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Category: Reports

  • MIL-OSI Global: Israel’s conflict with Iran escalates as Trump considers US involvement

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sam Phelps, Commissioning Editor, International Affairs

    This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.

    Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and military leadership last week has quickly escalated into the most severe conflict between the two foes in decades. They have been trading missile attacks, with Israel now hinting that it seeks to overthrow the government in Tehran.

    On June 19, after an Iranian missile struck a hospital in the Israeli city of Beersheba, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, announced that he had instructed the military to increase the intensity of attacks against Iran. The goal, he said, was to “undermine the regime”.

    Israel has long made it clear that it would like to see a change of government in Tehran – though not necessarily through direct military action. Katz’s comments, which also involved saying that the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “will pay for his crimes”, are the first time Israel has claimed regime change as an official goal since the conflict with Iran began.

    Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

    We asked Farhang Morady, a lecturer in international development at the University of Westminster, how precarious the Iranian government’s grip on power really is. He explains that, despite being under immense pressure, the regime is not at imminent risk of collapse.

    Israeli strikes have inflicted significant damage, Morady says. But they have not caused the downfall of the regime’s core institutions. Khamenei has reshuffled Iran’s military leadership to maintain stability and control, swiftly appointing successors to replace assassinated commanders.

    At least publicly, Morady writes, the Iranian elite is eager to demonstrate its position that the country is capable of enduring the crisis without giving in to foreign pressure. At the same time, the regime has been employing back-channel diplomacy to ensure its survival. It has even reportedly indicated that it is willing to suspend uranium enrichment to maintain itself.



    Read more:
    Israel’s attacks have exposed weaknesses in Iran, but it’s in little danger of collapsing

    However, pressure on the regime could be set to intensify. US president Donald Trump has made it clear that he is considering joining Israel’s campaign against Iran.

    As part of a string of social media posts, which followed his early exit from the G7 summit in Canada, Trump described Khamenei as an “easy target” who is safe “for now”. Then, on June 18, when asked a question about the US striking Iran, Trump said: “I may do it, I may not do it.”

    Whether Trump’s antics are a bluff to force Iran to negotiate an end to the conflict – or, in his own words, an “unconditional surrender” – remains to be seen.

    But in the view of Natasha Lindstaedt, a professor in the department of government at the University of Essex, Trump’s statements suggest he is being won over by the Israeli government’s pressure campaign to convince Washington that the time is right for a joint military assault on Iran.

    The US possesses the 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bomb, and the B-2 stealth bomber to carry it, capable of destroying Iran’s deep-lying uranium enrichment sites. Lindstaedt sees a situation arising soon where Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convinces Trump to use this weapon against Iran.



    Read more:
    Trump breaks from western allies at G7 summit as US weighs joining Iran strikes

    Any American military action in Iran has the potential to cause a split in Trump’s base of support, says Richard Hargy, an expert on US politics at Queen’s University Belfast. In this piece, Hargy details how Trump’s condemnation of former US presidents for leading the US into foreign wars won him plaudits with his “make America great again” (Maga) base.

    These people remain fiercely opposed to US involvement in another conflict in the Middle East. Steve Bannon, an America-first backer and staunch Trump ally, has warned that US action in Iran would “blow up” Trump’s coalition of support.

    At the same time, Hargy says Trump has several prominent Republican hawks urging him to take military action against Iran. Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, has this week called on Trump to go “all in” to help “Israel eliminate the [Iranian] nuclear threat”.

    Whatever Trump decides over Iran will be a pivotal moment for his presidency.



    Read more:
    Iran air strikes: Republicans split over support for Trump and another ‘foreign war’

    Confrontation was inevitable

    A direct conflict between Israel and Iran has been a long time coming. Tensions between the two countries have been simmering for years. But why did Israel chose to act now? Matthew Moran and Wyn Bowen, professors of international security at King’s College London, say two factors have converged that made this confrontation all but inevitable.

    First, Iran’s regime has been left exposed by events over the past 12 months or so. Israeli strikes in October 2024 seriously degraded Iran’s air defences, while Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks has decimated Iran’s regional proxy network. These events have undermined Iran’s ability to deter adversaries and have emboldened Israel.

    And second, Iran’s nuclear programme has advanced since Trump withdrew the US from a deal negotiated during Barack Obama’s presidency that greatly rolled back Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

    Moran and Bowen point to a recent report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security that suggests Iran could convert its current stock of 60% enriched uranium into enough weapons-grade uranium for seven nuclear weapons. This could be done in as little as three weeks.

    US national intelligence and the International Atomic Energy Agency say there is no evidence to suggest Iran is, in fact, looking to build a nuclear bomb. Nevertheless, even the possibility that Iran was close to developing one crossed an Israeli red line and triggered action.

    In the words of Moran and Bowen: “Iran’s brinkmanship around its effort to hedge its bets on a nuclear option meant it was always operating in a dangerous space.”



    Read more:
    Israeli aggression and Iranian nuclear brinkmanship made this confrontation all but inevitable

    According to Brian Brivati of Kingston University, there is one other factor may have encouraged Israel to take action against Iran: the collapsing credibility of the international legal order.

    In this piece, Brivati traces how the Israeli and US governments have systematically weakened the global institutions designed to uphold international law over the past few years. The Israeli government has ignored court rulings over its actions in Gaza, while the US has disabled the mechanisms of accountability.

    This has created a situation in which states can act with impunity, confident that international mechanisms can be ignored. Israel’s initial attack on Iran, which was conducted without authorisation from the UN security council, is a symptom of this. And other global powers like Russia and China may now look to follow its lead.

    We have arrived at a moment so stark, Brivati says, that it should be seen as a turning point for the international order.



    Read more:
    Israel, Iran and the US: why 2025 is a turning point for the international order

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    – ref. Israel’s conflict with Iran escalates as Trump considers US involvement – https://theconversation.com/israels-conflict-with-iran-escalates-as-trump-considers-us-involvement-259201

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The great coral reef relocation

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

    An Acropora coral during a spawning event. Coral Brunner/Shutterstock

    This article was first published in The Conversation’s Imagine email newsletter. Sign up to receive a weekly roundup of the academic research on climate action.

    Underwater cities. Rainforests of the sea. Bulwarks against the ocean’s fury and sponsors of its bounty. Canaries in the coal mine that show how rapidly the once mild global climate is changing.

    Tropical coral reefs encrust the coastlines of islands and continents near Earth’s equator but this zone, which has offered sufficient light and warmth for corals to evolve over hundreds of millions of years, is no longer hospitable.

    The fourth global coral bleaching event is under way, thanks to unusually high ocean temperatures that have persisted since 2023. All of these events have happened in the last 30 years (2024-2025, 2014-2017, 2010 and 1998), hence the canary analogy.

    Scientists have seized on an idea for saving reefs. What if corals can do as many other species are doing and migrate out of the boiling tropics?

    What if we helped them move?

    This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed.

    A quick biology lesson courtesy of Jörg Wiedenmann and Cecilia D’Angelo, ocean scientists at the University of Southampton. “Stony corals are soft-bodied animals made up of many individual polyps that live together as a colony,” they explain.



    Read more:
    How do coral reefs thrive in parts of the ocean that are low in nutrients? By eating their algal companions

    Corals that build reefs often share their calcium carbonate skeleton with tiny algae that photosynthesise like plants on land. The coral host gains food, the algae shelter. These algae are also responsible for the dazzling colour of reefs, but when conditions are too stressful – like during the ongoing marine heatwave – the algae depart and leave a bleached-white reef behind.

    The reef will die if conditions remain poor for too long.

    Going with the flow

    “While adult corals build solid structures that are firmly attached to the sea floor, baby corals are not confined to their reefs,” says Noam Vogt-Vincent, a
    postdoctoral fellow in marine biology at the University of Hawaii.

    These intrepid larvae carry with them the fate of their home, and one of Earth’s most wildlife-rich habitats. They can travel hundreds of miles before settling in a new location. This is what allows the distribution of corals to shift over time, and the fossil record shows coral reef expansions have happened before, Vogt-Vincent notes.

    Where larvae go is largely determined by ocean currents.



    Read more:
    Coral reefs face an uncertain recovery from the 4th global mass bleaching event – can climate refuges help?

    “Major ocean currents can carry baby corals to temperate seas. If new coral reefs form there as the waters warm, these areas might act as refuges for tropical corals, reducing the corals’ risk of extinction,” he says.

    Suitable water temperatures for coral are expected to expand outwards from the tropics by 25 miles (40km) per decade. So, if waters are warming in the subtropics and temperate seas to accommodate them, could a tropical coral exodus be the answer?

    To find out, Vogt-Vincent combined field and lab data on the conditions corals need to thrive with data on ocean currents. He and his colleagues created a global simulation to represent how corals are likely to respond to changing environmental conditions, and then added future climate projections.

    “We found that it will take centuries for coral reefs to shift away from the tropics. This is far too slow for temperate seas to save tropical coral species – they are facing severe threats right now and in the coming decades,” he says.

    A helping hand

    Could people expedite this migration and help corals to settle and thrive on new patches of seabed? This has been tried to some success before.

    South Sulawesi in Indonesia once hosted some of the world’s most vibrant and diverse coral reefs. They were decimated by dynamite fishing in the 1990s. However, divers working for the Mars coral restoration programme at Pulau Bontosua have kickstarted their recovery by transplanting healthy coral fragments into the sea by hand.



    Read more:
    Restored coral reefs can grow as fast as healthy reefs after just four years – new study

    When a marine heatwave struck the water south of Florida in July 2023, a heroic effort was launched to move young corals out of harm’s way. These included the fragments of coral kept and nurtured in artificial “nurseries” for transplantation on reefs.

    “Divers have been in the water every day, collecting thousands of corals from ocean nurseries along the Florida Keys reef tract and moving them to cooler water and into giant tanks on land,” said Michael Childress, a Clemson University coral scientist.



    Read more:
    The heroic effort to save Florida’s coral reef from extreme ocean heat as corals bleach across the Caribbean

    Sadly, Vogt-Vincent is doubtful.

    “Our research suggests that coral range expansion is mainly limited by slower coral growth at higher latitudes, not by dispersal,” he says.

    “Away from the equator, light intensity falls and temperature becomes more variable, reducing growth, and therefore the rate of range expansion, for many coral species.”

    What’s more, there are already species of coral living in temperate seas.

    “Establishing tropical corals within those ecosystems might disrupt existing species, so rapid expansions might not be a good thing in the first place,” Vogt-Vincent says.

    His team’s simulation suggests coral populations could expand in a few locations, particularly in southern Australia. But the expected loss of coral (roughly 10 million acres, or 4 million hectares) dwarfs the expected gain (6,000 acres, or 2,400 hectares).

    Coral reefs teeming with biodiversity are on the frontline of the climate crisis.
    Olendro heikham/Shutterstock

    There is another option that could drastically improve the outlook for tropical coral reefs. Perhaps you’ve already guessed it.

    “Our study suggests that reducing emissions at a faster pace, in accordance with the Paris climate agreement, could cut the coral loss by half compared with current policies,” Vogt-Vincent says. “That could boost reef health for centuries to come.”

    There is still hope for tropical coral reefs, but it depends on rapidly ending humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels for energy.

    – ref. The great coral reef relocation – https://theconversation.com/the-great-coral-reef-relocation-258714

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Information overload: smartphones are exposing children to an avalanche of irrelevance

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dorje C. Brody, Professor of Mathematics, University of Surrey

    Aleksandra Suzi/Shutterstock

    More than 80% of children aged ten to 12 in the UK own a smartphone, according to a recent report by media watchdog Ofcom. Many people think this is a bad thing: there has been much debate about whether children should be allowed to have smartphones.

    The discussions around the potential negative aspects of children’s smartphone use often focus on the possible mental health risks of social media, or how spending too much time glued to a screen rather than in nature or interacting with others might affect children. On the other hand, smartphones may help children stay connected and interact with supportive communities.

    But there’s another aspect to this debate: information overload.

    My research is in the science of information. Here we encounter one of the most fundamental laws of nature, commonly known as the second law of thermodynamics. It says that over time, order is replaced by disorder, and information is overshadowed by noise.

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

    To understand this idea in the context of messaging, think of the development of communication facilities. A long time ago, when it was difficult to disseminate information – mainly through handwritten letters that might take months to arrive – people would do so only if the information was of importance.

    You wouldn’t expect a friend living a thousand miles away to inform you that their dog had just barked at a neighbour’s cat if it meant that missive would physically have to make a journey of a thousand miles.

    Printing, wire communications, the internet and mobile devices have changed this. With each innovation that eases communication, the quality of information that is transmitted reduces.

    Nowadays, much of the information surrounding us is noise. By noise, I mean insignificant and irrelevant information that no one needs to know. Nowadays, we know not only that our friend’s neighbour’s cat has been antagonising a dog, but about the lives of the cats and dogs of countless internet acquaintances and strangers.

    Increasing noise contamination is a consequence of the law of nature that cannot be beaten easily, if at all. That said, with concerted efforts, sometimes the effect can be reversed momentarily.

    Measuring information content

    If irrelevant and insignificant information is “noise”, we can – using the terminology of communication theory – call information of interest the “signal”.

    Imagine a child wanting to look up specific information on a smartphone for a school project – one of the planets in the Solar System, perhaps. The webpage they end up on contains a huge amount of unrelated information – reader comments, links to other content, maybe advertisements or videos. To reach the knowledge they are looking for, they will have to wade through, and end up absorbing, a huge amount of unnecessary information.

    Information online is accompanied by a lot of irrelevant ‘noise’.
    Ground Picture/Shutterstock

    You can think of the proportion of relevant versus irrelevant or incorrect information as the signal-to-noise ratio. A calculation shows that typically, if the noise level doubles, you will have to consume about twice the amount of information to obtain the same level of relevant knowledge. That amounts to doubling your screen time.

    So, if the noise level were to grow exponentially, as is inevitable from the second law, then you’ll have to consume exponentially more messages to get the same amount of relevant information. You’ll have to be glued to your smartphone 24-7. This is obviously something we want to avoid – for us and our children.

    To make matters worse, the information we consume will affect what we consume next, and information overload can negatively affect this process. When this happens, it becomes all too easy to end up hopping from one site to another without gathering any useful information.

    So is there a way out? Well, the answer, in theory, is simple. We just have to keep the level of noise low.

    Biological systems in natural environments – that is, without human intervention – tend to maintain stable communication without increasing noise level very much. This is because the methods of communication between animals, typically through sound, olfactory, or visual signals, or between green plants, typically through volatile organic compounds, have hardly changed for thousands of years. Only humans are capable of advancing technologies that significantly increase confusion.

    Limiting children’s access to these technologies means their environment becomes a lot less noisy and more calm. The same, of course, applies to adults. An outright ban on smartphones for children is impractical and possibly unhelpful – but creating an environment in which parents can comfortably say “no” to a smartphone, or alternatively in which parents can have an open and transparent dialogue with their children on their smartphone use, might work better.

    Dorje C. Brody 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. Information overload: smartphones are exposing children to an avalanche of irrelevance – https://theconversation.com/information-overload-smartphones-are-exposing-children-to-an-avalanche-of-irrelevance-244604

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Silent night: anatomical solutions for snoring

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol

    Yuri A/Shutterstock.com

    Snoring is often dismissed as a harmless quirk – or the punchline of bedtime jokes – but it can signal deeper issues that go beyond mere acoustic annoyance.

    Snoring occurs when turbulent airflow causes soft tissue in the upper airway to vibrate during sleep. It can stem from something as minor as a blocked nose, but it can also hint at more serious concerns like obstructive sleep apnoea. This condition is linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart disease, impaired thinking, and fatigue that lasts all day.

    For partners sharing a bed (it affects about 40% of men and 24% of women) the relentless drone of disrupted airflow can cause broken sleep, affecting mood, productivity and emotional wellbeing.

    Addressing snoring is not just about restoring peace and quiet, it’s about improving your health. Understanding the anatomy involved opens the door to effective, non-invasive solutions.



    Read more:
    How Cpap machines work: the anatomical science behind a noisy night-time lifesaver

    The nose

    The problem often starts at the nose. When nasal breathing is impeded by allergies, polyps or a deviated septum, the body switches to mouth breathing. This increases airflow turbulence as it bypasses the nasal turbinates – bones covered by soft tissue that normally regulate airflow.

    Nasal turbinates explained.

    Saline nasal rinses and sprays can help clear allergens and mucus, promoting smooth airflow. And mechanical aids, such as nasal strips or nostril dilators, widen the nasal aperture, encouraging nose breathing. Even the simple act of practising nasal breathing during the day can help reduce snoring.

    The jaw

    A lower jaw that sits too far back – whether due to genetics or possibly injury – can cause the tongue to fall backwards during sleep and block the airway. If the mouth also falls open, it throws off the balance between the space in the mouth and the surrounding soft tissues, making snoring more likely.

    Sleeping on your side counteracts this gravitational collapse, and “mandibular advancement devices” subtly reposition the jaw forward, mechanically enlarging the space behind the tongue – the so-called retroglossal airway.

    For chronic mouth breathing, gently closing the lips with hypoallergenic tape can promote nasal breathing and help stabilise the jaw, when used safely.

    The tongue

    The tongue is no passive passenger during sleep. As we fall into deeper sleep, the muscles that keep it in place relax. In people with a large tongue, weak tongue muscles or a loose tongue tie, the tongue can fall backwards and block part of the airway. This makes the air passage smaller, causing air to rush through faster and increasing the vibrations that lead to snoring.

    Targeted exercises can improve tongue strength and control, reducing this effect. One such exercise is the “tongue push-up”, where the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth and held for several seconds before relaxing.

    Another involves sticking the tongue out as far as possible and moving it in different directions – up, down and side to side – to enhance flexibility and tone. For those prone to mouth breathing, mouth taping also plays a role by ensuring the tongue remains in its natural position, preventing it from collapsing backwards.

    The soft palate

    Just behind the mouth is the soft palate – a flexible, muscular part that continues from the hard roof of your mouth and ends in the uvula (the little dangly bit you often see in cartoons when a character screams or snores).

    These soft tissues help control airflow and stop food or liquid from going up into the nose when you swallow. But during sleep – especially in REM sleep – the muscles in the throat that normally lift it become relaxed. In some people, this causes the soft palate to flap or sag into the airway, making breathing noisy and difficult.

    A long soft palate or an enlarged uvula can make the problem worse. However, doing exercises to strengthen the muscles in this area can help stop them from collapsing during sleep. Singing, especially using sounds like “la” and “ka”, is a simple and effective way to do this.

    Balloon blowing is another useful technique, as the resistance required to inflate a balloon tones the muscles of the palate and throat. A simpler approach is to mimic chewing motions while pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth, which engages and strengthens the muscles in this area.

    The pharynx

    Deeper still lies the pharynx – a muscular conduit linking the nasal and oral cavities to the larynx and oesophagus. Unlike the bony nasal cavity, the pharynx is a collapsible tube. Its walls are lined with soft tissues such as the tonsils and adenoids, which, when enlarged, create bottlenecks.

    The muscles in the throat help keep the airways open when you’re awake, but they relax during sleep. As we get older, or after drinking alcohol or taking sedatives, these muscles can become weaker.

    In people who are overweight, extra fat around the neck can also create external pressure on the airway, especially when lying down. Doing specific breathing and voice exercises can help strengthen these muscles to keep the airway from collapsing.

    Doesn’t have to be this way

    Snoring may be the soundtrack of sleep for many, but it doesn’t have to be the norm.

    Beneath the nightly noise lies a fascinating anatomy, one that, when understood, offers simple, effective solutions. From strengthening sleepy muscles to fine-tuning the way we breathe, the path to quieter nights doesn’t always require surgery or machines.

    Sometimes, all it takes is a shift in sleeping position, a splash of saline or even a balloon. So if you’re dreaming of a silent night, start by getting to know your airway.

    Michelle Spear 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. Silent night: anatomical solutions for snoring – https://theconversation.com/silent-night-anatomical-solutions-for-snoring-247729

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: British holidaymaker dies from rabies: what you need to know about the disease and getting the jab if you’re going abroad this summer

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

    Olexandr Panchenko/Shutterstock.com

    The recent death of a British woman from rabies after a holiday in Morocco is a sobering reminder of the risks posed by this almost universally fatal disease, once symptoms begin.

    If you’re considering travelling to a country where rabies is endemic, understanding how rabies works – and how to protect yourself – may go a long way in helping you stay safe.

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

    Rabies is a zoonotic disease – meaning it is transmitted from animals to humans – and is caused by a viral infection. In 99% of cases the source of the infection is a member of the canidae family (such as dogs, foxes and wolves). Bats are another animal group strongly associated with rabies, as the virus is endemic in many bat populations.

    Even in countries that are officially rabies-free, including in their domestic animal populations – such as Australia, Sweden and New Zealand – the virus may still be found in native bat species. Other animals known to transmit rabies include raccoons, cats and skunks.

    Rabies is caused by lyssaviruses (lit. rage or fury viruses), which are found in the saliva of infected animals. Transmission to humans can occur through bites, scratches or licks to broken skin or mucous membranes, such as those in the mouth. Once inside the body, the virus spreads to eventually reach the nervous system.

    Because it causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, symptoms are primarily neurological, often stemming from damage to the nerve pathways responsible for sensation and muscle control.

    Patients who develop rabies symptoms often experience altered skin sensation and progressive paralysis. As the virus affects the brain, it can also cause hallucinations, and unusual or erratic behaviours. One particularly distinctive symptom – hydrophobia, a serious aversion to water – is believed to result from severe pain and difficulty associated with swallowing.

    Once rabies symptoms appear, the virus has already caused irreversible damage. At this stage, treatment is limited to supportive intensive care aimed at easing discomfort – such as providing fluids, sedation and relief from pain and seizures. Death typically results from progressive neurological deterioration, which ultimately leads to respiratory failure.

    It’s important to note that rabies symptoms can take several weeks, or even months, to appear. During this incubation period, there may be no signs that prompt people to seek medical help. However, this window is crucial as it offers the best chance to administer treatment and prevent the virus from progressing.

    Another danger lies in how the virus is transmitted. Even animals that don’t appear rabid – the classical frothing mouth and aggressive behaviour for instance – can still transmit the virus.

    Rabies can be transmitted through even superficial breaks in the skin, so minor wounds should not be dismissed or treated less seriously. It’s also important to remember that bat wounds can often be felt but not seen. This makes them easy to overlook, should there be no bleeding or clear mark on the skin.

    Don’t be tempted to pet stray animals in rabies endemic countries, not matter how cute they appear.
    cristi180884/Shutterstock.com

    The vaccine

    The good news is that there are proven and effective ways to protect yourself from rabies – either before travelling to a higher-risk area, or after possible exposure to an infected animal.

    Modern rabies vaccines are far easier to administer than older versions, which some may recall – often with discomfort. In the past, treatment involved multiple frequent injections (over 20 in all) into the abdomen using a large needle. This was the case for a friend of mine who grew up in Africa and was one day bitten by a dog just hours after it had been attacked by a hyena.

    The vaccine can now be given as an injection into a muscle, for instance in the shoulder, and a typical preventative course requires three doses. Since the protective effect can wane with time, booster shots may be needed for some individuals to maintain protection.

    Sustaining a bite from any animal should always be taken seriously. Aside from rabies, animals carry many potentially harmful bacteria in their mouths, which can cause skin and soft tissue infections – or sepsis if they spread to the bloodstream.



    Read more:
    How to treat a wound – without using superglue, grout or vodka, like some people

    First aid and wound treatment is the first port of call, and seeking urgent medical attention for any bites, scratches or licks to exposed skin or mucous membranes sustained abroad. In the UK, this also applies to any injuries sustained from bats.

    A doctor will evaluate the risk based on the wound, the animal involved, whether the patient has had previous vaccines, and in which country they were bitten, among other things. This will help to guide treatment, which might include vaccines alone or combined with an infusion of immunoglobulin infusions – special antibodies that target the virus.

    Timing is crucial. The sooner treatment is started, the better the outcome. This is why it is so important to seek medical help immediately.

    In making the decision whether you should get a vaccine before going on holiday, there are recommendations, but ultimately the choice is individual. Think about what the healthcare is like where you are going and whether you’ll be able to get treatment easily if you need it.

    Vaccines can have side-effects, though these tend to be relatively minor, and the intended benefits vastly exceed the costs. And of course avoid contact with stray animals while on holiday, despite how tempting it may be to pet them.

    Several rules of thumb can counteract the dangers of rabies: plan your holiday carefully, seek travel advice from your GP, and always treat animal bites and scrapes seriously.

    Dan Baumgardt 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. British holidaymaker dies from rabies: what you need to know about the disease and getting the jab if you’re going abroad this summer – https://theconversation.com/british-holidaymaker-dies-from-rabies-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-disease-and-getting-the-jab-if-youre-going-abroad-this-summer-259325

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Jaws at 50: a thinly disguised western by a nerdy young filmmaker that helped to rejuvenate Hollywood

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barry Monahan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Film and Screen Media, University College Cork

    The collapse of classical Hollywood’s studio system in the 1960s mirrored much of America’s cultural and political uncertainties at the time. The assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement and the escalating Vietnam war provided a background that destabilised the optimism with which the decade began.

    It’s not surprising that narratives of many films at the time may have been hinting at an ominous dystopian turn.

    The decade opened with Hitchcock’s premature dispatching of his heroine in Psycho (1960) and ended with the haphazard slaughter of Dennis Hopper’s protagonists in Easy Rider and George Roy Hill’s outgunned antiheroes in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (both 1969).

    En route, Arthur Penn’s conclusion for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, plus Mike Nichols’ finale for graduate Benjamin Braddock and Elaine Robinson in 1967, did little to reassure audiences that all was well in society or the cinema.

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

    But the 1970s offered some shoots of optimism. A new pack of filmmakers – versed in the best of international cinema – inveigled their way by luck, acumen or raw talent into the confidence of executives who were willing to give nerdy young cinephiles like Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, Frances Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas a shot with studio funding.

    Despite the concerns of executives at Universal Studios, Spielberg began shooting on the adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestseller Jaws in May 1974. By the following summer it was an enormous hit with the public and critics. The blockbuster had arrived and a new kind of studio system was born.

    Jaws is 50 years old this year, and it has earned the “classic” epithet. It invokes certain nostalgia for cinephiles and original audiences, many of whom fondly remember their first viewing.

    Aside from any cultural wistfulness, however, feelings towards the film may very well be a harkening back to a pre-neoliberal era when the embers of baby-boomer optimism still smouldered.

    Championing the everyman

    The film ultimately supports the blue collar “everyman” who has idealism, moral courage and emotional empathy: an ordinary protagonist, predating movie superheroes, Jedi knights, muscular macho men and cyborgs, who could still take on the system and its vices and defeat the villain (on land or sea).

    Most of the intense dramatic action – the battle between good and evil – is situated on the water. This displacement facilitates a useful comparative character study. On the ocean, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and old sea-dog Quint (Robert Shaw) are strategically detached from the political and economic incentives that initiated the crisis in the first place.

    Working-class tough guy, middle-class intellectual and honest, reliable cop, they are brave, determined and morally strong, representing a microcosm of the society they’ve left behind, and hope to save. True to the thinly disguised western that Spielberg’s film is, the fate of each man positions the film’s compass as it sails a course between the values of an evolved society and the forces of primitive nature, pitting one of the youngest evolved mammals against one of the oldest evolved fish.

    However, it is in the first section of the film, set on dry land, where the political machinations of corruption, the distortion of truth for financial profit, the disregard of expertise and a manipulation of the media, are played out.

    A key scene in the early part of the narrative frames the duplicity that led to the avoidable death of the first victims. After the first shark attack, pressure is put on Chief Brody by Amity’s Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to reopen the beaches despite the threat to holidaymakers on the island.

    Mayor Vaughn We’re really a little anxious that you’re, eh, rushing into something serious here. This is your first summer, you know.

    Chief Brody What does that mean?

    Mayor Vaughn I’m only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars.

    The message is simple: economic prosperity takes precedence over human life. The strategy is straightforward: deride and deny allegations, falsify the evidence, use media spin to conceal the truth and platform the politician’s personal agenda.

    The propulsion of the plot into the second half of the film hinges on a later critical scene, which follows another shark attack. When their own boys become near victims of the predator, a shaken Vaughn is forcefully compelled by Brody to sign an agreement to pay a bounty hunter to find and kill the shark.

    The rise of neoliberalism (the political and economic ideology that advocates free-market capitalism) in the late 1970s and 1980s brought about the reconfiguration of the middle class in the US. Without consciously predicting the impending political transformations, the film – released before these wider ideological and economic changes took hold – idealistically offers hope for that social group.

    And while it may have been differently constituted under the Reagan and Thatcher governments, the public service sector (to which Brody belongs) existed in both America and Britain. Jaws implicitly and unproblematically acknowledged the reality of working-class sacrifice in Quint, while peddling the heroic survival of blue-collar police chief Brody.

    In holding out hope for the affirmative action of the dedicated, moral hero, Jaws might have been too idealistic, even narratively conservative: real-world good guys don’t always win.

    The phenomenal box office success of the film ran parallel with critical acclaim that has been reiterated in the five decades since its release. However, it marked the rejuvenation of a broken studio system that would soon energetically endorse the Reaganite neoliberalism of the following decade with films like The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Rambo: First Blood (1982), The Terminator (1984), Top Gun (1986) and Die Hard (1987).

    The film has undeniably stood the test of time as a remarkable cinematic feat, but crucially, it ushered in a new age for Hollywood’s seduction of global audiences with sophisticated, aggressive marketing strategies. Jaws may have irredeemably villainised nature’s most enduring predator, but Spielberg’s blockbuster played a pivotal role in making Hollywood great again.

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

    – ref. Jaws at 50: a thinly disguised western by a nerdy young filmmaker that helped to rejuvenate Hollywood – https://theconversation.com/jaws-at-50-a-thinly-disguised-western-by-a-nerdy-young-filmmaker-that-helped-to-rejuvenate-hollywood-257751

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Jaws at 50: the Jewish sensibility that shaped Spielberg’s blockbuster and transformed cinema

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

    It’s hard to believe Steven Spielberg was just 27 when he directed Jaws. Before that he’d mostly worked in television, helming episodes of detective show Columbo and the acclaimed TV movie Duel. He’d made just one theatrical feature, The Sugarland Express.

    Then came Jaws, a technically ambitious shoot set on open water with a mechanical shark that barely worked. But the result was a record-breaking blockbuster that redefined what Hollywood could be.

    Adapted from Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel, the film almost didn’t happen. When Spielberg first read it he said he found himself rooting for the shark because the human characters were so unlikable.

    What followed was a series of creative rewrites and re-castings that gave Jaws its distinctive personality and enduring power.

    Spielberg brought in Howard Sackler, a writer and scuba diver, to work on the script. Sackler left early without a screen credit. The director then turned to actor Carl Gottlieb, originally hired to play a toadying local newspaper editor, to redraft the script. Screenwriter and director John Milius, a second world war expert, also contributed.

    John Williams added what became an iconic musical score. Its simple two-note motif created suspense and became one of the most recognisable cinematic themes of all time.

    Jaws’ opening shark attack featuring its iconic score by John Williams.

    As a researcher of Jewishness in popular culture, I argue that many of these creatives brought a Jewish sensibility that lurked beneath the surface of the film.

    Spielberg took Benchley’s bitter, cynical and pessimistic novel and gave it a more hopeful vibe. He even humanised the shark, giving it the name Bruce after his lawyer, Bruce Ramer, a powerful and influential Los Angeles attorney specialising in entertainment law, also Jewish.

    That choice layers in unexpected meanings, from the “loan shark” stereotype to echoes of Shakespeare’s Shylock from The Merchant of Venice.

    Hooper v Quint

    Spielberg cast Jewish actor Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper, the young ichthyologist and oceanographer. Against him stood Robert Shaw as Quint, the grizzled boat captain, who is a sexist, misogynistic, racist macho drunk. Hooper is everything Quint is not. Making up the triumvirate is Roy Scheider as police captain Martin Brody. Together, the three seek to capture and kill the shark that is menacing the town of Amity.

    The casting of Dreyfuss as Hooper, whom Spielberg called “my alter ego”, significantly changed the character and the tone of the film. Together, Dreyfuss, Gottlieb and Spielberg fleshed out Hooper’s part, making him much more sympathetic than in the novel. He became a “nebbishy novice on a swift learning curve”.

    For Spielberg, Hooper “represents the underdog in all of us”. Benchley, however, was less than impressed, describing him as “an insufferable, pedantic little schmuck”. It’s telling that Benchley used a Yiddish epithet to describe Hooper as if recognising his underlying Jewishness.

    Together, Spielberg and Gottlieb used Hooper as a mouthpiece to voice a social perspective. Brody wishes to close the beaches but is prevented from doing so by the mayor and the town council because Amity needs the business. The mayor puts commerce before human life. In a shift from Benchley’s novel where the pressure to keep the beaches open comes from shadowy pseudo-Mafia figures in the background, Spielberg placed the blame firmly on Amity’s merchants and civic representatives.

    Throughout, Spielberg undermines the dominant masculinity of the screen action hero of the 1970s. This was an era dominated by men like Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. Nerdy Hooper outlives Quint, who becomes the shark’s fifth victim (hence his name, which is Latin for five or fifth). To show his contempt for Quint, Spielberg gives him a particularly gruesome death.

    Quint gets eaten.

    And because Spielberg identified with the shark, we see things from its subjective perspective. This was also dictated by pragmatic concerns as the mechanical shark kept breaking down. Shooting the killings from the shark’s point of view was a cinematic device borrowed from A Study in Terror (1965), a British thriller about Jack the Ripper.

    Jaws was a box office smash, breaking records previously set by The Godfather and The Exorcist and becoming the first film to reach the US$100 million (£74.5 million) mark at the American box office.



    Read more:
    Jaws at 50: a cinematic masterpiece – and an incredible piece of propaganda

    Before Jaws, studios typically released major films in the autumn and winter, leaving the summer for lower-quality movies. Jaws proved that it could be a prime time for big-budget, high-profile releases, leading to the current dominance of tentpole films during the summer season.

    It pioneered the strategy of opening a film in a wide release, rather than a gradual rollout. This helped it break box office records and redefine Hollywood’s practices. It was something that people got excited about, planned for and lined up for tickets in advance.

    Why has the film lasted?

    Half a century on, Jaws still has the power to shock. When I took my kids to see the 3D re-release, we all jumped during the scene when the decapitated head bobbed out of the sunken boat – even though I knew it was coming.

    Another reason why the film has lasted is the shark itself. It’s a primal, prehistoric creature that taps into our deepest fears. Quint calls it a thing with “lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes”. It’s a chilling line.



    Read more:
    50 years after ‘Jaws,’ researchers have retired the man-eater myth and revealed more about sharks’ amazing biology

    But the film also works as allegory. The shark is a floating (or swimming) signifier, open to interpretation. Amity, the town it terrorises, is all white picket fences and small-town harmony. The shark’s arrival punctures that illusion.

    There’s also a political undercurrent. Hooper becomes the conscience of the film, voicing the dangers of civic denial and inaction.

    And in the end, Jaws isn’t just about a shark. It’s about masculinity, morality and capitalism. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves to feel safe. That’s why it endures. That, and one of the most iconic scores in cinema history – John Williams’ two-note motif that still makes swimmers glance nervously at the waterline to this day.

    Nathan Abrams receives and has previously received external funding from charities and government-funded, foundation or research council grants.

    – ref. Jaws at 50: the Jewish sensibility that shaped Spielberg’s blockbuster and transformed cinema – https://theconversation.com/jaws-at-50-the-jewish-sensibility-that-shaped-spielbergs-blockbuster-and-transformed-cinema-253292

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Israel — and potentially the U.S. — are sure to encounter the limits of air power in Iran

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University

    As the war between Israel and Iran escalates, Israel is increasing its calls on the United States to become involved in the conflict.

    Former Israeli officials are appearing on U.S. news outlets, exhorting the American public to support Israel’s actions.

    President Donald Trump has signalled a willingness for the U.S. to become involved in the conflict. He’s gone so far, in fact, to suggest in social media posts that he could kill Iran’s supreme leader if he wanted to.

    Segment on Trump’s threats against Iran’s leader. (BBC News)

    The American military could certainly make an impact in any air campaign against Iran. The problem from a military standpoint, however, is that the U.S., based on its forces’ deployment, will almost certainly seek to keep its involvement limited to its air force to avoid another Iraq-like quagmire.

    While doing so could almost certainly disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, it will likely fall short of Israel’s goal of regime change.

    In fact, it could reinforce the Iranian government and draw the U.S. into a costly ground war.



    Read more:
    Why is there so much concern over Iran’s nuclear program? And where could it go from here?

    Israel’s need for American support

    The initial stated reason for Israel’s bombing campaign — Iran’s nuclear capabilities — appears specious at best.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued several times in the past, without evidence, that Iran is close to achieving a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence, however, have assessed that Iran is three years away from deploying a nuclear weapon.

    Regardless of the veracity of the claims, Israel initiated the offensive and now requires American support.

    Israel’s need for U.S. assistance rests on two circumstances:

    1. While Israel succeeded in eliminating key figures from the Iranian military in its initial strikes, Iran’s response appears to have exceeded Israel’s expectations with their Arrow missile interceptors nearing depletion.

    2. Israel’s air strikes can only achieve so much in disrupting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Most analysts note that Israel’s bombings are only likely to delay the Iranian nuclear program by a few months. This is due to the fact that Israeli missiles are incapable of penetrating the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which estimates place close to 300 feet underground.

    The United States, however, possesses munitions that could damage, or even destroy, the Fordow facility. Most notably, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (more commonly known as a bunker buster) has a penetration capability of 200 feet.

    Multiple strikes by said munition would render Fordow inoperable, if not outright destroyed.

    Romanticizing air power

    The efficacy of air power has been vastly overrated in the popular media and various air forces of the world. Air power is great at disrupting an opponent, but has significant limitations in influencing the outcome of a war.

    Specifically, air power is likely to prove an inadequate tool for one of the supposed Israeli and American objectives in the war: regime change. For air power to be effective at bringing about regime change, it needs to demoralize the Iranian people to the point that they’re willing to oppose their own government.

    Early air enthusiasts believed that a population’s demoralization would be an inevitable consequence of aerial bombardment. Italian general Giulio Douhet, a prominent air power theorist, argued that air power was so mighty that it could destroy cities and demoralize an opponent into surrendering.

    Douhet was correct on the first point. He was wrong on the second.

    Recent history provides evidence. While considerable ink has been spilled to demonstrate the efficacy of air power during the Second World War, close examination of the facts demonstrate that it had a minimal impact. In fact, Allied bombing of German cities in several instances created the opposite effect.

    More recent bombing campaigns replicated this failure. The U.S. bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War did not significantly damage North Vietnamese morale or war effort. NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999, likewise, rallied support for the unpopular Slobodan Milosevic due to its perceived injustice — and continues to evoke strong emotions to this day.

    Iran’s political regime may be unpopular with many Iranians, but Israeli and potentially American bombing may shore up support for the Iranian government.

    Nationalism is a potent force, particularly when people are under attack. Israel’s bombing of Iran will rally segments of the population to the government that would otherwise oppose it.

    Few positive options

    The limitations of air power to fuel significant political change in Iran should give Trump pause about intervening in the conflict.

    Some American support, such as providing weapons, is a given due to the close relationship between the U.S. and Israel. But any realization of American and Israeli aspirations of a non-nuclear Iran and a new government will likely require ground forces.

    Recent American experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq show such a ground forces operation won’t lead to the swift victory that Trump desires, but could potentially stretch on for decades.

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

    – ref. Why Israel — and potentially the U.S. — are sure to encounter the limits of air power in Iran – https://theconversation.com/why-israel-and-potentially-the-u-s-are-sure-to-encounter-the-limits-of-air-power-in-iran-259348

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Indigenous engagement is essential for small modular nuclear reactor projects

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Rhea Desai, Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, McMaster University

    Urban Indigenous gathering for community well-being, showing the importance of interconnectedness in Indigenous Communities in Hamilton, Ont. in August 2021. This way of being must be reflected in nuclear projects to better work alongside Indigenous Peoples. (Michelle Webb)

    With climate change-fuelled natural disasters becoming more frequent and devastating for communities around the world, the need for cleaner energy solutions is more urgent than ever.

    When it comes to transitioning away from fossil fuels, much of the focus tends to be on solar, wind or hydroelectricity. However, small modular reactors (SMRs) are an emerging technology showing promise globally.

    SMRs are a specific type of nuclear reactor that, as the name suggests, are small in energy output and modular in their manufacturing. Provinces like New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan have made progress on strategic plans to make SMRs part of their provincial climate action plans.

    Unlike traditional nuclear reactors that generally produce more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity, SMRs are designed to produce as low as five megawatts. The modularity of such reactors allows for manufacturing off-site and installation at the desired location. This can decrease construction time, manufacturing costs and certain environmental costs associated with building on site.

    This means SMRs are more feasible for many off-grid communities that lack reliable access to electricity, many of which are Indigenous. In 2023, the Canada Energy regulator said there were 178 remote Indigenous and northern communities not connected to the North American electricity grid and natural gas infrastructure.

    In an effort to shift reliability from carbon-emitting resources to nuclear power, SMRs provide an exciting alternative, but implementation needs effective engagement with Indigenous communities to flourish.

    Small modular reactors (SMRs) could be relatively feasible way to generate power for many off-grid communities.
    (A. Vargas/IAEA)

    Engaging Indigenous communities

    Much of Canada’s electricity is already generated from low-carbon emission sources. However, there are still areas in northern Canada that are reliant on diesel, and therefore SMR plans are often aimed at providing electricity to these communities.

    While on paper, this might sound like the perfect solution, there’s a lot to consider about SMR siting from an environmental perspective in these remote communities. These considerations include but are not limited to potential locations, source term, refuelling and waste management.

    As research continues into the engineering and science behind SMR technology, meaningful community engagement with Indigenous communities is also required.

    Thoughtfully considered and integrated consultations are necessary to ensure projects respect treaties, land rights and the surrounding environment. Consultation is needed to understand the needs and goals of the community for creating an energy transition plan.

    In addition, incorporating traditional ecological knowledge in environmental risk assessments is vital. Ultimately, projects designed alongside Indigenous communities should strive for Indigenous sovereignty over growing infrastructure.

    Why community engagement is important

    Indigenous communities continue to face challenges as a result of colonization. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) seventh Call to Action highlights the need to eliminate educational and employment disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

    A direct way to address in terms of Canada’s nuclear landscape is to train members of those communities in technical roles related to the planning, deployment and sustained use of a nuclear facility. Specifically, training today’s Indigenous youth so they can fulfil these roles in their future careers.

    The TRC’s Call to Action 92 calls on Canada’s corporate sector to engage in meaningful consultation, respectful relationship-building and equitable access to training and education opportunities that will contribute to long-term benefits from any economic development projects.

    Through understanding the need for this relationship-building, there is a lot that western practices can learn from adopting Indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous people have a long history of sustainable practices in their culture and traditions, and although western science now consider sustainable practices, it is not deeply woven into community and industrial initiatives.

    As nuclear projects advance in Canada, it’s vital to respect Indigenous knowledge through weaving with western science. Projects can adopt a Two-Eyed seeing approach. This refers to viewing a problem with one eye using an Indigenous knowledge perspective and the other with a western knowledge lens. There is much to learn from understanding the philosophy behind Indigenous ways of knowing that can be applied to protect the environment.

    Indigenous knowledge varies across Canada and comes with different insights, but a commonality is the teaching that all living things are interconnected and must be respected and cared for. This perspective is necessary for the future of nuclear projects to ensure the environment is sustained to support the biodiversity of regions throughout Canada.

    This informed approach of protecting the environment, together with an ecosystem approach that considers the uniqueness and interconectedness of each organism, will ultimately lead to improved nuclear policies and safety.

    The actions that institutions and private industry take today to build strong relationships with Indigenous communities and work towards an increasingly sustainable future will support already resilient communities so they can see growth well beyond the deployment of SMRs. A path to a cleaner future is in reach, but only if we walk beside Indigenous leaders, knowledge holders, community members and, especially, youth.

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

    – ref. Indigenous engagement is essential for small modular nuclear reactor projects – https://theconversation.com/indigenous-engagement-is-essential-for-small-modular-nuclear-reactor-projects-252134

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Liam McIlvanney is joining us for a seriously laid back discussion about crime fiction, academia and a few other matters – come along

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Khan, Editor-in-Chief, The Conversation

    If you’re a professor of literature, writing a novel must be pretty easy, right? Or, hang on, maybe not. Perhaps all that knowledge, expertise and awareness of truly great writing makes putting yourself out there even harder?

    It’s a question I’ll ask of Liam McIlvanney of the University of Otago, New Zealand, on July 11 in a Q&A at Auld Hag, The Shoap in Islington, London. McIlvanney, an esteemed academic, is on a world tour to promote his latest work of crime fiction, The Good Father. Full transparency; McIlvanney and I both hail from Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, Scotland, we’re good friends and share an addiction to following the (often mis-)fortunes of our home town’s storied football club. So, bits of all this may creep into the evening.

    That heritage has also informed the choice of venue, a Scottish cafe, deli and bakery, specialising in lorne sausage, well-fired rolls filled with Ayrshire bacon, and who knows, maybe even a Kilmarnock-style pie or two on the day. A big thank you goes out to Gregg Boyd and the Auld Hag team for making The Shoap available to us.

    Ok, so I’m biased, but I’ve read The Good Father already, and it’s a fantastic piece of work – a psychological thriller described by Val McDermid as “heart-stopping and heart-rending”. The plot charts the disappearance of a child from a beach and the psychological impact on a family desperate for answers. Liam’s previous novels such as The Heretic and The Quaker have received wide acclaim and landed numerous awards. His novels have earned a reputation for delivering a vivid portrait of Scottish life and culture in eloquent, often darkly humorous, prose.

    If the words, “crime fiction, literature, New Zealand and Scotland” catch your eye then do join us at 406 St John Street, Angel, Islington on July 11 for a late afternoon and early evening of seriously laid back discussion. Click here for free tickets. And if you are a long way from London, don’t worry, Liam is also speaking at a number of other venues in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and, of course, Scotland. See below for a full list of dates.

    – ref. Liam McIlvanney is joining us for a seriously laid back discussion about crime fiction, academia and a few other matters – come along – https://theconversation.com/liam-mcilvanney-is-joining-us-for-a-seriously-laid-back-discussion-about-crime-fiction-academia-and-a-few-other-matters-come-along-259401

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Are Chinese investors grabbing Zambian land? Study finds that’s a myth

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Yuezhou Yang, Research Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Media coverage of Chinese land investments in African agriculture often reinforces narratives of a “weak African state” and the “Chinese land grab”, highlighting power imbalances between the actors involved in these land deals.

    Are Chinese actors grabbing land in Africa and jeopardising local people’s land rights and food security?

    China’s “Agriculture Going Out” policy, launched in 2007 as part of its broader “Going Out” strategy, was reinforced by the Belt and Road Initiative from 2013. Backed by these policies, Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa rose from US$74.81 million in 2003 to US$4.99 billion in 2021. By 2020, US$1.67 billion was invested in African agriculture, with nearly two-thirds targeting cash crop cultivation. Zambia ranked among the top ten African countries receiving Chinese foreign direct investment and loans.

    My research on Zambian agriculture finds that Chinese land grabbing is a myth. Instead, Chinese investors have preferred different investment models according to the specific rules of land access, transfer and control of three land tenure systems in Zambia.

    What ties the three types of Chinese agricultural investments together is this: land institutions matter. Whether it’s central government rules or traditional authority, these systems shape how foreign investment happens and what impact it has.



    Read more:
    Foreign agriculture investments don’t always threaten food security: the case of Madagascar

    Each of the three models raises new opportunities and challenges for rural development and land governance. These findings matter because they offer insights into the future of land rights, livelihoods and state-building in African countries.

    Not all land is the same

    After independence, all land in Zambia was vested in the president, held in trust for the people. Today, the country still operates under a dual land system, as outlined in the 1995 Lands Act. State land, managed by the central government, includes both private and government leaseholds. Customary land, on the other hand, remains under the authority of traditional chiefs. The exact proportion of state and customary land in Zambia is contested, with estimates of customary land ranging widely from 94% to 54%.

    This tenure distinction is significant because each type of land is governed by different rules regarding foreign access and ownership, which shape how foreign investors choose their investment models.

    Over four months of fieldwork in Zambia, I gathered data on 50 Chinese agricultural projects (41 remained active) through 96 qualitative interviews. These projects were spread across three types of land tenure: private leasehold (37), government leasehold (1), and customary land (3).

    Model 1: Commercial farm on private land

    My fieldwork data showed that the majority of Chinese agricultural investments in Zambia are located on private leasehold land, typically following the commercial farm model. This type of land functions much like private property, held under 99-year leases that can be bought, sold or transferred. Investors use it for large-scale farming operations, such as maize, soybean and wheat production.

    Even in these seemingly privatised spaces, however, state power remains influential. When Zambia proposed a draft National Land Policy in 2017 aimed at tightening rules for foreign land ownership, Chinese investors responded strategically. Many began aligning their projects with Zambia’s development priorities, emphasising contributions to local food security, donating to charities, and promoting themselves as responsible corporate actors.

    Model 2: Farm block on government land

    In northern Zambia, for example, a Chinese company partnered with the government to develop a farm block on state-owned land that had been converted from customary tenure for national development. Unlike the commercial farm model, the government played a central role, selecting the investor, managing the land and negotiating the deal. The project promised infrastructure and jobs, enhancing the political standing of local officials.

    But this kind of state-led development works only when the promises are delivered. In other areas where farm blocks failed to materialise, traditional chiefs reclaimed the land. In the northern case, actual physical infrastructure investment helped reinforce state authority.

    Model 3: Contract farming on customary land

    The third model is very different. For instance, a Chinese agribusiness company arranged contract farming deals with over 50,000 smallholders in Zambia’s Eastern Province. Instead of buying or leasing land, the company provided seeds and bought cotton from farmers after harvest. This let the company access land informally, without triggering the legal and political risks of converting customary land to leasehold.

    Operating on customary land posed challenges for investors. When farmers defaulted on loans or engaged in side-selling, companies had limited legal recourse and often had to negotiate with chiefs and local communities rather than the state. In such contexts, traditional authorities – not the central government – wielded the decisive power over land and its governance.

    Why this matters

    In a world where land deals are often controversial, understanding how local rules shape global investment is crucial. It’s not just about who buys the land, but under what terms, and how those terms are enforced. African governments are not just passive bystanders; they’re active players who use land institutions to negotiate power and development.



    Read more:
    China and Africa: Ethiopia case study debunks investment myths

    This research urges us to look beyond the headlines about “land grabs” and instead focus on the everyday politics of land. If African states want to steer rural development on their own terms, understanding and strengthening land institutions – both statutory and customary – is key.

    This research is developed from Yuezhou Yang’s MRes/PhD project, which is supported by funding from the China Scholarship Council 201708040015.

    – ref. Are Chinese investors grabbing Zambian land? Study finds that’s a myth – https://theconversation.com/are-chinese-investors-grabbing-zambian-land-study-finds-thats-a-myth-257644

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Stone tools from a cave on South Africa’s coast speak of life at the end of the Ice Age

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Sara Watson, Assistant Professor, Indiana State University

    The Earth of the last Ice Age (about 26,000 to 19,000 years ago) was very different from today’s world.

    In the northern hemisphere, ice sheets up to 8 kilometres tall covered much of Europe, Asia and North America, while much of the southern hemisphere became drier as water was drawn into the northern glaciers.

    As more and more water was transformed into ice, global sea levels dropped as much as 125 metres from where they are now, exposing land that had been under the ocean.

    In southernmost Africa, receding coastlines exposed an area of the continental shelf known as the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain. At its maximum extent, it covered an area of about 36,000km² along the south coast of what’s now South Africa.

    This now – extinct ecosystem was a highly productive landscape with abundant grasslands, wetlands, permanent water drainage systems, and seasonal flood plains. The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain was likely most similar to the present day Serengeti in east Africa. It would likely have been able to support large herds of migratory animals and the people who hunted them.

    We now know more about how these people lived thanks to data from a new archaeological site called Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1.

    The site sits 23 metres above sea level on the southern coast of South Africa overlooking the Indian Ocean. You can watch whales from the site today, but during the Ice Age the ocean was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the site looked out over the vast grasslands; the coast was 75 kilometres away.

    Archaeological investigation of the cave began in 2014, led by Naomi Cleghorn of the University of Texas. This work shows that humans have been using the site for much of the last 48,000 years or more. Occupations bridge the Middle to Later Stone Age transition, which occurred sometime between about 40,000 and 25,000 years ago in southern Africa.

    That transition is a time period where we see dramatic changes in the technologies people were using, including changes in raw materials selected for making tools and a shift towards smaller tools. These changes are poorly understood due to a lack of sites with occupations dating to this time. Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 is the first site on the southern coast that provides a continuous occupational record near the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) and documents how life changed for people living on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain.

    Before the Ice Age, people there collected marine resources like shellfish when the coastline was close to the site. As the climate began to cool and sea levels dropped, they shifted their focus to land-based resources and game animals.

    I am one of the archaeologists who have been working here. In a new study, my colleagues and I analysed stone tools from the cave that date to about 19,000 to 18,000 years ago, and discussed how the techniques used to make them hint at the ways that prehistoric people travelled, interacted, and shared their craft.

    Based on this analysis, we think the cave may have been used as a temporary camp rather than a primary residence. And the similarity of the tools with those from other sites suggests people were connected over a huge region and shared ideas with each other, much like people do today.

    Robberg technology of southern Africa

    In human history, tools were invented in a succession of styles (“technologies” or “industries”), which can indicate the time and place where they were made and what they were used for.

    The Robberg is one of southern Africa’s most distinctive and widespread stone tool technologies. Robberg tools – which we found at the Knysna site – are thought to be replaceable components in composite tools, perhaps as barbs set into arrow shafts, used to hunt the migratory herds on the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain.

    We see the first appearance of Robberg technology in southern Africa near the peak of the last Ice Age around 26,000 years ago, and people continued producing these tools until around 12,000 years ago, when climate conditions were warmer.



    Read more:
    What stone tools found in southern tip of Africa tell us about the human story

    The particular methods and order of operations that people used to make their tools is something that is taught and learned. If we see specific methods of stone tool production at multiple sites, it indicates that people were sharing ideas with one another.

    Robberg occupations at Knysna date to between 21,000 and 15,000 years ago, when sea levels were at their lowest and the coastline far away.

    The Robberg tools we recovered were primarily made from rocks that were available close to the site. Most of the tools were made from quartz, which creates very sharp edges but can break unpredictably. Production focused on bladelets, or small elongated tools, which may have been replaceable components in hunting weapons.

    Some of the tools were made from a raw material called silcrete. People in South Africa were heat treating this material to improve its quality for tool production as early as 164,000 years ago. The silcrete tools at Knysna were heat treated before being brought to the site. This is only the second documented instance of the use of heat treatment in Robberg technology.

    Silcrete is not available near Knysna. Most of the accessible deposits in the area are in the Outeniqua mountains, at least 50 kilometres inland. We’re not sure yet whether people using the Knysna site were travelling to these raw material sources themselves or trading with other groups.

    Archaeological sites containing Robberg tools are found in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, indicating a widespread adoption by people across southern Africa. The tools from the Knysna site share many characteristics with those from other sites, which suggests people were sharing information through social networks that may have spanned the entire width of the continent.



    Read more:
    65,000-year-old ‘stone Swiss Army knives’ show early humans had long-distance social networks

    Yet there are other aspects that are unique to the Knysna site. Fewer tools are found in the more recent layers than in deeper layers, suggesting that people were using the site less frequently than they had previously. This may suggest that during the Ice Age the cave was used as a temporary camp rather than as a primary residential site.

    Left with questions

    Stone tools can only tell us so much. Was Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 a temporary camp? If so, what were they coming to the cave for? We need to combine what we learned from the stone tools with other data from the site to answer these questions.



    Read more:
    Ancient human DNA from a South African rock shelter sheds light on 10,000 years of history

    Something we can say with confidence is that we have a very long and rich history as a species, and our innovative and social natures go back a lot further in time than most people realise. Humans living during the last Ice Age had complex technologies to solve their problems, made art and music, connected with people in other communities, and in some places even had pet dogs.

    Despite the dramatic differences in the world around us, these Ice Age people were not very different from people living today.

    Sara Watson works for the FIeld Museum of Natural History and Indiana State University

    – ref. Stone tools from a cave on South Africa’s coast speak of life at the end of the Ice Age – https://theconversation.com/stone-tools-from-a-cave-on-south-africas-coast-speak-of-life-at-the-end-of-the-ice-age-258317

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Pride, pages and performance: Why drag story time matters more than ever

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Phillip Joy, Assistant Professor, Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent University

    June is Pride month. It is a time for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit, intersex and other sexuality- and gender-diverse (LGBTQ+) communities to come together to celebrate identities, build communities and advocate for justice and equality.

    This year’s pride carries added weight. As American legal scholar Luke Boso writes, “fear has taken hold in private, interpersonal, and public reactions,” following the rhetoric and policies promoted by United States President Donald Trump.

    His current term has been marked by a growing push to erase LGBTQ+ identities and limit queer expression in public life. Within this month of Pride, the Trump administration is planning to rename the USNS Harvey Milk naval ship, named after the late civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

    The implications of such actions, however, aren’t limited to the U.S. Similar patterns of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric have been documented across democratic countries, where drag events and other expressions of queer visibility have become flashpoints for harassment as far-right groups try to build support and spread anti-LGBTQ+ views.

    But with fear also comes hope. Even as events like drag story times have become targets of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and protests, communities continue to organize, resist and affirm their right to public joy and visibility.

    Our research, recently funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, explores drag story times with the hope to learn more about how drag story time leaders select books, and how these events can foster best practices in literacy and inclusive education.



    Read more:
    5 things to know about Drag Queen Story Time

    Drag story time as educational event

    Drag story times are more than just community events. They are creative, educational spaces often held in public venues such as libraries, schools or community centres. Typically led by a drag performer, these sessions invite children, along with parents, caregivers and educators, to enjoy storybooks that highlight themes like acceptance, self-expression, diversity and joy.

    Reading aloud with children serves as an avenue for the development of language and literacy. Young children can engage with vocabulary, content and ideas to construct meaning through texts that they may not, yet, have the skills to read on their own.

    At their core, drag story time events offer opportunities for child-centred literacy practices, such as dialogue and interactions throughout the “read aloud,” to encourage children to consider ideas and connect them as the story moves along.

    Reading aloud to children is a powerful way to nurture emotional, social and cognitive growth. Stories offer children what literacy scholars call mirrors (reflective ways to see themselves), windows (into understanding others) and “sliding glass doors,” — vantages for imagining new perspectives. When children encounter characters and families who reflect a range of lived experiences, it opens the door to conversations about empathy, acceptance and identity.

    What books are being read?

    A recent content analysis, by information sciences researcher Sarah Barriage and colleagues of 103 picture books read during drag story times in the U.S. found that few explicitly featured LGBTQ+ identities.

    The lead characters were predominantly white, cisgender, heterosexual and able-bodied, with only seven per cent of books featuring trans, non-binary or intersex leads, and another seven per cent portraying same-sex or undefined relationships. While this represents an increase in LGBTQ+ representation compared to other studies of story time books and classroom libraries, the overall percentage remains low.

    The findings of this study, while based on a small sample size, suggest that contrary to popular perception, drag story times, while featuring drag artists leading read-aloud sessions, are not consistently grounded in explicitly LGBTQ+ narratives.

    Rather, the books may be story-time favourites, (such as selections from Mo Williams’ Pigeon series), or texts that tend to promote broadly inclusive and affirming messages of individuality, confidence, empathy, inclusion and imagination (such as Todd Parr’s It’s Okay to Be Different).

    Books representing range of experiences

    This gap highlights the importance of thoughtfully selecting books that reflect a wider range of experiences, including LGBTQ+ main characters and stories. When children are shown diverse characters and stories, they begin to understand the world from multiple perspectives.

    Researchers with expertise in children’s early literacy recommend that books for interactive read-alouds with children should reflect both the children’s communities and communities different from their own. Such books can spark meaningful conversations, encourage critical thinking and help cultivate empathy and respect for difference. This prepares young readers for life in a multicultural society and helps build a more inclusive and compassionate world view.

    Euphoria: being gender-aligned, authentic

    Apart from the specific book content shared with children at drag story time, these events provide opportunities for children and families to engage with diverse gender and sexuality expressions in a safe, inclusive setting with their caregivers. Such exposure does not cause confusion in children, but rather supports healthy development by fostering empathy, self-awareness and acceptance.

    This may come from or be expressed through the euphoria or joy that comes from feeling aligned and authentic in your gender. The idea of “gender euphoria” comes from within the trans community as a way to push back against the narrow narrative that trans lives are defined only by dysphoria, trauma or discomfort.

    Instead, gender euphoria highlights the positive side that come with expressing or affirming one’s gender identity. It can look different for everyone, from a quiet sense of contentment to a powerful feeling of joy.

    Communities affirm their right to public joy and visibility. Drag Queen Barbada de Barbades, who has led story times, seen in Montréal.
    (Jennifer Ricard/Wikimedia), CC BY

    Queer joy

    Queer joy is also a feature of drag story time, and is more than just feeling good. it is about living fully, even in the face of adversity. It is an act of resistance to a world that often tells queer and trans people they should not exist. Children still die because of hateful anti-LGTBQ+ speech.

    Together, gender euphoria and queer joy remind us that LGBTQ+ lives can be full of strength, creativity, connection and celebration.

    When children see diversity reflective in creative, positive and affirming ways, such as through stories, role models and community engagement, they are more likely to feel a sense of belonging and develop confidence in expressing their own identities. In this way, drag story times contribute meaningfully to both individual well-being and broader efforts towards inclusion.

    Best literacy and inclusion practices

    As part of our research, we plan to attend drag story times to learn more about current practices in Nova Scotia. At the national level, we will talk with performers about their experiences, practices, support and training needs and their goals and motivations.

    Then we’ll co-host a workshop with performers and educators to share knowledge and build skills that combine the artistry of drag with best practices in literacy and inclusive education.

    Drag story times can be a healthy and supportive way for children to develop their sense of gender and sexuality identity, both within themselves and others.

    Phillip Joy receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

    Andrea Fraser receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

    Conor Barker receives funding from the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

    – ref. Pride, pages and performance: Why drag story time matters more than ever – https://theconversation.com/pride-pages-and-performance-why-drag-story-time-matters-more-than-ever-258508

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Extreme weather’s true damage cost is a mystery – that’s a problem for understanding storm risk

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By John Nielsen-Gammon, Regents Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University

    Hail can be destructive, yet the cost of the damage often isn’t publicly tracked. NOAA/NSSL

    On Jan. 5, 2025, at about 2:35 in the afternoon, the first severe hailstorm of the season dropped quarter-size hail in Chatham, Mississippi. According to the federal storm events database, there were no injuries, but it caused $10,000 in property damage.

    How do we know the storm caused $10,000 in damage? We don’t.

    That estimate is probably a best guess from someone whose primary job is weather forecasting. Yet these guesses, and thousands like them, form the foundation for publicly available tallies of the costs of severe weather.

    If the damage estimates from hailstorms are consistently lower in one county than the next, potential property buyers might think it’s because there’s less risk of hailstorms. Instead, it might just be because different people are making the estimates.

    Hail damage in Dallas in June 2012.
    Rondo Estrello/Flickr, CC BY-SA

    We are atmospheric scientists at Texas A&M University who lead the Office of the Texas State Climatologist. Through our involvement in state-level planning for weather-related disasters, we have seen county-scale patterns of storm damage over the past 20 years that just didn’t make sense. So, we decided to dig deeper.

    We looked at storm event reports for a mix of seven urban and rural counties in southeast Texas, with populations ranging from 50,000 to 5 million. We included all reported types of extreme weather. We also talked with people from the two National Weather Service offices that cover the area.

    Storm damage investigations vary widely

    Typically, two specific types of extreme weather receive special attention.

    After a tornado, the National Weather Service conducts an on-site damage survey, examining its track and destruction. That survey forms the basis for the official estimate of a tornado’s strength on the enhanced Fujita scale. Weather Service staff are able to make decent damage cost estimates from knowledge of home values in the area.

    They also investigate flash flood damage in detail, and loss information is available from the National Flood Insurance Program, the main source of flood insurance for U.S. homes.

    Tornadoes in May 2025 destroyed homes in communities in several states, including London, Ky.
    AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

    Most other losses from extreme weather are privately insured, if they’re insured at all.

    Insured loss information is collected by reinsurance companies – the companies that insure the insurance companies – and gets tabulated for major events. Insurance companies use their own detailed information to try to make better decisions on rates than their competitors do, so event-based loss data by county from insurance companies isn’t readily available.

    Losing billion-dollar disaster data

    There’s one big window into how disaster damage has changed over the years in the U.S.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, compiled information for major disasters, including insured losses by state. Bulk data won’t tell communities or counties about their specific risk, but it enabled NOAA to calculate overall damage estimates, which it released as its billion-dollar disasters list.

    From that program, we know that the number and cost of billion-dollar disasters in the United States has increased dramatically in recent years. News articles and even scientific papers often point to climate change as the primary culprit, but a much larger driver has been the increasing number and value of buildings and other types of infrastructure, particularly along hurricane-prone coasts.

    Critics in the past year called for more transparency and vetting of the procedures used to estimate billion-dollar disasters. But that’s not going to happen, because NOAA in May 2025 stopped making billion-dollar disaster estimates and retired its user interface.

    Previous estimates can still be retrieved from NOAA’s online data archive, but by shutting down that program, the window into current and future disaster losses and insurance claims is now closed.

    Emergency managers at the county level also make local damage estimates, but the resources they have available vary widely. They may estimate damages only when the total might be large enough to trigger a disaster declaration that makes relief funds available from the federal government.

    Patching together very rough estimates

    Without insurance data or county estimates, the local offices of the National Weather Service are on their own to estimate losses.

    There is no standard operating procedure that every office must follow. One office might choose to simply not provide damage estimates for any hailstorms because the staff doesn’t see how it could come up with accurate values. Others may make estimates, but with varying methods.

    The result is a patchwork of damage estimates. Accurate values are more likely for rare events that cause extensive damage. Loss estimates from more frequent events that don’t reach a high damage threshold are generally far less reliable.

    The number of severe hail reports in southeast Texas listed in the National Centers for Environmental Information’s storm events database is strongly correlated with population. The county with the most reports and greatest detail in those reports is home to Houston. Hailstorms in the three easternmost counties are rarely associated with damage estimates.
    John Nielsen-Gammon and B.J. Baule

    Do you want to look at local damage trends? Forget about it. For most extreme weather events, estimation methods vary over time and are not documented.

    Do you want to direct funding to help communities improve resilience to natural disasters where the need is greatest? Forget about it. The places experiencing the largest per capita damages depend not just on actual damages but on the different practices of local National Weather Service offices.

    Are you moving to a location that might be vulnerable to extreme weather? Companies are starting to provide localized risk estimates through real estate websites, but the algorithms tend to be proprietary, and there’s no independent validation.

    4 steps to improve disaster data

    We believe a few fixes could make NOAA’s storm events database and the corresponding values in the larger SHELDUS database, managed by Arizona State University, more reliable. Both databases include county-level disasters and loss estimates for some of those disasters.

    First, the National Weather Service could develop standard procedures for local offices for estimating disaster damages.

    Second, additional state support could encourage local emergency managers to make concrete damage estimates from individual events and share them with the National Weather Service. The local emergency manager generally knows the extent of damage much better than a forecaster sitting in an office a few counties away.

    Third, state or federal governments and insurance companies can agree to make public the aggregate loss information at the county level or other scale that doesn’t jeopardize the privacy of their policyholders. If all companies provide this data, there is no competitive disadvantage for doing so.

    Fourth, NOAA could create a small “tiger team” of damage specialists to make well-informed, consistent damage estimates of larger events and train local offices on how to handle the smaller stuff.

    With these processes in place, the U.S. wouldn’t need a billion-dollar disasters program anymore. We’d have reliable information on all the disasters.

    John Nielsen-Gammon receives funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Texas.

    William Baule receives funding from NOAA, the State of Texas, & the Austin Community Foundation.

    – ref. Extreme weather’s true damage cost is a mystery – that’s a problem for understanding storm risk – https://theconversation.com/extreme-weathers-true-damage-cost-is-a-mystery-thats-a-problem-for-understanding-storm-risk-257105

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: New start date for the Anthropocene proposed – when humans first changed global methane levels

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Vincent Gauci, Professorial Fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham

    Robsonphoto/Shutterstock

    Humans have been reshaping the environment for at least 10,000 years. But the Anthropocene is the name given to the specific period of Earth history during which humans have had a global effect on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Despite formal rejection as a geological epoch, it’s widely understood within academic research as useful shorthand for the age of human interference in the Earth system.

    Various dates have been proposed for when the anthropocene effectively began, from the early 17th century to the mid-20th century, when the first atomic weapons were detonated. My new research into atmospheric methane concentration supports the idea of an early date, when European arrival in the Americas first had a notable impact on the atmosphere, but slightly before previous estimates.

    Ice cores – cylinders of ice drilled from glaciers and ice sheets – provide important evidence of historical changes in the global atmospheric composition. It is from these records that a date for the Anthropocene’s pre-industrial beginnings was first proposed in 2015 by two Earth systems scientists at the University College London, Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin.

    They suggested that an unprecedented drop in the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere that was recorded in ice cores – known as the “Orbis spike” – dates back to 1610. This unusually low level reflects additional atmospheric CO₂ absorption into trees from forest regrowth in the Americas following European arrival in the late 1400s.

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

    From European arrival in 1492 and colonisation in the 1500s, the introduction of disease, mostly smallpox, resulted in demographic collapse of around 50 million people across the Americas. Lewis and Maslin proposed that, as millions of hectares of farmland went untended, forests could regrow and this increased CO₂ removal from the atmosphere.

    This happened in sufficient quantities to be recorded in glacial ice. And that change became a global marker for the start of the so-called Anthropocene.



    Read more:
    Why the Anthropocene began with European colonisation, mass slavery and the ‘great dying’ of the 16th century

    My own research into changing methane concentrations indicates that the Anthropocene began slightly earlier than that, in 1592. Ice core records show a minimum atmospheric methane concentration exactly 100 years after explorer Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas. This, I believe, strengthens support for the hypothesis put forward by Lewis and Maslin a decade ago.

    In a paper published in Nature Reviews, Earth and Environment, I consider the effects of global fluctuations in how trees and forests exchange methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is around 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Crucially, methane has a short lifetime of just under ten years, so any ice core record will be far more responsive to changes to the methane cycle than that of longer-lived CO₂.



    Read more:
    Methane is pitched as a climate villain – could changing how we think about it make it a saviour?

    Trees are a methane sink

    So what’s the link to trees? Trees and their woody bark surfaces, despite their biologically inert appearance when compared to leaves, are important interfaces of methane exchange. In swamps and forested floodplains like the Amazon, they are exit points of methane to the atmosphere from the saturated soils where the methane is formed by anaerobic soil microbes.

    However, last year, my team uncovered how the more extensive areas of forest growing on free-draining soils interact with atmospheric methane. The trees host microbes that directly remove methane from the atmosphere.

    This is one of two mechanisms that, together, might explain an unprecedented drop in atmospheric methane concentrations recorded in Antarctic ice cores in the first century following European arrival in the Americas. This would support Lewis and Maslin’s idea that regrowing forests in that period had global effects.

    With more trees growing on abandoned farmland, there was more woody tree surface area in contact with the atmosphere. This meant more methane being taken up by the microbes they host.

    Measuring methane uptake of trees.
    Vincent Gauci, CC BY-NC-ND

    The second mechanism relates to how trees intercept incoming rainfall. Some rainfall is re-evaporated before reaching the soil. Any rain reaching the soil may then be taken up by tree roots and released back to the atmosphere. The rest moves into the soil or washes off into rivers and wetlands.

    It is possible that the spike in forest regrowth led to more evaporation and transpiration. So more water was released by the trees back to the atmosphere and less washed off over the soil surface.

    This limited water flowing into wetlands. Those wetlands are a major methane source. So a small shrinkage in wetland area, combined with more trees absorbing atmospheric methane, could have reduced the atmospheric methane concentration and explain the minimum methane levels observed in 1592.

    When exactly the Anthropocene began may be an argument that has been overtaken by the decision to not label it a new epoch. Indeed, it’s possible that forest clearance for early agriculture by humans around 5,000-8,000 years ago in the mid-Holocene, (a period of relative climate stability in the Neolithic period) contributed to the atmospheric methane increase observed in Antarctic ice from that time.

    As well as an ancient trace of human influence over our forests, the ice core methane records provide a chance to evaluate newly discovered processes operating in the world’s forests. This is something I’m now investigating with my colleague Peter Hopcroft, a palaeoclimate modeller at the University of Birmingham.

    Whether through forest clearances for early agriculture or through the effects on forests of massive depopulation of Indigenous peoples following European contact, these traces of our past influence point to something significant: that there has always been an intimate and evolving connection between humanity and the natural world. A connection so fundamental that, for the vast span of our existence as a species, we have been inseparable from nature itself.

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

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

    Vincent Gauci receives funding from or has received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, The Royal Society, Spark Climate Solutions, AXA Research Fund, Defra and the JABBS Foundation.

    – ref. New start date for the Anthropocene proposed – when humans first changed global methane levels – https://theconversation.com/new-start-date-for-the-anthropocene-proposed-when-humans-first-changed-global-methane-levels-258834

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Britain’s plan for defence AI risks the ethical and legal integrity of the military

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Elke Schwarz, Professor of Political Theory, Queen Mary University of London

    Autonomous technology on the battlefield may not look like ‘killer robots’, but still has huge ethical implications. TSViPhoto/Shutterstock

    In an unstable geopolitical climate, the UK’s strategic defence review focused on improving national resilience, from critical infrastructure security to technology and innovation. Many of the review’s recommendations have to do with transforming defence through artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy, to make the armed forces “ten times more lethal”.

    These recommendations and investments – drones, autonomous systems and £1 billion for a “digital targeting web” that would connect weapons systems – may well make the armed forces more lethal. But this comes at a risk to the ethical and legal integrity of the military.

    A key part of international humanitarian law is the principle of precautions in attack. This requires that those planning an attack must do everything they feasibly can to ensure that targets are of a military nature. Similar is the principle of distinction, which mandates that civilians must never become a target.

    In armed conflict, these principles are meant to protect civilians. They require human judgement — the ability to weigh up context, intent and likely outcomes. But how might they be upheld when humans are embedded in AI systems, which prioritise speed and scale in decision-making and action?

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

    An AI-enabled digital targeting web, like the one proposed in the strategic review, connects information (sensors) and action (weapons), enabling faster identification and elimination of potential targets. These webs would be able to identify and suggest possible targets considerably faster than humans. In many cases, leaving soldiers with only a few minutes, or indeed seconds, to decide whether these targets are appropriate or legitimate in legal or ethical terms.

    One example already in use is the Maven Smart System, which was recently procured by Nato. This system could make it possible for small army teams to make up to “1,000 tactical decisions an hour”, according to a report by the US thinktank the Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

    Legal scholars have argued that the prioritisation of speed with AI in conflict “leaves little room for human judgement” or restraint.

    Unlike other technologies used in war, AI is more than an instrument. It is part of a cognitive system of humans and machines, which makes human control a lot more complicated than operating a fleet of tanks.

    Proponents of autonomous weapons and AI targeting systems often argue that this technology would make warfare more precise, dispassionate and humane. However, military ethics scholar Neil Renic and I have shown how it can instead lead to an erosion of moral restraint, creating a war environment where technological processes replace moral reasoning.



    Read more:
    Silicon Valley’s bet on AI defence startups and what it means for the future of war – podcast

    Training the data

    The strategic defence review lauds autonomy as providing “greater accuracy”, but this is complicated by technical and human limitations. Instead of providing greater accuracy in targeting, AI-enabled systems threaten to undermine the principle of distinction and precaution.

    AI systems also bear technical challenges for something as complex and dynamic as warfare. AI-supported systems are only as good as the data on which they are trained. Appropriate, comprehensive and up-to-date data is hard to come by in conflict, and dynamics can change quickly.

    This is particularly true in urban conflicts. Understanding the complexities of a situation on the ground is difficult enough for human military personnel, without bringing in AI.

    New AI models, in particular, bear risks. AI large language models are known to “hallucinate” – produce outputs that are erroneous or made up. As these systems are integrated into defence, the risks of technological failure become more pronounced.

    AI could significantly speed up targeting technology.
    Yuri A/Shutterstock

    There is also a considerable risk of this technology enabling uncontrolled escalation and conflict at speed – what scholars have described as a “flash war”. Escalation from crisis to war, or escalating a conflict to a higher level of violence, could come about due to erroneous indications of attack, or a simple sensor or computer error.

    Consider an AI system alerting commanders of a hostile tank approaching a border area. With potentially only minutes to spare, time for verification of the incoming information is sparse. Commanders may “prioritise rapid response over thorough analysis”. If the tank turns out to be a school bus, this response could have further retaliatory consequences.

    Unpredictable systems could also give leaders false impressions of their capabilities, leading to overconfidence or encouraging preemptive attacks. This all may lead to greater global instability and insecurity.

    Responsible AI

    The UK government has shown that it is aware of some of these risks. Its 2022 report on responsible AI in defence emphasised ethics in the use of AI. It specified that the deployment “of AI-enabled capabilities in armed conflict needs to comply fully with [international humanitarian law]”, including the principles of distinction, necessity, humanity and proportionality.

    The report also notes that responsible and ethical use of AI systems requires reliability and human understanding of the AI system and its decisions.

    The strategic defence review, on the other hand, notes that the speed with which technologies develop is outpacing regulatory frameworks. It says that “the UK’s competitors are unlikely to adhere to common ethical standards in developing or using them”.

    This might be so, but it should not open the door to a less ethical and responsible development or use of such systems by the UK. Ethics is not only about how we treat others, but also about who we are.

    The UK still has an opportunity to shape global norms around military AI — before a generation of unaccountable systems becomes the default. But that window for action is closing rapidly.

    Elke Schwarz is affiliated with the International Committtee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC)

    – ref. Britain’s plan for defence AI risks the ethical and legal integrity of the military – https://theconversation.com/britains-plan-for-defence-ai-risks-the-ethical-and-legal-integrity-of-the-military-258149

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Iran air strikes: Republicans split over support for Trump and another ‘foreign war’

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

    After returning early from the G7 summit in Canada, Donald Trump met with his national security team to be briefed on the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. It became clear that Trump was considering direct US military support for the Israelis.

    This has the potential to cause a split among the president’s supporters between the Republican hawks (traditional interventionists) on one side and the Maga isolationists on the other.

    During his three presidential campaigns, Trump condemned former presidents for leading America into “ridiculous endless wars”. This isolationist tilt won him plaudits with his base of those who supported him for his populist promises to “make America great again” (Maga).

    In their work on US attitudes to foreign policy and US overseas involvement, Elaine Kamarck and Jordan Muchnick of the Brookings Institution – a non-profit research organisation in Washington – looked at a range of evidence in 2023.

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

    They found Republicans supporting less global involvement from the US had increased from 40% to 54% from 2004 to 2017. At that time only 16% of voters supported increasing US troop presence abroad, and 40% wanted a decrease, they found. They related this change in attitudes to Trump’s foreign policy position.

    Fast forward to his second term, and many in the Maga camp are fiercely opposed to Trump’s current posturing about leading the US into another conflict in the Middle East. Over the past few days the White House has doubled down on the line that Trump keeps repeating: “Iran can not have a nuclear weapon”.

    As Trump edges closer to committing the US to joining Israel in air strikes on Iran, Steve Bannon, a staunch Trump ally, argued that allowing the “deep state” to drive the US into conflict with Iran would “blow up” the coalition of Trump support.

    Meanwhile, Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson denounced those Republicans supporting action against Iran as “warmongers” and said they were encouraging the president to drag the US into a war.

    Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene, in an unusual break with Trump, openly criticised the president’s stance on the Israel-Iran conflict, writing on X: “Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction.”

    Other prominent Republican senators, including Josh Hawley and Rand Paul, have urged the president to avoid US involvement in an offensive against Iran.

    Another Republican congressman, Thomas Massie, has gone even further. He has joined with a coalition of Democrats in filing a House resolution under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which would seek to prevent Trump from engaging in “unauthorized hostilities” with Iran without Congressional consent.

    These Republicans may believe their views are popular with their electoral base. In an Economist/YouGov poll in June 2025, 53% of Republicans stated that they did not think the US military should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

    But Donald Trump does seem to enjoy widespread support in the US for his position that the US cannot allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. According to CNN data analysis, 83% of Republicans, 79% independents, and 79% of Democrats, agree with the president’s position on this issue. This slightly confusing split suggests there could be US voter support for air strikes, but it’s clear there would not be that same support for troops on the ground.

    Resistance from ultra-Trump die-hards, however, might put them on the wrong side of the president in the long-term. Greg Sargent, a writer at The New Republic magazine, believes that, “people become enemies of Trump not when they substantively work against some principle he supposedly holds dear, but rather when they publicly criticize him … or become an inconvenience in any way”.

    So why is Trump, to the dismay of many from within the Maga faithful, seemingly abandoning the anti-war tenet of his “America first” doctrine? Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest magazine, thinks that “now that Israel’s assault on Iran appears to be successful, Trump wants in on the action”.

    The president has several prominent Republican hawks urging him to do exactly that, and order the US Air Force to deploy their “bunker-buster bombs”“ to destroy Iran’s underground arsenals. One of these is Senator Lindsey Graham.

    Earlier this week on Fox News, he told Trump to be “all in … in helping Israel eliminate the nuclear threat. If we need to provide bombs to Israel, provide bombs. If we need to fly planes with Israel, do joint operations.”

    Former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is also advocating US military action. He told CNN: “What’s happening here is some of the isolationist movement led by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are distressed we may be helping the Israelis defeat the Iranians,” adding that its “been kind of a bad week for the isolationists” in the party.

    Donald Trump talks about potential involvement in air strikes.

    The same Economist/YouGov poll mentioned earlier showed that the stance taken by these Republicans – that Iran poses a threat to the US – is a position shared by a majority of GOP voters, with 69% viewing Iran as either an immediate and serious threat to the US, or at least somewhat of a serious threat.

    Always an interventionist?

    Some believe that Trump’s evolving attitude towards American military involvement in the worsening crisis in the Middle East, however, is not a volte-face on isolationism, or an ideological pivot to the virtues of attacking Iran. Ross Douthat of the New York Times has observed that Trump “has never been a principled noninterventionist” and that “his deal-making style has always involved the threat of force as a crucial bargaining chip”.

    It is always difficult to fully determine what Trump’s foreign policy doctrine actually is. It is useful, however, to reflect on some of the president’s overseas actions from his first term.

    In April 2018, following a suspected chemical weapons attack by the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in a Damascus suburb, Trump ordered US air strikes in retaliation for what he called an “evil and despicable attack” that left “mothers and fathers, infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air”.

    This led the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, to describe Trump as “something wholly unique in the history of the presidency: an isolationist interventionist”.

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

    – ref. Iran air strikes: Republicans split over support for Trump and another ‘foreign war’ – https://theconversation.com/iran-air-strikes-republicans-split-over-support-for-trump-and-another-foreign-war-259314

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Could trees know when the summer solstice is?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew Hacket-Pain, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool

    cashcashcash/Shutterstock

    People have been celebrating the summer solstice with elaborate rituals since prehistoric times. But humans aren’t the only species to take mark June 21 as a special time. Studies are showing the summer solstice is an important cue for plants too.

    Recent studies, including one of my own, have proposed that trees may use the longest day of the year as a key marker for their growth and reproductive cycles. The solstice seems to act like a calendar reminder for trees.

    Many people think of plants as nice-looking greens. Essential for clean air, yes, but simple organisms. A step change in research is shaking up the way scientists think about plants: they are far more complex and more like us than you might imagine. This blossoming field of science is too delightful to do it justice in one or two stories.

    This story is part of a series, Plant Curious, exploring scientific studies that challenge the way you view plantlife.

    For example, at the solstice, trees growing in cold places slow down the creation of new wood cells and focus their energy on finishing already formed but still incomplete cells. This ensures trees have time to complete cell construction before winter hits. Incomplete cells are damaged by freezing winter temperatures, rendering them useless for water transport the following year.

    Along similar lines, trees use the solstice to fine-tune the “winding down”, or senescence, of their leaves in preparation for autumn. Senescence allows the tree to reabsorb critical nutrients from the leaves before they fall. This process is timed to balance missing out on sunlight from “winding down” too early, against leaving it too late and losing nutrients if still-green leaves are killed by autumn frosts.

    Stonehenge has been part of summer solstice celebrations since ancient times.
    Ria Sh/Shutterstock

    Satellite observations of forests, and controlled experiments in greenhouses, reveal that warmer temperatures immediately prior to the solstice cause the onset of leaf browning to start earlier that autumn. In contrast, warmer temperatures just after the solstice slow down the senescence process.

    This means a longer transition period from green to fully brown leaves. This fine-tuning enables trees to extend the period of photosynthesis in years when temperatures stay warmer for longer, so they don’t miss out on these favourable conditions.

    But not all scientists is convinced. From an evolutionary perspective, the solstice may not be the best seasonal marker for timing these transitions. For example, in forests in the far north, leaves do not appear until early June, only days before the solstice, and the growing season can extend late into October. In these forests, using the solstice to initiate the winding down process makes little sense for trees that have only just started growing for the year.

    Nevertheless, there is more consensus about plants using the solstice to synchronise reproduction.

    In many plants, especially trees from the temperate mid-latitudes, the number of seeds they produce varies dramatically year on year, known as masting. A large European beech tree can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds in a bumper year (a “mast event”) and forgo reproduction altogether in other years.

    Beech trees vary their annual seed production in step, often on a continental scale. They do this to increase the efficiency of their reproduction.

    Beech trees coordinate their reproduction.
    Gabriele Rohde/Shutterstock

    A small moth, Cydia fagiglandana, lays its eggs in beech flowers. When the grubs hatch, they eat and destroy the developing seeds. Cycles of famine and bumper years help protect their seeds from these moths.

    UK beech trees typically lose less than 5% of their seeds to Cydia because the cycles starve the moths into low numbers ready for masting years. But when trees are out of sync, seed loss can increase to over 40%.

    For decades we have known that beech mast events happen in the year after a warm summer. These warmer temperatures trigger an increase in the formation of flower buds. More flower buds usually lead to a greater crop of seeds that autumn.

    Scientists have long puzzled over how beech trees across Europe seem to use the same seasonal window to control mast events. Their seed production is determined by temperatures in late June and early July, irrespective of where they grow in Europe. But how can a beech tree know the date?

    In my team’s 2024 study, we showed that they use the solstice as a seasonal marker. As soon as the days start to shorten after the solstice, beech trees across Europe seem to simultaneously sense the temperature.

    Anywhere temperatures are above average in the weeks following the solstice can expect to have a mast event the next year. Weather conditions in the weeks before the solstice, by contrast, seem to be irrelevant. As seen on weather maps, warm and cool spells tend to occur simultaneously over large areas.

    This allows beech trees to maximise the synchrony of their reproduction, whether that is investing in a mast year (warm temperatures), or forgoing reproduction for a year (low temperatures). Using a fixed marker like the solstice is the key to achieving this synchrony, and the benefits that come from it.

    Note how bumper seed crops and failures tend to be regionally synchronised, and occasionally occur as pan-European events.
    Andrew Hacket Pain, CC BY-NC-ND

    The evidence for this phenomenon has come from observations across dozens of forests across Europe. However, my research group is collaborating with about a dozen other groups in Europe to test this effect by manipulating the temperature of beech branches before and after the solstice at different sites. Ongoing research I am involved with seems to show flowering genes are activated at the summer solstice.

    Also, studies into the circadian rhythms of plants show they have mechanisms in their molecules that allow them to detect and respond to tiny changes in day length. This is the basis for that extraordinary scale of synchronised reproduction.

    If the weather is warm over the next month or so, then there is a good chance that beech trees in your local area will have heavy seed crops next autumn. What’s more, trees across the UK and into northern and central Europe will probably be doing the same.

    Andrew Hacket-Pain has received funding from UKRI, Defra and the British Council.

    – ref. Could trees know when the summer solstice is? – https://theconversation.com/could-trees-know-when-the-summer-solstice-is-259309

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump administration’s conflicting messages on Chinese student visas reflect complex US-China relations

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Meredith Oyen, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    The U.S. announced plans to scrutinize and revoke student visas for students with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or whose studies are in critical fields, but appears to have reconsidered. The decision and apparent about-face could have a wide-ranging impact on both nations. LAW Ho Ming/Getty Images

    President Donald Trump appears to have walked back plans for the U.S. State Department to scrutinize and revoke visas for Chinese students studying in the country.

    On June 11, 2025, Trump posted on his social media platform TruthSocial that visas for Chinese students would continue and that they are welcome in the United States, as their presence “has always been good with me!”

    The announcement came weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that his department would begin scrutinizing and revoking student visas for Chinese nationals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, or whose studies are in critical fields.

    The contradictory moves have led to confusion among Chinese students attending college or considering studying in the United States.

    Over time, Chinese nationals have faced barriers to studying in the U.S. As a scholar who studies relations between the two nations, I argue that efforts to ban Chinese students in the United States are not unprecedented, and historically they have come with consequences.

    Student visas under fire

    The Trump administration laid out the terms for revoking or denying student visas to Chinese nationals but then backtracked.
    STAP/Getty Images

    Since the late 1970s, millions of Chinese students have been granted visas to study at American universities. That total includes approximately 277,000 who studied in the United States in the 2023-2024 academic year.

    It is difficult to determine how many of these students would have been affected by a ban on visas for individuals with Chinese Community Party affiliations or in critical fields.

    Approximately 40% of all new members of the Chinese Communist Party each year are drawn from China’s student population. And many universities in China have party connections or charters that emphasize party loyalty.

    The “critical fields” at risk were not defined. A majority of Chinese students in the U.S. are enrolled in math, technology, science and engineering fields.

    A long history

    Since the late 1970s, the number of Chinese students attending college in the U.S. has increased dramatically.
    Kenishiroite/Getty Images

    Yung Wing became the first Chinese student to graduate from a U.S. university in 1852.

    Since then, millions of Chinese students have come to the United States to study, supported by programs such as the “Chinese Educational Mission,” Boxer Indemnity Fund scholarships and the Fulbright Program.

    The Institute for International Education in New York estimated the economic impact of Chinese students in the U.S. at over US$14 billion a year. Chinese students tend to pay full tuition to their universities. At the graduate level, they perform vital roles in labs and classrooms. Just under half of all Chinese students attending college in the U.S. are graduate students.

    However, there is a long history of equating Chinese migrants as invaders, spies or risks to national security.

    After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the U.S. Department of Justice began to prevent Chinese scholars and students in STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – from returning to China by stopping them at U.S. ports of entry and exit. They could be pulled aside when trying to board a flight or ship and their tickets canceled.

    In one infamous case, Chinese rocket scientist Qian Xuesen was arrested, harassed, ordered deported and prevented from leaving over five years from 1950 to 1955. In 1955, the United States and China began ambassadorial-level talks to negotiate repatriations from either country. After his experience, Qian became a much-lauded supporter of the Communist government and played an important role in the development of Chinese transcontinental missile technology.

    During the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Justice raided Chinatown organizations looking for Chinese migrants who arrived under false names during the Chinese Exclusion Era, a period from the 1880s to 1940s when the U.S. government placed tight restrictions on Chinese immigration into the country. A primary justification for the tactics was fear that the Chinese in the U.S. would spy for their home country.

    Between 1949 and 1979, the U.S and China did not have normal diplomatic relations. The two nations recognized each other and exchanged ambassadors starting in January 1979. In the more than four decades since, the number of Chinese students in the U.S. has increased dramatically.

    Anti-Chinese discrimination

    The idea of an outright ban on Chinese student visas has raised concerns about increased targeting of Chinese in the U.S. for harassment.

    In 1999, Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested on suspicion of using his position at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to spy for China. Lee remained imprisoned in solitary confinement for 278 days before he was released without a conviction.

    In 2018, during the first Trump administration, the Department of Justice launched its China Initiative. In its effort to weed out industrial, technological and corporate espionage, the initiative targeted many ethnic Chinese researchers and had a chilling effect on continued exchanges, but it secured no convictions for wrongdoing.

    Trump again expressed concerns last year that undocumented migrants from China might be coming to the United States to spy or “build an army.”

    The repeated search for spies among Chinese migrants and residents in the U.S. has created an atmosphere of fear for Chinese American communities.

    Broader foreign policy context

    An atmosphere of suspicion has altered the climate for Chinese international students.
    J Studios/Getty Images

    The U.S. plan to revoke visas for students studying in the U.S. and the Chinese response is being formed amid contentious debates over trade.

    Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian accused the U.S. of violating an agreement on tariff reduction the two sides discussed in Geneva in May, citing the visa issues as one example.

    Trump has also complained that the Chinese violated agreements between the countries, and some reports suggest that the announcement on student visas was a negotiating tactic to change the Chinese stance on the export of rare earth minerals.

    When Trump announced his trade deal with China on June 11, he added a statement welcoming Chinese students.

    However, past practice shows that the atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion may have already damaged the climate for Chinese international students, and at least some degree of increased scrutiny of student visas will likely continue regardless.

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

    – ref. Trump administration’s conflicting messages on Chinese student visas reflect complex US-China relations – https://theconversation.com/trump-administrations-conflicting-messages-on-chinese-student-visas-reflect-complex-us-china-relations-258351

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The term ‘lone gunman’ ignores the structures that enable violence

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

    Members of law enforcement agencies search for shooting suspect Vance Boelter at a house on June 15, 2025, in Belle Plaine, Minn. AP Photo/George Walker IV

    When shots rang out in Minnesota, targeting state Democratic politicians, the headlines quickly followed a familiar script: a mentally unstable suspect and the well-worn label “lone gunman.”

    According to media reports, the Minnesota gunman, Vance Luther Boelter, was a deeply religious anti-abortion activist and a conservative who supported President Donald Trump.

    The term lone gunman, routinely deployed in the aftermath of mass shootings and political violence – that the suspect was simply acting alone, so there’s no one or nothing else to blame – may offer a comforting explanation, but it’s dangerously simplistic.

    It obscures the conditions that made the violence possible in the first place. It casts the perpetrator as an isolated anomaly – mentally unwell, unpredictable, detached from broader movements or ideologies.

    As a scholar of extremism, I argue that the use of this term ignores the larger symptoms of deeper societal failures such as rising political extremism, systemic hate or the normalization of violent rhetoric.

    The lone gunman myth

    The idea of the lone gunman has long held sway in American public discourse, with perhaps no example more iconic than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission that was set up to investigate concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, a finding still contested by many.

    But more significant than the historical debate is how the lone gunman label became entrenched in the national psyche. It presents a digestible narrative, one that absolves institutions of responsibility and short-circuits more difficult questions about what conditions produced the attacker in the first place.

    More recent examples reveal how this myth continues to serve as a shield against systemic scrutiny.

    After the 2012 mass shooting that killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, media coverage quickly centered on James Holmes’ mental state, with little emphasis on the culture of gun access, misogyny or disaffection with peers that shaped his actions.

    Similarly, after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, early coverage emphasized his apparent isolation and mental state. However, he had openly stated his motivations in a racist manifesto and had long-standing connections to white supremacist ideology that motivated and shaped his violence.

    Radicalization is rarely solitary

    In most cases, so-called lone wolves are not as isolated as the term implies. Researchers have increasingly shown that radicalization is a social process.

    Individuals absorb extremist views through online echo chambers, algorithmic recommendation systems, peer validation and reinforcement from political and media figures.

    Robert Bowers’ lawyers claimed in a public court filing that he was suffering from schizophrenia and structural and functional brain impairments.
    AP Photo/Matt Rourke

    This is evident in cases like that of Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. Bowers’ defense attorneys said in a March 2023 court filing that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Though he acted alone, Bowers was deeply embedded in far-right networks on the social media platform Gab, where he echoed white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

    Similarly, Payton Gendron, who killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, cited previous mass shooters as inspiration and plagiarized sections of a white nationalist manifesto. His radicalization was nourished in extremist online forums on platforms such as 4chan and Discord.

    Even attacks without manifestos or explicit ideological tracts often follow recognizable scripts. The El Paso shooter, who killed 23 people in a Walmart in 2019, wrote that he was targeting Hispanics as part of a defense against an “invasion” of immigrants – echoing language used by some conservative analysts, pundits and political figures in mainstream U.S. media and government.

    Again and again, attackers are seen to be acting in ways that align with a broader rationalization or ideology, even if they do not carry official membership in a particular group or organization.

    The politics of the ‘lone gunman’

    Importantly, the lone gunman narrative is applied unevenly, especially along racial lines.

    White perpetrators are frequently described as mentally ill or troubled loners. Their violence is compartmentalized as the result of personal demons. In contrast, as the Sentencing Project – which is working to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system – has shown, Black, Muslim or immigrant suspects are often held up as proof of a broader threat: religious, ethnic or cultural.

    This double standard not only reinforces racial stereotypes but also shapes how law enforcement and the media view violence committed by white actors – as an aberration rather than a pattern.

    The media can play a crucial role in perpetuating the lone gunman myth.
    Consider how swiftly the media and politicians labeled the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, perpetrated by Omar Mateen, as an act of Islamist terrorism. Even though Mateen had no meaningful connections to any terrorist groups, his Islamic religious beliefs were used to construct a narrative that he was part of a global threat.

    By contrast, the FBI hesitated to call Dylann Roof’s actions “racial terrorism.” Terrorism is defined as a form of political violence, where the threat or use of physical force by individuals or groups is not only intended to influence or disrupt governmental authority but to instill fear and force political change. The FBI designated Roof’s crime as a hate crime perpetrated by a disturbed young man.

    This distinction between calling Roof’s attack a hate crime rather than racially motivated terrorism sparked significant criticism from scholars, activists and commentators. Many argued that Roof’s white supremacist motives and the symbolic target, a historic Black church, made it a clear case of racial terrorism.

    Moving toward a more honest understanding

    This asymmetry matters.

    I argue that it shapes public perception, policy responses and resource allocation. It allows white supremacist violence to flourish under the radar, often dismissed until it becomes undeniable – usually after multiple lives have been lost.

    At the same time, politicians are frequently reluctant to acknowledge the ideological underpinnings of such violence, particularly when those ideologies overlap with their own rhetoric or voter base.

    After the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, where the gunman explicitly cited the “Great Replacement theory” in his manifesto, several Republican politicians who had previously echoed similar anti-immigrant rhetoric condemned the violence but avoided addressing the ideology behind it. The Great Replacement theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory that falsely claims white populations are being deliberately replaced by nonwhite immigrants, especially Muslims, Latinos or Black people, through immigration, higher birth rates and federal government policy.

    Despite the shooter’s clear ideological motivation, once again many officials focused on mental illness or the violence as an isolated case of extremism. The impact of the messages about immigration and demographic change in contributing to a climate of racial fear and conspiracy were left unacknowledged.

    The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly identified white supremacist violence as one of the top domestic terrorism threats. Investigations related to domestic terrorism and violence have increased significantly over the past few years. In a 2023 interview with “PBS NewsHour,” Seamus Hughes of the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism, Innovation, Technology and Education Center said that “the FBI was investigating 850 people three years ago. Now they’re investigating 2,700.”

    Yet meaningful, structural reforms, whether in tech and social media regulation, gun control or public education, have remained elusive. I believe connecting the larger social, political and cultural issues that surround extreme violence is critical to building healthy communities.

    Art Jipson 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. The term ‘lone gunman’ ignores the structures that enable violence – https://theconversation.com/the-term-lone-gunman-ignores-the-structures-that-enable-violence-259107

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Metro Detroit is growing – but its suburbs are telling a more complicated story

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Grigoris Argeros, Professor of Sociology, Eastern Michigan University

    Detroit is still a majority Black city, but the share of white, Asian and Hispanic residents is growing. DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

    Following decades of population loss, Detroit may finally be turning a corner.

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimates, the city saw an increase in population for both 2023 and 2024.

    An additional 11,000 people moved into the city in the years 2023 and 2024, a small gain in a city with a population of 645,705 – but one which marked a symbolic shift.

    The census data shows just over 1% growth in the past year alone and 0.7% the year before compared with a nearly 25% loss between 2000 and 2010.

    As an urban sociologist studying issues related to race and ethnicity, I am interested in how Detroit’s population is changing, and where different groups live in both the city and its suburbs.

    Analyzing population trends in the metro Detroit area using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I wanted to understand how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic trends are unfolding, and what those changes can tell us about the evolution and vitality of Detroit.

    Black Detroiters relocate, city diversifies

    From 2010 to 2023, Detroit’s racial and ethnic makeup continued to gradually diversify even as the city was declining in population.

    While Black residents are still the majority, their proportion of the total number fell from around 84% to 79%.

    Other groups, in contrast, increased their share of the city’s population. Between 2010 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic residents grew from 6.6% to 8.3%, the percentage of white residents grew from 8.2% to 10.7%, and the percentage of Asian residents grew from 1.3% to 1.7%.

    These shifts reflect a steady and ongoing diversification of Detroit’s population, indicative of new migration trends and shifting neighborhood dynamics.

    Suburbs in flux

    In addition to Detroit’s recent population growth, a broader story is unfolding in the city’s suburbs.

    The population of the suburban area as a whole increased 0.73% from 2023 to 2024, but growth was not evenly spread. Collectively, the outer-ring suburbs gained almost 20,000 people, increasing by 1%. Communities such as the city of Troy and Macomb Township accounted for a significant share of that growth.

    A map of Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, with shading to indicate which areas are considered to be the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ suburbs.
    Grigoris Argeros, CC BY

    Inner-ring suburbs, such as Southfield, Warren and others, grew less vigorously – gaining just 4,000 people, or 0.31%.

    These differences highlight the necessity of complicating the conventional city-versus-suburb narrative to acknowledge the many economic and racial divisions across the metropolitan region.

    The socioeconomic statuses of residents of the inner- and outer-ring suburbs diverged between 2000 and 2020.

    My analysis of census data shows that although both subregions witnessed increases in median household incomes, the rates of change were significantly higher in the outer-ring suburbs, with a 37.7% increase versus a 16.8% increase in the inner rings.

    The data shows a similar trend in higher education attainment. Outer ring suburbs gained 7.1% more residents with college degrees or higher during this period, while the inner suburbs lost 7.5%.

    Homeownership patterns in the two suburban regions also diverged over those two decades, increasing 18% in the outer rings and decreasing 10% in the inner rings.

    The data on poverty and immigration also reveal contrasting results.

    According to my calculations of census data, inner-ring suburbs experienced a 77% increase in poverty, while the outer ring experienced a lesser, though considerable, 50.8% bump in poverty during the 2000-2020 period.

    Meanwhile, during the same time period, the foreign-born populations in the outer suburbs expanded by 24.9%, with increases of at least 10,000 in places such as Sterling Heights, Novi and Canton. In contrast, the inner suburbs saw more modest gains — around 5,000 in cities such as Dearborn Heights and Warren — while their overall foreign-born share declined by nearly 20%.

    Together, the above trends highlight the necessity of not viewing the suburban area as a monolith. These patterns reflect national trends, in which many older, inner-ring suburbs are experiencing socioeconomic stagnation or decline while newer, outer-ring suburbs continue to attract more people who have higher incomes.

    Mixed neighborhoods grow

    Residential segregation also differentiates inner and outer suburban rings.

    Segregation levels remain high in the inner suburbs, especially between white and Black residents. While outer suburbs tend to be more integrated today, the rate of change there has been more modest over the past two decades.

    Social scientists measure segregation using a tool called the “dissimilarity index.” The index represents the proportion of one group that would need to move to establish an equal distribution of the population based on their relative numbers. It ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means equal distribution across neighborhoods, while a score of 100 means the two groups live in completely separate areas.

    From 2000 to 2020, white-Black segregation across the region decreased from 84.4% to 68.3% on the index, while white-Hispanic segregation decreased from 47.6% to 39.9%. Together, these numbers indicate a broader trend toward more integrated living patterns.

    In the inner-ring suburbs, segregation fell across the board. White-Black segregation went down by 15.6%; white-Asian and white-Hispanic segregation dropped even more, by 43.2% and 30.7%, respectively.

    These trends suggest that while the outer suburbs currently have lower levels of segregation, the inner suburbs are integrating more rapidly, reflecting shifting patterns of neighborhood change and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

    Detroit has come a long way since exiting bankruptcy in 2014. Its recent population growth and increasing diversity show important signs of renewal.

    Grigoris Argeros 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. Metro Detroit is growing – but its suburbs are telling a more complicated story – https://theconversation.com/metro-detroit-is-growing-but-its-suburbs-are-telling-a-more-complicated-story-257875

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Metro Detroit is growing – but its suburbs are telling a more complicated story

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Grigoris Argeros, Professor of Sociology, Eastern Michigan University

    Detroit is still a majority Black city, but the share of white, Asian and Hispanic residents is growing. DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

    Following decades of population loss, Detroit may finally be turning a corner.

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimates, the city saw an increase in population for both 2023 and 2024.

    An additional 11,000 people moved into the city in the years 2023 and 2024, a small gain in a city with a population of 645,705 – but one which marked a symbolic shift.

    The census data shows just over 1% growth in the past year alone and 0.7% the year before compared with a nearly 25% loss between 2000 and 2010.

    As an urban sociologist studying issues related to race and ethnicity, I am interested in how Detroit’s population is changing, and where different groups live in both the city and its suburbs.

    Analyzing population trends in the metro Detroit area using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I wanted to understand how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic trends are unfolding, and what those changes can tell us about the evolution and vitality of Detroit.

    Black Detroiters relocate, city diversifies

    From 2010 to 2023, Detroit’s racial and ethnic makeup continued to gradually diversify even as the city was declining in population.

    While Black residents are still the majority, their proportion of the total number fell from around 84% to 79%.

    Other groups, in contrast, increased their share of the city’s population. Between 2010 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic residents grew from 6.6% to 8.3%, the percentage of white residents grew from 8.2% to 10.7%, and the percentage of Asian residents grew from 1.3% to 1.7%.

    These shifts reflect a steady and ongoing diversification of Detroit’s population, indicative of new migration trends and shifting neighborhood dynamics.

    Suburbs in flux

    In addition to Detroit’s recent population growth, a broader story is unfolding in the city’s suburbs.

    The population of the suburban area as a whole increased 0.73% from 2023 to 2024, but growth was not evenly spread. Collectively, the outer-ring suburbs gained almost 20,000 people, increasing by 1%. Communities such as the city of Troy and Macomb Township accounted for a significant share of that growth.

    A map of Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, with shading to indicate which areas are considered to be the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ suburbs.
    Grigoris Argeros, CC BY

    Inner-ring suburbs, such as Southfield, Warren and others, grew less vigorously – gaining just 4,000 people, or 0.31%.

    These differences highlight the necessity of complicating the conventional city-versus-suburb narrative to acknowledge the many economic and racial divisions across the metropolitan region.

    The socioeconomic statuses of residents of the inner- and outer-ring suburbs diverged between 2000 and 2020.

    My analysis of census data shows that although both subregions witnessed increases in median household incomes, the rates of change were significantly higher in the outer-ring suburbs, with a 37.7% increase versus a 16.8% increase in the inner rings.

    The data shows a similar trend in higher education attainment. Outer ring suburbs gained 7.1% more residents with college degrees or higher during this period, while the inner suburbs lost 7.5%.

    Homeownership patterns in the two suburban regions also diverged over those two decades, increasing 18% in the outer rings and decreasing 10% in the inner rings.

    The data on poverty and immigration also reveal contrasting results.

    According to my calculations of census data, inner-ring suburbs experienced a 77% increase in poverty, while the outer ring experienced a lesser, though considerable, 50.8% bump in poverty during the 2000-2020 period.

    Meanwhile, during the same time period, the foreign-born populations in the outer suburbs expanded by 24.9%, with increases of at least 10,000 in places such as Sterling Heights, Novi and Canton. In contrast, the inner suburbs saw more modest gains — around 5,000 in cities such as Dearborn Heights and Warren — while their overall foreign-born share declined by nearly 20%.

    Together, the above trends highlight the necessity of not viewing the suburban area as a monolith. These patterns reflect national trends, in which many older, inner-ring suburbs are experiencing socioeconomic stagnation or decline while newer, outer-ring suburbs continue to attract more people who have higher incomes.

    Mixed neighborhoods grow

    Residential segregation also differentiates inner and outer suburban rings.

    Segregation levels remain high in the inner suburbs, especially between white and Black residents. While outer suburbs tend to be more integrated today, the rate of change there has been more modest over the past two decades.

    Social scientists measure segregation using a tool called the “dissimilarity index.” The index represents the proportion of one group that would need to move to establish an equal distribution of the population based on their relative numbers. It ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means equal distribution across neighborhoods, while a score of 100 means the two groups live in completely separate areas.

    From 2000 to 2020, white-Black segregation across the region decreased from 84.4% to 68.3% on the index, while white-Hispanic segregation decreased from 47.6% to 39.9%. Together, these numbers indicate a broader trend toward more integrated living patterns.

    In the inner-ring suburbs, segregation fell across the board. White-Black segregation went down by 15.6%; white-Asian and white-Hispanic segregation dropped even more, by 43.2% and 30.7%, respectively.

    These trends suggest that while the outer suburbs currently have lower levels of segregation, the inner suburbs are integrating more rapidly, reflecting shifting patterns of neighborhood change and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

    Detroit has come a long way since exiting bankruptcy in 2014. Its recent population growth and increasing diversity show important signs of renewal.

    Grigoris Argeros 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. Metro Detroit is growing – but its suburbs are telling a more complicated story – https://theconversation.com/metro-detroit-is-growing-but-its-suburbs-are-telling-a-more-complicated-story-257875

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anti-ageing drug rapamycin may extend life almost as effectively as restricting calories – our new research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Zahida Sultanova, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia

    There’s a better way. Africa Studio/Shutterstock

    For centuries, humans have searched for ways to extend life. Alchemists never found the philosopher’s stone, but scientists have consistently shown that a longer life can be attained by eating less – at least in certain lab animals. But can we find a way to live longer while still enjoying our food?

    Compounds that mimic the biological effects of dieting could be the answer, and the two most popular diet-mimicking drugs are rapamycin and metformin. In a new study, my colleagues and I found that rapamycin prolongs life almost as consistently as eating less, whereas metformin does not.

    Eating less, or dietary restriction, has been the gold standard for achieving a longer life ever since a study nearly a century ago in which laboratory rats that ate less surprised scientists by outliving their well-fed lab mates.

    But for many people, sticking to a permanent diet is hard and far from enjoyable. Also, if taken to extremes, it can even be bad for health. That is why we wanted to know whether drugs that are dieting mimics could bring the same benefit of eating less without the unwanted side-effects.

    Rapamycin was first discovered in bacteria living in Easter Island soil in the 1970s, and medical professionals now use it to prevent organ-transplant rejection, as it is a powerful immunosuppressant. It works by blocking a molecular switch that tells cells when nutrients are abundant.

    Metformin, meanwhile, is a synthetic descendant of a compound found in French lilac (also known as goat’s rue) and is widely prescribed to control blood sugar in type 2 diabetes. Both drugs are involved in the body’s ability to sense nutrients and energy, so biologists like us hoped they might copy the mechanisms activated by eating less.

    To find out, we pooled the results of many studies to see if there were any overall patterns. We carefully examined thousands of scientific papers to finally home in on 167 studies on eight vertebrate species, from fish to monkeys, that provided sufficient details on survival and how the study was done. Then we compared three longevity strategies: eating less, taking rapamycin and taking metformin.

    We found that eating less still came out on top as the most consistent way to prolong life in all animals but rapamycin was close behind. Metformin, in contrast, showed no clear benefit. The life-extension effect of eating less was the same in both sexes, and it didn’t matter whether the diet plan involved eating smaller portions or intermittent fasting.

    That makes rapamycin one of the most exciting leads for new anti-ageing therapies. Ageing might not be considered a disease, but it is a risk factor behind many diseases from cancer to dementia. If we slow that underlying process, the benefit will be extra years of quality life and lower healthcare bills as the world’s population grows older.

    Rapamycin was first isolated from bacteria found in the soil on Easter Island.
    JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock.com

    Encouraging early signs, but we’re not quite there yet

    However, there are some important points to consider. First, we discovered considerable variation from experiment to experiment with some studies even showing that eating less or taking rapamycin reduced lifespan.

    Also, most of the evidence originates from mice and rats that have many of our genes but are clearly not exactly like us.

    Finally, rapamycin may have side-effects such as repressing immunity and reproduction. Researchers are now investigating milder doses of rapamycin to see if they provide the advantages without the side-effects.

    The preliminary signs are encouraging. In an ongoing human rapamycin trial, volunteers given low, intermittent doses of rapamycin have experienced positive effects on indicators of healthspan. For metformin, the human trial is still in progress and the findings are expected to be out in a few years time.

    For now, nobody should run to their doctor asking for prescriptions of rapamycin to live longer. But this drug, extracted from obscure soil bacteria, shows us that interfering with a single molecular pathway can be enough to mimic the benefits of eating less. The challenge is to use this discovery to produce therapies that make us healthier for longer without compromising our quality of life – or our taste for the occasional slice of chocolate cake.

    Dr. Zahida Sultanova works for the University of East Anglia and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust. She is a member of European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society of Turkey (EkoEvo).

    – ref. Anti-ageing drug rapamycin may extend life almost as effectively as restricting calories – our new research – https://theconversation.com/anti-ageing-drug-rapamycin-may-extend-life-almost-as-effectively-as-restricting-calories-our-new-research-259169

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Degrowth and fashion: how upcycling innovators show us how to rethink and reuse waste

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Handan Vicdan, Associate professor of marketing, EM Lyon Business School

    Every year, some 100 billion garments are produced worldwide, and 92 million tonnes of clothing waste end up in landfills. Given this enormous amount of waste, it is logical to think that the only way forward is to degrow fashion. But can fashion and degrowth co-exist?

    Degrowth is defined as the planned reduction of production and consumption in a way that ensures equitable living. Degrowth principles, such as sufficiency, cooperation and care, clash with growth principles of maximization, commodification and efficiency. For the fashion industry, which is responsible for immense resource extraction and waste creation, reducing resource throughput and ensuring equitable value creation pose enduring challenges.

    While some governments and corporations encourage consumers to shop responsibly and reduce waste, collective responsibility is needed to facilitate a degrowth transition, which urges a fundamental shift in the way designers, manufacturers and brands approach fashion waste. Will circular practices help create a just and equitable industry? Is it possible to produce clothing locally and differently than “fast fashion” retailers?


    A weekly e-mail in English featuring expertise from scholars and researchers. It provides an introduction to the diversity of research coming out of the continent and considers some of the key issues facing European countries. Get the newsletter!

    Upcycling as a radical rethinking of our relationship with waste

    In a recent study, we explored how the circular fashion practice of upcycling – creative and caring transformation of discarded or waste clothes into something of higher value – pushes industry actors to rethink their relationship to fashion waste and give it value as a resource compatible with degrowth values. We examined how upcycling is practiced across institutions – brands, manufacturers, designers and NGOs – in Turkey, one of Europe’s largest textile producers.

    It is important to note that while conversations about recycling – the practice of breaking down textile waste into raw material through mechanical or chemical processes – are prevalent in the fashion world, the painful fact is that only 1% of clothes are recycled into new garments, meaning the majority of fashion waste is doomed to remain as waste. Through upcycling, on the other hand, waste is treated as a resource. Rather than viewing clothes as disposable, upcycling enables us to understand and care about our clothes’ journey and the people and ecosystems behind them. Converting discarded food into natural dyes for colouring fabric, or using sailcloth to make handbags, creates value through the creativity, materials, skill sharing, and caring involved.

    As part of green-growth efforts, some circular fashion actors treat waste as a commodity and try to maximize growth through efficient waste reduction. However, this is incompatible with degrowth. We need to reduce production of textiles and make use of existing textile waste, not just discard textile waste efficiently.



    À lire aussi :
    Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?

    Relational ways of working with waste, technology, nature and people

    Our research highlights the importance of the socio-ecological value of waste in industry upcycling practices. Such value is generated through social and solidarity networks of relations around waste, including between designers, manufacturers and upcycling brands, and involving nature and technology.

    We emphasise the growing interest in the story of waste material, which is reinforcing strong connections to waste and its origins. Upcycling designers highlight local and material heritage in the production of upcycled clothes, which is necessary to foster the ecological and material consciousness required for a degrowth transition. Designers we interviewed evoked the idea that “nature doesn’t waste anything”, and mentioned being inspired by and mimicking nature’s cycles in the design process.

    We also reflect on the kind of technology needed to support more relational, localised systems. The practices of upcycling designers and small brands highlight the value of the creation of waste-sharing platforms among industry actors. These platforms serve as waste libraries and provide opportunities to purchase different kinds of textile waste for upcycling.

    Making waste valuable

    Industry actors we interviewed said they are not simply trend chasers focused on profit, but seeking to build alternative ways of working with each other, nature, waste and technology. For example, designers partnered with local women in rural areas in Erzurum, Mugla and Kilis provinces to upcycle discarded fabrics into handwoven garments, preserving cultural heritage. A brand collected food waste to create natural textile dyes, collaborating with local cafés and friends in Istanbul. During the Covid-19 crisis, solidarity networks emerged between hospitals, textile manufacturers and designers to make upcycled uniforms for doctors and nurses. We have observed that manufacturers also repurpose waste to give gifts to employees, children and others. These practices aim to reduce waste and reconnect people to waste material, and enable the sharing of local knowledge and skills.

    Our data also demonstrates a concern over lack of circular literacy among industry actors. Currently, access to upcycling knowledge and skills, as well as waste material, happens through knowledge hubs and waste-sharing platforms. For example, working with sectoral representatives and local governments, one knowledge hub created a circular economy guide to raise industry awareness about ways to revalue and reduce textile waste.

    Upcycling is still a niche circular practice, and access to waste resources for initiatives, as well as lack of public funding and policy support for projects, remain important concerns. Nonetheless, when it is grounded in local communities, new narratives about materials, and care, upcycling can foster degrowth values in fashion.

    Handan Vicdan 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. Degrowth and fashion: how upcycling innovators show us how to rethink and reuse waste – https://theconversation.com/degrowth-and-fashion-how-upcycling-innovators-show-us-how-to-rethink-and-reuse-waste-258869

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, right? Can dancing or twerking really bring on labour?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University

    Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is back in the news this week in a podcast discussing her viral “baby mama” video.

    The video was made four years ago when she gave birth to daughter Lilibet, but only released recently. It shows the duchess in hospital, heavily pregnant, dancing and twerking to bring on labour. Her husband, Prince Harry, dances too.

    She wrote on Instagram:

    Both of our children were a week past their due dates […] so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn’t work – there was only one thing left to do!

    The video follows the trend of other celebrities sharing similar videos of themselves dancing while heavily pregnant.

    So does the Duchess of Sussex have a point? Can dancing really bring on labour?

    First, how about dancing during pregnancy?

    Exercise is recommended during pregnancy, and while some higher-impact exercises may need to be moderated, it carries minimal risk for healthy women and their babies. In fact, evidence shows regular exercise during pregnancy is associated with a variety of benefits.

    Exercise can lead to a lower risk of gestational diabetes, caesarean section, the use of forceps and vacuum during birth and perinatal mental health problems, as well as quicker postpartum recovery.

    While pregnant women might more often gravitate towards a brisk walk, some laps in the pool, or a group exercise class, dancing is a good option too. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has even listed dance as one of the forms of exercise found to be safe and beneficial during pregnancy.

    The movements of dance involve the hips and pelvic area (especially twerking) which may help the baby get into a more optimal position and tone the pelvic floor, though the evidence for this is lacking.

    Choose any form of dancing you like – even belly dancing. In a small qualitative study with two pregnant women, belly dancing was found to be joyful and empowering, boosting feelings of wellbeing.

    You can dance any time during pregnancy but you may need to adapt your dance moves as the pregnancy advances and your growing belly gets in the way.

    If you have risk factors such as bleeding it’s best to be cautious and discuss any planned dancing with your health-care provider.

    Music can also play an important role in mental health, as well as reducing pain, blood pressure and heart rate. So the combination of exercise with music, in the form of dance, could have added benefits.

    Exercise is recommended during pregnancy – so why not try dancing?
    sandsun/Shutterstock

    What about dancing to induce labour, and during labour?

    Meghan is not the first woman to report dancing to induce their labour, but this is all anecdotal. There’s no scientific evidence to show dancing is an effective way to bring on labour.

    There is perhaps slightly more evidence suggesting benefits once labour has started.

    Many women seek non-pharmacological options (not involving medications) during labour. Especially early in labour, dancing may decrease the intensity of pain and lead women to feel more satisfied and in control of their labour.

    In one study, 60 women were randomly allocated to either dance during labour, or not. The dancing group had significantly lower pain scores and higher satisfaction than the control group.

    And again, music can lower levels of pain in early labour. So combining relaxing music with some movement could be a good thing.

    Dancing to your comfort levels during labour could be helpful due to the combination of pelvic movements, being upright, moving the body rhythmically and changing the position of the body frequently.

    Evidence shows being upright and moving during labour is beneficial as it enables the pelvis to open up fully to let the baby through and reduces the length of labour.

    Being upright and moving could also help transfer some pressure from the baby’s head onto the cervix, which can stimulate prostaglandin, a key chemical involved in progressing labour.

    It’s been suggested dancing during labour could help get the baby into a better position for delivery and therefore help labour to proceed more smoothly and quickly. But ultimately we don’t have reliable evidence to substantiate these hypotheses.

    So, did Meghan induce her labour with dance?

    It’s unclear if dancing helped to induce the duchess’ labour as she was in hospital and may have later had a medical or surgical induction.

    Labour can be medically induced with hormones, by using a balloon-shaped catheter placed in the woman’s cervix to open it up, or by breaking the bag of water around the baby.

    Alternatively, Meghan’s labour may have eventually begun naturally without her dancing having played a role if she chose to wait another few days.

    However, the joy on her face and connection and support of her husband Prince Harry is a good way to increase oxytocin, a hormone that stimulates contractions. This could have helped too.

    Meghan may have been on the right track, but we need more research before we can confidently recommend dancing to bring on or during labour.

    In the meantime, while there’s no evidence to show dancing is effective for inducing labour, it’s highly unlikely to have any downsides – and it may contribute to a more positive childbirth experience. So, if you feel inclined, I say dance away.

    Hannah Dahlen receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

    – ref. Is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, right? Can dancing or twerking really bring on labour? – https://theconversation.com/is-meghan-duchess-of-sussex-right-can-dancing-or-twerking-really-bring-on-labour-259257

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The 28 Days Later franchise redefined zombie films. But the undead have an old, rich and varied history

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Christopher White, Historian, The University of Queensland

    The history of the dead – or, more precisely, the history of the living’s fascination with the dead – is an intriguing one.

    As a researcher of the supernatural, I’m often pulled aside at conferences or at the school gate, and told in furtive whispers about people’s encounters with the dead.

    The dead haunt our imagination in a number of different forms, whether as “cold spots”, or the walking dead popularised in zombie franchises such as 28 Days Later.

    The franchise’s latest release, 28 Years Later, brings back the Hollywood zombie in all its glory – but these archetypal creatures have a much wider and varied history.

    Zombis, revenants and the returning dead

    A zombie is typically a reanimated corpse: a category of the returning dead. Scholars refer to them as “revenants”, and continue to argue over their exact characteristics.

    In the Haitian Vodou religion, the zombi is not the same as the Hollywood zombie. Instead, zombi are people who, as a religious punishment, are drugged, buried alive, then dug out and forced into slavery.

    The Hollywood zombie, however, draws more from medieval European stories about the returning dead than from Vodou.

    A perfect setting for a ‘zombie’ film

    In 28 Years Later, the latest entry in Danny Boyle’s blockbuster horror franchise, the monsters technically aren’t zombies because they aren’t dead. Instead, they are infected by a “rage virus”, accidentally released by a group of animal rights activists in the beginning of the first film.

    This third film focuses on events almost three decades after the first film. The British Isles is quarantined, and the young protagonist Spike (Alfie Williams) and his family live in a village on Lindisfarne Island. This island, one of the most important sites in early medieval British Christianity, is isolated and protected by a tidal causeway that links it to the mainland.

    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams star in the new film, out in Australian cinemas today.
    Sony Pictures

    The film leans heavily on how we imagine the medieval world, with scenes showing silhouetted fletchers at work making arrows, children training with bows, towering ossuaries and various memento mori. There’s also footage from earlier depictions of medieval warfare. And at one point, the characters seek sanctuary in the ruins of Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire, which was built in 1132.

    The medieval locations and imagery of 28 Years Later evoke the long history of revenants, and the returned dead who once roved medieval England.

    Early accounts of the medieval dead

    In the medieval world, or at least the parts that wrote in Latin, the returning dead were usually called spiritus (“spirit”), but they weren’t limited to the non-corporeal like today’s ghosts are.

    Medieval Latin Christians from as early as the 3rd century saw the dead as part of a parallel society that mirrored the world of the living, where each group relied on the other to aid them through the afterlife.

    Depiction of the undead from a medieval manuscript.
    British Library, Yates Thompson MS 13

    While some medieval ghosts would warn the living about what awaited sinners in the afterlife, or lead their relatives to treasure, or prophesise the future, some also returned to terrorise the living.

    And like the “zombies” affected by the rage virus in 28 Years Later, these revenants could go into a frenzy in the presence of the living.

    Thietmar, the Prince-Bishop of Merseburg, Germany, wrote the Chronicon Thietmari (Thietmar’s Chronicle) between 1012 and 1018, and included a number of ghost stories that featured revenants.

    Although not all of them framed the dead as terrifying, they certainly didn’t paint them as friendly, either. In one story, a congregation of the dead at a church set the priest upon the altar, before burning him to ashes – intended to be read as a mirror of pagan sacrifice.

    These dead were physical beings, capable of seizing a man and sacrificing him in his own church.

    A threat to be dealt with

    The English monastic historian William of Newburgh (1136–98) wrote revenants were so common in his day that recording them all would be exhausting. According to him, the returned dead were frequently seen in 12th century England.

    So, instead of providing a exhausting list, he offered some choice examples which, like most medieval ghost stories, had a good Christian moral attached to them.

    William’s revenants mostly killed the people of the towns they lived, returning to the grave between their escapades. But the medieval English had a method for dealing with these monsters; they dug them up, tore out the heart and then burned the body.

    Other revenants were dealt with less harshly, William explained. In one case, all it took was the Bishop of Lincoln writing a letter of absolution to stop a dead man returning to his widow’s bed.

    These medieval dead were also thought to spread disease – much like those infected with the rage virus – and were capable of physically killing someone.

    Depiction of the undead from a medieval manuscript.
    British Library, Arundel MS 83.

    The undead, further north

    In medieval Scandinavia and Iceland, the undead draugr were extremely strong, hideous to look at and stunk of decomposition. Some were immune to human weapons and often killed animals near their tombs before building up to kill humans. Like their English counterparts, they also spread disease.

    But according to the Eyrbyggja saga, an anonymous 13th or 14th century text written in Iceland, all it took was a type of community court and the threat of legal action to drive off these returned dead.

    It’s a method the survivors in 28 Years Later didn’t try.

    The dead live on

    The first-hand zombie stories that were common during the medieval period started to dwindle in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, which focused more on individuals’ behaviours and salvation.

    Nonetheless, their influence can still be felt in Catholic ritual practices today, such as in prayers offered for the dead, and the lighting of votive candles.

    We still tell ghost stories, and we still worry about things that go bump in the night. And of course, we continue to explore the undead in all its forms on the big screen.

    Christopher White 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 28 Days Later franchise redefined zombie films. But the undead have an old, rich and varied history – https://theconversation.com/the-28-days-later-franchise-redefined-zombie-films-but-the-undead-have-an-old-rich-and-varied-history-247900

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: It’s not just ‘chronic fatigue’: ME/CFS is much more than being tired

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sarah Annesley, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Cell and Molecular Biology, La Trobe University

    Edwin Tan/Getty

    Myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is as complex as its name is difficult to pronounce. It’s sometimes referred to as simply “chronic fatigue”, but this is just one of its symptoms.

    In fact, ME/CFS is a complex neurological disease, recognised by the World Health Organization, that affects nearly every system in the body.

    The name refers to muscle pain (myalgia), inflammation of the brain (encephalomyelitis), and a profound, disabling fatigue that rest can’t relieve.

    However, the illness’s complexity – and its disproportionate impact on women – means ME/CFS has often been incorrectly labelled as a psychological disorder.

    What is ME/CFS?

    ME/CFS affects people of all ages but is most commonly diagnosed in middle age. It is two to three times more common in women than men.

    While the exact cause is unknown, ME/CFS is commonly triggered by an infection.

    The condition has two core symptoms: a disabling, long-lasting fatigue that rest doesn’t relieve, and a worsening of symptoms after physical or mental exertion.

    This is known as post-exertional malaise. It means even slight exertion can make symptoms much worse, and take much longer than expected to recover.

    This varies between people, but could mean simply having a shower or attending a social event triggers worse symptoms, either immediately or days later.

    These symptoms include pain, sleep issues, cognitive difficulties (such as thinking, memory and decision-making), flu-like symptoms, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems, heart rate fluctuations and many more.

    For some people, symptoms can be managed in a way that allows them to work. For others, the disease is so severe it can leave them housebound or bedridden.

    Symptoms can fluctuate, changing over time and in intensity, making ME/CFS a particularly unpredictable and misunderstood condition.

    Not just ‘in your head’

    A growing body of scientific evidence, however, clearly shows ME/CFS is a biological, not mental, illness.

    Neuroimaging studies have revealed differences in the brain activity and structure of people with ME/CFS, including poor blood flow and lower levels of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the nervous system).

    Other research indicates the condition affects how the body produces energy (the metabolism), fights infection (the immune system), delivers oxygen to muscles and tissues, and regulates blood pressure and heart rate (the vascular system).

    Issues with criteria

    To diagnose ME/CFS, a clinician will also exclude other possible causes of fatigue, which can be a lengthy process. A patient needs to meet a set of clinical criteria.

    But one of the major challenges in researching ME/CFS is that the diagnostic criteria clinicians use vary worldwide.

    Some criteria focus solely on fatigue and include people with alternate reasons for fatigue, such as a psychiatric disorder.

    Others are more narrow and may only capture ME/CFS patients with more severe symptoms.

    As a result, it can be very difficult to compare across different studies, as the reasons they include or exclude participants vary so much.

    Changes to the guidelines

    In Australia, doctors often receive little formal education about ME/CFS.

    Most commonly, they follow the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ clinical guidelines to diagnose and manage ME/CFS. These are based on the Canadian Consensus Criteria which are considered more stringent than other ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.

    They include post-exertional malaise and fatigue for more than six months as core symptoms.

    However, these guidelines are outdated and rely heavily on controversial studies that assumed the primary cause of ME/CFS was “deconditioning” – a loss of physical strength due to a fear or avoidance of exercise.

    These guidelines recommend ME/CFS should be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy – a common psychotherapy which focuses on changing unhealthy thoughts and behaviours – and graded exercise therapy, which gradually introduces more demanding physical activity.

    While cognitive behaviour therapy can be effective for some people managing ME/CFS, it’s important not to frame this condition primarily as a psychological issue.

    Graded exercise therapy can encourage people to push beyond their “energy envelope”, which means they do more than their body can manage. This can trigger post-exertional malaise and a worsening of symptoms.

    In June 2024, the Australian government announced A$1.1 million towards developing new clinical guidelines for diagnosing and managing ME/CFS.

    Leading organisations have scrapped the recommendation of graded exercise therapy in the United States (in 2015) and the United Kingdom (in 2021). Hopefully Australia will follow suit.

    What can people with ME/CFS do?

    While we wait for updated clinical guidelines, “pacing” – or working within your energy envelope – has shown some success in managing symptoms. This means monitoring and limiting how much energy you expend.

    Some evidence also suggests people who rest in the early stages of their initial illness often experience better long-term outcomes with ME/CFS.

    This is especially relevant after the COVID pandemic and with the emergence of long COVID. Studies indicate more than half of those affected meet stringent clinical criteria for ME/CFS.

    In times of acute illness we should resist the temptation to push through. Choosing to rest may be a crucial step in preventing a condition that is much more debilitating than the original infection.

    Sarah Annesley receives funding from The Judith Jane Mason & Harold Stannett Williams Memorial Foundation and ME Research UK (SCIO charity number SCO36942).

    – ref. It’s not just ‘chronic fatigue’: ME/CFS is much more than being tired – https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-chronic-fatigue-me-cfs-is-much-more-than-being-tired-258803

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: It’s not just ‘chronic fatigue’: ME/CFS is much more than being tired

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sarah Annesley, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Cell and Molecular Biology, La Trobe University

    Edwin Tan/Getty

    Myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is as complex as its name is difficult to pronounce. It’s sometimes referred to as simply “chronic fatigue”, but this is just one of its symptoms.

    In fact, ME/CFS is a complex neurological disease, recognised by the World Health Organization, that affects nearly every system in the body.

    The name refers to muscle pain (myalgia), inflammation of the brain (encephalomyelitis), and a profound, disabling fatigue that rest can’t relieve.

    However, the illness’s complexity – and its disproportionate impact on women – means ME/CFS has often been incorrectly labelled as a psychological disorder.

    What is ME/CFS?

    ME/CFS affects people of all ages but is most commonly diagnosed in middle age. It is two to three times more common in women than men.

    While the exact cause is unknown, ME/CFS is commonly triggered by an infection.

    The condition has two core symptoms: a disabling, long-lasting fatigue that rest doesn’t relieve, and a worsening of symptoms after physical or mental exertion.

    This is known as post-exertional malaise. It means even slight exertion can make symptoms much worse, and take much longer than expected to recover.

    This varies between people, but could mean simply having a shower or attending a social event triggers worse symptoms, either immediately or days later.

    These symptoms include pain, sleep issues, cognitive difficulties (such as thinking, memory and decision-making), flu-like symptoms, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems, heart rate fluctuations and many more.

    For some people, symptoms can be managed in a way that allows them to work. For others, the disease is so severe it can leave them housebound or bedridden.

    Symptoms can fluctuate, changing over time and in intensity, making ME/CFS a particularly unpredictable and misunderstood condition.

    Not just ‘in your head’

    A growing body of scientific evidence, however, clearly shows ME/CFS is a biological, not mental, illness.

    Neuroimaging studies have revealed differences in the brain activity and structure of people with ME/CFS, including poor blood flow and lower levels of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the nervous system).

    Other research indicates the condition affects how the body produces energy (the metabolism), fights infection (the immune system), delivers oxygen to muscles and tissues, and regulates blood pressure and heart rate (the vascular system).

    Issues with criteria

    To diagnose ME/CFS, a clinician will also exclude other possible causes of fatigue, which can be a lengthy process. A patient needs to meet a set of clinical criteria.

    But one of the major challenges in researching ME/CFS is that the diagnostic criteria clinicians use vary worldwide.

    Some criteria focus solely on fatigue and include people with alternate reasons for fatigue, such as a psychiatric disorder.

    Others are more narrow and may only capture ME/CFS patients with more severe symptoms.

    As a result, it can be very difficult to compare across different studies, as the reasons they include or exclude participants vary so much.

    Changes to the guidelines

    In Australia, doctors often receive little formal education about ME/CFS.

    Most commonly, they follow the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ clinical guidelines to diagnose and manage ME/CFS. These are based on the Canadian Consensus Criteria which are considered more stringent than other ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.

    They include post-exertional malaise and fatigue for more than six months as core symptoms.

    However, these guidelines are outdated and rely heavily on controversial studies that assumed the primary cause of ME/CFS was “deconditioning” – a loss of physical strength due to a fear or avoidance of exercise.

    These guidelines recommend ME/CFS should be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy – a common psychotherapy which focuses on changing unhealthy thoughts and behaviours – and graded exercise therapy, which gradually introduces more demanding physical activity.

    While cognitive behaviour therapy can be effective for some people managing ME/CFS, it’s important not to frame this condition primarily as a psychological issue.

    Graded exercise therapy can encourage people to push beyond their “energy envelope”, which means they do more than their body can manage. This can trigger post-exertional malaise and a worsening of symptoms.

    In June 2024, the Australian government announced A$1.1 million towards developing new clinical guidelines for diagnosing and managing ME/CFS.

    Leading organisations have scrapped the recommendation of graded exercise therapy in the United States (in 2015) and the United Kingdom (in 2021). Hopefully Australia will follow suit.

    What can people with ME/CFS do?

    While we wait for updated clinical guidelines, “pacing” – or working within your energy envelope – has shown some success in managing symptoms. This means monitoring and limiting how much energy you expend.

    Some evidence also suggests people who rest in the early stages of their initial illness often experience better long-term outcomes with ME/CFS.

    This is especially relevant after the COVID pandemic and with the emergence of long COVID. Studies indicate more than half of those affected meet stringent clinical criteria for ME/CFS.

    In times of acute illness we should resist the temptation to push through. Choosing to rest may be a crucial step in preventing a condition that is much more debilitating than the original infection.

    Sarah Annesley receives funding from The Judith Jane Mason & Harold Stannett Williams Memorial Foundation and ME Research UK (SCIO charity number SCO36942).

    – ref. It’s not just ‘chronic fatigue’: ME/CFS is much more than being tired – https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-chronic-fatigue-me-cfs-is-much-more-than-being-tired-258803

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: World Refugee Day: Prolonged refugee separation is harming families — and Canada’s economy

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Christina Clark-Kazak, Professor, Public and International Affairs, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

    As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20, advocates and health experts are calling on the Canadian government to urgently address prolonged family separation for refugees. With wait times for family reunification now averaging more than four years, critics say the delays are causing irreparable harm to refugee families and imposing long-term costs on the health-care system and the Canadian economy.

    The significant health, social and economic costs of prolonged family separation merit urgent action. These costs are borne by refugees and their families as well as municipal, provincial and federal governments.

    People seeking refugee protection whose claims are accepted in Canada receive protected person status and are allowed to apply for permanent residence. They are permitted to include dependent children and spouses who are outside Canada on their permanent residence applications.

    While accepted refugees and their family members are legally eligible for permanent residence in Canada, they must be admitted under the immigration levels for Protected Persons in Canada and Dependants Abroad. Because the number of people applying under these levels exceeds the number of spaces available, family separation currently lasts 50 months.

    In 2024, the government of Canada announced major reductions in immigration levels starting in 2025. These reductions will further delay family reunification, prolonging refugees’ bureaucratic limbo.

    Mental and physical health costs

    Studies document the several mental health consequences of the separation of children from their parent(s), and of spouses from their partner. These challenges intensify as the duration of the separation increases.

    Medical associations around the world say family separation is a traumatic event that can cause developmental regression and higher rates of unexplained illness in children.

    This trauma may stem from the sense of abandonment that children experience while being separated from their parents. In one study from 2005, an interviewee said:

    “It was hard at first … .The children thought that I had abandoned them. They considered me a traitor.”

    Despite the time and efforts invested in long-distance relationships, family breakdown may result from prolonged family separation, necessitating counselling or child protection services.

    These mental health consequences not only have human costs. They also represent a financial burden for the Canadian government through the Interim Federal Health Care (IFHC) Program. After protected people transition away from IFHC, provincial and territorial governments pay for health costs associated with family separation.

    Some children may also require school-based interventions, mental health services and counselling, the costs of which are also borne by provincial governments.

    Economic costs

    Protected people separated from their families also pay to maintain two households: one in Canada and one overseas. In a 2019 study, a refugee said that “sending remittances was more expensive than if they lived together in Canada.”

    Remittances not only represent a financial challenge to refugee families, they also result in indirect economic losses to Canada as funds leave the country instead of being invested in Canada.

    Research shows that family separation also inhibits integration. The inability to find affordable child care in a single-parent household, for example, limits the ability to learn official languages, participate in community groups and find work opportunities.

    For example, one woman from Afghanistan who had been waiting more than six years for reunification with her husband told researchers:

    “In night I sometimes cannot sleep and I just walk and walk around the lobby of my apartment building. […] I can no longer take care of my children when they’re missing all the time their father. They need their father. Even sometimes my family asking ‘where is he?’ and other kids at my children’s schools are asking.”

    This stress caused severe mental and physical health issues for this woman and her family, further limiting her ability to work.

    These integration challenges mean fewer people can work to their full capacity, limiting participation in the Canadian economy. Delayed economic integration due to family separation results in lower tax revenues for all levels of the Canadian government.

    Family unity provides refugees with the necessary support to manage the stresses of resettlement. Family reunification increases flexibility to adjust to a new country and culture without additional challenges.

    As refugees and their families integrate, Canada benefits. They find work, pay taxes and contribute to their communities.

    An easy administrative fix

    The United Nations declared June 20 to be World Refugee Day almost 25 years ago. Although it’s just one day, it reminds us to honour refugees from around the world.

    It is a good time for the Canadian government to work towards issuing temporary visas to eligible family members, allowing them to live in Canada while they await permanent residence.

    The right to family unity is protected by international law. Canada’s reputation as a leader in refugee protection is at risk if family reunification continues to be delayed.

    The social, health and economic costs of family separation are both inhumane and unnecessary.

    Chloé Bissonnette, undergraduate student in Conflict Studies and Human Rights at the University of Ottawa, contributed to this article.

    Christina Clark-Kazak receives funding from the Social Sciences Humanities and Research Council (SSHRC).

    – ref. World Refugee Day: Prolonged refugee separation is harming families — and Canada’s economy – https://theconversation.com/world-refugee-day-prolonged-refugee-separation-is-harming-families-and-canadas-economy-258441

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Misogyny has become a political strategy — here’s how the pandemic helped make it happen

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Brianna I. Wiens, Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Rhetoric, University of Waterloo

    Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more overt forms of gendered hate have jumped from obscure internet forums into the mainstream, shaping culture and policy.

    Social media doesn’t just reflect sexist, anti-feminist views; it helps to organize, amplify and normalize them.

    Backlash against women and LGBTQ+ communities has become more overt, co-ordinated and is gaining political traction. As the United States rolls back reproductive rights and passes anti-LGBTQ+ laws, it is important to understand how digital culture fuels this regression.

    While these shifts may seem distant, Canadian politics are not immune. Similar rhetoric has emerged in debates over education, gender identity, health care and so-called “parental rights.”



    Read more:
    ‘Parental rights’ lobby puts trans and queer kids at risk

    Our ongoing research maps how the pandemic accelerated the rise of online misogyny, especially through “manosphere” influencers and far-right rhetoric.

    Drawing from more than 21,000 podcast episodes and digital artifacts, we are investigating how everyday online content works to erode women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. This rhetoric normalizes misogynistic, transphobic and homophobic views and repackages gender inequities as common sense.

    How the pandemic fuelled digital misogyny

    COVID-19 lockdowns set the stage for a surge in online radicalization. Isolated men and boys increasingly turned to social media for connection — spaces where manosphere personalities like English-American social media influencer Andrew Tate and American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro gained momentum.

    These figures blend anti-feminist messaging with broader pandemic-era anxieties, turning gender roles into moral and political battlegrounds.

    Conservative influencers who once focused on vaccine skepticism began pivoting to anti-gender content. Steve Bannon’s podcast, for example, moved from pedalling public health disinformation to pushing narratives that feminism and LGBTQ+ rights are threats to western civilization.

    Before the internet, radicalization usually required personal contact. Now, people can self-radicalize online, engaging with algorithm-driven content and communities that reinforce extremist beliefs, often without ever interacting with a recruiter. This shift coincided with a marked rise in reported online hate speech and offline hate crimes.

    Misogyny as a mobilizing force

    Meanwhile, women’s experiences during the pandemic — over half of whom are caregivers in Canada — involved increased labour at home and in front-line jobs. This left little time or energy for the organizational work necessary to combat the rising tides of sexism and misogyny.

    Instead, public discourse began to increasingly valourize “tradwife” ideals and homemaking. This ensured traditional gender roles were brought back into the mainstream, not just as personal preferences, but as broader cultural expectations.

    Though this misogyny appears to be fringe, it echoes mainstream policies that threaten reproductive health care, restrict gender expression and paint feminism as a threat to national stability.

    Project 2025, the well-known policy platform from U.S. conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, lays out an agenda to repeal reproductive rights, undermine LGBTQ+ protections and expand state control over gender and family life.



    Read more:
    How Project 2025 became the blueprint for Donald Trump’s second term

    How misogynist narratives are normalized

    These misogynist ideas are reinforced in popular culture. In May 2024, NFL player Harrison Butker used his commencement address at Benedictine College to tell women graduates that their true calling was to become wives and mothers.

    Such rhetoric serves to re-establish patriarchal hierarchies by narrowing women’s roles to domestic life. But this isn’t about family values, it’s about power. Moves in the U.S. to restrict women’s reproductive autonomy and democratic access to vote make this abundantly clear.

    While feminists pushed back, manosphere podcast influencers rushed to Butker’s defense. American white supremacist Nick Fuentes celebrated the speech as a manifesto, while Shapiro framed it as uncontroversial truth.

    Our analysis of podcast episodes from Shapiro and Fuentes, among others, shows how misogynist and racist narratives are reinforced through repetition and emotional framing. In episodes focused on Butker’s commencement speech, there were significant concentrations of hate speech and misogyny in the episodes.

    Both Shapiro and Fuentes positioned feminism as a threat and framed motherhood as women’s true vocation. Shapiro downplayed the backlash against Butker as liberal outrage through calculatedly mainstream language that used sanitized, “family values” language.

    Fuentes promoted an extreme theocratic vision rooted in white Catholic nationalism. In Episode 1,330 of his America First podcast, he said, “I want women to be veiled. I don’t want them to be seen. I want them to be listening to their husbands.”

    These talking points consistently align with Butker’s original sentiment and reflect broader political efforts to erode gender equity, as seen in political documents like Project 2025.

    Other public figures like Texan megachurch pastor Joel Webbon went even further, advocating for the public execution of women who accuse men of sexual assault — a horrifying example that circulated in manosphere circles.

    From the fringes to the mainstream

    What’s happening online is not just cultural noise; it’s a co-ordinated effort by conservative political organizations, media outlets and right-wing influencers to shape gender norms, undermine equality and roll back decades of feminist progress.

    When misogyny becomes a political strategy, it doesn’t stay confined to podcasts or memes. It seeps into everyday vernacular, court rulings and public policy, and it’s global in scope.

    This isn’t new, either. In 2012, Australia’s then-prime minister, Julia Gillard, called out sexist language in parliament, including being labelled a “witch” and subjected to dismissive catcalls. Her speech highlighted the normalization of misogynistic vernacular in politics, but also triggered public backlash, including having anti-immigration remarks misattributed to her.

    Similarly, in the lead-up to Germany’s 2021 federal election, Greens party candidate Annalena Baerbock faced co-ordinated disinformation and smear campaigns from foreign entities aimed at undermining her credibility and questioning her “maternal suitability” in the public eye. Digitally altered nude photos, fake protest images and disinformation graphics were circulated.

    These campaigns reflect how misogyny is weaponized to influence elections, and how such campaigns can be a threat to national security.

    A 2022 #MeToo litigation analysis showed how, despite increasing awareness around sexual assault and harassment, U.S. courts often use legal language that reinforces victim-blaming by placing victims in the grammatical subject position of sentences. For example, phrases like “the victim failed to resist” or “the victim did not report the incident immediately” shift focus onto the victim’s behaviour rather than the perpetrator’s actions.

    These details continue to affect broader legal narratives and public acceptance.

    Digital platforms are battlegrounds

    Recognizing these connections is crucial. As far-right movements gain ground by repackaging ideas about gender as nostalgic “truth” or “tradition,” we need to recognize that digital platforms are not neutral, nostalgic spaces.

    Rather, they are conversational battlegrounds where power is contested and jokes, tweets and speeches carry real political weight.

    In the fight for gender equity, the internet is not just a mirror that reflects multiple realities. It’s a tool built by the tech industry that was never intended to democratize communication, labour or social roles. Right now, that tool is being weaponized to signal and reassert patriarchal control.

    Brianna I. Wiens receives research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    Nick Ruest receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    Shana MacDonald receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    – ref. Misogyny has become a political strategy — here’s how the pandemic helped make it happen – https://theconversation.com/misogyny-has-become-a-political-strategy-heres-how-the-pandemic-helped-make-it-happen-256043

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –