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Category: Reportage

  • MIL-OSI Global: Colorado’s early childhood education workers face burnout and health disparities, but a wellness campaign could help

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jini Puma, Clinical Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

    Early childhood education workers face high stress and burnout. FatCamera/GettyImages

    A lot of research has been done on the outcomes of young children who receive care in early education programs across the country. High-quality early childhood education programs positively shape young children’s development. Far less research has focused on the early childhood workforce that powers these programs.

    We set out to better understand how to support workers who care for our youngest and most vulnerable children.

    Workers who provide care for children under 5, such as teachers, administrative leaders and support staff, play a pivotal role in shaping the next generation. But research suggests they are underpaid, overburdened and have limited resources.

    For example, in Colorado, about 46% of the early education workforce receives public assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and Medicaid. These workers earn a median hourly pay of $18.50.

    Across the country, between 43% of child care workers receive public assistance.

    Additionally, teaching in early childhood settings takes a toll. According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, nearly half of early childhood education teachers report high levels of daily stress during the school year, compared with approximately 25% of U.S. workers.

    Stressed-out teachers impact children, too. Poor well-being in early childhood teachers can reduce child care quality. This may lead to poor social-emotional development and increased behavioral issues in young children.

    Research shows that chronic underfunding of early childhood education programs, coupled with the inherent stressors of the job, leads to burnout and turnover.

    We are clinical associate and research assistant professors of public health at the Colorado School of Public Health. We have researched the early childhood education community in Colorado for more than 15 years. Our team is currently one of six federally funded national research teams investigating the well-being of this workforce and creating strategies to prevent burnout and turnover.

    Mental and physical stress

    There are many causes of health disparities within the early childhood education workforce. The job involves managing children’s challenging behaviors, working 9-12 hours a day, sitting in child-sized furniture, taking few breaks – and having a lack of support from co-workers and supervisors.

    In St. Paul, Minn., organizers at a rally call for more public funding for both child care costs and pay increases for teachers.
    Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Researchers have found that early childhood educators in the U.S. experience higher rates of chronic health conditions as compared with national samples of workers with comparable income, education and other characteristics. These conditions include severe headaches, lower back pain, obesity and diabetes, as well as mental health conditions, including depression.

    Past studies, including our own, suggest that poor psychological and physical well-being may be particularly pronounced among early childhood education staff employed in Head Start settings. Head Start is the largest federally funded early childhood education program in the U.S. It often provides care for young children living in poverty.

    Head Start teachers report depression rates ranging between 25% and 32%, compared with the national average of 18% among the U.S. workforce.

    Urban and rural teachers in Colorado

    The well-being of early childhood educators also varies by where they live.

    In our recent work, we explored differences in job-related demands and resources among 332 Head Start staff in rural and urban areas in Colorado.

    A higher percentage of our rural sample in southeast Colorado reported lower family incomes and lower levels of education. This would suggest that early childhood education staff in rural settings may experience higher levels of stress because of increased economic hardships.

    However, on average, our rural sample had a lower level of emotional exhaustion, which is a key indicator of burnout, than our urban sample.

    Rural settings tend to foster close-knit relationships, strong social support networks and a slower-paced work environment than urban settings. These social situations could be why workers in rural areas report lower levels of emotional exhaustion. Alternatively, in urban settings, educators may experience larger class sizes and more stringent licensing and training standards, which could translate to increased stress.

    While workers in urban settings face higher rates of burnout, we also found that they had higher levels of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience than those of rural child care workers. These positive feelings helped to decrease the effects of their high-stress work environments.

    Our findings suggest a need to improve the work environment and provide caregivers with healthy coping strategies – especially urban Head Start staff.

    The WELL program

    To address the workplace needs we identified, we launched the Well-Being of the ECE Workforce in Low-Resourced Locations program, or WELL program. The program looks at workplace policies, culture and safety, plus a person’s health status, home life and community, to create a program that supports an individual’s well-being at work.

    We partnered with five Head Start agencies to test Head Start well-being programs.

    The Head Start staff we worked with across Colorado identified mindfulness, coping strategies and sleep as areas of need. We tailored WELL in response to their requests. WELL provides workplace training and supports related to these topics, texts weekly tips and strategies to promote well-being, and even helps sites design a relaxation lounge as a place for staff to unwind.

    Our preliminary findings suggest that the majority of staff were satisfied with the WELL program, and participants reported increased confidence in practicing behaviors that promote their well-being, like mindfulness.

    “[The WELL program] has helped me within the classroom, too,” said one study participant. “So when you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh! This child’s driving me crazy. I can’t deal with it!’ it’s like, ‘Just take a step back. It’s OK to take a break and ask somebody for help.’”

    We also found that 77% felt that their early childhood education center supported participation in WELL. These findings, while preliminary, highlight the likelihood of this program to be successfully implemented in other early childhood education centers in Colorado.

    Read more of our stories about Colorado.

    Jini Puma receives funding from the Administration for Children and Families.

    Charlotte Farewell receives funding from the Administration for Children and Families.

    – ref. Colorado’s early childhood education workers face burnout and health disparities, but a wellness campaign could help – https://theconversation.com/colorados-early-childhood-education-workers-face-burnout-and-health-disparities-but-a-wellness-campaign-could-help-250880

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years of life in the US than in Europe

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sara Machado, Research Scientist in Health Economics, Brown University

    Wealth can buy health – but only to a point. marekuliasz/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Americans at all wealth levels are more likely to die sooner than their European counterparts, with even the richest U.S. citizens living shorter lives than northern and western Europeans. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    We also found that while the wealthiest Americans live longer than the poorest, the wealth-mortality gap in the U.S. is far more pronounced than in Europe.

    We are a team of health policy researchers who study health systems and how their performance compares across countries.

    We analyzed survey data from 73,838 adults ages 50 to 85 across the United States and 16 European countries over a 12-year period and compared how long people across the wealth spectrum lived during the course of our study. The 16 European countries are grouped into European regions: northern and western, southern and eastern Europe.

    Our research revealed that people in the wealthiest 25% of the study population across the U.S. and Europe were 40% less likely to die during the study period than the poorest quarter of people. The wealthiest 25% of people in northern and western Europe had mortality rates that were about 35% lower than participants in the wealthiest quartile in the U.S. For those from southern Europe, during the study period this value ranged from 24% to 33%. For those from eastern Europe, the value ranged from 1% to 7%. The poorest individuals in the U.S. appear to have the worst survival, including when compared with the poorest quarter of people in each European region.

    Why it matters

    Wealth inequality has been rising for decades, but more so in the U.S. than in Europe due to a widening gap between the wealth of the richest and the poorest. At the same time, despite spending significantly more on health care than other wealthy nations, overall, the U.S. consistently demonstrates worse health outcomes, such as higher infant mortality rates and avoidable mortality.

    Our study also reveals a wider wealth-mortality gap in the U.S. when compared with Europe. In other words, personal wealth does buy more years of life in the U.S. than in Europe. These findings suggest that personal wealth alone is not enough to compensate for other factors that tend to affect how long people live, such as health behaviors like smoking or heavy drinking, education or social support.

    At its core, our research suggests that health outcomes are shaped by much more than just health care systems. It is likely that economic and social policies − from education and employment to housing and food security − play a crucial role in determining how long people live, including across the wealth distribution.

    European countries have found ways to reduce health disparities without dramatically increasing health spending. By distributing health-promoting resources more equally across wealth groups, these nations may have created environments where longevity is less dependent on individual wealth.

    What still isn’t known

    While our study shows clear longevity differences between Americans and Europeans across wealth levels, more work still needs to be done to determine which specific aspects of European social systems − whether health care delivery, education access, retirement security or tax policies − most effectively protect health regardless of personal wealth.

    Pinpointing exactly how these factors interact with wealth to influence health outcomes would allow researchers to identify which European policies could be most successfully adapted to improve longevity for all Americans.

    What’s next

    Looking ahead, we plan to identify which of those policy levers might be most effective in reducing mortality gaps.

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

    Irene N. Papanicolas receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Commonwealth Fund, the Health Foundation, the National Institute for Health Care Management and the World Health Organiation.

    Sara Machado 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. Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years of life in the US than in Europe – https://theconversation.com/americans-die-earlier-at-all-wealth-levels-even-if-wealth-buys-more-years-of-life-in-the-us-than-in-europe-253620

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What would happen if Section 230 went away? A legal expert explains the consequences of repealing ‘the law that built the internet’

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daryl Lim, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Penn State

    Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., are vocal critics of Section 230. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

    Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act, has become a political lightning rod in recent years. The law shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content while allowing moderation in good faith.

    Lawmakers including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., now seek to sunset Section 230 by 2027 in order to spur a renegotiation of its provisions. The senators are expected to hold a press event before April 11 about a bill to start a timer on reforming or replacing Section 230, according to reports. If no agreement is reached by the deadline Section 230 would cease to be law.

    The debate over the law centers on balancing accountability for harmful content with the risks of censorship and stifled innovation. As a legal scholar, I see dramatic potential effects if Section 230 were to be repealed, with some platforms and websites blocking any potentially controversial content. Imagine Reddit with no critical comments or TikTok stripped of political satire.

    The law that built the internet

    Section 230, often described as “the 26 words that created the internet,” arose in response to a 1995 ruling penalizing platforms for moderating content. The key provision of the law, (c)(1), states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” This immunizes platforms such as Facebook and Yelp from liability for content posted by users.

    Importantly, Section 230 does not offer blanket immunity. It does not shield platforms from liability related to federal criminal law, intellectual property infringement, sex trafficking or where platforms codevelop unlawful content. At the same time, Section 230 allows platform companies to moderate content as they see fit, letting them block harmful or offensive content that is permitted by the First Amendment.

    Some critics argue that the algorithms social media platforms use to feed content to users are a form of content creation and should be outside the scope of Section 230 immunity. In addition, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has signaled a more aggressive stance toward Big Tech, advocating for a rollback of Section 230’s protections to address what he perceives as biased content moderation and censorship.

    What Section 230 does and how it came about.

    Censorship and the moderation dilemma

    Opponents warn that repealing Section 230 could lead to increased censorship, a flood of litigation and a chilling effect on innovation and free expression.

    Section 230 grants complete immunity to platforms for third-party activities regardless of whether the challenged speech is unlawful, according to a February 2024 report from the Congressional Research Service. In contrast, immunity via the First Amendment requires an inquiry into whether the challenged speech is constitutionally protected.

    Without immunity, platforms could be treated as publishers and held liable for defamatory, harmful or illegal content their users post. Platforms could adopt a more cautious approach, removing legally questionable material to avoid litigation. They could also block potentially controversial content, which could leave less space for voices of marginalized people.

    MIT management professor Sinan Aral warned, “If you repeal Section 230, one of two things will happen. Either platforms will decide they don’t want to moderate anything, or platforms will moderate everything.” The overcautious approach, sometimes called “collateral censorship,” could lead platforms to remove a broader swath of speech, including lawful but controversial content, to protect against potential lawsuits. Yelp’s general counsel noted that without Section 230, platforms may feel forced to remove legitimate negative reviews, depriving users of critical information.

    Corbin Barthold, a lawyer with the nonprofit advocacy organization TechFreedom, warned that some platforms might abandon content moderation to avoid liability for selective enforcement. This would result in more online spaces for misinformation and hate speech, he wrote. However, large platforms would likely not choose this route to avoid backlash from users and advertisers.

    A legal minefield

    Section 230(e) currently preempts most state laws that would hold platforms liable for user content. This preemption maintains a uniform legal standard at the federal level. Without it, the balance of power would shift, allowing states to regulate online platforms more aggressively.

    Some states could pass laws imposing stricter content moderation standards, requiring platforms to remove certain types of content within defined time frames or mandating transparency in content moderation decisions. Conversely, some states may seek to limit moderation efforts to preserve free speech, creating conflicting obligations for platforms that operate nationally. Litigation outcomes could also become inconsistent as courts across different jurisdictions apply varying standards to determine platform liability.

    The lack of uniformity would make it difficult for platforms to establish consistent content moderation practices, further complicating compliance efforts. The chilling effect on expression and innovation would be especially pronounced for new market entrants.

    While major players such as Facebook and YouTube might be able to absorb the legal pressure, smaller competitors could be forced out of the market or rendered ineffective. Small or midsize businesses with a website could be targeted by frivolous lawsuits. The high cost of compliance could deter many from entering the market.

    Reform without ruin

    The nonprofit advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation warned, “The free and open internet as we know it couldn’t exist without Section 230.” The law has been instrumental in fostering the growth of the internet by enabling platforms to operate without the constant threat of lawsuits over user-generated content. Section 230 also lets platforms organize and tailor user-generated content.

    The potential repeal of Section 230 would fundamentally alter this legal landscape, reshaping how platforms operate, increasing their exposure to litigation and redefining the relationship between the government and online intermediaries.

    Daryl Lim 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. What would happen if Section 230 went away? A legal expert explains the consequences of repealing ‘the law that built the internet’ – https://theconversation.com/what-would-happen-if-section-230-went-away-a-legal-expert-explains-the-consequences-of-repealing-the-law-that-built-the-internet-253326

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Critically ill patients in African hospitals aren’t getting the care they need: new survey

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tim Baker, Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet

    When someone falls critically ill, hospitals are expected to provide life-saving care. But in many African countries, intensive care units are rare. Critically ill patients are treated in general hospital wards, and the provision of essential emergency and critical care is limited.

    Critical illness refers to any life-threatening condition where at least one vital organ – such as the heart, lungs, or brain – is failing. It can arise from any underlying condition including infections, injuries, or non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, and can affect anyone of any age.

    In high-resourced settings some critically ill patients are treated in intensive care units. They receive continuous monitoring, oxygen support, medication to stabilise their blood pressure, and other life-saving treatments. Until now, most data on critical illness and critical care in Africa has come from small, single-hospital studies. These studies hinted at a serious problem.

    For example, a study in Uganda found that 11.7% of inpatients were critically ill, with a 22.6% chance of dying within a week. However, there was no large-scale research showing how widespread this was across the continent.

    That is why we, a collaboration of clinical researchers across Africa, conducted the African Critical Illness Outcomes Study, providing the first large-scale look at the state of critical illness care across the continent.

    The study builds on a network of clinicians, researchers and policy makers that has been growing for over a decade now, working out how to identify and treat patients who are critically ill.

    The findings, published in The Lancet, are striking. One in eight hospital inpatients in Africa is critically ill, over two-thirds of the critically ill are in general wards, and one in five dies within a week.

    Most of these patients do not receive the essential emergency and critical care such as oxygen and fluids that could save their lives.

    What we found

    The African Critical Illness Outcomes Study investigated 20,000 patients at one point in time in 180 hospitals in 22 countries across Africa. Countries throughout the continent were included, from Tunisia in the north to South Africa in the south, from Ghana in the west to Tanzania in the east.

    Between September and December 2023, all adult inpatients in each hospital were examined on a single day to collect data about their clinical condition and treatments, and then a week later, their in-hospital outcomes.

    The key findings were:

    • 12.5% of hospital inpatients were critically ill

    • 69% of critically ill patients were treated in general hospital wards, not intensive care units

    • more than half of critically ill patients didn’t receive the treatments they needed

    • critically ill patients were eight times more likely to die in hospital than other patients.

    The study also revealed gaps in the most basic life-saving interventions:

    • only 48% of patients with respiratory failure received oxygen therapy

    • just 54% of patients with circulatory failure (such as shock) received fluids or medications to stabilise blood pressure

    • less than half of patients with a dangerously low level of consciousness received airway protection or were placed in the recovery position.

    These findings highlight a clear and urgent problem: many critically ill patients in Africa are not receiving the essential treatments that could keep them alive.

    What can be done?

    The study suggests that thousands of lives could be saved if hospitals had better access to essential emergency and critical care. This is a set of simple, low-cost interventions that can prevent deaths from critical illness.

    The care interventions include:

    • ensuring oxygen is available for patients struggling to breathe

    • providing fluids or medications to stabilise blood pressure

    • training healthcare workers in basic life-support techniques to manage unconscious patients.

    Unlike high-tech intensive care unit treatments, essential emergency and critical care can be given in general wards with minimal resources.

    Strengthening these systems could dramatically reduce preventable deaths from conditions such as pneumonia, sepsis and trauma.

    Urgent action is needed

    This study sheds light on a healthcare crisis affecting millions of people, yet one that has remained largely overlooked.

    Every critically ill patient, no matter where they are treated, should receive the basic life-saving care they need.

    We call for urgent action.

    • Governments in Africa should make essential emergency and critical care a core part of universal health coverage. It should be integrated into policies and health benefit packages.

    • The World Health Organization should embed essential emergency and critical care measures into its resolutions.

    • African health funders should support studies and implementation of essential emergency and critical care.

    • Professional medical societies and institutions should include this care in clinical guidelines and training. Frontline healthcare workers must have the tools they need to save lives.

    The EECC Network, a global community dedicated to sharing knowledge, research and best practices, has been started to help prevent needless deaths.

    * Nick Leech, who works on the promotion of essential emergency and critical care on behalf of EECC Global, contributed to this article.

    Tim Baker declares technical consultancies with UNICEF, the World Bank, USAID, and PATH, has received research funding from Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research and is a board member at the non-profit organisation EECC Global.

    Karima Khalid is a board member of EECCGlobal

    – ref. Critically ill patients in African hospitals aren’t getting the care they need: new survey – https://theconversation.com/critically-ill-patients-in-african-hospitals-arent-getting-the-care-they-need-new-survey-253355

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How windfalls from commodity price booms come back to bite exporters

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lotanna Emediegwu, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Manchester Metropolitan University

    Zhengzaishuru/Shutterstock

    When the wholesale prices of essential goods like food or oil suddenly rise, it can cause deep shifts in the economy that upend trade balances and hike inflation rates. This is known as a commodity price boom.

    The outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022 spurred European and US sanctions on Russian oil companies which restricted global oil supply. The ensuing shock hiked energy prices in the international market and meant that the price of Brent crude, a global benchmark for oil prices, reached US$122 (£95) a barrel on March 21 that year, its highest level since 2015.

    Price inflation has forced households in importing nations like the UK to pay a premium to fill up cars. It has also raised food prices, as the cost of shipping food to supermarkets and restaurants has increased, as well as utility bills.

    Meanwhile resource-rich exporter nations can make a killing and choose to use the additional revenue to subsidise energy for consumers, issue rebates, or increase funding for public services. Less evident, but no less significant however, are the environmental consequences of these booms.

    A study I published with colleagues showed that democratic nations in oil-rich regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are especially prone to increasing pollution when the oil price suddenly soars. This phenomenon stems from the need to ramp up production quickly, to capitalise on fleeting price hikes, which economies with less democratic oversight are able to bypass.

    These (ostensibly) democratic economies appear most attentive to market signals, and in their unbridled rush for quick economic gain, typically raise pollution as they extract and sell more. This is especially true with oil extraction, which produces pollutants linked to cancer.

    We investigated global commodity price booms using the commodity windfall index. This is a collection of prices that market analysts collate to track changes and detect booms as they develop. We measured the effect of price booms on the environment by analysing how air pollution changed in producer countries when the prices of commodities in the index changed.

    The index covers 40 commodities across energy, metals, food and beverages, and agricultural raw materials such as wheat. One is particularly damaging to the environment: oil production.

    The top five oil producers as of 2023 (the most recent year for which data exists) are developed nations: the US (22%), Saudi Arabia (11%), Russia (11%), Canada (6%), and China (5%). As global exporters, all benefit from windfalls caused by oil price spikes.

    Increasing commodity prices justify more intense exploration for new reserves. In the case of oil exploration, this involves seismic surveys, drilling and the use of heavy machinery which consumes lots of fossil energy and releases greenhouse gases like CO₂.

    Oil price surges could make democracies less green

    Among oil-producing and exporting economies, democratic nations are more likely to experience increased pollution during commodity windfalls, compared with autocratic regimes. We characterised democracies by the presence of competitive political participation and regular free and fair elections, among other qualities.

    This is because democratic nations are particularly prone to ramping up resource extraction during price booms. Political pressures drive this tendency, as governments seek to fund popular initiatives or bolster public services before elections. For example, in the US during the 2008 oil price spike, president George W. Bush advocated for increased domestic oil drilling and natural gas extraction with an aim to reduce energy prices and create jobs.

    Autocratic regimes might appear less urgent to exploit commodity windfalls. There are, after all, fewer electoral or public accountability considerations. However, one-party state China’s position as the world’s largest polluter is primarily due to its manufacturing base, not raw material extraction.

    The environmental consequences of commodity booms are a global issue that requires cooperation to solve.

    Developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean will struggle to reduce emissions from extractive activities, as much economic growth here depends on it. The US$300 billion (£235 billion) annual climate funding pledge for developing countries, agreed at the most recent UN climate summit in Azerbaijan, is not enough to finance the creation of new industries.

    Advanced economies, which bear historical responsibility for the majority of global emissions, must take the lead in addressing this imbalance. This involves both reducing their emissions and providing substantial financial and technical support to resource-dependent nations. A failure to do so would perpetuate global inequalities, as developing nations are asked to sacrifice economic growth for environmental goals while industrialised countries continue to expand their economies.

    The challenge, then, is not just in managing the financial rewards of commodity booms, but in ensuring they do not come at an unsustainable environmental cost.

    Lotanna Emediegwu 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 windfalls from commodity price booms come back to bite exporters – https://theconversation.com/how-windfalls-from-commodity-price-booms-come-back-to-bite-exporters-244878

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Sounds of the Ukraine war: what these recordings of daily life reveal about the human and environmental costs

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Janine Natalya Clark, Professor of Transitional Justice and International Criminal Law, University of Birmingham

    A Kyiv resident describes it as her favourite morning sound. She is referring to the crisp, clear sound of a trumpet coming from a nearby street. The music is beautiful and soulful, played by a military veteran who sits in the same spot every weekend.

    “I am inspired by this strong person who not only plays but also brings a ray of hope to the whole district with his music,” the interviewee reflects.

    Trumpet.
    Ukrainian interviewee, CC BY2.16 MB (download)

    Existing research on war and sound has mainly focused on what J. Martin Daughtry, associate professor of ethnomusicology and sound studies at New York University, terms “the belliphonic” – meaning the spectrum of sounds produced by armed combat. Gunfire. Shellings. Explosions.

    In reality, what people hear and remember as the sounds of war are often far more diverse. When I asked a group of Ukrainians to make recordings of their local soundscapes, they captured a wide range of different sounds including the belliphonic – in particular, the increasingly “normal” sound of air raid sirens.

    Air raid siren.
    Ukrainian interviewee, CC BY784 KB (download)

    Yet they were also much more varied than I had expected – a school run; a walk in a winter forest; stridulating crickets; silence during curfew (typically from midnight to 5am); generators on the street; an end-of-project celebration; a rollerskating club.

    I also asked participants about their recordings, including how they felt when they listened back to them, as well as more general questions such as how their soundscapes had changed due to the war, and what sounds they missed. These recordings are featured in a recently launched online exhibit.

    As I have learnt from my research over the past seven months, sound can offer different – and distinctive – insights into experiences of war. It can elicit thoughts and information that might not arise from conversations and interviews alone.

    I had a particular reason for asking Ukrainians to make these soundscape recordings (more than 40 in total). Ecologists, bio-acousticians (scientists who study the creation, transmission and reception of sound) and others have used sound to analyse and monitor soil biodiversity, the healthiness of coral reefs and the impact of wildfires on birdsong.

    This fascinating area of research, however, remains neglected in war and armed conflict contexts. In particular, studies examining the environmental impacts of war – including the war in Ukraine – have overlooked the relevance of sound in terms of what it might tell us about the impact of conflict.

    In Ukraine, some of the areas that have suffered the greatest environmental damage are not accessible – or at least, not easily. They are saturated with landmines and other unexploded ordnance, occupied by Russian forces, or close to frontline areas.

    Russian air attacks on Kyiv in April 2025.

    My interviewees were not able to record the sounds of burning forests and steppes (grasslands); or of wild animals in Askania-Nova (Ukraine’s oldest nature reserve) fleeing in fear from low-flying enemy aircraft. All of the interviewees, moreover, were based in cities. Their recordings, however, illustrate some of the ways the war in Ukraine is affecting not just humans but the whole environment.

    In one of the recordings, made at night in the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-east Ukraine, there is the sound of explosions as Ukraine’s air-defence system shoots down Shahed drones. Neighbourhood dogs can be heard barking throughout the entire recording.

    Drone attack.
    Ukrainian interviewee, CC BY1.37 MB (download)

    In another recording, in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, dogs bark in response to the wailing sound of an air raid siren – and a large dog close-by lets out two prolonged howls.

    Howling dog.
    Ukrainian interviewee, CC BY1.41 MB (download)

    It is impossible to listen to these recordings without thinking about the animals and what they were experiencing and feeling.

    A zoologist shared with me a recording he made in 2013, a year before the start of the war in eastern Ukraine. The audio captures the chirping of a steppe marmot in Luhansk region. As the area is now under occupation, you might wonder when listening to it how the sounds of this steppe have changed as a consequence of the war.

    Attentiveness to sound has wider implications for justice, and in particular for transitional justice (how societies respond to the legacies of massive and serious human rights violations) – my area of research.

    Ukraine is investigating more than 200 cases of environmental war crimes which are alleged to have taken place during the current conflict. Of these, 14 are additionally being investigated as ecocide – a crime included in article 441 of Ukraine’s criminal code. One case relates to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, in Kherson region, in June 2023.

    These legal developments can significantly contribute to addressing the neglect of nature and the environment in transitional justice – a field that remains strongly focused on humans.

    Sound is also highly relevant in this regard. As the barking dogs illustrate, it can powerfully capture ways that human and animal experiences of war are deeply entangled.

    Using sound as a way of actively monitoring different ecosystems over a period of time can also provide valuable information about changes occurring within them. This is important for understanding how these ecosystems have been harmed and, additionally, how they might be recovering . Oleksii Marushchak, a researcher at the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology in Kyiv, said after listening to the recordings:

    It is important to reiterate that the majority of interviewees at the time of participating in the study were far from the frontline, where the horrors of war are much more intense than anything that you will hear in the soundscape recordings. One can only imagine what it must be like for people and animals living in close proximity to frontline areas.

    Sound is relevant not just to criminal investigations but also the issue of environmental reparations. There now exists a Register of Damage for Ukraine, as the first step in creating an international compensation mechanism to deal with multiple damages – including to the environment – caused during the war. It would be a highly innovative, and welcome, development if this future mechanism were to admit soundscape ecology evidence.

    There is also scope for Ukrainian prosecutors to further expand their pioneering work in investigating environmental war crimes and ecocide (which has wider relevance to the work of the International Criminal Court in The Hague) by listening to such recordings – and to the rich information that animals, forests, rivers and soil can help communicate through sound.

    When the war ends, it will be essential to consider all the evidence of its many effects and consequences, and sound recordings could be very important.

    Janine Natalya Clark receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.

    – ref. Sounds of the Ukraine war: what these recordings of daily life reveal about the human and environmental costs – https://theconversation.com/sounds-of-the-ukraine-war-what-these-recordings-of-daily-life-reveal-about-the-human-and-environmental-costs-253390

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: After 100 years, The Great Gatsby still reminds us of the ability of literature to transform everyday life

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alice Kelly, Assistant Professor of Literature and History, University of Warwick

    Canva, CC BY

    Last November, I flew to New York to see a play: Gatz, an eight-hour reading of the entire text of The Great Gatsby by the experimental theatre ensemble the Elevator Repair Service.

    As a Fitzgerald enthusiast, I couldn’t miss it. My journey to the US felt like a gesture of such luxurious excess that it seems to belong in the book itself. But I was surprised to find that the production was only in part about the novel. It was simultaneously a commentary on the ability of literature to take us beyond our everyday lives – and the upcoming centenary of The Great Gatsby will be the same.

    With its fantastical, romantic subject matter, luxurious excess and its beloved language – not to mention the nostalgia many feel from studying it in school – The Great Gatsby reminds us of the ability of literature to transform everyday life.

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    Gatz opens with an office worker discovering his computer doesn’t work and idly beginning to read aloud a copy of the novel on his desk. As his coworkers enter the office, they gradually become the characters of Fitzgerald’s novel. A brawny security guard becomes Tom Buchanan, an androgynous postal worker turns into Jordan Baker. The ageing boss becomes Jay Gatsby himself.

    Gradually the first-person narration of the novel turns our unnamed office worker into the novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway. We remain in the harshly lit, dingy, unwelcoming office, which is transformed through inventive staging. The drunken party at Tom and Myrtle’s apartment is seen through office paper being thrown in the air and Gatsby pulls his shirts out of office filing cabinets.

    Towards the end of the play, Nick starts flipping through the pages of the novel, while still reciting the words – his, and our, immersion in the novel is complete.

    The trailer for Gatz.

    The joy of being read to

    I saw the play on the Friday of election week in the US. In that context, the final entrancing passage of the novel had the effect of a secular incantation in a troubled world.

    Carraway imagines the Dutch sailors (or colonisers) who first set sight on the Americas and how “for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent […] face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder”.

    The play is a reminder of the joy of communal reading, an activity lost in our private silos of individualised content. Can the other characters hear Nick as he reads the novel aloud? It is unclear.

    Adults love being read aloud to as much as children, as the increasing popularity of audiobooks demonstrates.

    Reviewers of the original London production of Gatz in 2012 picked up on this, saying “a usually private activity, reading, has been turned into a collective one and it is intensely, surprisingly moving”.

    Or are we meant to think that as the office worker becomes increasingly immersed in the book, the reality around him gradually disappears – as happens when we become lost in the pages of a book?

    Actor Jeff Goldblum describes his enjoyment of reading The Great Gatsby aloud.

    The clock on stage in the office doesn’t change time throughout the play, suggesting that we are outside of time when we read. Some reviewers argued that the play is about the private experience of reading: “What goes on in your head is, in a way, the real subject of Gatz, which is not, strictly speaking, a staged reading of The Great Gatsby … It’s more a dramatisation of the act of reading itself – of what happens when you immerse yourself in a book.”

    Gatsby is a good choice for a play about the transformative role that reading and literature can play in life. It’s a representative text for what literature can do and achieve.

    Gatsby wasn’t always great

    Largely ignored on first publication, the novel didn’t achieve critical or commercial success until being sent by the Council on Books in Wartime to American soldiers serving overseas during the second world war, after Fitzgerald’s death.

    F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1929.
    Wiki Commons

    Fitzgerald himself was torn between knowing he had written a masterpiece to doubting the success of the book. “Gatsby was far from perfect in many ways but all in all it contains such prose as has never been written in America before,” he wrote in a letter to a friend in May 1925. In autumn that year, he wrote to another friend about the novel’s cold reception: “At first, you know, I thought Gatsby must be a terrible failure.”

    The novel now is arguably over-canonised – frequently set on British and American school syllabus, regularly hailed as the “greatest” American novel, with the idolisation of the text at the expense of Fitzgerald’s other work. Don’t get me wrong: I love the book, but I’m not sure even Fitzgerald himself held it in such high esteem as his dedicated readers do.

    As the novel reaches its centenary this month – preceded by its passing out of copyright and into the public domain – the Gatsby industry has gone into overdrive. The enduring fascination with this story has already been seen in numerous film adaptations (the first, now lost, was released in 1926, a year after the novel was published). These have been complemented by biographies of the novel, graphic adaptations, a thriving tourist industry (The Great Gatsby Boat Tour, anyone?) and two new musicals.

    The endless controversies over the novel continue. Who was the inspiration for Gatsby? Is Gatsby black? Is Gatsby’s love for Daisy romantic or delusional? Was Fitzgerald inspired by Great Neck and the contours of the north shore of Long Island for the geography of the novel? Or, in fact, his earlier home in Connecticut, as a recent documentary claims?

    Gatsby has become more than just a novel, but instead a site for what literature can mean, and its endless capacity for interpretation and reinterpretation.

    At the end of Gatz, there’s no return to the office setting of the play’s opening, no final framing narrative, just the lights going down after those final hypnotic words of the novel. Is this ending pure escapism – knowing the audience will shortly leave the space of the theatre and return to their everyday lives? Or does literature ultimately take us out of our mundane, harshly lit everyday existence, into other realms? If any novel can transport us, it’s The Great Gatsby.

    Alice Kelly 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. After 100 years, The Great Gatsby still reminds us of the ability of literature to transform everyday life – https://theconversation.com/after-100-years-the-great-gatsby-still-reminds-us-of-the-ability-of-literature-to-transform-everyday-life-253664

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Menstrual blood is being used to research a range of health conditions — from endometriosis to diabetes and cancer

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By April Rees, Lecturer, Biochemistry & Immunology, Swansea University

    Menstrual blood contains immune cells, stems cells and endometrial cells. ADragan/ Shutterstock

    Menstrual blood has historically been overlooked in research – considered only to be a waste product.

    But menstrual blood actually has a rich cellular and molecular makeup. It contains immune cells, stems cells and endometrial cells – as well as metabolites such as proteins and lipids (fat). This makes menstrual blood a potential goldmine for insights into many different health conditions. It can also be a less invasive way for researchers to access important biological material without the need for surgical biopsies or other invasive techniques.

    Given its important composition, researchers are now using menstrual blood to investigate whether it can be used to uncover the causes of a disease, identify signs of a health condition and develop personalised treatments.

    One area where menstrual blood could be integral is research investigating endometriosis. This condition causes endometrial tissue (which normally lines the uterus) to grow outside of the womb and on other organs, such as the bowel and ovaries.

    Research into endometriosis is severely underfunded, despite it affecting 10% of women. It’s also difficult to understand the mechanisms behind the disease without using invasive procedures. As a result, current treatment options – which include surgical lesion removal, hormonal contraceptives and pain relief – fail to address the root cause or associated complications (such as infertility).

    But some researchers have managed to develop organoids using the endometrial cells from menstrual blood. Organoids are miniature, lab-grown 3D models of organs derived from the stem cells found in the blood. These organoids can mimic what happens in the actual endometrium (the innermost lining of the uterus). This gives researchers a non-invasive way to investigate the health status of the endometrium.

    By developing organoids from the menstrual blood of those suffering with endometriosis, researchers are able to model the disease in the lab. This may one day lead the way to better understanding the underlying mechanisms of the condition.

    Endometriosis is also considered to be an inflammatory condition. This is because there’s an over-activation of the immune system seen in people with endometriosis, which worsens symptoms. As such, an area of high interest for research into endometriosis is the study of the immune system.



    Read more:
    Endometriosis: how the condition may be linked to the immune system

    Menstrual blood contains live immune cells which have come from the reproductive tract. These immune cells offer insight into the inflammation that’s occurring in the womb. This may help researchers better understand and develop treatments for painful sex, a common symptom for people with endometriosis which is linked to inflammation.

    While the presence of endometrial cells makes it an ideal tool for studying endometriosis, menstrual blood is also being used to offer insights into other reproductive diseases. For example, it has unveiled immune differences in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss that was not previously detectable using blood from the vein.

    Stem cell research

    Menstrual blood also contains stem cells, which makes it an important resource for research into a variety of other health conditions – including those involved in critical processes such as cardiovascular function, respiration and nervous system function.

    Menstrual blood is even being used to monitor blood sugar levels.
    Pixel-Shot/ Shutterstock

    Stem cells are defined by their naive status and ability to become a new, specialised type of cell under the right conditions. Adult stem cells are usually taken from umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, bone marrow or fat tissue. However, it requires invasive techniques to extract a stem cell sample from these areas – and only small amounts can be acquired.

    But menstrual blood, a fluid which is typically produced monthly, has been found to contain stem cells that are also capable of differentiating into various other cell types. This is particularly exciting as menstrual blood is readily available, naturally regenerates and collecting it does not require any surgical procedures or discomfort. This makes it a convenient and ethical option for stem cell research and potential therapies.

    Aside from using these menstrual blood-derived stem cells to investigate reproductive diseases such as endometriosis, there are also several studies looking at using these cells in other applications. For example, researchers have used them to investigate techniques for promoting wound healing and improving blood sugar levels in diabetes patients.

    On the topic of diabetes, menstrual blood is also being used for a proof-of-concept study to monitor glycaemic control. This offers alternatives to traditional blood tests – such as the Q pad, a pad which contains a removable collection strip for blood testing.

    Other diseases which are showing promising results in being diagnosed through menstrual blood include cervical cancer, chlamydia and diseases associated with lipid levels – such as atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.

    The new normal?

    Menstrual blood is gaining traction in research due to its novelty and because it’s a less invasive way to collect different cells and molecules for testing. It’s easily accessible as a monthly “waste” product, and allows women to collect samples themselves. This could bypass the need for doctors and nurses and the inconvenience of appointments if it becomes a more reliable diagnostic tool.



    Read more:
    ‘Dirty red’: how periods have been stigmatised through history to the modern day

    But despite its promise, there are practical challenges that researchers face. Discussion around menstrual blood is still sometimes seen as taboo. Some women may not feel comfortable handling their own blood.

    There are also inconsistencies with how menstrual blood is collected between studies. For example, studies which only required a smaller volume of menstrual blood have been able to make use of sanitary pads and tampons to collect samples. However, those which require a larger sample used menstrual cups. The first issue with this is that the products used have different compositions, which can interfere with the reliability of the results. Another issue lies predominantly with menstrual cups and the lack of knowledge surrounding their proper use.

    As such, addressing stigma and promoting awareness around menstrual blood research is vital. While it has historically been overlooked, menstrual blood must now be recognised as a powerful, non-invasive tool in advancing research.

    April Rees receives funding from Royal Society.

    – ref. Menstrual blood is being used to research a range of health conditions — from endometriosis to diabetes and cancer – https://theconversation.com/menstrual-blood-is-being-used-to-research-a-range-of-health-conditions-from-endometriosis-to-diabetes-and-cancer-253384

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Donald Trump’s policies are more than dumb — they’re stupid, according to stupidity researchers

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jerry Paul Sheppard, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University

    Before he stepped down as Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau called Donald Trump’s tariff policies “very dumb.” This might be an accurate description of many Trump administration policies — but the more objectively correct word is “stupid.”

    In fact, Québec’s largest newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal, published a front-page photo of Trump in early February with the word “stupid” in 350-point type. Some may call this an opinion, but the science of stupidity tells us that it’s more of a definition.

    Recent research has produced a succinct label for the poorly calculated actions of decision-makers: stupidity.

    This is not simple name-calling, but a phenomenon that comprises loss and features a set of actions that are either outright recognizably dysfunctional, or appear so at odds with any sensible course of action that it seems a hidden agenda could be involved.

    Stupidity that causes everyone to lose

    According to the seminal and transactional view of human stupidity by Carlo Cipolla, the late Italian economic historian, interactions fall into four categories:

    1. Intelligent interactions that are beneficial to all – a positive-sum game like Scottish philosopher Adam Smith’s notion of wealth through specialization and trade;

    2. Helpless interactions that result in a loss in a zero-sum game;

    3. Bandit interactions that result in a gain in zero-sum game;

    4. Stupid interactions that cause all parties to suffer a loss.

    Free trade is based on an intelligent positive-sum interaction. Trump’s transactional zero-sum view is that for every winner there is a loser.

    He apparently doesn’t understand that tariffs are only successful if other countries don’t retaliate. But other countries do retaliate, and as the world is now witnessing, the resulting trade war can decimate the global economy.

    Trump’s protectionist measures aimed at boosting the U.S. economy can therefore be considered “stupid” interactions that deepen and lengthen economic depression.

    Stupidity as recognizable actions

    Modern-day researchers have also identified three recognizable sets of actions embodying stupidity:

    Confident ignorance that involves people taking risks without having the necessary skills to deal with them. It’s not just being ignorant of one’s ignorance — explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect — but being self-assured despite contrary evidence.

    Trump may know what he does not know, so he delegated many tasks to Tesla founder Elon Musk and trade tariff architect Pete Navarro, both of whom seem to possess no such awareness.

    Absent-minded failure means people knew the right thing to do but were not paying sufficient attention to avoid doing something stupid. Organizations create agendas, but if issues don’t reach a point where they seriously impact the organization’s objectives, they are ignored.

    An example is the recent U.S. strikes against Yemeni Houthis. U.S. officials ignored critical security components by sharing information about their plans over unsecure connections and with a member of the media.



    Read more:
    ‘Signalgate’ was damaging to the Trump administration. It could be deadly for Yemeni civilians

    Lack of control means that autocratic decision-makers compromise their organizations by failing to accept objections from those charged with implementing the leader’s preconceived plans.

    Such autocratic decision-makers may select biased information to support their proposals. Those working under these leaders either buy into efforts to selectively use information, limit alternatives and execute these preconceived plans or they leave the organization (either voluntarily or not).

    In the U.S., witness the firing of Justice Department pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer. She failed to support restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, who had been convicted of domestic violence in 2011. Gibson’s pardon was reportedly based on his personal relationship with the president.

    Types of stupidity

    Organizational researchers have used the term functional stupidity to describe those who refuse to use their intellectual capacities when making decisions and then avoid justification for their actions. This allows group members to quickly execute routine functions without much thought.

    Dysfunctional stupidity is a lack of organizationally supported reflection, reasoning and justification. Organizations fail to use intellectual resources to process knowledge or question norms or claims of knowledge when confronted with new or non-routine decisions. By blocking communications, muffling criticism and squelching doubts, organizations ensure adherence to superiors’ edicts.

    One Trump administration example is the unquestioning permission given to allow the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Musk, to access to a wide array of government data.

    It can take the combined efforts of organizational officials on multiple levels to maintain stupidity.

    Individually, stupidity is reinforced by ignoring crucial information because of a need for a rapid response.

    Consequently, quick decisions and shortcuts made by individuals result in negative outcomes. An example would be the Trump administration’s apparent need to appear to find cost savings quickly to allow for tax cuts, overriding a more logical approach to find ways to achieve those savings without gutting legally mandated services.

    Organizationally, stupidity is reinforced because organizations limit acceptable alternative behaviours when they cannot process all available information. Data is restricted, controls are tightened and organization officials fall back to using previously well-learned responses in their comfort zones. Inexperienced decision-makers fall back on uninformed assumptions, or no assumptions at all.

    Witness Trump’s “reciprocal” trade tariffs currently decimating financial markets worldwide. No tariffs were calculated using current tariff rates, while others were based on American trade deficits with other countries. Other tariffs seem to be based on no rationale at all.



    Read more:
    No, that’s not what a trade deficit means – and that’s not how you calculate other nations’ tariffs

    Stupidity as a hidden agenda?

    Some actions that appear stupid may simply hide a hidden agenda. When the Trump administration erroneously detains and deports anyone under the Alien Enemies Act, is it an accident or a way to instil fear in everyone that authorities can detain, mistreat and deport them without due process at any point?

    Many of the actions being taken by the Trump administration appear stupid.
    Tariffs, for example, represent a loss — a transactionally negative sum game.

    Trump’s decisions exhibit confident ignorance, absent-minded failure and lack of control. They also show dysfunctional stupidity as Trump officials seemingly refuse to use their full intellectual resources. Stupidity is also being reinforced through unfounded assumptions. Is this all hiding a secret agenda?

    “You can’t fix stupid,” so the saying goes. But having capable administrators in place while other branches of government exercise their constitutionally mandated oversight role might dampen some of the Trump administration’s stupidity.

    Jerry Paul Sheppard 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. Donald Trump’s policies are more than dumb — they’re stupid, according to stupidity researchers – https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-policies-are-more-than-dumb-theyre-stupid-according-to-stupidity-researchers-253009

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The ‘morning shed’: a brief history of the sometimes dangerous lengths women have gone to look beautiful

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise N Hanson, PhD in Social and Developmental psychology, Durham University

    An advert for the tape worm pills.

    In TikTok’s latest viral beauty trend “the morning shed,” beauty influencers “shed” hair and skin products that have been worn overnight. These include hair styling items, skin masks and creams, and physical products such as chin straps and mouth tape, which are intended to help with breathing through the night and keep away the drooping of the jaw that happens with age.

    While this trend has come under fire for alleged unsustainability and over-consumerism, it is only the latest beauty fad in a long line of time and money consuming “hacks” that women have been undertaking for centuries. From tapeworms to tuberculosis, women have taken part in a laundry list of beauty hacks in order to meet appearance ideals, many of which have been dangerous, painful and even deadly.

    As far back as the ancient Egyptians, women ground up toxic substances to make eyeliner and eye shadow. These were dangerous when inhaled as a powder (such as during the grinding process) and could cause irritation of the skin when applied. And yet somehow, heavy metal poisoning is among the least dangerous of these historic beauty trends.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions. Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    In China, foot binding is an example of a painful and life altering treatment first recorded around the 10th century. The feet were usually bound before the arch of the foot had developed (aged four to nine).

    The process involved forcefully curling the toes towards the sole of the foot until the arch broke then the foot would be tightly bandaged to keep it in this position. Small feel were coveted at the time. Thankfully, this practice was banned in the early 1900s after almost 200 years of opposition from both Chinese and western sources.

    A Chinese woman with bound feet.
    Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

    In Europe, the Renaissance period saw a new wave of beauty hacks, from arsenic baths (which bleach the skin to a near translucent white) to Belladonna drops (literal poison) used on the eyes to induce an aroused or watery-eyed look. Many women who used these tactics ended up poisoned or blind.

    During the reign of Elizabeth I, the “English rose” look was all the rage. Women would blood let for a perfectly pale pallor, or paint their faces with “Venetian ceruse” or “Venetian white” – otherwise known as lead paint. The use of Venetian ceruse is one of the suspected causes of death of Elizabeth I.

    In the Victorian era and early 1900s, women often engaged in dangerous practices to achieve the coveted pale skin, red lip and small waist that was the height of fashion. This aesthetic could be achieved by contracting tuberculosis (a lung infection that was often fatal), taking tapeworm pills, consuming mercury to look forever young, or chewing arsenic wafers to make skin pale.

    My own research has shown that sociocultural pressures to look a certain way are experienced differently across the world. I found that white western women experience some of the highest appearance pressures, followed by east Asian women. Although these decline a little with age for white western women, they persist in Asian women and never reach the lower levels seen elsewhere. I found the lowest levels of sociocultural pressure and the highest levels of body appreciation in Nigeria.

    As the “morning shed” proves, women still go to great lengths to meet culturally shaped standards, particularly under conditions of higher economic inequality – something that is getting worse in many countries. For example, in the United States, cities which have higher economic inequality see higher spend on beauty products and services, such as beauty salons or women’s clothing.

    With the advent of social media, especially short-form content like TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts, the speed at which beauty trends rise and fall has been expedited and globalised. These trends range from the painful lip suction women undertook to get big lips like the celebrity Kylie Jenner, to the normalisation of botox and fillers, to laser hair removal of every unwanted follicle.

    The “morning shed” is just the latest evolution in skin care trends, which started as health-focused, with an emphasis on sun protection and moisturisation. It has since morphed into a study in over-consumption and over-commitment of time and money in the pursuit of staying ever youthful.

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

    – ref. The ‘morning shed’: a brief history of the sometimes dangerous lengths women have gone to look beautiful – https://theconversation.com/the-morning-shed-a-brief-history-of-the-sometimes-dangerous-lengths-women-have-gone-to-look-beautiful-253921

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a multibillion-dollar industry – new report shows who benefits

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Deborah Fry, Professor of International Child Protection Research and Director of Data at the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, University of Edinburgh

    271 EAK MOTO/Shutterstock

    The sexual exploitation and abuse of children has become a multibillion-dollar global trade. The chilling reality of this profit-driven, highly lucrative industry is laid bare by new findings from myself and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh’s Childlight Global Child Safety Institute.

    Our new report shows child abuse isn’t just a crime restricted to a hidden corner of the dark web. Based on a review of 20 publications across multiple disciplines (including big data reports, systematic reviews, discussion papers and qualitative studies), the report paints a picture of the financial mechanisms enabling abuse on a global scale.

    Our previous work estimated that 3.5% of children globally had experienced sexual extortion in the last year. This is when children and their families face threats to share sexual content of a child if they do not comply with monetary demands.

    Offenders aren’t the only ones who profit. Financial institutions, tech companies and online payment platforms — sometimes unknowingly, sometimes by omission — facilitate the flow of profits made from the abuse of children. Some of the money moves through legitimate payment systems and advertising revenue streams. Other financial flows are deliberately obscured through cryptocurrencies and the dark web.

    Many organisations do take proactive steps to detect and report this activity. Inhope, a global network of hotlines, works with law enforcement and tech companies to remove child sexual abuse material and disrupt the associated financial streams. And the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US receives and acts on reports from tech companies of child sexual abuse material, alerting companies and authorities to suspicious financial activity.

    But these systems remain inadequately checked or challenged by financial regulators and laws.

    Sexual extortion has also spawned the creation of companies that provide cybersecurity and reputation management services to victims to combat the extorters. Fees are often paid upfront and can amount to thousands of dollars. In effect, this forces victims to pay for a solution to the crime committed against them.

    An estimated 3.5% of children globally had experienced sexual extortion in the last year.
    Andrew Angelov/Shutterstock

    There is also a market for the sale of child sexual abuse material, both recorded and livestreamed, delivering profit for the offender and the systems they use. One video file of on-demand child sexual abuse can cost US$1,200 (£940). With the estimated prevalence of technology-facilitated abuse experienced by 300 million children annually, this is a massive industry.

    The scale of profit is staggering, in contrast with the price some perpetrators pay to sexually abuse children. One particularly haunting finding is abusers paying as little as 27 pence (UK) to offend against children.

    Taken together, the industry is estimated to reach multiple billions of dollars annually.

    While the financial value placed on a child may be measured in pennies, the lifelong cost to that child in trauma, health and opportunity is incalculable. It is a grotesque marketplace where takings are vast and suffering is immeasurable.

    Changing markets

    Our findings also expose how perpetrators themselves are rapidly changing their approach, constantly exploiting gaps in legislation and regulatory frameworks to continue harming children.

    For example, we find in the Philippines, a livestreaming hotspot, that technology is enabling large organised crime syndicates to be replaced by smaller, covert groups. Often operating within families, these perpetrators have profited as crime shifts online, facilitated by cryptocurrency and digital payment systems.

    The proliferation and growing sophistication of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has also opened troubling new frontiers. Child abusers can now produce realistic AI-generated child sexual abuse material, using the photos of real children in order to extort. This can make detection harder and muddy the water in terms of legal accountability. Many jurisdictions are still playing catch-up.



    Read more:
    Our research on dark web forums reveals the growing threat of AI-generated child abuse images

    Stopping the flow of money and abuse

    The world’s financial and tech infrastructure — knowingly or unknowingly — has become complicit in sustaining these crimes. In some cases, advertising revenue generated from abusive content on mainstream platforms flows back into criminal networks with little-to-no intervention. Cryptocurrencies allow for rapid and anonymous transfers of payment between perpetrators and content creators.

    There is no one-size-fits-all approach to preventing child sexual exploitation, and the changing nature of the market and technology makes it even harder.

    One promising measure is the use of blocklists — lists of known child sexual abuse material that, once identified, can be blocked across major internet service providers. These lists compiled and shared by organisations including Internet Watch Foundation are proving invaluable in stopping people from accessing abuse material.

    However, even here, our findings are disturbing. On average, there are five attempts per second globally to access material that has already been placed on these blocklists.

    We need to start addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse as a public health emergency, with a coordinated response to halt its growth. This requires not just reactive law enforcement measures, but proactive prevention strategies that tackle the financial and technological ecosystems that sustain the abuse. For example, imposing regulation and sanctions on financial institutions that do not take appropriate steps to prevent their services being exploited.

    Deborah Fry receives funding from Human Dignity Foundation and UK Research and Innovation.

    – ref. Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a multibillion-dollar industry – new report shows who benefits – https://theconversation.com/child-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-is-a-multibillion-dollar-industry-new-report-shows-who-benefits-252431

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why some storms brew up to extreme dimensions in the middle of America – and why it’s happening more often

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Shuang-Ye Wu, Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton

    Floodwaters rise in downtown Hopkinsville, Ky., on April 4, 2025. AP Photo/George Walker IV

    A powerful storm system that stalled over states from Texas to Ohio for several days in early April 2025 wreaked havoc across the region, with deadly tornadoes, mudslides and flooding as rivers rose. More than a foot of rain fell in several areas.

    As a climate scientist who studies the water cycle, I often get questions about how extreme storms like these form and what climate change has to do with it. There’s a recipe for extreme storms, with two key ingredients.

    Recipe for a storm

    The essential conditions for storms with heavy downpours to form are moisture and atmospheric instability.

    First, in order for a storm to develop, the air needs to contain enough moisture. That moisture comes from water evaporating off oceans, lakes and land, and from trees and other plants.

    The amount of moisture the air can hold depends on its temperature. The higher the temperature, the more moisture air can hold, and the greater potential for heavy downpours. This is because at higher temperatures water molecules have more kinetic energy and therefore are more likely to exist in the vapor phase. The maximum amount of moisture possible in the air increases at about 7% per degree Celsius.

    Search and rescue firefighters check on residents in a neighborhood in Frankfort, Ky., on April 6. Floodwater filled streets downtown and in several neighborhoods in the state capital.
    AP Photo/Jon Cherry

    Warm air also supplies storm systems with more energy. When that vapor starts to condense into water or ice as it cools, it releases large amount of energy, known as latent heat. This additional energy fuels the storm system, leading to stronger winds and greater atmospheric instability.

    That leads us to the second necessary condition for a storm: atmospheric instability.

    Atmospheric instability has two components: rising air and wind shear, which is created as wind speed changes with height. The rising air, or updraft, is essential because air cools as it moves up, and as a result, water vapor condenses to form precipitation.

    As the air cools at high altitudes, it starts to sink, forming a downdraft of cool and dry air on the edge of a storm system.

    When there is little wind shear, the downdraft can suppress the updraft, and the storm system quickly dissipates as it exhausts the local moisture in the air. However, strong wind shear can tilt the storm system, so that the downdraft occurs at a different location, and the updraft of warm moist air can continue, supplying the storm with moisture and energy. This often leads to strong storm systems that can spawn tornadoes.

    Extreme downpours hit the Midwest

    It is precisely a combination of these conditions that caused the prolonged, extensive precipitation that the Midwest and Southern states saw in early April.

    The Midwest is prone to extreme storms, particularly during spring. Spring is a transition time when the cold and dry air mass from the Arctic, which dominates the region in winter, is gradually being pushed away by warm and moist air from the Gulf that dominates the region in summer.

    This clash of air masses creates atmosphere instability at the boundary, where the warm and less dense air is pushed upward above the cold and denser air, creating precipitation.

    A cold front forms when a cold air mass pushes away a warm air mass. A warm front forms when the warm air mass pushes to replace the cold air mass. A cold front usually moves faster than a warm front, but the speed is related to the temperature difference between the two air masses.

    The warm conditions before the April storm system reduced the temperature difference between these cold and warm air masses, greatly reducing the speed of the frontal movement and allowing it to stall over states from Texas to Ohio.

    The result was prolonged precipitation and repeated storms. The warm temperatures also led to high moisture content in the air masses, leading to more precipitation. In addition, strong wind shear led to a continuous supply of moisture into the storm systems, causing strong thunderstorms and dozens of tornadoes to form.

    What global warming has to do with storms

    As global temperatures rise, the warming air creates conditions that are more conducive to extreme precipitation.

    The warmer air can mean more moisture, leading to wetter and stronger storms. And since most significant warming occurs near the surface, while the upper atmosphere is cooling, this can increase wind shear and the atmospheric instability that sets the stage for strong storms.

    Polar regions are also warming two to three times as fast as the global average, reducing the temperature gradient between the poles and equator. That can weaken the global winds. Most of the weather systems in the continental U.S. are modulated by the polar jet stream, so a weaker jet stream can slow the movement of storms, creating conditions for prolonged precipitation events.

    All of these create conditions that make extreme storms and flooding much more likely in the future.

    Shuang-Ye Wu 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 some storms brew up to extreme dimensions in the middle of America – and why it’s happening more often – https://theconversation.com/why-some-storms-brew-up-to-extreme-dimensions-in-the-middle-of-america-and-why-its-happening-more-often-254123

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Return’ of the dire wolf is an impressive feat of genetic engineering, not a reversal of extinction

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University

    Colossal

    Dallas-based biotech company Colossal has announced the birth of three pups bearing the DNA signatures of dire wolves, an iconic predator last seen roaming North America over 10,000 years ago.

    With their names Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, these pups are playing to the cultural imagination, blending ancient mythology with fantasy fiction. Romulus and Remus nod to the legendary founders of Rome, raised by a wolf, while Khaleesi evokes the dire wolves of Game of Thrones.

    It’s a resurrection story made for the headlines, but beneath the dramatic narrative lies a more nuanced – and more scientifically grounded – story. The birth of these pups is not the return of an extinct species. Instead, it’s a demonstration of how far we’ve come in the toolkit of synthetic biology (a field that involves redesigning systems found in nature), and a reminder of how far we still are from truly reversing extinction.

    Colossal’s work follows in the footsteps of its other high-profile project: the effort to “resurrect” the woolly mammoth. As discussed in a previous Conversation article, that project began with mice carrying mammoth gene traits – early evidence that gene editing could one day produce cold-resistant elephants with mammoth-like characteristics. The dire wolf project is a similar exercise in technological potential, not biological resurrection.

    So what exactly happened in the lab? Scientists at Colossal extracted ancient DNA from fossilised dire wolf remains, including a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old ear bone. From these samples, they sequenced the genome (the full complement of DNA in cells) and compared it with that of the modern gray wolf.

    They identified approximately 20 genetic differences that were key to the extinct animal’s appearance. These differences represent tiny tweaks in the genetic code known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs.

    ‘Dire wolf’ cubs Romulus and Remus soon after their birth.
    Copyright: Colossal

    These specific SNPs were then edited into the genome of a gray wolf using CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful gene-editing tool that allows for precision edits at the DNA level. The resulting modified cells were used to create embryos, which were implanted into surrogate domestic dogs. The pups that were born exhibit some traits thought to be characteristic of dire wolves: broader shoulders, larger bodies and pale coats.

    However, this raises a critical question: how different is this animal, really?

    To understand the limitations of this approach, consider our closest relatives in the animal kingdom: chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees share about 98.8% of their DNA, yet the behavioural, cognitive and physiological differences are clearly profound. While 98.8% sounds very similar, this translates to roughly 35–40 million differences in DNA base pairs.

    Now consider that the evolutionary split between dire wolves and gray wolves took place more than 300,000 years ago – and the two populations will have been diverging genetically for much longer before that. This means there are likely to be many more genetic differences between dire wolves and gray wolves. Editing 20 SNPs – out of billions of base pairs – is a minuscule change in evolutionary terms.

    The result? These animals may look a little like dire wolves, but they are not dire wolves. They are gray wolves with a few cosmetic tweaks. In this light, the project represents a remarkable demonstration of genetic engineering, rather than a literal revival of an extinct species.

    That said, this is still an extraordinary achievement. Extracting usable DNA from ancient remains, accurately sequencing it, identifying meaningful genetic variants and successfully editing them, then raising animals based on that information are all milestones worth celebrating.

    Positive applications – and risks

    The techniques honed in this project could find applications in conservation, especially for endangered species suffering from inbreeding and genetic bottlenecks.

    This work also expands the boundaries of what synthetic biology can do. The ability to dial specific traits in or out of a genome is valuable not just for scientific curiosity, but potentially for public health, agriculture and ecological restoration. But with these new tools come new responsibilities.

    US biotech company Colossal has previously gene-edited mice to have traits from woolly mammoths.
    Copyright: Colossal

    What role will these pseudo-dire wolves play in the wild? Would they behave like the long-extinct predators they mimic, or simply resemble them in form not function? Ecosystems are delicately balanced networks of interaction – adding a creature that is similar but not identical to a former apex predator could have unpredictable consequences.

    The young wolves are reportedly living in a 2,000-acre nature reserve at a secret location. So, while the reserve is surrounded by a 10ft fence, the wolves have plenty of room to roam and could encounter other wildlife.

    Some researchers argue that instead of chasing lost species, we should focus on protecting the biodiversity we still have. Resources poured into de-extinction could arguably be better spent preserving habitats, restoring degraded ecosystems, and preventing modern extinctions.

    Colossal’s dire wolf project is not a resurrection – it is an imitation. But that doesn’t mean it lacks value. It offers a glimpse into the possibilities of genetic science, and raises essential questions about what we mean when we say we are “bringing back” extinct species.

    But in the end, it’s not about whether we can bring back the dead. It’s about what we do with the power to remake the living.

    Timothy Hearn 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. ‘Return’ of the dire wolf is an impressive feat of genetic engineering, not a reversal of extinction – https://theconversation.com/return-of-the-dire-wolf-is-an-impressive-feat-of-genetic-engineering-not-a-reversal-of-extinction-254098

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From popping painkillers to shortage of sleep, seven common habits that could be harming your kidneys

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University

    New Africa/Shutterstock

    In the UK, more than 10% of the population is estimated to have some stage of chronic kidney disease and more than 600,000 people develop some form of acute kidney injury – when the kidneys suddenly stop working properly but can recover – each year.

    The kidneys play a vital role in maintaining overall health by filtering waste, excess fluids and electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, from the blood. They also help regulate blood pressure, red blood cell production and calcium balance in the body. When the kidneys are damaged, their ability to filter waste and maintain balance is compromised, leading to a buildup of toxins, fluid retention and an imbalance in electrolytes. This can cause a range of health problems, from high blood pressure to heart disease and weakened bones. Kidney damage can progress to chronic kidney disease and kidney failure over time.

    Kidney damage, then, can affect almost part of your body – but there are simple lifestyle changes you can make today to avoid harming your kidneys tomorrow.

    Here are seven potentially kidney-harming habits to avoid:

    Using painkillers

    Common over-the-counter anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin can damage the kidney tubules – tiny tubes in the kidneys that return filtered nutrients and fluids back to the blood. The remaining fluid and waste in the renal tubules become urine – and inflammation and reduced blood flow through the kidneys. This is more likely to occur in older people or those with other medical conditions.

    People who already have chronic kidney disease should avoid these painkillers unless they’ve been prescribed by a doctor who can monitor kidney function. To lower the risk of side-effects, use painkillers for the shortest time needed at the recommended dose on the packaging.

    Not drinking enough water

    Water is needed for the kidneys to remove waste. People who don’t drink enough water may be risking kidney damage, especially in hot weather. Concentrated urine from dehydration has higher levels of minerals and other waste products – this increases the risk of kidney stones and urine infections, which may damage the kidneys.



    Read more:
    Don’t like drinking plain water? 10 healthy ideas for staying hydrated this summer

    Some people with health conditions such as liver disease or heart failure may be on restricted fluids. But for the general population, between 1.5 to 2 litres of water (about six to eight cups) daily is recommended.

    Drinking too much alcohol

    The kidneys regulate the water in the body. Alcohol can dehydrate the body, which therefore changes how the kidneys work. Too much alcohol can also raise blood pressure, which damages the kidneys. Most people know that alcohol can contribute to liver disease, but this in turn can harm the kidneys as it means they have to work harder.

    The NHS advises men and women to not drink more than 14 alcohol units per week (ideally spread throughout the week with some alcohol-free days). This equates to one standard glass of wine (two units) or a pint of low-strength beer (two units) per day.

    Smoking

    Most people know that smoking can contribute to cancers and heart disease. But smoking can directly harm the kidneys through multiple mechanisms. Cigarette smoke contains toxic chemicals such as cadmium which may harm the kidneys. Smoking promotes oxidative stress (when harmful molecules called free radicals damage cells in the body) and can narrow the blood vessels and damage the blood vessel lining which can lead to kidney injury.

    Smoking also increases the risk of other conditions that can damage the kidneys, including diabetes and high blood pressure. There is no safe level of smoking, so it’s best to quit with support from a healthcare professional.

    Being overweight

    A healthy body mass index (BMI) is between 18.5 and 24.9. Anything over this is classed as overweight or obese. However, this isn’t the only measure of being overweight – and is sometimes inaccurate. The waist circumference is a good measure of fat around the middle (central obesity) which is shown to increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes – two common causes of kidney disease. Obesity might harm kidneys directly by disrupting fat tissue chemicals.

    Having a healthier diet in conjunction with exercise can help shed the pounds, helping keep your kidneys healthy. Some research has found that physical activity lowers the risk of kidney disease – aim for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise five days a week but build it up slowly.

    Making less healthy food choices

    Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are manufactured foods that contain ingredients such as fats, sugars, salts, and additives including artificial colours, flavourings and preservatives to make them taste better and increase their shelf life.



    Read more:
    Ultra-processed foods: largest ever review shows many ill effects on health – how to understand the evidence

    Examples of UPFs include meats such as sausages, carbonated soft drinks and packaged breads. These foods are linked to various health issues, such as obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Recently it has also been linked to kidney disease. An American study tracked 14,000 adults for 24 years. Those who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods had a 24% higher risk of kidney disease. Nearly 5,000 of them developed chronic kidney disease.

    Diets high in salt (sodium) can also be problematic, especially in people who already have kidney disease. The kidneys filter excess water from the blood, needing a balance of sodium and potassium. A high salt diet disrupts this balance, reducing kidney function and causing higher blood pressure, which strains the kidneys and can lead to kidney disease.



    Read more:
    Salty foods are making people sick − in part by poisoning their microbiomes

    Stick to a maximum of six grams – or one teaspoon – of salt per day.

    Poor sleep

    There is some evidence that links sleep quality and duration with kidney disease. A study has shown that poor sleep increases the risk of chronic kidney disease. Research differs slightly but having less than six hours or more than ten hours of sleep daily may harm your kidneys. Optimal sleep tends to be between seven to nine hours per night for most people.

    Factors such as age and family history are beyond your control but many habits can be changed to help manage kidney health.

    Dipa Kamdar 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. From popping painkillers to shortage of sleep, seven common habits that could be harming your kidneys – https://theconversation.com/from-popping-painkillers-to-shortage-of-sleep-seven-common-habits-that-could-be-harming-your-kidneys-253918

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The Great Gatsby at 100: this great American novel is a universal meditation on time and change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By William Blazek, Professor Emeritus of American Literature and Modern Culture, Liverpool Hope University

    One hundred years after its publication, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel, The Great Gatsby – the story of nouveau riche Jay Gatsby’s obsessive quest to win back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan – is best remembered for its depiction of America’s Jazz Age excess, especially through Gatsby’s wildly extravagant parties.

    Readers might also focus on moral questions raised about America’s class and racial divisions, the fundamental inequalities that hinder social progress, and the faulty-but-compelling promise of what a decade later was labelled “the American dream”. These are compelling themes within Fitzgerald’s tightly constructed and brilliantly expressed novel.

    Yet for all of its emphasis on national concerns, the book also contains subject matter of more universal value.

    A passage in the fifth chapter describes an incident during the reunion of Gatsby with the now-married Daisy at the cottage of Nick Carraway, the novel’s first-person narrator.

    Amid awkward uncertainty about achieving his goal of repeating the past by winning Daisy back after five years apart, Gatsby leans his head backward and topples over “a defunct mantelpiece clock”, which he then just manages to catch before it would have smashed on the floor. This incident emphasises an important theme of the novel – a meditation on time and change.

    _This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

    On one level, the novel presents contrasts between an older, elite moneyed class and emerging groups that have embraced opportunities for success in the entertainment industries of film and theatre. A further social layer is those who have taken underground routes to riches through bootlegging alcohol or manipulating the bond market.

    The socioeconomic and cultural transformations in the US after the first world war are amplified through references to modern technology. In particular, the telephone most often serves to disrupt conversations rather than promote improved communication. There are also Gatsby’s new automobiles, hydroplane, dazzling electric lighting displays and “a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of 200 oranges in half an hour”.

    In contrast, Daisy’s husband, Tom, has turned a car garage on his Long Island estate into a stable for his riding horses. In turning the value of horses from work to leisure, he seems to reverse the flow of history.

    Nick, though, is attracted to the dynamic potential for cultural change. He crosses into New York City over the Queensboro Bridge, a recently completed steel cantilever construction – the longest in the US at the time:

    Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge, I thought; anything at all.

    The “defunct mantelpiece clock” and its near demise could also represent Fitzgerald’s rejection of a literary inheritance. The author avoids the relative certainty of 19th-century realism’s character development and linear narrative chronology. Instead, he emphasises modernism’s fragmentation and ambiguity.

    The trailer for the 2012 adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

    Time shifts and nature’s power

    In the novel, Gatsby’s backstory is slowly and uncertainly revealed. Vital information about his youth is delayed until the final chapter. Born James Gatz on a poor North Dakota farm, the mysterious Jay Gatsby emerges through Nick’s memory.

    Nick recounts conversations with Gatsby, hears rumours, speaks with others and reads newspaper reports about him. He also imagines a great deal, delivering scattered details and making conjectures in jumbled time. “He told me all this much later, but I’ve put it down here” is one example.

    F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1921.
    Wiki Commons

    Some simple dialogue between Gatsby and Nick hints at the seemingly random, but actually carefully designed, narrative sequencing. Gatsby invites Nick to come along for a morning flight in his newly purchased hydroplane. “What time?” Nick asks, and the reply is: “Anytime that suits you best.”

    The Great Gatsby’s fractured sense of time challenges literary convention. It also reflects a world in flux after the first world war, and the moral as well as economic adjustments of the roaring twenties. But another crucial and often undervalued aspect of the novel deserves further attention: the power of nature.

    Natural imagery infuses the text, as the Sun and Moon, rain and wind, the stars and seasons counterbalance disorderly human time. A sense of cosmic, eternal time contends with the vanities of daily life and inevitable mortality.

    Nick connects Gatsby’s inevitable death with nature’s cyclical movements:

    He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real.

    Besides being an example of Fitzgerald’s radiant prose, this passage is both a comment on the delusions of American ambition, and an assertion of nature’s timeless presence and enduring authority.

    Beyond the canon

    As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is William Blazek’s suggestion:

    Abraham Cahan (circa 1913).
    Wiki Commons

    The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan (1917) chronicles the Jewish title character, starting with his early life in imperial Russia, where he devotes himself to religious study.

    After emigrating to the US he abandons his spiritual calling and becomes a success in the garment industry. Yet despite his wealth, he is essentially unhappy and lonely.

    Cahan, a Lithuanian-born Jewish American socialist, modelled his story on another rags-to-riches tale, The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells (1885), which also contrasts American materialism with moral goodness.

    William Blazek is professor emeritus at Liverpool Hope University and vice president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. In 2025 the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society will hold its 17th biannual international conference from 22-28 June in New York City: A Fitzgerald Centennial: The Great Gatsby, New York, and New Perspectives. Visit https://fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/

    – ref. The Great Gatsby at 100: this great American novel is a universal meditation on time and change – https://theconversation.com/the-great-gatsby-at-100-this-great-american-novel-is-a-universal-meditation-on-time-and-change-242967

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: China plans to build the world’s largest dam – but what does this mean for India and Bangladesh downstream?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mehebub Sahana, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Geography, University of Manchester

    The proposed dam will span the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, the world’s deepest. Biao Liu / shutterstock

    China recently approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world’s largest power plant – by some distance.

    Yet many are worried the dam will displace local people and cause huge environmental disruption. This is particularly the case in the downstream nations of India and Bangladesh, where that same river is known as the Brahmaputra.

    The proposed dam highlights some of the geopolitical issues raised by rivers that cross international borders. Who owns the river itself, and who has the right to use its water? Do countries have obligations not to pollute shared rivers, or to keep their shipping lanes open? And when a drop of rain falls on a mountain, do farmers in a different country thousands of miles downstream have a claim to use it? Ultimately, we still don’t know enough about these questions of river rights and ownership to settle disputes easily.

    The Yarlung Tsangpo begins on the Tibetan Plateau, in a region sometimes referred to as the world’s third pole as its glaciers contain the largest stores of ice outside of the Arctic and Antarctica. A series of huge rivers tumble down from the plateau and spread across south and south-east Asia. Well over a billion people depend on them, from Pakistan to Vietnam.

    Yet the region is already under immense stress as global warming melts glaciers and changes rainfall patterns. Reduced water flow in the dry season, coupled with sudden releases of water during monsoons, could intensify both water scarcity and flooding, endangering millions in India and Bangladesh.

    The construction of large dams in the Himalayas has historically disrupted river flows, displaced people, destroyed fragile ecosystems and increased risks of floods. The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Dam will likely be no exception.

    The dam will sit along the tectonic boundary where the Indian and Eurasian plates converge to form the Himalayas. This makes the region particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, landslides, and sudden floods when natural dams burst.

    Downstream, the Brahmaputra is one of south Asia’s mightiest rivers and has been integral to human civilisation for thousands of years. It’s one of the world’s most sediment-rich rivers, which helps form a huge and fertile delta.

    Yet a dam of this scale would trap massive amounts of sediment upstream, disrupting its flow downstream. This could make farming less productive, threatening food security in one of the world’s most densely populated regions.

    The Sundarbans mangrove forest, a Unesco World Heritage Site that stretches across most of coastal Bangladesh and a portion of India, is particularly vulnerable. Any disruption to the balance of sediment could accelerate coastal erosion and make the already low lying area more vulnerable to sea-level rise.

    The Brahmaputra eventually flows into a region of fertile fields and mangrove forests.
    Sk Hasan Ali / shutterstock

    Unfortunately, despite the transboundary nature of the Brahmaputra, there is no comprehensive treaty governing it. This lack of formal agreements complicates efforts to ensure China, India and Bangladesh share the water equitably and work together to prepare for disasters.

    These sorts of agreements are perfectly possible: 14 countries plus the European Union are parties to a convention on protecting the Danube, for instance. But the Brahmaputra is not alone. Many transboundary rivers in the global south face similar neglect and inadequate research.

    Researching rivers

    In our recent study, colleagues and I analysed 4,713 case studies across 286 transboundary river basins. We wanted to assess how much academic research there was on each, what themes it focused on, and how that varied depending on the type of river. We found that, while large rivers in the global north receive considerable academic attention, many equally important rivers in the global south remain overlooked.

    What research there is in the global south is predominantly led by institutions from the global north. This dynamic influences research themes and locations, often sidelining the most pressing local issues. We found that research in the global north tends to focus on technical aspects of river management and governance, whereas studies in the global south primarily examine conflicts and resource competition.

    In Asia, research is concentrated on large, geopolitically significant basins like the Mekong and Indus. Smaller rivers where water crises are most acute are often neglected. Something similar is happening in Africa, where studies focus on climate change and water-sharing disputes, yet a lack of infrastructure limits broader research efforts.

    Small and medium-sized river basins, critical to millions of people in the global south, are among the most neglected in research. This oversight has serious real-world consequences. We still don’t know enough about water scarcity, pollution, and climate change impacts in these regions, which makes it harder to develop effective governance and threatens the livelihoods of everyone who depends on these rivers.

    A more inclusive approach to research will ensure the sustainable management of transboundary rivers, safeguarding these vital resources for future generations.

    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.

    This article is based on research funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

    – ref. China plans to build the world’s largest dam – but what does this mean for India and Bangladesh downstream? – https://theconversation.com/china-plans-to-build-the-worlds-largest-dam-but-what-does-this-mean-for-india-and-bangladesh-downstream-250109

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Far-right activist Laura Loomer cements her influence after White House firings

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew Gawthorpe, Lecturer in History and International Studies, Leiden University

    The US president, Donald Trump, met with far-right activist Laura Loomer in the Oval Office last week. Loomer is a figure so extreme that she is shunned by many, even in Trump’s “make America great again” (Maga) movement.

    Hours after their meeting, Trump fired a string of national security officials, including General Timothy D. Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, apparently at Loomer’s request. Trump has said Loomer was not involved in the firings, but also praised her judgment.

    Even for a president who has always listened to – and, indeed, echoed – fringe voices, the incident stood out. It served as a reminder that Trump is less constrained than ever before, and that his White House is responsive to his personal whims rather than any deliberative policy-making process.

    Gone are the days of Trump’s first administration, when aides would at least try to block the most extreme conspiracy theorists from having access to the president. Now, apparently, even a four-star general (the highest officer rank) like Haugh serves only at the pleasure of figures such as Loomer.

    So, who exactly is Loomer? She is, first and foremost, a media influencer – someone who made her name in far-right circles by spreading hate and conspiracy theories.

    She calls herself a “proud Islamophobe” and “pro-white nationalism”. She has endorsed claims that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job”, alleged that the “deep state” manipulates the weather to influence elections, and spread conspiracy theories implying that the FBI let school shootings happen in election years to help the Democrats push gun control.

    Loomer’s claims, and her open racism, have sometimes proven too much even for other prominent Maga figures, who prefer to be slightly more subtle in their messaging.

    When Loomer said in 2024 that if Kamala Harris won the election, the White House “will smell like curry” and speeches will be “facilitated via a call centre,” she drew push-back from the now vice-president, J.D. Vance, and far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

    But Trump seems to have appreciated Loomer’s commentary all the same. The president has repeatedly praised her in public and backed her unsuccessful run as a Republican candidate for a US House of Representatives seat in Florida in 2020.

    Like many other Maga media figures, Loomer has realised that her antics give her direct exposure to a television-obsessed president, and that this exposure can be transformed into access and, ultimately, political power.

    Loomer, who is only 31, is entirely a product of the Trump era. As an adult, practically the only conservatism she has known is the conservatism of Maga – openly prejudiced, vindictive, and more a stew of grievance and hatred than a coherent political platform.

    Insofar as Loomer advocates for particular policies, they are a crude channeling of these impulses. She has campaigned for a ten-year immigration moratorium and has called for the death penalty for Democrats who oppose Trump.

    On a podcast in June 2024 about whether Democrats should be prosecuted and jailed if Trump wins the election over alleged “unscrupulous behaviour,” Loomer said: “Not just jailed, they should get the death penalty. You know, we actually used to have the punishment for treason in this country.”

    But the chief way in which Loomer personifies modern American conservatism is her single-minded loyalty to the president. Loyalty to Trump, and fury at the disloyalty of others, is the central component of her identity.

    Deep loyalty

    This loyalty seems to be both a deeply felt emotion and also a shrewd way of recommending herself to the president. And, more than anything else, it was what landed her in the Oval Office last week.

    Loomer’s apparent recommendation that Trump fire a slew of national security officials had its roots in this obsession with loyalty. Many people serving in national security positions in the Trump administration are not card-carrying members of the Maga movement.

    This reflects the fact that such positions require deep expertise developed over long apolitical careers in the civil service or military. As the product of a movement that disdains expertise and rationality, few Maga die-hards have the requisite knowledge to do these jobs.

    For Loomer, such figures pose a threat. It ought to be emphasised that this is not because people like General Haugh have ever shown open disloyalty to Trump. It is merely that they are not, like Loomer, his fanatical adherents. In her worldview, anything less is unacceptable.

    Trump seems to agree, which opens the way to more firings in the future. Sensing her opening, Loomer has declared that she will establish an organisation dedicated to investigating executive branch officials for suspected disloyalty to the president.

    Government officials will have to live in fear of being targeted, creating a chilling atmosphere in which pushing back against Trump’s whims becomes impossible.

    Loomer’s growing influence also suggests that the Trump White House is becoming more chaotic and unpredictable.

    The president’s aides have long claimed that the White House would be run in a controlled fashion this time around, with clear chains of command and questionable outsiders kept away. Loomer’s presence in the Oval Office – at Trump’s personal request – blows that story away.

    For her part, Loomer seems to have what she has always wanted: the president’s attention. Where might she direct it next?

    Andrew Gawthorpe 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. Far-right activist Laura Loomer cements her influence after White House firings – https://theconversation.com/far-right-activist-laura-loomer-cements-her-influence-after-white-house-firings-253870

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The ‘morning shed’: a brief history of the sometimes dangerous lengths women have gone to to look beautiful

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise N Hanson, PhD in Social and Developmental psychology, Durham University

    An advert for the tape worm pills.

    In TikTok’s latest viral beauty trend “the morning shed,” beauty influencers “shed” hair and skin products that have been worn overnight. These include hair styling items, skin masks and creams, and physical products such as chin straps and mouth tape, which are intended to help with breathing through the night and keep away the drooping of the jaw that happens with age.

    While this trend has come under fire for alleged unsustainability and over-consumerism, it is only the latest beauty fad in a long line of time and money consuming “hacks” that women have been undertaking for centuries. From tapeworms to tuberculosis, women have taken part in a laundry list of beauty hacks in order to meet appearance ideals, many of which have been dangerous, painful and even deadly.

    As far back as the ancient Egyptians, women ground up toxic substances to make eyeliner and eye shadow. These were dangerous when inhaled as a powder (such as during the grinding process) and could cause irritation of the skin when applied. And yet somehow, heavy metal poisoning is among the least dangerous of these historic beauty trends.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions. Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    In China, foot binding is an example of a painful and life altering treatment first recorded around the 10th century. The feet were usually bound before the arch of the foot had developed (aged four to nine).

    The process involved forcefully curling the toes towards the sole of the foot until the arch broke then the foot would be tightly bandaged to keep it in this position. Small feel were coveted at the time. Thankfully, this practice was banned in the early 1900s after almost 200 years of opposition from both Chinese and western sources.

    A Chinese woman with bound feet.
    Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

    In Europe, the Renaissance period saw a new wave of beauty hacks, from arsenic baths (which bleach the skin to a near translucent white) to Belladonna drops (literal poison) used on the eyes to induce an aroused or watery-eyed look. Many women who used these tactics ended up poisoned or blind.

    During the reign of Elizabeth I, the “English rose” look was all the rage. Women would blood let for a perfectly pale pallor, or paint their faces with “Venetian ceruse” or “Venetian white” – otherwise known as lead paint. The use of Venetian ceruse is one of the suspected causes of death of Elizabeth I.

    In the Victorian era and early 1900s, women often engaged in dangerous practices to achieve the coveted pale skin, red lip and small waist that was the height of fashion. This aesthetic could be achieved by contracting tuberculosis (a lung infection that was often fatal), taking tapeworm pills, consuming mercury to look forever young, or chewing arsenic wafers to make skin pale.

    My own research has shown that sociocultural pressures to look a certain way are experienced differently across the world. I found that white western women experience some of the highest appearance pressures, followed by east Asian women. Although these decline a little with age for white western women, they persist in Asian women and never reach the lower levels seen elsewhere. I found the lowest levels of sociocultural pressure and the highest levels of body appreciation in Nigeria.

    As the “morning shed” proves, women still go to great lengths to meet culturally shaped standards, particularly under conditions of higher economic inequality – something that is getting worse in many countries. For example, in the United States, cities which have higher economic inequality see higher spend on beauty products and services, such as beauty salons or women’s clothing.

    With the advent of social media, especially short-form content like TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts, the speed at which beauty trends rise and fall has been expedited and globalised. These trends range from the painful lip suction women undertook to get big lips like the celebrity Kylie Jenner, to the normalisation of botox and fillers, to laser hair removal of every unwanted follicle.

    The “morning shed” is just the latest evolution in skin care trends, which started as health-focused, with an emphasis on sun protection and moisturisation. It has since morphed into a study in over-consumption and over-commitment of time and money in the pursuit of staying ever youthful.

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

    – ref. The ‘morning shed’: a brief history of the sometimes dangerous lengths women have gone to to look beautiful – https://theconversation.com/the-morning-shed-a-brief-history-of-the-sometimes-dangerous-lengths-women-have-gone-to-to-look-beautiful-253921

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Inaction from Brussels over the arrest of an opposition leader in Turkey may be a strategic mistake

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Seda Gurkan, Assistant Professor in European Studies and International Relations, Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University

    The European Union faces a pressing problem as it decides how to handle another major slide towards autocracy in Turkey. So far, the signs are not good.

    Over the past decade, core democratic institutions have been systematically eroded in Turkey, under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in power since 2003. Media freedom, independent judiciary and civil society have all been targeted. A major turning point came in 2016, when Turkey abandoned its parliamentary democracy in favour of a hyper-centralised presidential system. Since then, the national parliament has been marginalised and nearly all checks on executive power have been eroded.

    While elections in Turkey have not been fair for many years, they were at least free. According to the international observers, elections were not fair as President Erdoğan and the ruling parties enjoyed “unjustified advantage”. However, elections still could offer voters a “choice between genuine political alternatives” – providing citizens with a sliver of hope for democratic change.

    That era may have ended on March 19, with the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor. İmamoğlu was on the cusp of being made the opposition’s presidential candidate and was widely seen as Erdoğan’s main electoral rival. He now looks unlikely to be able to stand for president. This is not just a blow to the opposition but potentially indicates the end of free elections in Turkey according to some observers.

    All this has been happening in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood. Indeed, it has been happening in a country that remains, at least nominally, a candidate for EU membership. Yet Brussels has largely remained silent. This silence may prove a strategic mistake.

    Why is the EU silent?

    The EU’s reaction to İmamoğlu’s arrest has been, at best, cautious. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, issued a carefully worded expression of “deep concern”. The spokesperson for the EU echoed a familiar refrain, saying that as a candidate country, Turkey must “uphold democratic values”.

    In their joint statement Kaja Kallas, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, and Oliver Várhelyi, commissioner for enlargement, struck a similarly cautious tone. They said Turkey is “expected to apply the highest democratic standards and practices”.

    Only the European parliament, long considered the flagbearer of the EU’s values, adopted a more direct stance. Several political groups openly criticised Turkey during the plenary session on April 1. A delegation led by the European parliament first vice-president Katarina Barley visited İmamoğlu in a symbolic gesture of support.

    But these expressions of concern and acts of solidarity with İmamoğlu have not been matched by any credible action or condemnation potent enough to have a deterrent effect on the Turkish government. As many observers have noted, the EU’s strategic interests have increasingly overshadowed its commitment to democratic principles.

    It is no secret that the EU has never had a coherent strategic vision on Turkey. In a prime example of the transactional nature of the relationship, the EU outsourced refugee challenge to Turkey in 2016 in exchange for financial aid to Ankara. It was a deal driven not by long-term goals but short-term pragmatism.

    Today, in an era of growing geopolitical instability, Turkey has only become a more critical partner for the EU. Ankara commands the second-largest army in Nato, boasts a rapidly advancing defence industry, and has ample experience in peacekeeping and out-of-area operations. These are all increasingly valuable as the US, under Donald Trump, retreats from European security.

    Turkey has also become a key player in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. With strong political and economic ties to the new leadership in Damascus, Turkey started to play a central role in Syria’s reconstruction, as well as in its energy and defence sectors. Working toward the stabilisation and reconstruction of Syria is a shared interest for both Brussels and Ankara. For both sides, potential collapse of Syria involves major security concerns, including further refugee inflows to Turkey, and via Turkey to Europe, the proliferation of armed groups, jihadist terror and the spillover of regional instability.

    And while the containment of Kurdish groups in Syria is a priority for Ankara, the control of ISIS militants in detention in Northern Syria is a priority for the EU. Brussels has recognised Turkey’s “essential role to play in stabilising the region”, adding to the growing list of areas of common interest.

    Add in the fear of destabilisation in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, and it becomes clearer why Brussels might prefer “stability” under Erdoğan over the uncertainty of post-Erdoğan period.

    The wrong strategy

    But failing to stand up to Turkey now is a mistake – and one with long-term consequences. The EU should care about what is happening in Turkey, not just for the sake of Turkish democracy, but for its own security. How it responds has implications for the credibility of the European project itself.

    Seeking closer security and defence cooperation with Turkey, in the absence of a shared understanding of fundamental values between Ankara and Brussels, is not realistic. As Hungary’s stance toward Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has shown, if there is no agreement on core values, aligning strategic interests becomes increasingly difficult. Turkey is a self-confident and assertive regional power, and it will not hesitate to follow a foreign policy that could ideologically diverge from that of the EU.

    Turkey’s recent foreign policy decisions illustrate this perfectly. Its actions in the eastern Mediterranean, northern Syria before Assad’s fall, Libya and the Caucasus demonstrate its readiness to pursue a more assertive path without consulting western partners. A prime example of this was Turkey’s decision to purchase S-400 missile defence systems from Russia, which created interoperability problems with Nato allies.

    Moreover, autocratic ideas tend to be contagious. When a country follows a more illiberal trajectory, it affects its wider neighbourhood. Turning a blind eye to Turkey’s authoritarian turn while cooperating on security and defence matters risks legitimising Erdoğan’s governance model. This could further strengthen the illiberal axis in the region.

    Finally, the EU risks alienating democrats and younger generations in Turkey. Despite the ups and downs in EU-Turkey relations, Turkish citizens have consistently shown strong support for the EU. Maintaining this momentum is not just an ethical responsibility or a matter of credibility for the EU – it is also a long-term investment in building a more democratic, trustworthy and stable neighbour.

    Seda Gurkan 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. Inaction from Brussels over the arrest of an opposition leader in Turkey may be a strategic mistake – https://theconversation.com/inaction-from-brussels-over-the-arrest-of-an-opposition-leader-in-turkey-may-be-a-strategic-mistake-253982

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: As Canada is threatened, it’s urgent to revisit Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Frank Deer, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba

    Early in his second term as president of the United States, Donald Trump began making explicit threats about Canada becoming the 51st American state.

    In the midst of his absurd and at times disrespectful rhetoric that’s also included a proposal to acquire Greenland and the Gaza Strip, some have argued Trump’s interest in annexing Canada is an imperialistic impulse.

    As a Kanienʼkehá꞉ka educator concerned with Indigenous language education, civic education and reconciliation, I believe it’s important to explore how Canadians should think about Indigenous nationhood with Canada’s sovereignty under threat. I also believe a U.S. annexation of Canada would be devastating for Indigenous Peoples.

    Re-asserting Canadian nationhood amid threats

    Trump has stated that Canada can be annexed through economic force while others have speculated a military invasion may be part of this conquest attempt.

    Although Trump’s threats against Canada seem ludicrous, many Canadians are taking them seriously and regard the ongoing imperialist rhetoric as a threat to Canadian sovereignty.



    Read more:
    Canada, Greenland, Panama, Gaza and now Ukraine: Wake up, world, Donald Trump is coming for you

    Canadian politicians, public intellectuals and members of the public have reacted strongly to this threat in ways that assert Canadian nationhood, sovereignty and identity. Some suggest a sense of national unity has been stoked in Canada for the first time in generations.

    However, that sense of unity that many may be feeling in Canada — and could affect how Canadians cast their votes in the forthcoming federal election — conceals the realities of nationhood in Canada. There are several aspects of nationhood in Canada that may merit conversation in terms of unity and the current American threats. But I’m particularly concerned that the nationhood that exists among First Nations, Inuit and Métis may be particularly threatened by an American annexation.

    Indigenous Peoples

    Canada is a nation state that occupies the traditional territories of many Indigenous nations, representing a broad diversity of cultural and language backgrounds. The Indigenous Peoples of these nations had served as stewards of the territories of North America far longer than the European colonizers who eventually seized control of the territories.

    Many of the Canadian government’s colonial and post-colonial activities, abetted by their partners (for example, churches of various denominations), were genocidal in nature.

    These colonial actions resulted in Indigenous communities becoming constituent parts one unified nation — Canada. Very little public discourse acknowledges that Indigenous Peoples had already established their own concepts of nation and nationhood. These were displaced by those who established control of the territories.



    Read more:
    Indigenous people invented the so-called ‘American Dream’

    Indigenous nationhood

    Indigenous nations have and continue to regard their communal connections and responsibilities through Indigenous nationhood.

    There are various key aspects of Indigenous nationhood: sociologist Stephen Cornell, who has worked with Indigenous nations and organizations in North America, Australia and New Zealand, observes five of them, including connections to the land, kinship and community, narratives and history associated with the land and culture, self-governance and collective well-being.

    For example, many Anishinaabe consider nationhood as being built on stories and traditions and shaped by relationships and communities. Views like these are enriched by the diversity among Indigenous Peoples.

    The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people share many stories, traditions and language that inform their concept of nationhood and their treaty arrangements (such as the Kaswentha). But the Haudenosaunee also consist of different Indigenous nations — including my own, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka — with each having their own unique manifestations of Indigenous knowledge, heritage and consciousness.

    These different nations functioned in tandem with one another by forming allyships and sharing land.

    Canada not a single, homogenous nation

    Colonialist incursions by French, British and, later, Canadian authorities have disrupted how Indigenous notions of nationhood may be understood by Canadians.

    In ignoring aspects of Indigenous nationhood by exploiting land, dividing families and communities, reconstructing historical narratives, stymying self-governance and emphasizing individual well-being over the collective, the notion of Indigenous nationhood has been marginalized in mainstream public consciousness in Canada.

    Instead, the prevailing notion is that Canada is a single and somewhat homogenous nation. This might sound desirable to some and even idyllic, but it’s a myth.

    Legal implications, reconciliation journey

    Why does Indigenous nationhood have to do with an American president’s threats to Canadian sovereignty?

    Indigenous nationhood has not just been a part of Indigenous consciousness and ways of life for centuries, but is now closely tied to established and developing legal and constitutional principles in Canada.

    These principles are now, after generations of oversight and subjugation, finally allowing Indigenous nations to explore and enact approaches to self-determination and self-governance.

    Trump’s threats imply that existing Canadian legal and constitutional frames would be abolished. They also suggest that the cultural and linguistic mores of Indigenous nations would be endangered even more than they have already been. The reconciliation journey — one that has been informed by the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada — would almost certainly be abandoned.

    Treaty relations and 51st state?

    More specific concerns about nationhood emerging from Trump’s threats are connected to particular Indigenous nations. For instance, many First Nations have treaty relations with the Crown.

    These treaties codify the relationship that these First Nations have with the government of Canada. There is a lot of work being done to better understand treaties in modern times. Treaty arrangements and ongoing efforts to better understand them would be terminated should Canada become the 51st American state.



    Read more:
    Revisiting the Williams Treaties of 1923: Anishinaabeg perspectives after a century

    Much has been achieved by Indigenous Peoples — sometimes in partnership with non-Indigenous people — to enhance their well-being and their place in the world to determine their way forward.

    There is, of course, a lot of work still to be done. Poverty, for example, is still widespread among Indigenous Peoples, the languages and cultures of many are endangered and Indigenous women and girls continue to be treated horrifically. But the journey of Indigenous nations toward well-being and self-determination has led to achievements that can make Indigenous Peoples can be proud.

    Would this journey continue as a 51st state? I have my doubts.

    Frank Deer has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. As Canada is threatened, it’s urgent to revisit Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood – https://theconversation.com/as-canada-is-threatened-its-urgent-to-revisit-indigenous-sovereignty-and-nationhood-253199

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: AI is making elections weird: Lessons from a simulated war-game exercise

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Robert Marinov, PhD Candidate in Communication, Concordia University

    A simulated exercise reveals much about the proliferation and circulation of AI-generated content. (Shutterstock)

    On March 8, the Conservative campaign team released a video of Pierre Poilievre on social media that drew unusual questions from some viewers. To many, Poilievre’s French sounded a little too smooth, and his complexion looked a little too perfect. The video had what’s known as an “uncanny valley” effect, causing some to wonder if the Poilievre they were seeing was even real.

    Before long, the comments section filled with speculation: was this video AI-generated? Even a Liberal Party video mocking Poilievre’s comments led followers to ask why the Conservatives’ video sounded “so dubbed” and whether it was made with AI.

    The ability to discern real from fake is seriously in jeopardy.

    Poilievre’s smooth video offers an early answer to an open question: How might generative AI affect our election cycle? Our research team at Concordia University created a simulation to experiment with this question.

    From a deepfake Mark Carney to AI-assisted fact-checkers, our preliminary results suggest that generative AI is not quite going to break elections, but it is likely to make them weirder.

    A war game, but for elections?

    Our simulation continued our past work in developing games to explore the Canadian media system.

    Red teaming is a type of exercise that allows organizations to simulate attacks on their critical digital infrastructures and processes. It involves two teams — the attacking red team and the defending blue team. These exercises can help uncover vulnerability points within systems or defences and practice ways of correcting them.

    Red-teaming has become a major part of cybersecurity and AI development. Here, developers and organizations stress-test their software and digital systems to understand how hackers or other “bad actors” might try to manipulate or crash them.

    Fraudulent Futures

    Our simulation, called Fraudulent Futures, attempted to evaluate AI’s impact on Canada’s political information cycle.

    Four days into the ongoing federal election campaign, we ran the first test. A group of ex-journalists, cybersecurity experts and graduate students were pitted against each other to see who could leverage free AI tools best to push their agenda in a simulated social media environment based on our past research.

    Hosted on a private Mastodon server securely shielded from public eyes, our two-hour long simulation quickly descended into silence as players played out their different roles on our simulated servers. Some played far-right influencers, others monarchists to make noise or journalists to cover events online. Players and organizers alike learned about generative AI’s capacity to create disinformation, and the difficulties faced by stakeholders trying to combat it.

    Players connected to the server through their laptops and familiarized themselves with the dozens of free AI tools at their disposal. Shortly after, we shared an incriminating voice clone of Carney, created with an easily accessible online AI tool.

    The Red Team was instructed to amplify the disinformation, while the Blue Team was directed to verify its authenticity and, if they determined it to be fake, mitigate the harm.

    The Blue Team began testing the audio through AI detection tools and tried to publicize it was a fake. But for the Red Team, this hardly mattered. Fact-checking posts were quickly drowned out by a constant slew of new memes and fake images of angry Canadian voters denouncing Carney.

    Whether the Carney clip was a deepfake or not didn’t really matter. The fact that we couldn’t tell for sure was enough to fuel endless online attacks.

    Easily available and free AI tools can be used to generate and promote misinformation at an overwhelming rate.
    (Shutterstock)

    Learning from an exercise

    Our simulation purposefully exaggerated the information cycle. Yet the experience of trying to disrupt regular electoral processes was highly informative as a research method. Our research team found three major takeaways from the exercise:

    1. Generative AI is easy to use for disruption

    Many online AI tools claim to safeguard against generating content on elections and public figures. Despite those safeguards, players noted these tools would still generate political content.

    The overall quality of the content produced was easy to distinguish as AI-generated. Yet, one of our players noted how simple it was “to generate and spam as much content as possible in order to muddy the waters on the digital landscape.”

    2. AI detection tools won’t save us

    AI detection tools can only go so far. They are rarely conclusive, and they may even take precedence over common sense. Players noted that even when they knew content was fake, they still felt they “needed to find the tool that would give the answer [they] want” to lend credibility to their interventions.

    Most telling was how journalists on the Blue Team turned toward faulty detection tools over their own investigative work, a sign that users may be letting AI detection usurp journalistic skill.

    With higher-quality content available in real-world situations, there might be a role for specialized AI detection tools in journalistic and election security processes — despite complex challenges — but these tools should not replace other investigative methods.

    However, detection tools will likely only contribute to spreading uncertainty because of the lack of standards and confidence in their assessments.

    3. Quality deepfakes are difficult to make

    High-quality AI-generated content is achievable and has already caused many online and real-world harms and panics. However, our simulation helped confirm that quality deepfakes are difficult and time-consuming to make.

    It is unlikely that the mass availability of generative AI will cause an overwhelming influx of high-quality deceptive content. These types of deepfakes will likely come from more organized, funded and specialized groups engaged in election interference.

    Democracy in the age of AI

    A major takeaway from our simulation was that the proliferation of AI slop and the stoking of uncertainty and distrust are easy to accomplish at a spam-like scale with freely accessible online tools and little to no prior knowledge or preparation.

    Our red-teaming experiment was a first attempt to see how participants might use generative AI in elections. We’ll be working to improve and re-run the simulation to include the broader information cycle, with a particular eye towards better simulating Blue Team co-operation in the hopes of reflecting real-world efforts by journalists, election officials, political parties and others to uphold election integrity.

    We anticipate that the Poilievre debate is just the beginning of a long string of incidents to come, where AI distorts our ability to discern the real from the fake. While everyone can play a role in combatting disinformation, hands-on experience and game-based media literacy have proven to be valuable tools. Our simulation proposes a new and engaging way to explore the impacts of AI on our media ecosystem.

    Robert Marinov received funding from the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship and Concordia University’s Applied AI Institute for this research.

    Colleen McCool received funding from the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship and Concordia University’s Applied AI Institute for this research.

    Fenwick McKelvey receives funding from the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship. Research has been supported Concordia University’s Applied AI Institute and the Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) centre at the Milieux Institute.

    Roxanne Bisson receives funding from the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship and Concordia University’s Applied AI Institute for this research.

    – ref. AI is making elections weird: Lessons from a simulated war-game exercise – https://theconversation.com/ai-is-making-elections-weird-lessons-from-a-simulated-war-game-exercise-253433

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why tax literacy should be a national priority in Canada

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Esteban Vallejo Toledo, PhD Student in Law and Society, University of Victoria

    The last time Canada’s political parties campaigned during a tax season was more than a decade ago. This year, taxes are a hot topic, and for good reason. Shortly after the federal election was called, the political parties began rolling out promises of tax cuts to win over voters.

    At the same time, although Canada’s consumer carbon tax was scapped last month, debates about the industrial carbon tax are likely to continue.

    As the election campaign continues and political parties make more tax-related promises, approximately 3,520 tax clinics and 18,090 volunteers are doing their best to help people file their taxes until April 30. Some of the volunteers are struggling to help as many people as possible.

    No candidate has talked about a tax issue that is essential for life in free and democratic societies: tax literacy. If Canada is to maintain an informed, financially responsible and democratic society, tax literacy must become part of the national conversation.

    A longstanding idea with modern relevance

    The notion of tax literacy has been gaining traction in recent years, but it’s far from a new idea.

    One of the earliest advocates for tax literacy and education was Charles Montesquieu, a French judge and political philosopher of the Enlightenment.

    Portrait of Charles Montesquieu by an anonymous artist.
    (Wikimedia Commons)

    In his 1748 book The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu argued for tax literacy and education for two key reasons.

    First, he was convinced that knowledge about taxation was necessary to defend oneself against the corruption and abuse that characterized private tax collectors, known at the time as tax farmers.

    Second, he believed education in democratic societies could enhance people’s sense of responsibility for public affairs and help hold authorities accountable for their actions. In his view, tax literacy and education were instrumental in how societies organized themselves for the common good.

    More than 275 years later, Montesquieu’s argument remains just as relevant.

    Tax literacy is neglected in Canada

    In Canada, tax literacy continues to be neglected despite efforts by tax agencies like Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenu Québec to promote it.

    There are important reasons to treat tax literacy as a national priority. It helps people understand and navigate federal, provincial and municipal taxes, recognize the social importance of taxation and responsibly exercise their rights. It also allows people to manage their financial affairs according to the law.

    Tax literacy is also instrumental in contesting economic populism, a political approach that claims to represent the interests of “ordinary people” against perceived elites, often by oversimplifying complex issues like taxation.

    It also helps counter the spread of of disinformation, misinformation and malinformation about taxes in the media, online and on social networks.



    Read more:
    The Canada Carbon Rebate is still widely misunderstood — here’s why

    In Canada, recent examples include misleading claims that Canada has the highest taxes in the world, mischaracterizations of climate tax policies, flawed analyses of the carbon rebate’s cost and other misconceptions about the carbon rebate.

    Tax literacy vs. financial literacy

    While Canada has done considerable work to further financial literacy since 2001, tax literacy has received far less attention from both authorities and scholars.

    In fact, only two peer-reviewed studies have examined tax literacy in Canada. Published in 2016 and 2020, these studies analyze tax literacy within the context of financial literacy and mostly in relation to the income tax.

    Similar to financial literacy, the authors of these studies define tax literacy as “having the knowledge, skills and confidence to make responsible tax decisions.”

    Canada’s federal and provincial governments, as well as non-profit organizations and tax preparers, tend to use a benefit-based narrative to promote tax literacy and encourage tax compliance.

    This narrative frames filing income taxes as positive because it allows people to receive direct payments from the government. In Canada, the income tax system is closely linked to the social support system that benefits everyone, particularly low-income people for whom filing taxes is the primary way to access benefits such as the Canada Child Benefit, the GST/HST Credit and the Canada Workers Benefit.

    The missing fiscal dimension

    While the benefit-based approach aligns with international standards and has clear advantages, it also has drawbacks.

    Most notably, it overlooks the fiscal dimension of tax literacy. This dimension highlights the role taxes play in raising revenue to support government programs, promoting collective well-being, regulating economic activity, addressing social inequalities, strengthening democratic institutions and advancing social goals like environmental protection.

    Taxes are far more than mandatory payments to government. Recognizing this enables citizens to actively participate in decision-making processes and hold governments accountable.



    Read more:
    10 things everyone should know about taxation

    The fiscal dimension also broadens public understanding beyond the income tax. On one hand, it helps people interact with tax authorities beyond the CRA, including those administered by provinces, municipalities and First Nations.

    On the other hand, it helps citizens better understand public budgets and recognize that while income tax is an important source of revenue, it is not the only one.

    The fiscal dimension also challenges harmful narratives that attempt to create social divisions by using the terms “taxpayer” and “taxpayer money.” It also counters the spread of wrongful stereotypes of Indigenous people. These narratives are often used in populist rhetoric to undermine democracy by excluding marginalized groups.

    What needs to happen now

    Tax literacy must become a national priority in Canada, and public institutions must lead this process. To move in this direction, Canada’s public institutions should:

    1) Adopt a holistic approach to tax literacy that includes both the fiscal and financial dimensions.

    2) Address misinformation and discrimination experienced by Indigenous people regarding tax exemptions. This is essential to honouring the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

    3) Offer long-term partnerships and support to teachers and educational institutions to integrate tax literacy into schools.

    4) Lead the production of education resources to ensure a holistic approach. Education resources produced or sponsored by the private sector tend to focus on individual responsibility and frame financial choices in moral terms without considering broader social contexts.

    5) Ensure tax literacy initiatives serve not only children and youth but adults as well, in line with UNESCO’s vision of education as a lifelong right.

    6) Ensure adult tax literacy resources follow the recommendations of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). They should be thorough but easy to understand, offered in multiple formats, concise and supplemented by additional resources. Public authorites should expand podcasts, learning platforms and tax initiatives.

    The history of taxes in Canada has been one of important developments but also of social and economic conflicts, wrongful discrimination and colonial racism. It must not also become a history of populism and missed opportunities.

    Now is the time for Canada to write a different chapter. By advancing tax literacy, both authorities and society as a whole can strengthen democracy and build a more informed public.

    Esteban Vallejo Toledo receives funding from the Law Commission of Canada Emerging Scholars Program. He has previously received funding from SSHRC, LFBC, and UVic.

    – ref. Why tax literacy should be a national priority in Canada – https://theconversation.com/why-tax-literacy-should-be-a-national-priority-in-canada-252722

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canadians need to use the language of freedom in fighting American annexation

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Eric Van Rythoven, Instructor in Political Science, Carleton University

    Canadians looking for relief from the trade war launched by United States President Donald Trump are bound to be disappointed. The Trump administration has just announced it’s more than doubling Canadian softwood lumber duties, adding to an already punishing flurry of tariff actions.

    These tariffs are designed to squeeze Canada, pressuring us into giving up our sovereignty. And while Trump may have cooled his annexation talk lately — likely because of how it was resurrecting the Liberal Party’s fortunes in the ongoing federal election campaign — we cannot simply pretend this threat has gone away.



    Read more:
    Amid U.S. threats, Canada’s national security plans must include training in non-violent resistance

    In response, Canada must use every tool at its disposal. It should leverage retaliatory tariffs and target trade action at vulnerable Republican districts if Trump targets Canada with more tariffs.

    Canadian consumers need to continue boycotting American goods and Canada should ban American firms from bidding on public contracts. It also needs to revitalize trade and diplomatic relationships with reliable allies.

    But alone, even these measures will be insufficient.

    Public diplomacy like no other

    To succeed, Canada needs the most ambitious and energetic campaign of public diplomacy in its history. The target of this campaign should not be the Trump administration, but the ultimate voice of authority in U.S. politics — the American public. Canadian diplomacy should aim to convince
    American citizens that the idea of annexing Canada, already unpopular, is a toxic betrayal of U.S. values.

    Doing so, however, requires using the right language. Public diplomacy fails when it ignores the values of its audience, and especially when the audience has a strong emotional attachment to those values.

    This means that just because something sounds righteous to Canadian ears doesn’t mean it resonates with Americans. Protecting Canadian sovereignty certainly sounds good to Canadians, but this concept is too abstract and distant from Americans’ everyday lives.

    Likewise, Canadians are fiercely proud of our identity as “good neighbours,” but most Americans live far from us and do not know us. Nor can we invoke a shared history that the majority of Americans do not remember or have never learned.

    The value of freedom

    Instead, if Canadians are going to speak to Americans, then they must speak to their culture — and in U.S. culture, no value speaks more loudly than the value of freedom. As American historian Eric Foner writes: “No idea is more fundamental to Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation than freedom.”

    For American cognitive psychologist George Lakoff, most of contemporary U.S. politics can be read as a struggle over different conceptions of freedom. From the Declaration of Independence launching a newborn United States into a war for its freedom to the bravery of the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights Movement, there is no other American value that has the broad resonance and emotion appeal of freedom.

    If America has a civil religion, in fact, it is almost certainly a faith in freedom.

    Canadians need to embrace this language and speak it relentlessly at every opportunity. Americans need to know that Canadians want the freedom to choose their leaders and their laws. They want the freedom to trade without the interference of tariffs. They want the freedom to choose who enters our country.

    They want the freedom to speak different languages. The want the freedom to choose what is taught in Canadian schools, for women to choose, to criticize our government, to choose who we are and who we love. And if Canadians don’t have the freedom to say “no thank you” to becoming the 51st state, then they don’t really have any freedom at all.



    Read more:
    Canada a 51st state? Here’s how American annexation could actually favour Canada

    Putting Americans on the defensive

    Embracing this language does more than simply signal shared values, it puts advocates of annexation on the defensive. By claiming the mantle of freedom, Canadians can put pro-annexation voices on the back foot by forcing them into defending an unpopular position.

    Why should Canadians lose their freedom to elect their own leaders or make their own laws, lose their independence or bend the knee to an American president? Americans would never accept a similar choice.

    Advocates of annexation, including members of the Trump administration, need to be relentlessly challenged over why they think Canadians should be deprived of their freedoms and forced to become American subjects.

    The Trump administration has spent weeks suggesting Canadians have a stark choice: endure economic pain or submit to annexation. Fortunately, the American public knows that the choice between pain and submission is never a free choice, and that the denial of freedom is profoundly un-American.

    Canada needs to tell American citizens that is exactly what their government is doing.

    Eric Van Rythoven 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. Canadians need to use the language of freedom in fighting American annexation – https://theconversation.com/canadians-need-to-use-the-language-of-freedom-in-fighting-american-annexation-252366

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: US v them: Trump’s tariffs and his economic vision of dominance

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, Spécialiste de la politique américaine, Sciences Po

    US President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping new tariffs against numerous countries isn’t just driven by (already questionable) economic reasoning. It reflects the deeply adversarial worldview embraced by the current occupant of the White House.

    Since returning to the presidency, Trump has unleashed a new wave of tariffs unprecedented in scope. Traditional allies and strategic rivals are now under the same banner, marking a radical shift in Washington’s trade policy that hardens positions taken in Trump’s first term, amplifying them with an unbridled display of power.

    Just as in 2017, when he spoke of “American carnage”, Trump paints an apocalyptic picture of the US, a country he claims has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike”. This dramatic narrative is met with a double promise of “liberation” and the restoration of a new “golden age”.


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    Tariffs thus become the weapons of a nationalist crusade, where every import is an attack on sovereignty, and every export a symbolic act of reconquest.

    An authoritarian vision of international trade

    Trump’s trade doctrine is part of a broader strategy defined by confrontation, centralised executive power and a neo-imperial view of the global economy. His tariff measures go far beyond protecting domestic industry: they aim to reshape the global order according to his own interpretation of national interest. This second act of the Trumpist revolution is not a rerun, but an escalation – one based on authoritarian ambitions, the rejection of multilateralism (as seen in the administration’s utter disdain for the World Trade Organization, and the glorification of raw sovereignty.

    The supposed economic logic behind these policies is as flimsy as it is revealing. The chosen calculation method – dividing the bilateral trade deficit by import volumes – is little more than a blunt instrument to go after countries the US runs a deficit with. Officially, it’s about cutting trade deficits, bringing jobs back and raising revenue. But the real agenda runs deeper: consolidating presidential power and replacing global cooperation with a doctrine of economic domination.

    Tariffs as tools of power and messaging

    Trump’s first term has shown the limits of this strategy. The trade war with China, in particular, triggered price hikes for consumers, disrupted supply chains and severely hurt US agricultural exporters. One study found that US consumers bore the brunt of these costs, with an average 1% increase in the prices of manufactured goods.

    Trump doesn’t behave like a traditional head of state operating within a multilateral framework. He acts more like a lone ruler, dispensing rewards and punishments to serve his political – or even personal – agenda. Tariffs, in this context, function as much as media stunts as they do economic instruments. Branded as “reciprocal tariffs”, they construct a simplified and powerful narrative: that of a crusader who corrects the wrongs inflicted on citizens betrayed by free trade.

    This message hits home with workers in industries like auto manufacturing. It offers up convenient villains – China, Europe, and the domestic elite who support free trade. Trade policy is no longer about negotiation; it’s about retribution. In this worldview, the spike in tariffs isn’t just an economic manoeuvre – it’s a statement of sovereignty, even of symbolic power.

    From personal obsession to state doctrine

    Trump’s protectionism is not an overnight development, but part of a long-standing obsession. As early as 1987, he railed against Japan’s trade surpluses with the US and called for steep tariffs on Tokyo. He spoke of the US being “ripped off” and showed a near-paranoid fear of national humiliation or betrayal. At its core, this reflects a deep-seated drive to reassert dominance – to “win” in a world he views as inherently hostile and conflictual. It’s one of the few constants in Trump’s worldview, given his lack of ideological consistency and frequent U-turns on other issues.

    Today, everything is reframed as a question of sovereignty: rare earths, strategic minerals, data flows, shipping lanes. This worldview echoes the imperialist pivot of the late 19th century, especially under US president William McKinley (1897–1901) – a figure Trump pointedly invoked in his second inaugural address.

    This logic also helps explain some of his most provocative gestures: stating he wants to buy Greenland, putting pressure on Canada in hopes of access to its natural resources, and eyeing Ukraine’s mining potential. The underlying idea is blunt and unmistakeable: resources are finite, and you’d better grab your share before someone else does. In this zero-sum game, where one country’s gain is another’s loss, cooperation gives way to conquest.

    The rise of techno-nationalist mercantilism?

    In this worldview, competition isn’t seen as a source of innovation – it’s a threat to be eliminated. The aim isn’t to make America more competitive, but to sabotage the competitiveness of others. The US no longer presents itself – even rhetorically – as a democratic nation playing by the rules of global markets. Instead, it acts like a corporation determined to secure monopoly power.

    This authoritarian shift resonates with key Trumpist thinkers. Peter Thiel, a mentor to US Vice President JD Vance, famously declared that “capitalism and competition are opposites”, championing monopoly as the ultimate goal. Cuts to the federal government and sweeping deregulation aren’t about unleashing free markets – they’re about consolidating control and asserting dominance.



    À lire aussi :
    Trump protectionism and tariffs: a threat to globalisation, or to democracy itself?

    The aim now is to sidestep global systems, not to integrate them – to build an imperial-style autarky where the US controls a closed sphere of influence, shielded from outside competition. This is mercantilism reimagined for the digital age: instead of gold and silver, the currency is data, infrastructure, dollars and crypto currency. Cooperation gives way to coercion.

    Toward an authoritarian international order – or a political disaster?

    The April 2 announcement is far more than an economic decision. It’s a bold political statement – a deliberate move toward a new world order rooted in strength and loyalty, rather than law and cooperation.

    There’s undeniable continuity with Trump’s first term. But this time, the scale, radicalism and concentration of power represent a decisive escalation. Trump increasingly treats the state as his personal property – or a private business – what some have aptly called “patrimonialism”. He is shaping an authoritarian model in which trade becomes a weapon in a new kind of global cold war, driven by fear of decline and an obsession with control. In this logic, prosperity is no longer a shared national goal – it’s a privilege reserved for those in power.

    This trajectory could become politically explosive, especially as Trump faces falling markets and looming inflation – both threatening a weakening of his presidency. If he doubles down despite sinking approval ratings, Republican lawmakers may be forced – under pressure from their voters and donors – to finally push back and reassert their constitutional role. Early signs of dissent within the Republican Party are already surfacing, alongside public anger that remains scattered – but is growing harder to ignore.

    Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy 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. US v them: Trump’s tariffs and his economic vision of dominance – https://theconversation.com/us-v-them-trumps-tariffs-and-his-economic-vision-of-dominance-254096

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canada’s aging population: The unspoken ballot box issue

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Sunil Johal, Professor in Public Policy and Society, University of Toronto

    Canadians are voting in a federal election on April 28, and questions about how to deal with the United States and make Canada’s economy more resilient are dominating public discourse.

    The housing crisis, immigration policy and health-care system deficiencies are other top-of-mind concerns. But one issue we likely won’t hear much about from politicians is a trend that’s quietly shaping all of these issues: an aging population.

    Canada’s overall population is older than ever. Between 2016 and 2021, the portion of the population aged 65 and older grew to seven million people. By 2040, it’s projected that close to one-quarter of Canadians will be over the age of 65.

    That means policymakers need to think more proactively about how they can transform Canada’s existing policies to address the needs of an aging population.

    A new report we’ve published at the CSA Public Policy Centre outlines policy pathways for federal and provincial governments to consider as 2040 approaches.

    It’s time for Canadians to reimagine where we live as we grow older, transform our understanding of health and health-care services and take a whole-of-society approach to advance cultural change around the experience of aging.

    Precarious retirement

    As more baby boomers retire in the years ahead, labour productivity is expected to decline and the income tax base that supports core public services will shrink.

    At the same time, significant investments will be needed for our already strained health-care system to meet the needs of older adults living with more chronic conditions. The average cost of delivering health care is about $12,000 per person per year for those over 65, compared to only $2,700 for those under 65.

    Similarly, in the face of a years-long decline in the quality of Canada’s long-term care system and the preference of Canadians to age at home, a policy shift towards aging-in-place has become a priority.

    However, this raises important questions about social isolation, accessibility of Canada’s built environment, suitability of housing options on the market as well as the availability and affordability of necessary services.

    Recent polling shows that 95 per cent of Canadians over 45 believe that aging-in-place would maintain their independence, comfort and dignity. Yet only 12 per cent report having the funds available to receive adequate home care.

    In the absence of thoughtful policy reform, there is potential for significant disparities in health outcomes, financial security and social inclusion among older adults in the years to come.



    Read more:
    Wealthier Canadians live longer and are less likely to be dependent as they age, new research finds

    Ensuring intergenerational equity

    There is a perception that baby boomers are heading into a comfortable retirement with robust pensions and opportunities for leisure. While this may be the case for those who have accumulated or inherited wealth, others are facing the risk of poverty and homelessness.

    Data indicates that around 30 per cent of people using shelters across Canada are aged 50 or older, with many others unsheltered, living outdoors or experiencing hidden homelessness.

    With limited resources, governments will be challenged to meet the needs of older Canadians while ensuring younger Canadians can also thrive. Young Canadians are facing a housing market that feels out of reach and many are delaying the decision to start a family due to high costs of living.

    Fifty-five per cent of Canadians aged 25-44 report that rising prices are greatly affecting their ability to meet day-to-day expenses. Balancing the needs of different generations will require new ways of thinking, strategic investments and systemic cultural change.

    A path forward

    This means that, in the face of difficult decisions, resources should be allocated to those who need them most. For example, there have been calls to improve the equity of Old Age Security (OAS) — which is expected to cost $96 billion annually by 2027 — and lower income thresholds for eligibility.

    Unlike the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which is targeted to low-income Canadians over the age of 65, households with an annual income more than $300,000 may still be eligible for OAS payments.

    Similarly, vouchers could be made available to help Canadians pay for costs such as long-term care or home care services. Eligibility for programs like this should be tested against both income and wealth — access to home equity can be a significant factor in one’s ability to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

    To ensure equitable outcomes, these decisions should also be guided by meaningful engagement with diverse voices around the table, including those from older and younger generations and different lived experiences. Intergenerational dialogue can help different age groups understand each other’s challenges, collaborate on solutions and ultimately work towards solidarity and a much-needed reimagination of what it means to grow older.

    As Canadians prepare to head to the polls, we should all consider the future we want to see for ourselves and our communities as we age. Making strategic investments to improve the quality of life for older Canadians today will also lay the foundation for future generations.

    Sunil Johal is the Vice-President, Public Policy with the CSA Group and leads the CSA Public Policy Centre.

    – ref. Canada’s aging population: The unspoken ballot box issue – https://theconversation.com/canadas-aging-population-the-unspoken-ballot-box-issue-253300

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been key part of complex afterlife rituals

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol

    Tutankhamun’s gold burial mask and one of the plain clay trays. Roland Unger/Canva, CC BY

    More than 100 years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, new interpretations of the burial are still emerging. A recent article published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology proposes that a set of seemingly plain, functional objects are in fact a key part of the complex rituals which would ensure the transformation and regeneration of the young king in the afterlife.

    Tutankhamun inherited a throne tainted by the shifts in religious and political practices implemented by his father, Akhenaten. His reign had been hallmarked by the move from the capital city of Thebes to a new city, Akhetaten (“the horizon of the Aten”).

    Under Akhenaten, the solar deity Aten was elevated above all others, including the principal state god Amun. This resulted in the king being the sole high priest and beneficiary (along with his family) of the Aten. The resulting disconnection between state and religion severely reduced the power and influence of priests and members of the royal court. But on Akhenaten’s death, these were restored by his son.

    Tutankhamun was named Tutankh-aten (“the living image of Aten”) at birth, but took the name of Amun back when Thebes was restored as the capital city of Egypt after his accession. This time (known as the Amarna period after the modern name of Akhenaten’s city) and its changes mean that it is more challenging to understand matters such as burial practices, religious rites and so on because it was not necessarily a “typical” time.

    Therefore, while we have learned much about funerary practices from Tutankhamun’s tomb, there are objects which are still being reinterpreted.

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    The artefacts in focus are a set of four clay trays, approximately 7.5 x 4.0 x 1.2cm, plain in design and apparently quite utilitarian.

    This type of artefact is known from other funerary contexts including elsewhere in the Valley of the Kings. They have been described in various ways as mud trays, earthen dishes or troughs. The lack of consistency in terminology and suggestions on function illustrate the difficulty in understanding their precise role in the tomb.

    Along with the clay trays are a set of wooden staves, just over a metre long, with a slight angle, and covered with gesso (a white pigment and binder mixture) and gold. In spite of the difference in materials, they were assumed by the man who uncovered the tomb, Howard Carter, to be directly associated with the trays. He believed they were probably intended as bases for the staffs to stand upright.

    One of the clay trays.
    Timeless Moon Public Archive

    However, it is clear that they have an even greater function to fulfil as, contextually, everything in the tomb has symbolism and meaning, even down to the wooden boxes for preserved meats, which were intended to sustain Tutankhamun in the afterlife.

    The care with which the trays and staff were laid out on matting indicates that they were important for the king’s burial. We might expect a royal burial to be filled with only the finest objects, made of the most valuable materials by elite craftsmen, with the association of materials such as gold with royalty and divinity. The richness of the rest of Tutankhamun’s burial for the most part fulfils this expectation. But, nevertheless, the ordinariness of the clay trays in the light of such riches confirms rather than refutes their significance.

    The restoration of order

    Following the royal court’s move back to Thebes in the wake of Akhenaten’s death, the restoration of Amun and the other gods was set in motion. The cult centre of Amun at the Temple of Karnak regained its status. The name of Akhenaten and his imagery, along with that of the sun disk, were subjected to a campaign of removal.

    Tutankhamun erected the so-called Restoration Stela with titles and epithets invoking the traditional gods, and statements on “having repaired what was ruined … having repelled disorder”. The upheaval of the Amarna Period was reversed.

    Discussions in academia on the dismantling of Akhenaten’s regime have tended to focus on issues such as name changes and the destruction of his upstart city. But ancient Egyptian religion had countless centuries of recorded tradition and observance, so profound demonstrations of loyalty to the traditional gods were needed.

    Two more clay trays from Tutankhamun’s tomb.
    Timeless Moon Public Archive

    The mud trays are now thought to be part of a wider funerary ritual, which both invoked the god Osiris and permitted the transfiguration of Tutankhamun. As king, he was thought to be the embodiment of the god Horus in life, and to become Osiris in death – rejuvenated and resurrected.

    Osiris is usually shown as a mummified king, with green or black skin to represent the fertility of the land and the new life which comes from it. It is not a coincidence that the trays are made of mud.

    Other aspects of the placement of the trays within the tomb such as specific placement and orientation (including particular symbols in the decoration of the tomb) indicate that the trays had a specific role to play. This may have been as an offering tray for Nile water, once more underlining the role of the river in creating life.

    Tutankhamun and his treasures are so familiar today that it is possible to overlook, or even forget, the fact that once the doors were sealed after his funeral they were meant to never be seen again. Some of his grave goods – particularly those made from gold – have outshone others. However, the ordinariness of the trays among all the riches suggests that they are crucial components of his burial. They confirm Tutankhamun as both renewed in death through Osiris, and the king who restored order to Egypt.

    Claire Isabella Gilmour 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. Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been key part of complex afterlife rituals – https://theconversation.com/tutankhamun-plain-looking-mud-trays-in-pharaohs-tomb-have-been-key-part-of-complex-afterlife-rituals-253479

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How storytelling, creativity and collaborations can inspire climate action

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Cecilia Manosa Nyblon, Director – We Are the Possible Programme, University of Exeter

    Imagine heading into space, landing on the moon and walking in the dust. As you adjust to the weightlessness, you see something unexpected on the horizon. You’re looking back at the Earth, experiencing the “overview effect”. How would you feel? What would you see, hear, touch, taste and smell?

    We asked these questions when we launched a creative writing workshop to harness the beauty and power of storytelling, education, theatre, and music to inspire a greener, healthier and fairer world for future generations.

    One of us, Cecilia Mañosa Nyblon, brought together a team from the University of Exeter, the Met Office and international experts including marine scientists, poets, soundscape artists, musicians, playwrights and children’s authors who recognise the power of the arts to bridge the gap between science and society.

    In 2021, our team launched We Are the Possible. This international award-winning programme brings together artists, scientists, educators and health professionals to connect hearts and minds. Together, we develop creative content and performances that are presented to policymakers and the public at annual UN climate summits and other public events.

    As Kathleen Jamie, Scotland’s makar (national poet), said during the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow: “We can’t have that massive event around nature and environment without a poetry presence there.”

    Since 2021, this programme has engaged more than 16,000 people in the UK, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. Our projects have reached more than 33 million people worldwide through mainstream media, social media and online platforms. By inspiring global and local audiences, we hope to mobilise communities to care for and protect our planet.

    “We Are the Possible” collaborated with artists, scientists, educators, musicians and schoolchildren to perform at Cop28, the UN climate summit, in Dubai in 2023.

    The project’s creative lead, Sally Flint, weaves the words of climate scientists, health professionals, storytellers, artists, youth, educators and translators into an anthology of 12 poems or stories for the 12 days of each UN climate summit, showing what people value most and what’s at stake in our changing planet.

    In our anthology for Cop28 (the 2023 climate summit in Dubai), Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who spent years negotiating for climate action at the UN summits, shared that “while this remains vital, I have also realised that connecting with people from the heart and with love is the most powerful place to start.”

    Scientists have the data. We have the technological solutions. But governments and leaders are failing to act with urgency. The climate crisis is our biggest communication failure.

    Culture has the power to help people imagine and inspire action through dialogue, images, storytelling and shared experiences. But for far too long, the arts, cultural heritage and creative industries have been absent in climate policy frameworks. In 2024, ministers of culture and education gathered in Abu Dhabi to establish a framework which recognises the transformative power and impact of culture and arts education [for sustainable development]https://www.unesco.org/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2024/02/WCCAE_UNESCO%20Framework_EN_0.pdf).

    Since Cop28, our team has been working with our partner, a not-for-profit called the Emirates Literature Foundation, to involve Indigenous poets through visual artforms. This involvement shines a light on the importance of Indigenous knowledge in our climate conversations to heal and restore our planet.

    We have also collaborated with a sustainable theatre company called The Theatre of Others to deliver The Earth Turns and Bright Light Burning. These immersive theatre performances (inspired by We Are the Possible anthologies) and panel discussions involve both policymakers and the public. After one of the performances, Jonathan Dewsbury, director of capital operations and net zero at the UK government’s Department for Education, told us: “If we don’t grab the arts, the poems, the music and embed them into our top policy thinkers, our top decision-makers, we are not going to make the right choices, the right solutions.”

    Carpet weaving is an important part of Azerbaijan’s cultural identity. At Cop29 (the 2024 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan), one group of academics and students at Khazar University in Baku wove a traditional “Chelebi” carpet. This conveyed a message of unity and environmental stewardship through symbolic patterns inspired by We Are the Possible’s anthology.

    Ocean-literate cultures

    Around 50% of countries have no mention of climate change in their school curriculum, according to Unesco. Most teachers (95%) feel that teaching about climate climate change is important but less than 30% say are ready to teach it. Meanwhile, 75% young people around the world say they are frightened about their future.

    Schools Across the Ocean, the education strand of We Are the Possible, is addressing this climate education gap. Led by our colleague, senior lecturer in education Anita Wood, this initiative has already connected more than 2,000 schoolchildren (aged 8-13) and more than 100 teachers in the UK, United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and other countries.

    Inspiring children to put their words and artwork of hope about the ocean.

    This six-week programme involves providing a toolkit for teachers plus activities and online workshops that engage children in science, art, storytelling and action for the ocean. The goal is for more children to understand why we all need a healthy ocean, develop their sense of agency and inspire others in their local communities to take action too.

    Wendy Wilson, headteacher St Anne’s School in Alderney on the Channel Islands, found that Schools Across the Ocean meant that her students were not just learning about climate change. She said they were also “becoming active, global citizens who are climate literate, empowered and full of hope.”

    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.

    We Are the Possible programme has been funded by the University of Exeter, Met Office, British Council, British Embassy Gulf Strategy Fund, British Embassy Azerbaijan, UKRI, AHRC, Knowledge E Foundation,Arts Council England and supported by Emirates Literature Foundation, American University in Cairo, Khorfakkan University, Khazar University, BIMM University, Extreme Hangout, Banlastic, Ocean Generation, Tahrir Cultural Centre, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter UNESCO City of Literature, Cygnet Theatre, among others.

    We Are the Possible programme has been funded by the University of Exeter, Met Office, British Council, British Embassy Gulf Strategy Fund, British Embassy Azerbaijan, UKRI, AHRC, Knowledge E Foundation, Arts Council England and supported by Emirates Literature Foundation, American University in Cairo, Khorfakkan University, Khazar University, BIMM University, Extreme Hangout, Banlastic, Ocean Generation, Tahrir Cultural Centre, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter UNESCO City of Literature, Cygnet Theatre, among others.

    – ref. How storytelling, creativity and collaborations can inspire climate action – https://theconversation.com/how-storytelling-creativity-and-collaborations-can-inspire-climate-action-252256

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Peru’s ancient irrigation systems succeeded in turning deserts into farms because of the culture − without it, the systems failed

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ari Caramanica, Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Vanderbilt University

    A pre-Hispanic canal funnels water from mountains to farm fields. Ari Caramanica

    Seeing the north coast of Peru for the first time, you would be hard-pressed to believe it’s one of the driest deserts in the world.

    Parts of the region receive less than an inch of rain in an entire year. Yet, water and greenery are everywhere. This is the nation’s agro-industrial heartland, and, thanks to irrigation canals, almost every inch of the floodplain is blanketed in lucrative export crops, such as sugarcane, asparagus and blueberries.

    However, the apparent success of this system masks an underlying fragility.

    Water shortages have plagued the region for centuries, and now modern climate change combined with agro-industrial practices have further intensified droughts. In response, the Peruvian government has invested billions of dollars in irrigation infrastructure in recent years designed to deliver more water from a resource more than 100 miles away: glaciers in the Andes.

    But the Andean glaciers are disappearing as global temperatures rise. Peru has lost over half its glacier surface area since 1962. At the same time, floods often connected to wet El Niño years are increasing in both frequency and intensity. These floods often destroy or obstruct critical irrigation infrastructure.

    Andean glaciers are disappearing as global temperatures rise. Peru lost over half its glacier surface area in the past half-century.
    mmphoto/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    As an archaeologist investigating societal responses to environmental and climate disaster in Peru, I’m interested in unraveling the histories of complex systems to understand how to improve similar systems today. To understand the Peruvian heartland’s vulnerabilities, it helps to look to the deep past.

    Most of the modern canal network originally dates to pre-Hispanic times, more than 1400 years ago. However, evidence suggests that while the canal systems of the past may have looked similar to those of the present, they functioned in more efficient, flexible ways. The key to adapting to our present and future climate may lie in comprehending the knowledge systems of the past – not just the equipment, technology or infrastructure, but how people used it.

    An environment of extremes

    The north coast of Peru is an environment of extremes.

    In this desert, thousands of years ago, societies encountered many of the same challenges posed by the modern climate crisis: expanding drylands, water scarcity, vulnerable food production systems, and frequent, intense natural disasters.

    Yet, people not only occupied this area for millennia, they thrived in it. Moche and Chimu societies created sophisticated, complex political and religious institutions, art and technology, and one of the largest pyramidal structures in the Americas.

    Relief of fish adorn an adobe wall in the historic Tschudi Complex archaeological site at Chan Chan, the former capital of the Chimu empire in Peru.
    FabulousFabs/Flickr, CC BY-NC

    When the Spanish arrived on the desert north coast of Peru shortly after 1532 C.E., early chroniclers remarked on the verdant, green valleys across the region.

    The Spanish immediately recognized the importance of the canal network. They had used similar canal technology in Spain for centuries. So, they set about conscripting Indigenous labor and adapting the irrigation system to their goals.

    Just a few decades later, however, historic records describe sand dunes and scrublands invading the green valleys, water shortages, and in 1578 a massive El Niño flood that nearly ended the young colony.

    So how did the Indigenous operation of this landscape succeed, where the Spanish and the modern-day agro-industrial complex have repeatedly failed?

    Culture was crucial for ancient canal systems

    Ancient beliefs, behaviors and norms – what archaeologists call culture – were fundamentally integrated into technological solutions in this part of Peru in ancient times. Isolating and removing the tools from that knowledge made them less effective.

    Scientists, policymakers and stakeholders searching for models of sustainable agriculture and climate adaptations can look to the archaeological record. Successfully applying past practices to today’s challenges requires learning about the cultures that put those tools to work effectively for so long, so long ago.

    The pre-Hispanic societies of Peru developed agricultural principles around the realities of the desert, which included both dry seasons and flash floods.

    Large-scale irrigation infrastructure was combined with low-cost, easily modified canals. Aqueducts doubled as sediment traps to capture nutrients. Canal branches channeled both river water and floodwater. Even check-dams – small dams used to control high-energy floods – worked in multiple ways. Usually made of mounded cobble and gravel, they reduced the energy of flash floods, captured rich sediments and recharged the water table.

    A drone’s view of sugarcane fields shows a pre-Hispanic adobe aqueduct on the right and small feeder canals in the modern fields.
    Ari Caramanica

    The initial failures of the Spanish on the north coast exemplify the problem of trying to adopt technology without understanding the cultural insights behind it: While they may be identical in form, a Spanish canal isn’t a Moche canal.

    Spanish canals operated in a temperate climate and were managed by individual farmers who could maintain or increase their water flow. The Moche and Chimu canal was tied to a complex labor system that synchronized cleaning and maintenance and prioritized the efficient use of water. What’s more, Moche canals functioned in tandem with floodwater diversion canals, which activated during El Niño events to create niches of agricultural productivity amid disasters.

    A handmade gate on a modern canal in northern Peru doesn’t seem that different from ancient canals, but the pre-Hispanic canal systems were generally more conceptually complex and interconnected.
    Ari Caramanica

    Desert farming required flexibility and multifunctionality from its infrastructure. Achieving that often meant forgoing impermeable materials and permanent designs, which stands in stark contrast to the way modern-day water management works are constructed.

    Copying ancient practices without the culture

    Today, the Peruvian government is pushing forward with a decades-old, multibillion-dollar project to deliver water to the north coast from a glacier-fed river.

    The Chavimochic project promises a grand transformation, turning desert into productive farmland. But it may be sacrificing long-term resilience for short-term prosperity.

    The project feeds on the temporary abundance of glacial meltwater. This is creating a water boom as the ice melts, but it will inevitably be followed by a devastating water bust as the glaciers all but disappear, which scientists estimate could happen by the end of the 21st century.

    Farmers sell locally grown corn and other crops at a street market in Piura, Peru.
    Christian Ender/Getty Images

    Meanwhile, sustainable land management practices of past Indigenous inhabitants continue to support ecosystems hundreds and even thousands of years later. Studies show higher levels of biodiversity, crucial to ecosystem health, near archaeological sites.

    On the Peruvian north coast, pre-Hispanic infrastructure continues to capture floodwater during El Niño events. When their modern-day fields are flooded or destroyed by these events, farmers will sometimes move their crops to areas surrounding archaeological remains where their corn, squash and bean plants can tap into the trapped water and sediments and safely grow without the need for further irrigation.

    Critics might point out the difficulty of scaling up ancient technologies for global applications, find them rudimentary, or would prefer to appropriate the design without bothering with understanding “the cultural stuff.”

    But this framing misses the bigger point: What made these technologies effective was the cultural stuff. Not just the tools but how they were used by the societies operating them. As long as modern engineering solutions try to update ancient technologies without considering the cultures that made them function, these projects will struggle.

    Understanding the past matters

    Archaeologists have an important role to play in building a climate-resilient future, but any meaningful progress would benefit from a historical approach that considers multiple ways of understanding the environment, of operating an irrigation canal and of organizing an agriculture-based economy.

    That approach, in my view, begins with saving indigenous languages, where cultural logic is deeply embedded, as well as preserving archaeological and sacred sites, and creating partnerships built on trust with the people who have worked with the land and whose cultures have adapted their practices to the changing climate for thousands of years.

    Ari Caramanica receives funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities.

    – ref. Peru’s ancient irrigation systems succeeded in turning deserts into farms because of the culture − without it, the systems failed – https://theconversation.com/perus-ancient-irrigation-systems-succeeded-in-turning-deserts-into-farms-because-of-the-culture-without-it-the-systems-failed-251199

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been been key part of complex afterlife rituals

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol

    Tutankhamun’s gold burial mask and one of the plain clay trays. Roland Unger/Canva, CC BY

    More than 100 years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, new interpretations of the burial are still emerging. A recent article published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology proposes that a set of seemingly plain, functional objects are in fact a key part of the complex rituals which would ensure the transformation and regeneration of the young king in the afterlife.

    Tutankhamun inherited a throne tainted by the shifts in religious and political practices implemented by his father, Akhenaten. His reign had been hallmarked by the move from the capital city of Thebes to a new city, Akhetaten (“the horizon of the Aten”).

    Under Akhenaten, the solar deity Aten was elevated above all others, including the principal state god Amun. This resulted in the king being the sole high priest and beneficiary (along with his family) of the Aten. The resulting disconnection between state and religion severely reduced the power and influence of priests and members of the royal court. But on Akhenaten’s death, these were restored by his son.

    Tutankhamun was named Tutankh-aten (“the living image of Aten”) at birth, but took the name of Amun back when Thebes was restored as the capital city of Egypt after his accession. This time (known as the Amarna period after the modern name of Akhenaten’s city) and its changes mean that it is more challenging to understand matters such as burial practices, religious rites and so on because it was not necessarily a “typical” time.

    Therefore, while we have learned much about funerary practices from Tutankhamun’s tomb, there are objects which are still being reinterpreted.

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    The artefacts in focus are a set of four clay trays, approximately 7.5 x 4.0 x 1.2cm, plain in design and apparently quite utilitarian.

    This type of artefact is known from other funerary contexts including elsewhere in the Valley of the Kings. They have been described in various ways as mud trays, earthen dishes or troughs. The lack of consistency in terminology and suggestions on function illustrate the difficulty in understanding their precise role in the tomb.

    Along with the clay trays are a set of wooden staves, just over a metre long, with a slight angle, and covered with gesso (a white pigment and binder mixture) and gold. In spite of the difference in materials, they were assumed by the man who uncovered the tomb, Howard Carter, to be directly associated with the trays. He believed they were probably intended as bases for the staffs to stand upright.

    One of the clay trays.
    Timeless Moon Public Archive

    However, it is clear that they have an even greater function to fulfil as, contextually, everything in the tomb has symbolism and meaning, even down to the wooden boxes for preserved meats, which were intended to sustain Tutankhamun in the afterlife.

    The care with which the trays and staff were laid out on matting indicates that they were important for the king’s burial. We might expect a royal burial to be filled with only the finest objects, made of the most valuable materials by elite craftsmen, with the association of materials such as gold with royalty and divinity. The richness of the rest of Tutankhamun’s burial for the most part fulfils this expectation. But, nevertheless, the ordinariness of the clay trays in the light of such riches confirms rather than refutes their significance.

    The restoration of order

    Following the royal court’s move back to Thebes in the wake of Akhenaten’s death, the restoration of Amun and the other gods was set in motion. The cult centre of Amun at the Temple of Karnak regained its status. The name of Akhenaten and his imagery, along with that of the sun disk, were subjected to a campaign of removal.

    Tutankhamun erected the so-called Restoration Stela with titles and epithets invoking the traditional gods, and statements on “having repaired what was ruined … having repelled disorder”. The upheaval of the Amarna Period was reversed.

    Discussions in academia on the dismantling of Akhenaten’s regime have tended to focus on issues such as name changes and the destruction of his upstart city. But ancient Egyptian religion had countless centuries of recorded tradition and observance, so profound demonstrations of loyalty to the traditional gods were needed.

    Two more clay trays from Tutankhamun’s tomb.
    Timeless Moon Public Archive

    The mud trays are now thought to be part of a wider funerary ritual, which both invoked the god Osiris and permitted the transfiguration of Tutankhamun. As king, he was thought to be the embodiment of the god Horus in life, and to become Osiris in death – rejuvenated and resurrected.

    Osiris is usually shown as a mummified king, with green or black skin to represent the fertility of the land and the new life which comes from it. It is not a coincidence that the trays are made of mud.

    Other aspects of the placement of the trays within the tomb such as specific placement and orientation (including particular symbols in the decoration of the tomb) indicate that the trays had a specific role to play. This may have been as an offering tray for Nile water, once more underlining the role of the river in creating life.

    Tutankhamun and his treasures are so familiar today that it is possible to overlook, or even forget, the fact that once the doors were sealed after his funeral they were meant to never be seen again. Some of his grave goods – particularly those made from gold – have outshone others. However, the ordinariness of the trays among all the riches suggests that they are crucial components of his burial. They confirm Tutankhamun as both renewed in death through Osiris, and the king who restored order to Egypt.

    Claire Isabella Gilmour 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. Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been been key part of complex afterlife rituals – https://theconversation.com/tutankhamun-plain-looking-mud-trays-in-pharaohs-tomb-have-been-been-key-part-of-complex-afterlife-rituals-253479

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How dentists could help tackle obesity in children

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jessica Large, Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Lifestyle Medicine and Behaviour (CLiMB), Loughborough University

    © World Obesity , CC BY-NC-SA

    As a specialty registrar in paediatric dentistry, I’ve seen first-hand the pain children experience because of poor oral health. Tooth decay happens when teeth are damaged by acids produced by oral bacteria breaking down sugar from foods and drinks – and although it’s largely preventable – it’s the most common reason for hospital admission in children aged between five and nine in England.

    Tooth decay in children is also linked to obesity. Childhood obesity increases the risk of developing other diseases throughout childhood and into adulthood, including diabetes, high blood pressure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

    My research, conducted with colleagues at Loughborough University, explores how acceptable and feasible it is for dental teams to offer weight checks and support, such as referral to weight loss programmes, to patients during routine appointments. In my job as a paediatric dentist, I discuss weight and health with families and offer referral to local healthy lifestyle services.

    The World Health Organization estimates that 43% of children have decay worldwide and 20% of children aged 5-19 years are overweight or living with obesity.

    In England, 29.3% of five-year-olds have tooth decay and 21.3% of four and five year olds are overweight or living with obesity. A diet high in sugary foods and drinks increases the risk of developing both conditions. and evidence suggests that children who are overweight or living with obesity are more likely to have tooth decay.

    Mouth disease is also linked with disease in other parts of the body. Gum disease, for example, is an infection of the tissues that support teeth, which has links with type 2 diabetes. When one disease is poorly controlled, it can make the other worse. The number of children with type 2 diabetes is increasing, with excess weight increasing the risk of developing this condition.

    Given the links between diet, tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes, as well as other diseases that can develop when living with obesity, dental teams may be ideal professionals to tackle both tooth decay and obesity. It can be difficult to see an NHS dentist in the UK but NHS dental teams do see millions of children every year and already advise families on reducing sugary foods and drinks in the diet to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

    Dental teams taking body measurements is not new. Height and weight measurements to calculate body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat, are already collected by some dental teams. These measurements are helpful when prescribing medication and for planning dental treatment for children who need a general anaesthetic or sedation.

    Some hospital dental teams, such as in Edinburgh and Dundee in Scotland, also offer weight and height checks for children and young people as part of routine appointments. The child’s weight is discussed with the child’s parent or carer in a sensitive way and families are offered referral to a local service to support healthy lifestyle changes.

    This opportunity to support a child with their oral health as well as weight aligns with the NHS initiative, Making Every Contact Count. Making Every Contact Count calls on all health care professionals to take every opportunity within their appointments with patients to help improve patient health.

    Children living in more deprived areas of the UK are at least twice as likely to be living with overweight and obesity. They’re also three times as likely to have tooth decay. The NHS aims to reduce these inequalities among children and has chosen oral health and diabetes as two key areas to improve care for children and young people.

    The public have shown support for dental teams to talk about weight at dental visits and offer guidance to lose weight and improve health when done in a supportive way. Research published in 2024, found that over 80% of the public supported weight measurements being taken by dental teams and a discussion of weight at dental appointments. Most of the studies in this review came from the USA.

    A UK based survey asked parents and carers if they would feel comfortable with their child(ren)’s weight and height being taken at a dental appointment in a dental practice. The survey found 58% of parents and carers would feel comfortable and a further 12% might feel comfortable with this approach.

    This was very similar to how adults completing the survey felt about having their own height and weight measured at a dental appointment with 60% reporting they would feel comfortable and a further 10% saying they may feel comfortable.

    Discussing weight can feel uneasy and dental teams say they worry they will upset patients if they talk about weight. Some studies have found dental teams are also concerned they do not have enough time to talk about weight and that they have not had training on how to do this.

    However, studies have found when weight checks and support are offered to families by trained dental teams, help is well received and lack of time rarely a problem.

    Dental decay and obesity are preventable in many cases. Both conditions can continue into adulthood with the risk of developing other health problems.

    Research shows that dental teams are willing to provide support and that children and their families are open to receiving help for obesity. Dental teams do have an important role to play, as well as GPs and allied healthcare professionals, in tackling obesity in children as well as tooth decay.

    Jessica Large 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 dentists could help tackle obesity in children – https://theconversation.com/how-dentists-could-help-tackle-obesity-in-children-252258

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –