents and their children may find direction through dialogue. This ancient practice is based on the view of the world as becoming, with infinite internal and external contradictions that must be overcome so that new understandings of reality may emerge.

    Dialogue was famously advanced as an educational practice by philosopher of education, Paulo Freire.

    Freire believed people must come together to share their meanings of the world, and through this push and pull of ideas, reasons and opinions, conceptualize new forms of understanding. For parents, this means that without trying to understand what teens are saying and, importantly, how they are saying it, we can’t possibly create a better future for all of us.

    Open channel needed

    Engaging in dialogue involves two things: asking and answering questions. It is not a matter of merely extracting information (although knowing what children are doing is important), but rather of mutually sharing interests and letting it guide discovery.

    When parents and children find a channel, communication opens and for as long as the mutual interest is there, they can steadily build meaningful connections that transform how they see the world and their relationships.

    With renewed urgency, dialogue that validates the interests and knowledge of both parents and children can offer a way out of the polarization created between them by long hours spent online.

    Martina Calçada Kohatsu 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. ‘Adolescence’ on Neflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-on-neflix-a-painful-wake-up-call-about-unregulated-internet-use-for-teens-253068

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nigeria’s illegal gold trade – elites and bandits are working together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Oluwole Ojewale, Research Fellow, Obafemi Awolowo University, Regional Coordinator, Institute for Security Studies

    Illegal mining activities in Nigeria are devastating the country’s economy, as well as fuelling violence.

    Strategic minerals mined in the country’s north-west region include granite, gypsum, kaolin, laterite, limestone, phosphate, potash, silica sand and gold.

    The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has estimated that the legal mining sector contributed N814.59 billion (US$527 million) in 15 years. Earnings were highest in 2021.

    Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, asserted in late 2024 that powerful individuals engaged in illegal mining were sponsoring banditry in the country. Recently, Edo North senator Adams Oshiomhole also alleged that retired military officers coordinated illegal mining activities nationwide.

    In a recent paper I examined the links between banditry, gold mining, violence and elite collusion in two states in the north-west of Nigeria.

    My research involved qualitative interviews with 17 respondents from 11 gold mining communities of Katsina and Zamfara states. The individuals included miners, community leaders, commercial drivers, residents and security agents.

    They told me that bandits colluded with elites to engage in illegal gold mining and undermine peace. The paper also analysed how the elites weaponised access to mineral resources and the impact this had on violence in the region. I looked at the state’s response to illegal gold mining too and offered some reflections on pathways to durable peace.

    The history

    My study shows that for more than four decades, gold mining has been done by wealthy and influential people in communities. Intense competition between the owners of the mine fields led them to hire bandits to guard their mine fields from their competitors.

    This pattern has become entrenched over the past two decades. My study shows that minefield owners today provide bandits with weapons, arms, drugs, food and logistics. In return, the armed groups protect their gold pits.

    A number of the wealthy mine owners wield influence in local politics. Some research participants also said there were miners who were working for politicians and traditional rulers and that a number of politicians had acquired gold mines.

    Interviewees also said that some individuals were employed by influential figures in government or business. They however did not mention names of the influential government figures for safety reasons.

    Violence arises from competition over mining locations, funding of armed groups’ activities, and taking control from civilians.

    With access to funds, bandits can expand their influence, recruit new members and carry out attacks.

    According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data I drew on, 1,615 incidents and 4,201 deaths were recorded due to banditry from 2010 to 2023 in Katsina and Zamfara states.

    How it works

    Generally, gold trading in Nigeria occurs within a network of buyers, sellers and brokers, forming a small ecosystem compared to other commodities. Most participants in the gold market are familiar with each other.

    My study respondents said criminals involved in illegal mining had strong connections in the gold market, both domestically and internationally. The transnational supply chain of the illicit economy extends through Chad, Niger, Libya and Algeria.

    Foreign networks also operate in the criminal supply chain.

    Bandits sell gold to gold merchants and traders. Some of these traders are business elites from other states in Nigeria who typically sell the gold in the Diffa region in Chad, or in Agadez (Niger), Tripoli (Libya) and Algiers (Algeria). Some gold traders transport the mineral to Benin.

    What can be done

    The government’s handling of the illicit gold trade and banditry has consistently fallen short of what is needed. This is clear from the government’s failure to adequately monitor the actions of miners.

    Mining sites are supposed to be overseen by the government, ensuring that only licensed miners and ancillary service providers are active there. But this isn’t happening.

    Based on my findings, I make the following recommendations if there is to be a lasting solution to banditry and the criminal gold mining economy in Nigeria’s north-west.

    Firstly, it requires enforcing the law and strengthening accountability.

    Large areas of north-west Nigeria are ungoverned. The federal government should enhance border policing and law enforcement capabilities by upgrading security and intelligence gathering infrastructure.

    Nigeria should also introduce advanced contraband-detection technologies, such as spectroscopy, at land borders. These techniques analyse the chemical composition of materials. They can identify specific substances and detect trace amounts of contraband.

    And individuals with ties to illegal gold trade and supporting criminal activities must be identified, apprehended and prosecuted.

    Secondly, it requires reforming the gold mining and security sector. The mainstay of Nigeria’s economy is oil production in the country’s Niger Delta. One of the consequences is that other sectors of the economy have been largely neglected. The mining sector is not well regulated and the state doesn’t show much interest in it.

    Thirdly, any steps taken by the government must involve the participation of people living in the affected communities. The security agencies can foster community partnerships to source human intelligence on the activities of bandits, illegal miners and mineral smugglers.

    Lastly, the government should consider tackling elite collusion through targeted sanctions and asset freezing. This could disrupt their ability to finance and perpetuate violence.

    This approach has been used in Nigeria and in South Africa, among other countries in the world.

    Oluwole Ojewale 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. Nigeria’s illegal gold trade – elites and bandits are working together – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-illegal-gold-trade-elites-and-bandits-are-working-together-250169

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Zimbabwe’s economy crashed – so how do citizens still cling to myths of urban and economic success?

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kristina Pikovskaia, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh

    It is common for nations to have myths, or narratives, that form the basis of their nationalism, or their ideas of themselves as a political community. Such popular narratives are often rooted in a romanticised or idealised view of the past. This is certainly the case in Zimbabwe, where national myths about its urban modernity and economic exceptionalism have stood the test of time in contrast with the reality.

    The idea of urban modernity has its roots in colonial times. At the time of independence in 1980, following a liberation war from 1965 to 1979, Zimbabwe’s economy was looking strong. Urban residents, especially, could think of themselves as modern: they had middle- and working-class lifestyles, social protection, social mobility opportunities and fixed working hours. Urban modernity meant order, steady employment, education.

    Zimbabwe’s economy was exceptional in sub-Saharan Africa: diversified and robust.

    However, rapid socio-economic changes followed in the 1990s and 2000s. Zimbabwe was hit by a series of economic, financial and political crises. This led to the collapse of urban middle- and working-class modernity and the rise of visible informal economic activities in the urban space. By 2004, over 80% of people had informal livelihoods in Zimbabwe.

    My PhD thesis (2021) examined Harare’s shift to informality and the impact of this on people’s everyday experiences of citizenship. The respondents in interviews carried out between 2016 and 2018 included vendors, cross-border traders, manufacturers, residents’ associations, informal sector organisations, local authorities and urban planners.

    These interviews also form the basis of my recent research paper. My analysis sought to examine how people deal with the fact that current circumstances don’t support their myths of urban nationalism.

    During a crisis, people rethink old ideas and adjust them to fit their new situation. As they do this, their notions of urban modernity and economic exceptionalism change. At the same time, they remember a past when their country was economically successful. This memory shapes how they think about the country’s future – and it also makes them question the government, which hasn’t lived up to those past ideals.

    So, what do the myths of urban modernity and economic exceptionalism mean in Zimbabwe today? Some people cling to the early postcolonial notions nurtured by the government. Others reluctantly accept economic informality while seeking to upgrade the idea of the informal sector. But there are others who challenge altogether the view that street vending is not modern and formal enough.

    The prevalent informality was seen as a temporary phenomenon which would end soon. Then the country would return to having a modern urban lifestyle and strong economy.

    Grappling with informality

    To many of the respondents in 2016-2018, “working” and “having a job” meant being employed and having regular wages, job security and social protection.

    At the same time, people also reluctantly accepted economic informality and some of the changes it made to their lives, while seeking to upgrade the idea of the informal sector. Some informal sector associations, for example, attempted to teach their members to see their activities as businesses and themselves as business people, as I reported in another paper.



    Read more:
    How informal sector organisations in Zimbabwe shape notions of citizenship

    Some respondents drew a line between economic activities that were acceptable in the city centre and those that were not. These were similar to the early postcolonial notions enforced by the government. They suggested, for example, that street vending had no place in the city centre. It should only occur in limited designated spaces, and in residential areas.

    Some street vendors, though, defied the notion of street vending not being modern and formal enough. They dressed smartly to emphasise that street vending could also be done in a “modern” way and be a part of the mainstream economy.

    The history of the urban modernity myth

    At the beginning of colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the colonisers planned for the cities to remain “white”. Unless Africans lived in their employers’ facilities, they were required to live in dedicated areas.

    At the same time, the colonial administration introduced and enforced the concept of “order” in Salisbury, now Harare, the capital. It punished poor, marginalised and homeless people. The same with economic and social activities it deemed undesirable.

    Today, over 32% of Zimbabweans live in urban areas.

    The establishment in the 1930s of the African middle class was an important part of the urban modernity project. Those who sought to belong to it largely used education as their primary social mobility tool.



    Read more:
    Education in Zimbabwe has lost its value: study asks young people how they feel about that

    After independence in 1980, the cities were deracialised. Everyone was free to enter and use the urban space. But the new government still held tight control and dictated who had the right to the city.

    Numerous operations were conducted from the 1980s to clear the street of “undesirable” people and activities. For example, informal settlements were removed. Many women were arrested on the pretext of clearing the city of prostitution. The most notorious clean-up operation was the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina. It effectively punished all those considered “unproductive” and not deserving to be in the city.



    Read more:
    Dogs in the city: on the scent of Zimbabwe’s urban history

    Those high and, frankly, brutal standards of urban modernity have a long history in Zimbabwe and became a part of its urban nationalism.

    Economic exceptionalism

    Colonial and early postcolonial Zimbabwe had an exceptional and diversified economy with strong mining, agricultural, and industrial sectors. Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector contributed 25% to GDP by 1974.

    Despite the economic decline, it is still a common narrative that Zimbabwe’s industrial sector was second only to South Africa’s in sub-Saharan Africa and that Zimbabwe was “the breadbasket” of Africa.

    However, manufacturing in colonial Zimbabwe benefited a small number of white industrialists. Black Zimbabweans did not have the opportunities. They could not own profitable manufacturing businesses or access finance.

    After independence, the government made considerable efforts to deracialise the economy and public services.

    The present

    The early postcolonial ideas about urban modernity and economic exceptionalism were severely undermined in Zimbabwe. But people try to give new meanings to these ideas in the changed social and economic circumstances. There is ongoing reluctance to accept that informality altered Zimbabwe for good. And many of my respondents wanted to find ways that the myths of modernity and economic exceptionalism could keep their meaning in the changed circumstances.

    Continuity and change in the myths of urban nationalism also raise the questions of legitimacy. In this case, it is about legitimacy of informal economic practices and legitimacy of the government that did not uphold the myths.

    Ideas can be very powerful in explaining people’s understanding of the political community they belong to. And when such ideals cannot be upheld, people will find new meanings in their material reality that let them hold on to old ideas or reinterpret them.

    This research is partly funded by the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2022-055) and University of Oxford.

    – ref. Zimbabwe’s economy crashed – so how do citizens still cling to myths of urban and economic success? – https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-economy-crashed-so-how-do-citizens-still-cling-to-myths-of-urban-and-economic-success-247114

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How memes spread conspiracy theories – and what to consider before sharing one

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emily Godwin, Senior Research Associate in Digital Marketing and Virtual Environments, University of Bristol, and PhD Candidate in Conspiracy Theories, University of Bath

    “I am become meme,” declared Elon Musk at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, just after hoisting a chainsaw – a gift from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei – above his head. The tech billionaire and head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was correct. Within hours, images of the moment had spread across social media, spawning countless edits, humorous remixes and sharp commentary.

    This moment was more than just a spectacle. It exemplified how, in a digital age where the battle for attention is paramount, memes are a key part of political conversation. While memes might seem purely entertaining, my research confirms their influence goes deeper, shaping and intensifying political views and attitudes in significant ways.

    The power of memes lies in their ability to distil complex ideas into instantly recognisable forms. They rely on established visual templates, which eliminate the need for lengthy explanations and communicate to the viewer how they should think about the topic of the meme.

    Distracted boyfriend (in which a man looks over his shoulder at an attractive woman to the annoyance of his girlfriend) is a perfect example. It succinctly communicates the universal experience of being tempted by one option while neglecting another – applicable to everything from consumer preferences to political allegiances.

    Distracted boyfriend meme.
    Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

    However, this simplification can quickly become problematic when memes portray distorted or misleading views of reality.

    Harmful stereotypes, misinformation and conspiracy theories have all found their way into meme format. Memes can transmit dangerous ideas, cloaked in humour that makes them more palatable.

    Conspiracy theories and memes

    Conspiracy theories prove especially adaptable to the meme format. Their narratives rely heavily on simple “us v them” portrayals of enlightened truth-seekers standing up against powerful conspirators and an unaware or passive public.

    My analysis of hundreds of memes from COVID conspiracy communities on Reddit revealed a striking pattern: the same templates appeared repeatedly, reinforcing this simplistic but powerful dichotomy.

    Many memes portrayed conspiracy believers as enlightened truth-seekers. “Lisa Simpson’s Presentation”, showing the comic cartoon character confidently presenting to an audience, was commonly used to share claims that challenged mainstream narratives about science, medicine and the government.

    Other memes portrayed authorities as powerful manipulators. “Daily Struggle/Two Buttons”, showing a character sweating over which of two contradictory buttons to press, was commonly used to suggest that health officials and media outlets deliberately switched between opposing vaccination narratives when convenient.

    Most prevalent were portrayals of an unaware or passive public, with “NPC Wojak” – a grey, expressionless figure named after video game “non-playable characters” – presenting a visual shorthand. Those who followed public health advice and mandates were portrayed as mindless automatons, incapable of critical thinking or independent judgment.

    These kinds of meme did not just reflect existing beliefs – they actively shaped and intensified them. Through repeated exposure, these ideas became normalised and accepted as truth. Memes created a feedback loop where existing suspicions were validated, amplified and spread to others – with real-world effects.

    During the pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared widely via memes led to real-world action, from vaccine refusal to violent global protests against public health mandates.

    The accessible humour of memes served as an entry point, attracting audiences who might have initially engaged with the content as “just jokes”, but subsequently adopted increasingly extreme perspectives.

    Elon Musk, before ‘becoming meme’.
    Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock

    Think before sharing

    Given their power to influence political views and attitudes and to spread misinformation, it is important to think critically before sharing a meme. Here are some key pointers:

    1. Think about the hidden message

    Memes often use humour or exaggeration, but consider the underlying message. Is it simplifying a complex issue or distorting reality? Remember that memes can disguise the extremity of viewpoints, making them appear more familiar and acceptable.

    2. Identify who’s behind it

    Consider the source or origin of the meme. Who might benefit from spreading this message? Is it associated with extreme or conspiratorial communities? If you are unsure, a quick check on Know Your Meme or a reverse image search can provide helpful context.

    3. Check for implicit assumptions

    Memes often operate through implicit assumptions about society, expertise and evidence that go unstated. Ask yourself: what core beliefs must someone accept for this meme to make sense? For example, a meme mocking people who “trust the science” might contain the unstated assumption that scientific consensus is merely opinion, rather than evidence-based conclusion.

    4. Think about emotional manipulation

    Memes rely heavily on emotional reactions – often humour, anger, or outrage – to encourage rapid sharing. Before clicking “share”, reflect on whether you’re being manipulated emotionally into spreading an idea you wouldn’t openly support.

    5. Consider potential harm

    Ask yourself if sharing the meme could contribute to harm, whether by reinforcing harmful stereotypes, or spreading misinformation or conspiracy theories. Humour can disguise the impact of these ideas, making them seem acceptable when they aren’t.

    6. Remember that context matters

    A meme may seem funny or insightful on its own – but within wider conversations, it can take on new meanings. Consider how it might be interpreted alongside other messages circulating in similar spaces. Could it be contributing to a pattern of misinformation, division or trivialisation?

    Ultimately, becoming mindful of the memes we share isn’t about losing a sense of humour, it’s about gaining control over the ideas we help circulate. Before you click share, take a second to think – every meme you spread can affect how people see the world.

    Emily Godwin receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for her position as a PhD Candidate at the University of Bath.

    – ref. How memes spread conspiracy theories – and what to consider before sharing one – https://theconversation.com/how-memes-spread-conspiracy-theories-and-what-to-consider-before-sharing-one-252780

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to engineer microbes to enable us to live on Mars

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Samuel McKee, Associate Tutor and PhD Candidate in Philosophy of Science, Manchester Metropolitan University

    Alones/Shutterstock

    A field known as synthetic biology has become one of the most highly anticipated in science. Its outputs range from golden rice, which is genetically engineered to provide vitamin A, to advances stemming from the Human Genome Project, which successfully mapped the entire human genome. Prominent voices in biotechnology have heralded it as the next wave of the future of innovation.

    Synthetic biology is the use of genetic engineering and other advances in biotechnology to generate new organisms or manipulate existing ones to produce the effects you desire. It is what the British biologist Jamie A. Davies calls “the creation of new living systems by design”.

    What is perhaps less obvious is that it may even be useful in space exploration. We might eventually use microbes to detoxify Mars – helping humans to one day live on the red planet.

    Synthetic biology has transformed many lines of technological breakthrough in biology already. Thanks to technologies such as the Nobel-winning genomic “scissors” Crispr Cas9, gene editing is now cheap, fast and accurate, as is gene sequencing.

    All this means genomics can be done in the field and even in space thanks to new technology – such as the MinION by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which allowed Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins to sequence the genomes of microorganisms on the International Space Station with a handheld device.

    Structural biology has also been revolutionised by breakthroughs in cryo-electron microscopy (enabling us to view large molecules in a solution), and more recently by the Nobel prize-winning protein-folding program “AlphaFold” by Google’s DeepMind.

    We can now know the structure and sequence of organisms at speed and with tremendous accuracy – and at low cost. Ultimately, this also presents an opportunity to make accurate changes to sequences and structures.

    This has important implications for space exploration, according to the Mars Society, Nasa and the Royal Society. Specifically, advances in synthetic biology are opening up new avenues for exploring and colonising Mars.

    So, how can we engineer microorganisms to make Mars habitable? Here are a few possibilities.

    Eating radiation

    Microbes could help us with the damaging radiation on Mars. We know there are bacteria and other single-celled organisms known as archaea living in some of the most hostile places on Earth. For example, Thermus Aquaticus thrives in extremely high temperatures, and psychrophiles live in extreme cold.

    The tardigrade genome, for example, is a rich source of information, explaining how these microorganisms can survive in the vacuum of space. Extremophiles that can digest radiation and toxicities are already used to clean up everything from oil spills to the fallout of radioactive sites.

    This means we could engineer microbes that are resistant to freezing temperatures and high levels of radiation. Such synthetic microorganisms could then be put to use on Mars in a variety ways to help shield us and our habitats from these extremes – or to develop crops with resistance.

    The Milnesium tardigrade.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    For example, it is now well known that the Martian soil is full of perchlorates, which are toxic to humans. Nasa has several ideas of how this can be dealt with, including synthetic biology.

    Fixing atmospheric gases

    Long ago on ancient Earth, cyanobacteria flourished. They filled an ecological niche which transformed Earth’s atmosphere by enriching it with oxygen. We owe our existence in large part to this fertile bloom.

    Could they do the same for us on Mars? The atmosphere on the red planet is extremely thin and primarily made of carbon dioxide. The cyanobacteria would need a lot of help, which we could provide with synthetic biology. Theoretically, microorganisms could be engineered to survive the Martian environment and in turn pump out oxygen and nitrogen.

    Warming the surface

    Visions of terraforming the red planet (altering it to make it habitable for humans) often involve putting space mirrors in orbit to heat up Mars and melt its ice. This would cause a runaway greenhouse effect that would transform the planet into a more Earth-like state.

    But synthetic biology could (theoretically) skip this stage, which has been proposed to take at least 200 years at the very best estimate. Some five years ago, scientists proposed planetary engineering using synthetic biology to engineer microbes for ecological transformation.

    Given that microbes helped make Earth habitable, we could use synthetic biology to engineer microbes to speed up a similar process for Mars. Finding organisms that reduce greenhouse gases, remove toxicity and exhale helpful substances could help remove higher levels of greenhouse gases on Earth, too.

    Seeding new life on Mars

    We are not yet sure there is no life on Mars. The question of how ethical it is to engineer new life and then spread it to other bodies in the Solar System for our own ends is deep and complex. But these conversations need to happen.

    However, it certainly seems that synthetic biology may be our best technological bet to becoming an interplanetary species – and a lot of space and biotech agencies are taking it very seriously.

    According to recent research from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia: “From a holistic point of view, the ultimate synthetic biology approach to make the most of plant-based food on Mars would be to develop multi-biofortified crops with improved nutritional properties and enhanced quality traits (e.g., extended shelf life and reduced allergenicity).”

    Among emerging technologies, it may be that using synthetic biology improves our future more than any other factor – on Earth and beyond.

    Samuel McKee 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 to engineer microbes to enable us to live on Mars – https://theconversation.com/how-to-engineer-microbes-to-enable-us-to-live-on-mars-253456

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –