Category: Science

MIL-Evening Report: We looked at what supermarkets in 97 countries are doing to our waistlines. Here’s what we found

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tailane Scapin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Deakin University

World Obesity Federation

In many countries, buying food at supermarkets, convenience stores and online has become the norm. But what’s the convenience of modern food shopping doing to our health?

Our study, published today with colleagues from UNICEF, looked at how people in 97 countries shopped for groceries over 15 years.

Globally, we found a huge increase in the number of supermarkets and convenience stores (which we’ll shorten to chain grocery stores in this article). We also found people are spending more money in these stores and on their online platforms.

But this has come at a cost to our health. People in countries with the most chain grocery stores per person buy more unhealthy food and are more likely to be obese.

Here’s why we’re so concerned about this public health disaster.

The rise of chain grocery stores

Our study analysed food industry data from a business database to understand how the food retail sector has changed worldwide over time. We looked at the kinds of stores, how much people spend there, and how much unhealthy processed food is sold. We linked these trends with changes in obesity rates using data from a large global initiative.

We found the density of chain grocery stores (number of stores per 10,000 people) has increased globally by 23.6% over 15 years (from 2009 to 2023).

We found far more of these stores per person in high-income countries, as you may expect. However, it’s in low- and middle-income countries where numbers are increasing the fastest.

Rapid urbanisation, rising incomes and customer demand mean large retail companies see these countries as new potential markets.

For example, the density of chain grocery stores increased by about 21% a year in Myanmar, about 18% a year in Vietnam and about 12% a year in Cambodia.

In Vietnam, the number of chain grocery stores increased by about 18% a year.
Nature-Andy/Shutterstock

We’re shopping online too

The data in our study also covers the rise of online food shopping. For instance, the worldwide spend on online grocery shopping was 325% more in 2023 compared with 2014.

Out of the 27 countries we looked at for online food shopping, people in the United Arab Emirates and the United States were the top spenders. In 2023, the average person in the United Arab Emirates spent about US$617 that year, 570% more than in 2014. In the US, the average person spent US$387 in 2023. That’s about 125% more than in 2014.

It seems many of us took to online shopping during the early days of the COVID pandemic, a habit that appears to have stuck.

More chain stores, more junk food, more obesity

The rise of chain grocery stores, including their online platforms, is also changing what we eat.

Over the 15 years of our study, there has been a 10.9% increase in the sales of unhealthy processed food from those chain grocery stores.

In South Asia, the increase has been particularly rapid. People in Pakistan have been buying 5% more unhealthy processed foods from chain grocery stores every year for the past 15 years. In India, it’s 4% more and in Bangladesh 3% more.

Over 15 years, our study also showed the percentage of people with obesity across all countries rose from 18.2% to 23.7%. It was the countries with the biggest increases in chain grocery stores where we saw the sharpest increases in obesity.

Laos is a good example. The number of chain grocery stores per person in the country has been increasing by 15% each year since 2009, while the percentage of people with obesity has doubled from 2009 to 2023.

In almost all countries, obesity is on the rise. In Australia, overweight and obesity have recently officially overtaken tobacco as the biggest burden on our health.

Over 15 years, there has been a 10.9% increase in the sales of unhealthy processed food globally.
Pratiwi Ambarwati/Shutterstock

Why do we think supermarkets are to blame?

Supermarkets and hypermarkets sell healthy foods, such as fruit and vegetables. Yet, there are good reasons to think our retail environment might be to blame for the rise in obesity.

Highly processed foods

Chain grocery stores typically sell an enormous array of highly processed packaged foods high in sugar, fat and salt that can harm our health. One study of the food and drinks available in supermarkets from 12 countries showed the majority are classified as unhealthy. Given our findings of rapid increases in chain grocery in low- and middle-income countries, it was alarming in this study that the least healthy products were typically seen in supermarkets from countries like India, China and Chile.

Heavy promotion

Chain grocery stores often aggressively promote unhealthy foods. This includes through price discounting; advertising in circulars, on TV and social media; and by being placed in prominent displays at checkouts and the ends of aisles. Studies have shown this to be true in Belgium, Ireland and another 12 countries.

Online, we see unhealthy foods promoted more often (with discounts and displayed more prominently) than healthy options. For instance, on average at least one-third of products prominently displayed on Australian supermarket websites are unhealthy.

More buying power

Compared to small independent grocers, large chain grocery stores globally have a far larger influence on decisions around product assortment and price. Because of this, they can control supply chains, often in partnership with national and multi-national food manufacturers of ultra processed, unhealthy packaged foods.

What can we do about it?

There are many social, political, cultural and economic factors that contribute to the rise in obesity globally. Many of these relate to the price, availability and promotion of food in retail settings and the way the retail industry is structured.

Because of this, we think it’s time for governments and retailers to step up and start making changes to where and how we shop for food.

Some countries are already beginning to act. In the United Kingdom for example, government legislation now prevents placing unhealthy foods in prominent places such as the checkout counter and at the ends of aisles close to checkouts. From October this year, further restrictions on the price promotion of unhealthy foods (such as “buy one, get one free”) will also come into force in the UK.

There is also plenty that retailers can do. In Norway, for example, one major grocery chain launched a comprehensive healthy eating campaign several years ago, including by increasing the size and prominence of healthy food displays and offering discounts on fruits and vegetables. This led to a 42% increase in vegetable sales and a 25% rise in fruit sales from 2012 until 2020.

But most grocery chains are still not doing enough to prioritise their customers’ health and nutrition. In the US, we see this in particular for supermarkets catering to people on low-incomes. And in the UK, although there has been some promising progress by some supermarket retailers, all those assessed have considerable scope for improvement.

Now more than ever, it is time to create healthier retail food environments that support nutritious diets and help reverse the rising rates of obesity.

Tailane Scapin receives funding from UNICEF.

Adrian Cameron receives funding from the National Heart Foundation of Australia, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and UNICEF. He is affiliated with INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity / Non-communicable Diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support) and is the Director of the RE-FRESH: Next Generation NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health.

– ref. We looked at what supermarkets in 97 countries are doing to our waistlines. Here’s what we found – https://theconversation.com/we-looked-at-what-supermarkets-in-97-countries-are-doing-to-our-waistlines-heres-what-we-found-246412

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 4, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Misinformation on refugees and migrants is rife during elections. We found 6 ways it spreads – and how to stop it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Professor and Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

Misinformation is a significant threat to our society. It undermines public discussion, erodes social cohesion, leads to bad policy and weakens democracy.

Misinformation on refugee and migrant issues is particularly pervasive – especially in the lead up to elections, as bad-faith actors try to promote fear, distrust and simplistic solutions.

And sometimes, misinformation is specifically targeted at migrant communities themselves, sowing division in an effort to influence elections.

So, what’s the best way to counter misinformation about refugees and migrants? And given the risk that publicly addressing lies and rumours can sometimes end up spreading them, when is misinformation best ignored?

A new report by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the Behavioural Insights Team (a behavioural science research company) uses science to answer these questions.

Behavioural science explains why and how misinformation works. Understanding some of that science can empower all of us to stop its spread.

Misinformation increases during elections

The recent US presidential race provides a stark example of how misinformation on refugees and migrants soars during elections.

During one presidential debate, Donald Trump falsely claimed migrants in Ohio were “eating the pets”. Though entirely untrue, this baseless claim spread rapidly across social media.

Australia is not immune to such deception. While refugees and migrants make significant positive economic, social and cultural contributions to their host societies, politicians across the spectrum have falsely blamed them for issues ranging from rising house prices to crime.

This is not new. Back in the 2001 election campaign, government ministers made false claims that people seeking asylum had thrown their children overboard from a boat. These are widely regarded as having contributed to turning around the fortunes of the Howard government, which was then trailing in the polls.

Instead of addressing challenges with real solutions, these strategies scapegoat refugees and migrants, and ignore their immense positive contributions.

Misinformation leads to a more divided and polarised society. So, how does it spread?

6 ways misinformation spreads

Online platforms create the perfect breeding ground for misinformation to spread.

The rise of AI-generated misinformation – such as highly convincing deepfake images and videos – only exacerbates the problem.

Combating misinformation begins with understanding the psychological factors that drive its spread and influence.

Our new report identifies six key behavioural science principles that explain how misinformation takes hold:

1. Hot states: Heightened emotions, such as fear, outrage or anxiety, make people more reactive and less critical of misleading claims.

2. The messenger effect: People judge a message’s truth based on who shares it, often trusting friends and family over experts.

3. The mere-exposure effect: Seeing misinformation multiple times makes it seem more true, making people more likely to share it.

4. Confirmation bias: People are more likely to believe false information that aligns with their values and reject facts that challenge them.

5. Cognitive load: When overwhelmed by information, people are less likely to question what they see, making them more vulnerable to falsehoods.

6. Continued influence effect: Misinformation has a lasting effect on our attitudes and decisions, even after it has been corrected.

Building on these principles and an extensive review of research literature, we developed an evidence-based framework for countering misinformation about refugees and migrants.

It provides a step-by-step guide on what to do when faced with falsehoods, starting with recognising whether the misinformation is anticipated or already circulating.

Think before you like or share.
fizkes/Shutterstock

When misinformation is anticipated

When you expect a particular false claim, but it’s not yet out there, then prebunk. Alert people to manipulation tactics before they become widespread.

This helps people recognise and resist misinformation before it takes hold.

When misinformation is already circulating

If false claims are already out there, first ask three questions before acting:
1. is the claim prominent (visible and gaining traction)?
2. is it persuasive (able to change people’s minds)?
3. is it proximate (relevant to your audience and cause)?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then reframe the agenda. Instead of amplifying falsehoods, shift your resources to sharing stories that reinforce accurate information and resonate with your audience’s values.

If misinformation is indeed prominent, persuasive and proximate, debunk it.

Use the fact, myth, fallacy, fact – or “fact sandwich” – method. Make the correction clear, credible and effective by stating the truth, then presenting the myth, explaining its flaws, and reinforcing the correct fact.

Here’s an example that leads with a fact, warns about the myth, explains the fallacy and then ends with a fact:

When Australia’s borders were closed during COVID, migration was at its lowest in a century — yet house prices still went up. The idea that cutting migration will magically solve the housing crisis doesn’t hold up against the evidence.

But some political actors are blaming migrants, as if they’re the main reason housing has become unaffordable.

In fact, this oversimplifies the problem. The housing crisis has been a long time in the making, and it’s now this severe because of past policy choices piling up.

There are many drivers of Australia’s housing crisis, including a lack of housing, rising construction costs, and tax breaks that distort the market. Migration is only a small piece of the puzzle.

How to engage audiences

The report also details seven strategies that drive reach and impact. These include publicly communicating in a way that’s:
- consistent
- repeated
- coordinated with other groups with similar goals
- appeals to your audience’s values and emotions, and
- uses humour.
One part of a broader approach

These strategies can be used by anyone seeking to push back against misinformation in our public debate, not just about refugees and migrants.

However, communication approaches are only one lever.

To turn the tide on misinformation, society needs systemic solutions. These include media literacy education and regulatory reform of online platforms.

As we approach Australia’s next federal election, addressing misinformation about refugees and migrants is more crucial than ever to protect refugees and migrants from harm, strengthen our democratic processes, and foster a more inclusive society.

Daniel Ghezelbash receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW government and the Robert Bosch Foundation. He is a board member of Refugee Advice and Casework Services, Wallumatta Legal, and the Access to Justice and Technology Network. He is also a Special Counsel at the National Justice Project.

Saul Wodak is affiliated with the Behavioural Insights Team.

– ref. Misinformation on refugees and migrants is rife during elections. We found 6 ways it spreads – and how to stop it – https://theconversation.com/misinformation-on-refugees-and-migrants-is-rife-during-elections-we-found-6-ways-it-spreads-and-how-to-stop-it-251035
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
March 4, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: ‘Ghosts of the radio universe’: astronomers have discovered a slew of faint circular objects

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miroslav Filipovic, Professor, Western Sydney University

Some of the objects captured by ASKAP. Author provided

Radio astronomers see what the naked eye can’t. As we study the sky with telescopes that record radio signals rather than light, we end up seeing a lot of circles.

The newest generation of radio telescopes – including the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT, a telescope in South Africa – is revealing incredibly faint cosmic objects, never before seen.

In astronomy, surface brightness is a measure that tells us how easily visible an object is. The extraordinary sensitivity of MeerKAT and ASKAP is now revealing a new “low surface brightness universe” to radio astronomers. It’s comprised of radio sources so faint they have never been seen before, each with their own unique physical properties.

Many of the ASKAP results presented here were obtained with one of its major observing programs called EMU (Evolutionary Map of the Universe). EMU is mapping the entire southern sky with an unprecedented sensitivity and will deliver the most detailed map of the southern hemisphere sky to date – a spectacular new radio atlas that will be used for decades to come.

EMU’s all-hemisphere coverage paired with ASKAP’s exceptional sensitivity, especially within the Milky Way, is what’s yielded so many recent discoveries.

Here’s what they’re teaching us.

Unstable stars

Kyklos (left) and WR16 (r).
Author provided

The ghostly ring Kýklos (from the Greek κύκλος, circle or ring) and the object WR16 both show the environment of rare and unusual celestial objects known as Wolf-Rayet stars.

When big stars are close to running out of fuel, they become unstable as they enter one of the last stages of the stellar life cycle, becoming a Wolf-Rayet star. They begin surging and pulsing, shedding their outer layers which can form bright nebulous structures around the star.

In these objects, a previous outflow of material has cleared the space around the star, allowing the current outburst to expand symmetrically in all directions. This sphere of stellar detritus shows itself as a circle.

Exploded stars

Left to right clocwise: the supernova remnants Stingray 1, Perun, Ancora and Unicycle.
Author provided

Stingray 1, Perun, Ancora and Unicycle are supernova remnants. When a big star finally runs out of fuel, it can no longer hold back the crush of gravity. The matter falling inwards causes one final explosion, and the remains of these violent star deaths are known as supernovas.

Their expanding shockwaves sweep up material into an expanding sphere, forming beautiful circular features.

The supernova remnant will be deformed by its environment over time. If one side of the explosion slams into an interstellar cloud, we’ll see a squashed shape. So, a near-perfect circle in a messy universe is a special find.

Teleios – named from the Greek Τελεɩοσ (“perfect”) for its near-perfectly circular shape – is shown below. This unique object has never been seen in any wavelength, including visible light, demonstrating ASKAP’s incredible ability to discover new objects.

The shape indicates Teleios has remained relatively untouched by its environment. This presents us with an opportunity to make inferences about the initial supernova explosion, providing rare insight into one of the most energetic events in the universe.

ASKAP EMU radio image of the Teleios supernova remnant.
Author provided

At the other extreme, we can take an object and discover something entirely new about it. The Diprotodon supernova remnant is shown below.

This remnant is one of the largest objects in the sky, appearing approximately six times larger than the Moon. Hence the name: the animal Diprotodon, one of Australia’s most famous megafauna, a giant wombat that lived about 25,000 years ago.

ASKAP’s sensitivity has uncovered the object’s full extent. This discovery led to further analysis, uncovering more of the history and the physics behind this object. The messy internal structure can be seen as different parts of the expanding shell slam into a busy interstellar environment.

ASKAP radio image of Diprotodon, a supernova remnant. Green circle shows the previous measured size, and the yellow circle shows the new ASKAP measured size. Earth’s Moon size is shown in the top right for scale, and Diprotodon’s namesake is shown in the top left.
Author provided

A cosmic mirror

Lagotis is another object that can show how new telescope data can reclassify previously discovered objects. The reflection nebula VdB-80 has been seen before, within the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. The light we see was emitted by nearby stars, and then reflected off a nearby cloud of gas and dust.

Lagotis, with its cloud of ionised hydrogen or HII region seen on the right.
Author provided

However, with newly available ASKAP EMU data, we were able to discover an associated cloud of ionised hydrogen (known as an HII region, pronounced “aitch two”), where stellar energy has caused the gaseous matter to lose its electrons.

This HII region is seen to coexist with the reflection nebula, sharing the same stellar centre, and is created from the star pushing into a molecular cloud. This movement is akin to burrowing, so the object earned the name Lagotis after Macrotis lagotis, the Australian greater bilby.

Outside the galaxy

ASKAP and MeerKAT are also illuminating objects from outside our Milky Way galaxy – for example, “radio ring” galaxies. When we use visible light to look at the stars in this galaxy, we see a rather plain disk.

But in radio light, we see a ring. Why is there a hole in the middle? Perhaps the combined force of many exploding supernovas has pushed all the radio-emitting clouds out of the centre. We’re not sure – we’re looking for more examples to test our ideas.

Finally, LMC-ORC is an Odd Radio Circle (ORC), a prominent new class of objects with unfamiliar origins. Only being visible in radio light, they are perhaps the most mysterious of all.

A radio ring galaxy (left) and LMC-ORC (r).
Author provided

The next generation

MeerKAT and ASKAP are revealing incredible insights into the low surface brightness universe. However, they are precursors for the Square Kilometre Array, an international collaborative endeavour that will increase the abilities of radio astronomers and reveal even more unique features of the universe.

The low-surface brightness universe presents many mysteries. These discoveries push our understanding further. Currently, the EMU survey using ASKAP is only 25% complete.

As more of this survey becomes available, we will discover many more unique and exciting objects, both new to astrophysics and extensions on previously known objects.

Acknowledgements: Aaron Bradley and Zachary Smeaton, Masters Research Students at Western Sydney University, made valuable contributions to this article.

Nicholas Tothill receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Andrew Hopkins, Luke Barnes, and Miroslav Filipovic 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. ‘Ghosts of the radio universe’: astronomers have discovered a slew of faint circular objects – https://theconversation.com/ghosts-of-the-radio-universe-astronomers-have-discovered-a-slew-of-faint-circular-objects-249141

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Cornyn, Padilla Introduce Bill to Safeguard U.S. Research Against Foreign Adversaries

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Texas John Cornyn
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) today introduced the U.S. Research Protection Act to shield American research from malign foreign influence by updating language in the CHIPS and Science Act to include additional restrictions against programs sponsored by countries of concern:
“In a world where competition turns into hostility all too often, we must do everything in our power to safeguard American ingenuity against bad actor nations,” said Sen. Cornyn. “This legislation will place even more restrictions on academic programs involving countries of concern to ensure American scientific research is protected.”
“The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act included important provisions to bolster our research security,” said Sen. Padilla. “This legislation will provide much needed clarity for federal agencies and academic institutions to better safeguard national security, while preserving research collaboration and international partnerships crucial to the strength of America’s innovation economy.”
Background:
Malign Foreign Talent Programs are sponsored by countries of concern like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to obtain American scientific research and technology by incentivizing or coercing American researchers to act on their behalf. The CHIPS and Science Act included provisions to prohibit the U.S. government and academic institutions from partnering with such programs.
However, the law’s current definition of a Malign Foreign Talent Program only includes programs that “directly provide” incentives and benefits to researchers to participate, leaving out other methods to provide indirect benefits to researchers to induce their cooperation. This legislation would broaden the definition to include “indirect benefits,” ensuring foreign adversarial nations cannot exploit this loophole to evade U.S. research restrictions.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth to Host Illinois Head Start Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl at Joint Address, Underscoring How Trump’s Illegal Funding Freeze is Hurting Head Start Lifelines and the Families They Serve

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

March 03, 2025

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that the Executive Director of the Illinois Head Start Association Lauri Morrison-Frichtl will be her guest to President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress as part of the Senator’s ongoing efforts to push back against Trump’s illegal funding freeze that continues to inflict needless chaos, confusion and financial pain on Head Start programs and the middle-class families they serve throughout Illinois. With over 37 years of experience with Head Start, Executive Director Morrison-Frichtl is a steadfast leader and advocate for the wellbeing of the thousands of children and families in our state who face the most significant barriers to achieving success in school and in life. Additionally, nearly 70% of Illinois Head Start and Early Head Start parents are in the workforce and rely on Head Start’s programs in order to go to their jobs—allowing them to support their families and contribute to our economy. An official portrait photo of Illinois Head Start Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl can be found on the Senator’s website.

“Despite running on the promise that he would lower costs for middle-class Americans, Donald Trump’s illegal funding freeze is hurting the same families he swore he’d protect by jeopardizing the Head Start programs so many rely on,” Duckworth said. “Leaders like Lauri Morrison-Frichtl are on the frontlines of Trump’s needless chaos—which is continuing to cause irreversible damage and jeopardize Illinois Head Start’s ability to serve thousands of children and families. I’m proud to have Lauri Morrison-Frichtl as my guest to the Joint Address to remind middle-class Americans and this Administration just how critical Head Start services are—not only for working parents trying to make ends meet, but also for the next generation of students. We cannot let Trump and Republicans tear down this lifeline for families in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires—full stop.”

“I am deeply honored to be invited as Senator Duckworth’s guest for the Joint Address to Congress,” said Morrison-Frichtl. “As the Executive Director of the Illinois Head Start Association, I’ve seen firsthand the transformative power of Head Start in creating safe, nurturing environments where children can thrive and in empowering parents to pursue meaningful employment across the great state of Illinois. However, recent disruptions and uncertainties around federal funding have created significant anxiety and stress among our parents, staff, and communities across Illinois. We are committed to navigating these challenges and ensuring that the bureaucratic hurdles do not undermine the trust that families, staff, and children place in our programs. The work we do is critical. I am honored to work with Senator Duckworth and other elected officials to support our children and families and champion the rights they need and deserve.”

Earlier this month, Duckworth joined Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, parents, teachers and staff at Two Rivers Head Start in Elgin to underscore how Trump’s illegal funding freeze is continuing to cause financial setbacks for Head Start programs in Illinois. As a result, many Head Start agencies across the state remain unsure about how they’ll be able to provide food and resources to the kids in their care or whether they’ll have to shut down altogether.

Lauri Morrison-Frichtl is the Executive Director of the Illinois Head Start Association. With a Master of Science degree in Education from Western Michigan University, Lauri brings over 37 years of experience working with Head Start, Early Head Start, and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs. She has further enriched her professional expertise through participation in the UCLA Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program and the Nike Leadership Institute.

In 2019, Lauri was honored with the prestigious Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award by the Illinois Head Start community. She has also developed local and national training curricula for both Head Start and child care programs. Known for her dedication and passion, Lauri is a compassionate leader who is deeply committed to the mission of Head Start and continually advocates for the success and well-being of children and families served by Illinois Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

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MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why you should check for ‘Irish pinky toe’ – and what to do if you have one

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lauren Connell, Podiatrist & Doctoral Researcher, University of Galway

staras/Shutterstock

Does your small toe hide beneath the next its next-door neighbour? Although there isn’t scientific evidence this condition known as “Irish pinky toe” is more common in Ireland, it’s a popular idea that it’s a genetic trait among some people with Celtic heritage. And as podiatrists in Ireland, it is certainly something we see every day.

An Irish pinky toe may look unusual, cause pain or increase your chances of losing it altogether. Added pressure on the toe or toenail can also cause corns, calluses, thickened toenails and even ulcers that may lead to amputation.

If you’ve ever thought, “What is wrong with that little toe?” or “Why don’t I have a nail on that toe?” then here’s why you might need to take extra care to avoid potential wounds – and even amputation – in future. Fortunately, toe amputations are a relatively rare occurrence but can be offered if the toe continues to cause pain after all other treatments have been tried or if there is infection or gangrene.

Because an Irish pinky toe sits under the one beside it and often rotates, this can cause pressure on the neighbouring toe. If two bones or joints are pressed close together, this may cause the skin to thicken and result in a corn.

This might also happen if the little toenail irritates the skin and, if the nail is long or sharp, this might pierce the skin and cause a wound or an infection.

The little toe and toenail may also rub up against the lining of your shoes, leading to painful friction blisters or shoes that wear out quickly. Wellington boots may be ideal for music festivals and the rainy Irish weather but don’t tend to fit very well, causing the foot to slide about inside.

Repeated friction or trauma may even damage the nail matrix, the part that makes nail, attached to the bone. This could lead to permanent thickening of the nail, that may become unsightly and cause pain.

The “Irish pinky toenail” is similar. This is when the toenail may split in two or an extra nail-like skin lesion develops. Sometimes, it may look like you have two nails, a condition described by podiatrists as a petaloid nail or a Lister’s or Durlacher corn. It’s difficult to determine how common petaloid nails are because they’re underdiagnosed and rarely reported.

What can I do?

Whatever your heritage, show your pinky toes some love and avoid future problems by trying to avoid tight footwear, especially boots with a firm toe, such as steel toe caps, court shoes, or any shoe with an unforgiving fabric such as a patent finish.

Some people might throw on any old socks in the morning but ill-fitting socks can contribute to problem foot health – socks that do not stretch, or have heavy seams, may increase the pressure on your pinky toes. Pain or problems may be caused by the toe itself or, perhaps, a sock seam, rigid fabric or the style of shoe. It’s worth investing in high quality, breathable fabrics for socks, such as cotton or bamboo.

If you have to wear specific safety footwear for your job, such as in farming and construction, you may find higher quality, thicker socks are better than boots with thick fabrics in the toe, that will wear down over time. Perhaps also consider investing in a silicone-lined toe sleeve, which acts like a hat for your toes and protects them from the pressure of footwear.

Alternatively, it’s possible “prop the toe” by making custom supports. We do this by creating a silicone device which lifts the toe off the ground, separates tight toes or improves the toes position, to avoid future problems. For existing corns, callus or wounds, it’s best to get a trained specialist who can remove excess nail or skin painlessly with a blade to reduce discomfort.

Irish pinky toes don’t always always cause pain, but if they do, there are ways to reduce it, one step at a time.

Lauren Connell is the owner of L.A Podiatry.

Benjamin Bullen 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 you should check for ‘Irish pinky toe’ – and what to do if you have one – https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-check-for-irish-pinky-toe-and-what-to-do-if-you-have-one-250800

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: AI could supercharge human collective intelligence in everything from disaster relief to medical research

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Hao Cui, Research Fellow in AI-Enhanced Collective Intelligence, Trinity College Dublin

Top tech team: surgeons operating with help frm artificial intelligence. Have a nice day Photo

Imagine a large city recovering from a devastating hurricane. Roads are flooded, the power is down, and local authorities are overwhelmed. Emergency responders are doing their best, but the chaos is massive.

AI-controlled drones survey the damage from above, while intelligent systems process satellite images and data from sensors on the ground and air to identify which neighbourhoods are most vulnerable.

Meanwhile, AI-equipped robots are deployed to deliver food, water and medical supplies into areas that human responders can’t reach. Emergency teams, guided and coordinated by AI and the insights it produces, are able to prioritise their efforts, sending rescue squads where they’re needed most.

This is no longer the realm of science fiction. In a recent paper published in the journal Patterns, we argue that it’s an emerging and inevitable reality.

Collective intelligence is the shared intelligence of a group or groups of people working together. Different groups of people with diverse skills, such as firefighters and drone operators, for instance, work together to generate better ideas and solutions. AI can enhance this human collective intelligence, and transform how we approach large-scale crises. It’s a form of what’s called hybrid collective intelligence.

Instead of simply relying on human intuition or traditional tools, experts can use AI to process vast amounts of data, identify patterns and make predictions. By enhancing human decision-making, AI systems offer faster and more accurate insights – whether in medical research, disaster response, or environmental protection.

AI can do this, by for example, processing large datasets and uncovering insights that would take much longer for humans to identify. AI can also get involved in physical tasks. In manufacturing, AI-powered robots can automate assembly lines, helping improve efficiency and reduce downtime.

Equally crucial is information exchange, where AI enhances the flow of information, helping human teams coordinate more effectively and make data-driven decisions faster. Finally, AI can act as social catalysts to facilitate more effective collaboration within human teams or even help build hybrid teams of humans and machines working alongside one another.

AI-driven improvements to all these different aspects can make the entire, interconnected system more adaptive and intelligent.

We’re already seeing the impact of AI-enhanced collective intelligence. In disaster response, AI systems already analyse satellite imagery and sensor data, generating risk assessments that help human responders to prioritise rescue efforts and allocate resources efficiently.

In healthcare, AI already helps doctors make faster and more accurate diagnoses by analysing large patient datasets. Medical teams refine AI recommendations with their expertise, ensuring the best possible treatment plans. Robots equipped with AI can assist surgeons in performing delicate tasks, allowing for greater precision.

In media, AI curates and verifies news from global sources, assisting journalists in fact-checking and uncovering misinformation. This collaboration can strengthen the accuracy and reliability of information in an era of digital media. However, AI can also drive the dissemination of fake news and disinformation. These include deep fake videos of, for example, politicians, which have the potential to affect elections.

In the public sector, AI-powered policy simulations help governments anticipate the impacts of regulations. Crowd-sourced citizen feedback, combined with AI analysis, can give a sense of the public mood.

Environmental protection is another area benefiting from AI-enhanced collective intelligence. AI systems can analyse patterns data on pollution, deforestation, and wildlife movements, guiding human efforts to address environmental challenges more effectively.

As we can see, AI-enhanced collective intelligence is already here, transforming how we approach some of the world’s toughest problems. The key is to recognise that AI is a collaborator, not a competitor. When we combine human creativity, intuition, and ethics with AI’s data processing power, the possibilities for what we can be achieved are substantial.

As we look towards the future, AI’s potential becomes even more exciting. From addressing global health challenges like pandemic prevention to developing solutions to the climate crisis, AI will be at the forefront of tackling issues once thought insurmountable. But this potential comes with responsibility.

It’s up to us to guide how this collaboration evolves, ensuring that AI is used responsibly and ethically in ways that enhance human capabilities rather than diminish them. We must engage in shaping policies and frameworks that promote transparency, fairness and inclusivity through a new sociology of humans and machines.

Collaboration across industries, governments, and communities will be crucial to unlocking AI’s full potential. Together, we can build a future where AI not only augments human intelligence but also helps solve the challenges of tomorrow, creating a more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous world for all.

Hao Cui receives funding from the Research Ireland.

Taha Yasseri 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. AI could supercharge human collective intelligence in everything from disaster relief to medical research – https://theconversation.com/ai-could-supercharge-human-collective-intelligence-in-everything-from-disaster-relief-to-medical-research-249437

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The female explorers who braved the wilderness but were overlooked by the history books

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sarah Lonsdale, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

Ferryland lighthouse near Labrador in the Canadian Arctic, an area mapped by Mina Hubbard in 1905. Nagel Photography

In the summer of 1905, a young Canadian widow, Mina Hubbard, set out on an expedition to map the northeastern corner of Labrador, from Lake Melville up to Ungava Bay, an inlet of the Arctic Ocean. It was an unusual challenge for a former nurse who had left school at 16.

Her husband, Leonidas Hubbard, had died in this same harsh environment two years earlier. Mina, 35, intended to complete his work.

Although she faced physical dangers on the 600-mile journey – starvation, bears, freezing rivers and rapids – her greatest antagonists were the reporters and editors of the male-dominated outdoors press of early 20th-century north America.

The popular Outing magazine, for whom Leonidas Hubbard had written, was the most excoriating. Its editor, Caspar Whitney, thundered in an editorial that “the widow” should not be in the wilderness, let alone speak about it.

The wild was no place for a white woman, especially one accompanied by First Nation (Native American) guides. This was not long after she had given an interview to another paper.

Mina Hubbard in northern Labrador.

Other newspapers described her as a grief-stricken hysteric. This was the only explanation they could find for her decision to go on such a long and arduous journey. When she was 300 miles into her expedition, having found the source of the Naskaupi River, the New York Times reported on its front page that she had given up, beaten back by hardship and privations.

New York Times.
CC BY-NC-ND

Instead the paper claimed that a man, an explorer called Dillon Wallace who was also in northern Labrador, was “pushing forward beyond any white man’s previous track”. In fact, Hubbard had neither given up, nor had Wallace caught up with her. She would reach Ungava Bay several weeks before his party. But it fitted the dominant narrative of the time: that the wilderness was no place for a woman.

I explore the idea of what the wild is, and of its being a gendered space, in my new book, Wildly Different: How Five Women Reclaimed Nature in a Man’s World. From ancient myths such as Ulysses or Gilgamesh, to the present where research shows that women face harassment and othering even on remote Antarctic bases, the wild has for centuries been a site of heroic male adventuring and rugged exploration.

Studies show that even in modern hunting societies, while women tend forest plots and hunt small game near the village or camp, it is the men who go away, often for many days, to hunt for big game and status.

Myths from across the world have told listeners and readers that women who stray beyond the city wall, village paling or encampment are either supernatural, monsters, or have been banished for perceived sins against society.

In the Greek myth of Polyphonte, the young girl who refuses to follow the correct gender role to become a wife and mother, and wants instead to hunt in the forest, is treated to a terrible punishment from the gods. She is tricked into falling in love with a bear-turned-man and gives birth to two bestial children. She and her sons are then transformed into flesh-eating birds.

In a more recent echo of the media coverage of Mina Hubbard’s journey, in Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, the environmental activist Wangari Maathai was attacked and belittled. She even had a curse put on her for planting trees in forests earmarked for development by the country’s then president, Daniel arap Moi, and for challenging Moi’s plans to build a skyscraper in one of Nairobi’s last green spaces.

At the height of Maathai’s confrontation with President Moi, the Daily Nation newspaper repeated criticism of both Maathai and her Green Belt Movement organisation. Headlines included: “MPs condemn Prof Maathai” and “MPs want Maathai movement banned”. Her crime? Wanting to slow disastrous desertification and soil erosion, and to empower rural women by planting 30 million trees.

When British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves was killed in the Himalayas in 1995, reporting focused on her being a mother and wife. Historical newspaper records I found during my research roundly accused her of abandoning her primary role of caring for her children.

The Sunday Times called her “A mother obsessed”, while the Independent led with the headline, “Dangerous ambition of a woman on the peaks”. The Daily Telegraph headline read, “A wife driven to high challenges”. Readers’ letters were even more critical, branding her as selfish and irresponsible.

A novelty nail file

Women who have received neutral or positive coverage for their work have tended to have novelty value, or had accomplished a feat so extraordinary that their being a woman was part of the narrative.

CC BY-SA

The entomologist Evelyn Cheesman spent decades collecting insects on Pacific islands, from the Galapagos to New Guinea. Her work led to support for a biological dividing line between different ecosystems in the New Hebrides to be named Cheesman’s Line, and her contribution to science was a great novelty for the newspaper press.

Her months-long, arduous expedition to Papua New Guinea in the early 1930s earned her the headline in the now defunct UK News Chronicle, “Woman collects 42,000 insects”.

After Cheesman published her memoir in 1957, detailing four decades of exploration, the headline in the newspaper Reynolds News announced: “Woman trapped in giant spider’s web”. The sub-head simply statesd, “saved by her nail file”.

More broadly, my research disappointingly concludes that over 100 years on, women explorers and scientific fieldworkers are still represented as unusual or out of place in the wild. These media narratives are dangerous as they feed into social attitudes that put women at risk and cause them to change their behaviour outdoors by avoiding isolated places, especially beyond daylight hours, for example.

Studies show that women (and black and hispanic) hikers in the US are more afraid of being attacked by men than by bears or other wild animals. Women’s outdoor groups, and campaigners such as Woman with Altitude and the Tough Girl podcast are working hard to counter this narrative, encouraging women to enjoy the beauties and discoveries still to be made in the world’s most rugged and remote places.

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

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

Sarah Lonsdale’s book is published by Manchester University Press. Both she and MUP will receive income from sales of the book.

– ref. The female explorers who braved the wilderness but were overlooked by the history books – https://theconversation.com/the-female-explorers-who-braved-the-wilderness-but-were-overlooked-by-the-history-books-249742

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Warren Announces Fired Federal Worker as State of the Union Guest

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren

March 03, 2025

Doug Kowalewski was recently fired from the National Science Foundation amid Trump’s and Musk’s unlawful firings, massive cuts to federal agencies

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced that Doug Kowalewski of Wellesley will be her guest at the 2025 State of the Union. Doug is a former National Science Foundation (NSF) employee who, after 3.5 years at the agency, was fired unexpectedly in Elon Musk’s and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) gutting of the federal workforce. Doug shared his story at Senator Warren’s recent town hall in Framingham, Massachusetts.

“I’m bringing Doug to force Trump to confront the federal workers he fired – the people who make this country run,” said Senator Warren. “The National Science Foundation is the engine that powers our nation’s basic scientific research, and by taking a sledgehammer to this agency, Trump and Musk are gutting our research and innovation pipeline and our local economy in Massachusetts. That isn’t efficient — it’s cruel, short-sighted, and it’s costing American jobs and devastating millions of families.”

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are firing dedicated civil servants and plotting to replace us with new hires who will make critical science funding decisions with a political agenda, not a scientific one. Millions of Americans who have dedicated their careers to this country are suffering because of unelected billionaires like Elon Musk. I’m in Washington with Senator Warren to fight back against these illegal firings and stand up for hardworking federal workers,” said Doug Kowalewski.

At Senator Warren’s town hall in Framingham, Doug shared the story of his unexpected firing from the agency along with 167 of his colleagues. At the NSF, Doug was a Program Director for Partnerships and Innovation, helping bring in millions in funding to the federal government. The NSF provides a quarter of federal support for basic research at colleges and universities across the country.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Waterbury Teens Research Ways to Improve Public Health in their Hometown

Source: US State of Connecticut

Nine rising ninth graders from Waterbury public high schools participated in the Health Equity Scholars Program this past summer, led by the UConn Health Disparities Institute (HDI) in partnership with Waterbury Bridges to Success.

Health Equity Fellows Marie Syla and Julian Chaparro teaching the young scholars at the UConn Waterbury campus.

The free four-week program introduced the scholars to health equity research, career exploration, and Photovoice, a research method that uses photography and storytelling to spark conversations and document their experiences, perspectives, and concerns on pressing public health challenges in their city and proposing actionable solutions to improve their community’s well-being.

Each scholar was taught how to identify the factors that influence and impact health in Waterbury and tasked with developing their own health equity research project offering possible solutions to improve public health issues facing Waterbury.

With the mentorship and guidance from the Health Equity Fellows – Marie Syla, from Waterbury and a sophomore at UConn majoring in Biology and Julian Chaparro, a junior at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Studio Art – scholars were able research topics that ranged from the importance of clean air, to repairing abandoned buildings, access to public transportation and access to recreation areas for exercise, clean waterways, and even access to places of worship for holistic health.

At the close of the program students publicly presented their findings to the UConn Health Disparities Institute, their supportive peers, mentors, family members, and community members. Scholars were presented with a certificate to celebrate the completion of the special program.

“This program is about more than research — it’s about creating opportunities for youth to see themselves as researchers, public health advocates, and as leaders, who can help to address complex community priorities. Their work has the potential to shape the future of public health in Waterbury and beyond,” says Dr. Linda Sprague Martinez, director of the UConn Health Disparities Institute.

The air pollution research project of Lino Delgado, a freshman at Wilby High School in Waterbury, was featured by the 62nd CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium hosted by CT-AHEC at UConn Health on Feb. 22. Lino celebrating with his father Felix and HDI’s Trisha Pitter.

Lino Delgado, 14, a freshman at Wilby High School and Health Equity Scholar, shared how the program gave him a newfound passion for engineering and environmental advocacy. Delgado was selected as a STEM exhibitor and virtually presented his environmental health research project, which explored the importance of curbing air pollution during the week leading up to the 62nd CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium hosted by CT-AHEC and held at UConn Health. His research on the impact of air pollution and the need for electric buses highlighted how local youth can drive innovative environmental solutions.

“Lino’s family is so proud of him, and so are we,” says UConn HDI’s Trisha Pitter, who directed the Health Equity Scholars Program. “The research program was very transformational for Lino.”

“Everyone needs public health,” says Delgado who attends Wilby High School. “The program was good, and I really enjoyed making the poster.”

Delgado adds, “Eventually people are going to need electric buses. The buses right now are producing pollution in our community.”

“This great program gave Lino a boost of confidence,” says his older sister Maileen Delgado. “He’s a whole new kid. It has changed his whole outlook on his future. Kids in Waterbury don’t get a lot of experiences like this. We really appreciated it!”

“HDI piloted the Health Equity Scholars Program in Waterbury to explore its impact, and the experience was incredible. It was truly heartwarming to see how engaged the scholars were and open to sharing what they are seeing inside their Waterbury communities and offering solutions. They know what they and their communities need to achieve health equity,” Pitter adds. “It was an honor for UConn Health Disparities Institute to equip scholars with the tools and knowledge to create meaningful change beyond the program. We are also thankful to our Healthy Equity Fellows Marie and Julian who engaged our scholars every step of the way and built personal connections with them that made the research program fun.”

The scholars presented their research projects and received a certificate at the end of the program.

“I had an incredible experience with the UConn Health HDI Team, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with the incoming high school students of Waterbury,” says Syla,19, the Health Equity Fellow from Waterbury who attends UConn Storrs. “Sharing knowledge about the social determinants of health is vital, and I feel honored to have played a role in educating the next generation of scholars. Watching them engage with these important concepts in fun, creative ways was truly inspiring. The lessons they learned will help shape their understanding of health in society, fostering awareness that will ripple through communities for years to come.”

Health Equity Fellow Marie Syla is from Waterbury and a sophomore at UConn majoring in Biology.

Syla adds, “As someone from Waterbury, it was especially meaningful to discuss the disparities affecting my own community. Being able to contribute to this conversation and to empower young minds with knowledge was both rewarding and fulfilling. I look forward to seeing the lasting impact of these efforts as these students carry forward what they’ve learned.”

After UConn, Syla aspires to pursue a career in health care and continue to medical school, striving to make a meaningful impact in the medical field.

Additionally, as part of the program students explored their possible future health-related career interests and pathways. To broaden career awareness, the program invited guest speakers from Connecticut’s only public academic medical center UConn Health. The faculty shared insights into their career journeys, the motivations behind their work, and the diverse pathways within public health and health equity careers. These sessions were designed as interactive engagements, allowing scholars to lead discussions and explore both traditional and non-traditional career opportunities through fun and creative discussions. Guest speakers included UConn School of Medicine’s Dr. Linda Barry and Dr. Anton Alerte, Dr. Moises Y. Salas, and Rev. Cecil Tengatenga.

“Exposing our scholars to traditional and nontraditional pathways to public health, shapes their future career outlook and interests. We explored being a physician, researcher, social worker, therapist, educator, artist and entrepreneur to name a few. I could envision each scholar being future leaders of Waterbury,” says Pitter.

Delgado now wants to be an engineer thanks to the Health Equity Scholars Program experience with the UConn Health Disparities Institute.

Lino Delgado.

“I want to be an engineer, so I can drive trains someday,” says Delgado.

“We hope to keep the momentum and community engagement of this new pilot program and its students going. Next year, we plan to go back to Waterbury and, also to grow the program in other areas of the state given the great success, interest, and public health need,” says Pitter.

Lino Delgado’s research project poster.

“Our goal is to build on this momentum and bring this program to more communities across Connecticut,” says Sprague Martinez. “Young people are impacted by public health decision making but are rarely invited to contribute to those very decisions that impact them. Programs like this create opportunities to ensure public health efforts reflect the priorities of young people and communities, while also increasing college and career readiness.”

This initiative would not have been possible without the support of Waterbury Bridges to Success, which funded the pilot program, and UConn Waterbury, which provided classroom space for scholars to learn and collaborate. The program’s success is also a testament to the dedicated HDI team, including Sprague Martinez (Principal Investigator), Dr. Rocio Chang (Advisor to the Health Equity Fellows), and Peter Zapata (Program Coordinator).

“People in communities are experts in their own lives and know what they need to be healthy,” Sprague Martinez concludes. “This is just the beginning. We are interested in advancing efforts that ensure public health efforts reflect the priorities in CT communities including young people. Their voices matter, and they are already making a difference.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: A website is not enough: businesses that use digital tools without a strategic plan will struggle in a tough economy

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rod McNaughton, Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Mr.paripat niyantang/Shutterstock

Small businesses across Australia and New Zealand are facing one of their toughest periods in decades.

A flat economy and shifting consumer behaviour have put pressure on already thin operating margins. A 2024 survey by business finance company ScotPac found 29% of Australian small businesses say they could face insolvency if they lose a major client.

Accounting organisation CPA Australia’s latest small business survey shows only 48% of New Zealand’s small businesses grew in 2023. This is significantly down from 60% in 2022. There have also been a record number of business liquidations in both New Zealand and Australia.

Yet some small and medium-sized businesses are thriving. Part of the reason for this is because they have embraced the concept of “digital leadership”.

This is the ability to strategically integrate digital technologies – such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data analytics and automation – into a business’s operations, decision-making and long-term vision.

Digital leaders use emerging technologies to improve efficiency, redesign business models, scale operations and reach new customers in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Our review of the research on digital leadership, recently published in Digital Leadership and Contemporary Entrepreneurship, found that firms treating digital leadership as a core business strategy, rather than just using technology for isolated tasks, are the ones that successfully scale, grow and future-proof their organisations.

Without this change in mindset, firms risk stagnation and missed opportunities. That difference is critical in an economic environment where small margins separate thriving businesses from struggling ones.

Why some small businesses fall behind

It’s easy to assume small businesses lag in digital adoption because of costs or technical complexity. However, most of the studies we reviewed suggest the real issue is hesitancy at the leadership level.

Some business owners are risk-averse and take a “wait and see” approach. Others believe their current solutions are sufficient even when new technology could improve efficiency.

A 2021 survey commissioned by cloud accounting software company Xero, found fear of change, overconfidence in existing processes and decision paralysis are among the biggest barriers preventing small businesses from embracing digital solutions.

Even businesses that already use digital tools – for example, to manage their social media – often fail to go further and integrate technology into core operations such as supply chain management and automation.

Embracing digital leadership

The lesson is that simply adopting digital tools without a strategic plan doesn’t lead to growth. True digital leadership requires businesses to rethink how they operate, compete and scale.

The firms making the most of digital transformation embed technology in their core strategy. They use data-driven decision-making to refine products, forecast demand and identify new opportunities.

They streamline operations by automating routine tasks, such as using AI-powered invoicing, chatbots for customer inquiries and predictive analytics for inventory management. This frees up time for strategic initiatives such as product development and market expansion.

At the same time, they invest in training employees to effectively use and adapt to new technologies. Perhaps most importantly, they take an experimental approach – testing, learning and adapting in real time.

Learning to thrive in digital economy

Businesses that have successfully grown through digital leadership illustrate this approach in action.

Set up in 2016, New Zealand-based investing company Sharesies fundamentally changed how everyday people access financial markets.

Traditional investment firms required large deposits and complex paperwork, excluding many potential investors. Sharesies took a different approach. The company designed a mobile-first platform where users could start with as little as $5. The company now has more than 650,000 users and NZ$3 billion in investments.

In Australia, The Very Good Bra, a sustainable bra company, used digital leadership to create a global, sustainable fashion brand without traditional retail infrastructure.

Founder Stephanie Devine developed a direct-to-consumer model through e-commerce, bypassing wholesalers and physical stores. She utilised digital tools such as social media platforms for community engagement, online surveys to collaborate with customers to design products, and data analytics software for demand forecasting, ensuring every product had a market before it was manufactured.

Both companies succeeded by leveraging digital technologies to disrupt traditional business models. Sharesies democratised investing by making it accessible to individuals with minimal capital, while The Very Good Bra utilised e-commerce and customer collaboration to create sustainable fashion products.

Their digital-first approaches enabled them to identify and fill market gaps effectively.

To thrive in the tougher economic climate, businesses need to think beyond software tools. The question is no longer whether to go digital, but how fast a business can rethink their work for the digital future.

Guy Bate is affiliated with The Education Technology Association of New Zealand (EdTechNZ). He serves as Chair of their AI in Education Technology Stewardship Group.

Rod McNaughton 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. A website is not enough: businesses that use digital tools without a strategic plan will struggle in a tough economy – https://theconversation.com/a-website-is-not-enough-businesses-that-use-digital-tools-without-a-strategic-plan-will-struggle-in-a-tough-economy-250633

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Leading the charge to transform healthcare with advanced AI
Source: Microsoft

Headline: Leading the charge to transform healthcare with advanced AI

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, AI is revolutionizing patient care by enabling more personalized experiences, optimizing vast medical data management, and improving patient outcomes. As challenges such as rising patient expectations, complex data handling, and regulatory requirements intensify, more advanced solutions have become essential.

Microsoft is at the forefront of this transformation, dedicated to developing and implementing responsible AI technologies. By fostering innovation and collaboration through Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, we continue to reinforce how responsible AI can enhance healthcare delivery and improve outcomes for patients worldwide. Building on this commitment, we’re excited to introduce new features in our AI healthcare portfolio that will further drive industry efficiencies, and better patient outcomes.

Explore Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

Advanced AI models and integrations for healthcare

As medical technology advances, improvements in medical imaging are critical for better diagnosis of disease and improved patient care. In 2024, we announced the launch of healthcare AI models, a collection of cutting-edge multimodal medical imaging foundation models available in Azure AI Foundry. Designed for precise image segmentation, MedImageParse 2D model covers many imaging modalities, including x-rays, CTs, MRIs, ultrasounds, dermatology images, and pathology slides. It can be fine-tuned for specific applications such as tumor segmentation or organ delineation, allowing developers to test and validate the ability to leverage AI for highly targeted cancer and other disease detection, diagnostics, and treatment planning.

Today, we’re excited to share the MedImageParse model is now optimized for 3D medical imaging data. MedImageParse 3D can handle complex 3D datasets produced by advanced imaging, such as MRI and CT scans, providing a more comprehensive view into patients’ conditions. The enhanced ability to visualize and interpret anatomical abnormalities and structures provides for much more accurate diagnosis that may have been missed by 2D analysis. MedImageParse can also support healthcare researchers with comprehensive image analysis and a more streamlined workflow for radiologists, improving overall efficiency and reducing human error. MedImageParse 3D can soon be found in the Azure AI Foundry model catalog.

In partnership with Microsoft Research, the Microsoft Health and Life Sciences model catalog will also feature several new and updated multimodal medical foundation models including TamGen for protein design, Hist-ai for pathology, and ECG-FM for electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis.

Leveraging multimodal AI for improved health insights

Today, we are excited to announce new functionality in healthcare data solutions that allows customers to orchestrate multimodal AI insights directly into Microsoft Fabric. Now in public preview, orchestrating multiple modalities (e.g., text, image, audio, video, and other forms of sensory input) of health data within Fabric allows healthcare organizations to generate a robust set of insights that help faster decision-making and improved patient outcomes.

Customers can leverage Fabric to orchestrate multimodal AI insights by connecting their healthcare data to a variety of AI services and models. These AI-generated insights are then integrated back into the healthcare data estate to enable various use cases like creating targeted outreach and care plans by enriching clinical conversations with social determinants of health (SDOH) and sentiments. Another possible scenario is deriving quick insights and disease progression trends for clinical research by creating image segmentations and combining it with imaging metadata through Microsoft Power BI reports.

The orchestration capability includes five out-of-the-box examples to help customers connect and integrate to AI models:
1. Text analytics for health in Azure AI Language to extract medical entities from unstructured data such as diagnoses and medications, and the relations between entities.
1. MedImageInsight AI model in Azure AI Foundry to generate medical image embeddings from imaging data.
1. MedImageParse AI model in Azure AI Foundry enables segmentation, detection, and recognition from imaging data across numerous object types and imaging modalities.
1. Sentiment analysis with Azure OpenAI Service to score sentiment for categories such as doctors’ services, staff services, facilities, and cost from conversational data.
1. SDOH extraction with Azure OpenAI to extract social determinants of health data from conversational data based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ defined categories.
To further enhance data accessibility, we’re pleased to share the general availability of additional functionality that enhances the existing capabilities within our healthcare data solutions offering. These include:
- Care management analytics: By using unified healthcare data and care management analytical templates, healthcare providers can enhance patient care by identifying high-risk individuals, optimizing treatment plans, and improving care coordination. This empowers organizations to deliver personalized, efficient, and proactive care.
- Patient outreach analytics: Healthcare providers communicate with their patients more effectively by orchestrating personalized journeys across patient touchpoints. This capability simplifies the process by bringing data from different sources into Fabric, transforming it into an industry data model, and serving it to a Power BI report.
- Dragon Copilot ambient AI integration: Dragon Copilot’s AI-powered, voice-enabled capabilities reduce the administrative workload of clinicians by automatically documenting patient encounters. With integration into Fabric, this new capability brings conversational data into Fabric OneLake. This integration enables customers to access, store, and manage the raw data generated. The data is stored in a lakehouse, organized in a hierarchical structure by date, which lets customers view each file and its content. When used in conjunction with healthcare data solutions, customers can combine their conversational data with their clinical data to learn more from patient interactions.
“There is a lot of unrealized value in patient physician interactions. OSUMC is aiming to leverage conversational data along with multimodal AI insights in healthcare data solutions such as social determinants of health extraction to improve patient outcomes.”

—Ravi Dyta, Director of IT at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Achieve more with AI you can trust

This week’s Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare announcements underscore our commitment to transforming healthcare through advanced AI models and data integrations. By leveraging these cutting-edge technologies, we’re empowering healthcare organizations to deliver better care, help improve patient outcomes, and drive innovation in the industry.

Connect with us in the Microsoft booth #2221 at HIMSS 2025 to immerse yourself in the latest advancements in data and AI from Microsoft and our partners.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

Transform how your organization uses AI

Medical device disclaimer: Microsoft products and services (1) are not designed, intended or made available as a medical device, and (2) are not designed or intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment and should not be used to replace or as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment. Customers/partners are responsible for ensuring solutions comply with applicable laws and regulations. 

Generative AI does not always provide accurate or complete information. AI outputs do not reflect the opinions of Microsoft. Customers/partners will need to thoroughly test and evaluate whether an AI tool is fit for the intended use and identify and mitigate any risks to end users associated with its use. Customers/partners should thoroughly review the product documentation for each tool.

David Ardman

Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Health and Life Sciences Platform, Microsoft

David Ardman is responsible for building the Healthcare and Life Sciences (HLS) Data and AI Platform that powers both 1st party Microsoft solutions as well as our Healthcare clients and partners through third party cloud services.

See more articles from this author
MIL OSI Economics –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Microsoft partners shaping the future of healthcare with Microsoft Dragon Copilot

Source: Microsoft

Headline: Microsoft partners shaping the future of healthcare with Microsoft Dragon Copilot

Today, Microsoft is introducing Microsoft Dragon Copilot, the first AI assistant for clinical workflow that brings together proven natural language voice dictation and ambient listening capabilities with fine-tuned generative AI and healthcare-adapted safeguards. Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot enables healthcare partners and their customers to unlock new levels of efficiency and care by streamlining documentation, surfacing pertinent information, and automating tasks so clinicians can focus more on their patients and themselves.

Dragon Copilot Partner Resources

Dragon Copilot is bolstered by our collaboration with healthcare industry experts across our extensive global ecosystem of trusted partners. We work with leading independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), and cloud service providers (CSPs) across the globe to help our customers drive better healthcare outcomes.

Unlock new AI use cases with Dragon Copilot

Partnering with Microsoft allows organizations to tap into Dragon Copilot to accelerate innovation and unlock new avenues for future business growth through the Microsoft commercial marketplace.

Dragon Copilot’s trusted AI models are trained on healthcare data, providing a host of AI solution possibilities. Partners can build even stronger healthcare solutions and offerings by leveraging a comprehensive end-to-end toolchain—including Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. Plus, a single integration to Dragon Copilot extends a partner’s AI clinical use cases throughout the entire Microsoft Azure ecosystem, opening new opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

Embrace innovation with responsible AI

Dragon Copilot’s new capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat, and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs. They also align to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles to help guide AI development and use—transparency, reliability and safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy, and security. We remain committed to developing responsible AI by design and ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society and will share our learnings on this journey with our customers.

Driving better healthcare outcomes together

Our healthcare partner ecosystem is constantly growing, highlighted below are just a few of the more than 30 major partners already working with Microsoft. We’re committed to advancing AI innovation in healthcare together with a diverse partner community that spans regions, partner types, and specialties.

Independent software vendors

Dragon Copilot empowers ISVs with trusted AI models to create innovative AI-powered use cases, along with opportunities for new revenue channels through the extensibility framework. Several of our industry-leading ISV partners—including MEDITECH, ChipSoft, Dedalus, Canary Speech, and Softway—are helping bring Dragon Copilot to life.

Leading U.S.-based electronic health provider (EHR) provider MEDITECH is embedding Dragon Copilot into their Expanse EHR solution to improve clinical workflows.

“We understand the challenges clinicians face today, and Dragon Copilot represents a significant step forward in alleviating those burdens. Integrating this innovative solution directly into Expanse streamlines documentation and ordering processes, reduces cognitive overload, and ultimately empowers providers to deliver superior, more patient-centered care. At MEDITECH, we’re proud to partner on solutions that prioritize both efficiency and clinician well-being.”

—Cathy Turner, Chief Marketing and Nurse Executive, MEDITECH

ChipSoft, an EHR provider serving Dutch-speaking markets, is integrating new healthcare AI applications into their EHR solution HiX using Dragon Copilot to address the growing demand for digital solutions that reduce the workload of healthcare professionals.

“We are excited to bring this cutting-edge AI platform to healthcare professionals, enabling them to work more efficiently and effectively. With the availability of AI in HiX, we take an important step in supporting healthcare professionals with their administrative burden. This helps to keep healthcare accessible despite increasing demand and ongoing staff shortages.”

—Hans Mulder, CEO of ChipSoft

European electronic medical record (EMR) market leader Dedalus, based in Italy, is integrating Dragon Copilot into their EMR solutions, providing clients with healthcare IT innovations that enhance clinical efficiency and improve patient outcomes.

Additionally, Canary Speech, a US-based leader in voice AI, sees Dragon Copilot as an opportunity to integrate their innovative voice technology with Microsoft’s robust cloud and AI capabilities, driving advancements in early disease detection, mental health assessment, and overall patient care.

“Microsoft’s commitment to working with partners is helping drive digital transformation in healthcare. [The investments Microsoft is making into its partner ecosystem] are helping us transform our business to deliver impactful, human-centered solutions.”

—Henry O’Connell, CEO and co-founder of Canary Speech

French healthcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provider Softway provides solutions that focus on the needs of the user, including improving the quality of life of nurses at work, optimizing care processes, increasing organizational efficiency, and improving quality of care.

“We are committed to serving healthcare professionals, designing digital solutions that enable them to make informed decisions, while preserving their well-being and providing quality patient care. Partnering with Microsoft allows us to respond to the major challenges faced by healthcare organizations by providing innovative tools and applications.”

—Sherley Brothier, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Softway Medical Group

System integrators

With powerful AI infrastructure and technology that works across EMRs, Dragon Copilot provides SIs with a strong foundation for new AI use cases and integrations. Our SI partners such as Accenture-Avanade, Kyndryl, and Cognizant, to name a few, are at the forefront of AI innovation.

To boost clinician productivity and provide better patient services, the Accenture-Avanade partnership uses generative AI capabilities powered by Tejash Shah, M.D., Managing Director and Global Care Reinvention Lead, Accenture Health

Additionally, Kyndryl—the world’s largest IT infrastructure provider—co-creates solutions to help healthcare organizations reach their peak digital performance.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in Kyndryl’s commitment to optimizing clinical workflows and improving patient care through ambient listening with advanced AI technology. We’re thrilled to be a Microsoft partner as we work to address clinician burnout and improve the overall healthcare experience. By automating routine tasks, we can help clinicians reclaim valuable time to spend with their patients, bringing the joy back into care.”

—Trent Sanders, Vice President for U.S. Healthcare and Life Sciences, Kyndryl

Cognizant plans to integrate Dragon Copilot into its TriZetto Provider Solutions with the goal to provide their clients with state-of-the-art capabilities to streamline documentation and improve efficiencies.

“This innovative solution represents an opportunity for us to help our clients transform the way they provide care. Dragon Copilot’s integrated AI technologies aim to enhance operational efficiency, reduce clinician burnout, and improve patient care. This partnership with Microsoft will underscore our commitment to driving innovation in healthcare and delivering exceptional value to our clients.”

—Dr. Scott R. Schell PhD MD MBA, Chief Medical Officer, Cognizant

Cloud service providers

Dragon Copilot enables CSPs to reach new markets by leveraging robust AI infrastructure and technology that works across EHRs and EMRs to create innovative service offerings. We’re partnering with trailblazing CSP partners—including CDW, ORdigiNAL, and Clinically Speaking—to boost efficiency in healthcare with Dragon Copilot.

Combined with the power of Mike Grisamore, Vice President of Healthcare, CDW

A global value-added distributor based in the Netherlands, ORdigiNAL empowers healthcare organizations with the tools to improve operational efficiency and patient experience.

“At ORdigiNAL, we recognize the critical need for technology that supports clinicians without disrupting their workflow. By partnering with Microsoft on Dragon Copilot, we are bringing an AI solution to healthcare professionals worldwide, helping them improve care quality, increase efficiency, and enhance patient outcomes.”

—Jordy Onrust, CEO and owner of ORdigiNAL

EHR solution provider Clinically Speaking is looking forward to integrating the ambient and generative AI capabilities of Dragon Copilot to advance their documentation solutions and improve healthcare provider office workflows.

“Combining our significant user base with the new AI and ambient recording capabilities from Microsoft, Clinically Speaking is uniquely positioned to deliver the maximum benefit from this new technology.”

—Michael Janas, President of Clinically Speaking

Join our partner ecosystem today

Whether you want to build, integrate, migrate, extend, or sell with Microsoft, we’ll help you grow across our extensive global healthcare channel.

Read the Dragon Copilot announcement

Cyril Belikoff

Vice President, Commercial Cloud and AI

As the worldwide Go-to-Market Marketing leader for Microsoft Solutions and Partner marketing, Cyril Belikoff spearheads a team that drives a multi-billion-dollar business through field sales, marketing, and partnerships. By understanding the challenges faced by their customers, they help to digitally transform businesses through improved efficiency, optimization, and skilling.

See more articles from this author

MIL OSI Economics –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The overlooked bond: Why mental health professionals should ask questions about pets

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Renata Roma, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Saskatchewan

Pets increasingly play a central role in people’s lives. Mental health professionals who overlook this may be missing an opportunity to understand an important aspect of their clients’experience. (Shutterstock)

Pets have become an integral part of people’s lives, with some having stronger bonds with their pets than with their siblings and other family members. Some feel more empathy toward animals than toward humans.

According to a survey, for nearly 90 per cent of Canadians, pets are considered not only family members, but also an essential source of emotional support.

As researchers interested in the psychology of human-animal relationships, we believe that given these findings, it is imperative to understand how the relationship with pets shapes people’s routines, their self-perceptions, emotional states and ability to cope.

Asking pet-related questions can be particularly relevant for mental health professionals seeking a deeper understanding of clients’ family dynamics. Exploring the role of pets in a client’s life can offer valuable insights into factors shaping their well-being.

Client-centred approach: What if pets are part of the story?

Using a client-centred approach, mental health professionals should understand and validate clients’ perspectives. The goal is to work with clients to understand what shapes their experiences, worldview, strengths and support systems.

Asking pet-related questions can be particularly relevant for mental health professionals seeking a deeper understanding of clients’ family dynamics.
(Shutterstock)

More specifically, during intake sessions and assessments, the focus should be on being attuned to the client’s needs. Professionals who overlook the central role pets play in people’s lives risk missing an opportunity to understand an important aspect of their clients’ experience. Shifting this perspective can lead to deeper insight into clients’ emotional states and behaviours, ultimately leading to more tailored and effective treatment.

The benefits of such holistic framework can be invaluable. Researchers have found pet-related questions can not only reduce anxiety, but also improve communication and rapport. These questions also allow professionals to access clinically relevant information that can guide their therapeutic approach.

Unlocking deeper insights in therapy

There are several specific ways that pet-related questions can influence the direction of therapeutic interventions.

1) Help clients feel more comfortable:

Asking pet-related questions can provide a sense of familiarity and comfort. This, in turn, strengthens the therapeutic alliance and creates an inviting atmosphere. For example, many couples treat their pets as children. Among younger generations, there is often a preference for pets over children.

For these clients, neglecting this important aspect of their lives may negatively impact the therapeutic relationship. By asking pet-related questions, professionals can help clients to feel valued and seen. This inclusive approach acknowledges an essential part of their social system and open space for them to talk about how their pets shape their identity.

Among younger generations there is often a preference for pets over children.
(Shutterstock)

2) Create trust:

In general, building rapport with clients can create a foundation of trust. This makes it easier for them to share difficult and personal information. Discussing the dynamic between a client and their pet can help them feel more comfortable addressing sensitive topics. Nearly 90 per cent of women experiencing domestic violence report mistreatment of their pets.

Children who are victims of domestic violence often share stories of their pets being mistreated. These clients usually feel more comfortable addressing violence against their pets before they address violence against themselves.

3) Offer insights on the client’s strengths and resources:

Pets can provide support in several ways. For some people, spending time with their pets during moments of stress can alleviate feelings of anxiety and loneliness.

For others, the presence of a pet facilitates engaging in social and physical activities. Also, the bond with the pet can increase feelings of belonging and reduce self-harm behaviours. By understanding the role pets play in the client’s life, clinicians gain insight into their coping strategies and available resources. This helps inform more tailored clinical interventions.

4) Offer insight into a client’s broader challenges:

Pets can have a positive impact on emotional attachment. However, strong attachment to pets may sometimes be associated with increased psychological stress and trust issues. Others may experience worry and guilt when their health issues affect their ability to provide care for their pets, which can worsen their psychological distress.

Additionally, the ways clients approach and resolve issues related to their pets can provide insight into their problem-solving abilities. Exploring these areas with clients can highlight target areas for therapy.

5) Help to identify sources of stress:

The relationship with pets is complex, and can fluctuate. Pets with behavioural or health issues may create significant social barriers, reducing social interactions and heightening negative emotions in owners. Also, the inability to afford veterinary care can undermine a person’s well-being. These situations can be associated with anxiety and caregiver burden. Therefore, the dynamics they share with their pets can directly influence the issues presented in therapy.

In such scenarios, not asking about clients’ relationship with their pets may cause professionals to overlook crucial aspects of clients’ overall well-being. This can result in missing important insights into clients’ strengths and challenges.

Not asking about clients’ relationship with their pets, may cause professionals to overlook crucial aspects of clients’ overall well-being.
(Shutterstock)

The missing piece

Pet-related questions are not just a trivial detail. The structure of families has evolved. As we work toward more holistic and empathetic therapeutic approaches, exploring the presence of pets in people’s lives is a critical step to fostering an environment of acceptance, openness and trust.

By exploring this bond, mental health professionals can strengthen therapeutic alliances. They would also learn about essential aspects of a client’s emotional life, their strengths and challenges.

Simple questions like: “do you have a pet at home?” and “how would you describe the role of your pet in your life?” can help strengthen connections with clients. These questions create opportunities for deeper engagement. They also promote a practice that is client-centred, inclusive and aligned with the evolving configurations of families.

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. The overlooked bond: Why mental health professionals should ask questions about pets – https://theconversation.com/the-overlooked-bond-why-mental-health-professionals-should-ask-questions-about-pets-250702

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How rebellion against moralizing has become a surprising rallying point for the political right

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alexis Shotwell, Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Carleton University

A couple of weeks before the astonishing Feb. 28 White House Oval Office meeting that saw United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance scold Ukraine’s leader, Vance told European leaders at the Munich Security Conference: “If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

Vance was responding — with humour, he said — to pushback over Elon Musk’s vocal support for Germany’s far-right parties, expressed on X in a livestream event and in a December 2024 German newspaper op-ed.

Newsweek reported that the administration of Germany’s lower house of parliament “is investigating whether Musk’s support for the AfD on the platform where he has 210 million followers could constitute an illegal party donation.”

Are Musk’s actions, which some allege are interference, comparable to a young woman’s moralizing?

It might seem odd to equate the richest person in the world supporting far-right political parties with an eco-activist saying politicians should address climate change. However, there is a long history of people seeing scolding as one of the worst things we can do.

Our research has been concerned with how “purity politics” shape people’s attempts to live ethical lives, and what it means to reason about ecological catastrophe. We are writing a book about how rebellion against moralizing has become a surprising rallying point for the political right, and how to think about moralizing more broadly.

Read more:
How Trump’s compulsion to dominate sabotages dealmaking, undermines democracy and threatens global stability

Rage against moralizing

Whereas conservatives used to be defenders of morals, they now rage against moralizing, seeing “wokism” as a threat to freedom. Religious conservatives used to position themselves as bastions of morality. But research shows secular societies do not behave less morally as a whole than religious ones.

Philosopher Judith Butler argues that while Trump displays a “shameless sadism”
we are seeing his supporters revel in his rejection of moral repression.

The rejection of moralizing seems to be creating a terrain in which many on the right feel liberated by the current turn against “wokism.” But even on the left, some now worry about too much moralism in what is called “cancel culture.”

Read more:
Cancel culture looks a lot like old-fashioned church discipline

How did moralizing come to this? Could understanding this help us navigate political deadlocks? The history of philosophy has some surprising suggestions here.

Traditionalism, scolding

First: there are some dangers in moralizing. One is a kind of traditionalism, which shows up in the creation of moral panics about transgender people, street gangs, abortion, immigrants and so on.

Another is if someone scolds: “you should take the bus rather than driving” — but the bus doesn’t run to your neighbourhood. Moralizing like this is just posturing. Maybe it makes the driver feel bad, but it doesn’t create more public transit.

Still, many of us have strong ethical convictions, and we try to live according to what we believe is right or wrong. Even if we judge someone else for the way they are living or behaving, we might hesitate to say something directly. Having personal ethics is socially acceptable; telling others what to do turns us into a scold. Why?

Our stance

The word “ethos” in ancient Greek means something like “posture” or “standing.” Aristotle saw ethos as marking our credibility, our character; we enact our ethics only in a shared world. Contemporary ethical approaches often focus on the personal side of this, setting an example without pushing values on others.

Aristotle saw ‘ethos’ as marking our character.
(Shutterstock)

The related word “moral” comes from the Latin mores, usually understood as naming shared customs. Ancient Roman philosopher Cicero used the term moralis to translate ethos, (ἠθική) from Greek. “Morals” were regarded as “the common consent of all living together, constituted from shared traditions,” to quote the influential definition of Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro.

This “common consent” did not claim to apply to everyone. As late as the 16th century, philosophers such as Michel de Montaigne, Cardano or Agrippa of Nettesheim developed a comparative study of various customs and value systems known as “scienta moralis.”

Moral philosophers discussed different inclinations and life-ways of people without postulating one superior norm that would govern everyone. There was a Christian strand of moral theology that saw morality as a universal principle, but even after the era of 16th-century Reformation in the western church, it was not primarily about condemnation and judgement. Rather, this branch of “humanist” moral inquiry examined how people create and maintain shared norms in a pluralistic society.

This changed with ideas that we could have a universally applicable moral science, governed by reason. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant helped formulate this idea. If we think of morality as a law everyone can be subjected to, it makes sense that people rebel against it.

Channeling opponents of moralizing

When Vance characterised Thunberg as “scolding,” he unwittingly channelled opponents of moralizing, such as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Nietzsche once defined his philosophical project as a “declaration of war against morals and moralists.” For him and the thinkers he inspired, moralizing is conceived as a negative emotion motivated by resentment and envy.

Read more:
Stephen Bannon’s world: Dangerous minds in dangerous times

Nietzsche’s almost total rejection of morals can be understood as one of the many roots of the contemporary hesitation (though this idea is debated). No one wants to be denigrated by being seen as one of the sheep who unquestioningly embraces a herd mentality.

In this context, paradoxically, moralizing — scolding — has come to mean that anyone who says they think something is bad, or should be otherwise, is oppressing the people they criticize.

‘Scolding’ people in power

When we look at the extraordinary difference in power between Musk and Thunberg, this definition of moralizing begins to seem a little weird. Is scolding so dangerous to people in power?

For people interested in pushing back against authoritarianism, maybe we should hope that it is. We can look to the earlier ideal of morality as forging “common consent” for direction here.

In the philosophical sense, addressing our “mores” suggests moving towards a collective re-evaluation of how people want to live. Saying “no, I do not agree with this” can perhaps express our character in a way that shapes our shared world.

Moralizing could then be the process of building new customs. It would be about building morale and seeing hope and agency in these admittedly dire times. Moralizing with others, rather than at them, could help people move beyond feeling immobilized and cynical.

Studies about “bystander intervention” usually focus on the ways that people go along with things they think are wrong. Research does suggest our moral actions are shaped by the people around us, but this also means moral courage is contagious.

Standing up for something allows other people to also express their moral convictions. It can be a testament about hope or agency and could be more powerful than we think.

It is perhaps the fear of this powerful potential that is the core of truth in Vance’s otherwise absurd equation.

Perhaps this signals the true threat moralizing poses to the status quo — the possibility that there is a better way to live together in a shared world.

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. How rebellion against moralizing has become a surprising rallying point for the political right – https://theconversation.com/how-rebellion-against-moralizing-has-become-a-surprising-rallying-point-for-the-political-right-250549

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: 03.03.2025 Sen. Cruz at Press Conference for Inaugural SAT-DCA Direct Flight: ‘Texas Prevailed’

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Texas Ted Cruz

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, delivered remarks during a press conference at San Antonio International Airport (SAT), celebrating the first direct flight from San Antonio to Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. This flight was made possible due to a provision Sen. Cruz secured in his FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.

Excerpts of Sen. Cruz’s remarks are included below:
“Last year, we passed the FAA Reauthorization Act. At the time, I was the Ranking Member on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The Ranking Member was the senior Republican, not yet in the majority. And that FAA bill, I wrote alongside Maria Cantwell, the chairman of the Committee, a Democrat from Washington state. As we wrote that landmark legislation, it was $110 billion in new resources invested in aviation safety — directing the FAA to hire the maximum number of air traffic controllers to keep passengers safe as you and your family board flights to travel across America and across the world — investing in technology on runways to prevent the multiple near misses that we’ve seen on runways to enhance the ability to avert those disasters — expanding competition and investing in new technology in airports here in San Antonio and all across Texas.
“Now, that bill was a bipartisan bill that had enormous support. And do you know what the single greatest battle on that bill was? The new flight for San Antonio to DCA. On that new flight, you had millions of dollars of lobbying trying to prevent that flight from happening. It was as bare-knuckle a fight as I’ve seen in Washington. You had the senators from Virginia and Maryland both lobbying vigorously against it. The battle ended up delaying the entire bill on the floor of the Senate for two days. Now, we ended up having, thankfully, the entire congressional delegation united.
“In the House, you had Chip Roy, who did a phenomenal job. You had Joaquin Castro, Greg Casar, Tony Gonzales, and Henry Cuellar all working together — Republicans and Democrats, hand in hand. In San Antonio, you had the city, the elected leadership, the business community — all standing as one — united. In the Senate, John Cornyn and I worked hand in hand, whipping the votes. I have, if you come to my office, and Mayor, I’ll show you the whip sheet for the slots, which I have framed, back-to-back, with every one of the Senators because it was literally hand-to-hand combat to get the votes. At the end of the day, Texas prevailed.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth, Schiff Demand Answers From NASA, FAA Over Conflict of Interest in Federal Contract Awards to Musk’s Private Companies
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

February 28, 2025

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST) and Ranking Member of the CST Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation—and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) demanded answers from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Acting Administrator Janet Petro and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau on why, despite Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest, each agency has or may soon award billions of dollars in federal contracts to private companies controlled by Musk while he serves as a government employee.

“If accurate, this presents a striking new phase in Mr. Musk’s conflicts of interest. Mr. Musk holds unprecedented leverage over you and your agencies by directing ongoing efforts to substantially influence, alter, and undercut your departments’ operations, personnel, and funding. Simultaneously awarding his private companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts raises grave questions as to whether you and your agencies are enabling corrupt favoritism to benefit Mr. Musk,” wrote the Senators.

Full text of the letter is available on Senator Duckworth’s website and below:

Dear Ms. Petro and Mr. Rocheleau:

We write with serious concerns regarding recent reports that the federal agencies you lead – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), respectively – have awarded or may soon award billions of dollars in federal contracts to private companies controlled by Elon Musk, a Special Government Employee. If accurate, this presents a striking new phase in Mr. Musk’s conflicts of interest. Mr. Musk holds unprecedented leverage over you and your agencies by directing ongoing efforts to substantially influence, alter, and undercut your departments’ operations, personnel, and funding. Simultaneously awarding his private companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts raises grave questions as to whether you and your agencies are enabling corrupt favoritism to benefit Mr. Musk.

On February 21, 2025, NASA announced that it selected Mr. Musk’s company, SpaceX, to provide launch services for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission, which is intended to detect and observe asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth. According to NASA, the total cost of the launch service on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is approximately $100 million.

Three days later, on February 24, 2025, the FAA announced via Mr. Musk’s platform, X, that the agency “has been considering the use of Starlink,” a subsidiary of Mr. Musk’s company, SpaceX, to increase reliable weather information for the aviation community. The same day, Mr. Musk posted on X: “The Verizon system is not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk.” In an effort to take over a $2.4 billion federal contract with the FAA held by Verizon, Mr. Musk has reportedly approved a shipment of 4,000 Starlink terminals to the FAA to upgrade critical infrastructure. FAA officials confirmed that several Starlink terminals had been installed in New Jersey and Alaska6 and the agency is reportedly “close to canceling” Verizon’s contract and awarding the work to Mr. Musk’s company in a significant dismantling of conflict of interest protections in government contracts. Furthermore, several employees of Mr. Musk’s parent company of Starlink, SpaceX, have joined the FAA – an agency tasked with regulating SpaceX activities and one of several federal Departments that have conducted investigations and reviews of Mr. Musk’s company for violating safety rules.

We strongly support the need to upgrade federal technological systems through public-private partnerships and contracts, but this cannot be done through corruption and graft. Mr. Musk – a man worth over $350 billion – carries significant influence over President Trump and federal government agencies, even as he faces regulatory reviews and federal investigations across almost a dozen federal departments and independent agencies, including the Department of Transportation, of which FAA is a part. Mr. Musk’s profound conflicts of interest risk fundamentally undermining public trust in your agencies at a moment in which trust in the missions of NASA and the FAA have never been more important.

On February 10, 2024, Senator Schiff sent letters to former Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), David Huitema, and White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles requesting clarification regarding Mr. Musk’s compliance with federal conflicts of interest, ethics, and reporting requirements. Following President Trump’s announcement firing Mr. Huitema without cause and designating Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins as acting OGE Director, Senator Schiff sent a follow-up letter requesting that the OGE preserve all records and correspondence regarding Mr. Huitema’s removal and inquiring, yet again, about Mr. Musk’s financial reporting obligations and any conflict of interest considerations communicated with the OGE on behalf of the White House.

To ensure that the Senate can undertake its constitutional oversight and legislative functions, including consideration of potential reforms to strengthen existing statutes, please take the following measures and respond to the questions below by March 7, 2025:
1. Preserve all records and correspondence since January 20, 2025, in NASA and the FAA’s possession regarding federal contract awards.
2. Preserve all records and correspondence in NASA and the FAA’s possession regarding any companies in which Mr. Musk retains a financial interest.
3. Provide the status of any reviews or investigations underway or closed since January 20, 2025, involving companies in which Mr. Musk retains a financial interest, including an investigation by the FAA of SpaceX’s Starship rocket following a failed test flight14 and the FAA’s review of alleged safety measure violations related to SpaceX launches.15
4. Did any White House officials communicate with any NASA or FAA officials about Mr. Musk’s conflict of interest considerations, including whether Mr. Musk would need a waiver under 18 U.S.C. § 208, prior to Mr. Musk’s appointment as a special government employee? If so, please explain the nature of those communications.
5. Did any NASA or FAA employees raise concerns about awarding federal contracts to Mr. Musk’s companies, given his role as a Special Government Employee? If so, please explain the nature of those concerns and communications and preserve all records and correspondence in your possession regarding these concerns.
Congress has yet to receive responses from the White House or the OGE regarding Mr. Musk’s compliance with federal criminal conflicts of interest law and other ethics and reporting requirements, which reinforces concern that Mr. Musk may not be complying with his legal obligations.

We look forward to reviewing your responses.

-30-
MIL OSI USA News –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Government to turbocharge defence innovation
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Press release

Government to turbocharge defence innovation

New defence innovation body to deliver cutting-edge military tech to British troops and create highly skilled jobs across the UK.
Chancellor and Defence Secretary and Business Secretary host joint roundtable with leaders from 15 of the country’s top defence firms

Government to launch new defence innovation organisation to quickly deliver cutting-edge military tech to British troops and create highly skilled jobs across the UK

Follows PM’s announcement to deliver largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War

A new defence innovation body to harness UK ingenuity and boost military technology is set to be launched, as part of a drive to turbocharge innovation in defence and deliver growth as part of the Plan for Change.

The Chancellor, Defence Secretary and Business Secretary have today (28 February) confirmed that a new UK defence innovation organisation will work with innovative firms to rapidly get cutting-edge military technology into the hands of British troops, and harness the ingenuity of the UK’s leading tech and manufacturing sectors.

This new unit – which will be launched at the Spring Statement – is a clear demonstration of how the Government is moving at pace to drive reform in defence and use defence as an engine of economic growth.

The Chancellor, Defence Secretary and Business Secretary today met leaders from 15 British defence firms of all sizes at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire – one of the RAF’s busiest stations with airborne intelligence aircraft and systems – to discuss the how the new unit will operate.

Developed as part of Defence Reform – the biggest overhaul of defence for more than 50 years – the new body is set to simplify and streamline the innovation system within MOD. It will take a new approach by moving quickly and decisively, using different ways of contracting, to enable UK companies to scale up innovative prototypes rapidly by setting out a clear pathway, working with the Government, from initial production to manufacturing at scale.

As part of a defence innovation drive, the government will also look to enhance investment in defence start-ups and scale-up technology and capability, including through the National Security Strategic Investment Fund. Ministers will work with the venture capital and investment community, as well as industry, to leverage private investment in the technology of the future.

The meeting comes after the Prime Minister outlined the Government’s commitment to increase spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 and the Chancellor’s message to European allies at the G20 in South Africa to jointly go further and faster on defence.

The new innovation unit will help equip Britain’s Armed Forces with cutting-edge tech and grow high-tech British businesses in the defence tech ecosystem. It will take the lessons from the rapidly changing nature of warfare, as seen in the conflict in Ukraine.

Increased defence spending will support highly skilled jobs and apprenticeships across the whole of the UK. Last year, defence spending supported over 430,000 jobs across the UK, the equivalent to one in every 60, and 68% of defence spending goes outside of London and the Southeast, benefitting every nation and region of the country.

Backing the defence industry will protect UK citizens from threats at home but will also create a secure and stable environment in which businesses can thrive, supporting the Government’s number one mission to deliver economic growth.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves said:

The world is less certain than it has been for a generation. History tells us that government and industry must rise to meet these moments together. We need to invest in sophisticated, innovative kit and get it into the hands of our fighting men and women.

In the world we face, national security and economic growth are going to go hand in hand. High-skilled, well-paid jobs across the UK will both make our country safer and put pounds in people’s pockets.

Defence Secretary, John Healey said:

The world is changing, and we are changing defence. We will back the high-growth, high-tech UK defence firms of the future, to boost our national security and make defence an engine for growth.

We will make the UK a defence innovation leader, funding and supporting firms of all sizes to take state-of-the-art technology from the drawing board to the production line, and into the hands of our Armed Forces.

Defence has a crucial role to play in economic growth across the UK – built on the foundation of the largest sustained funding increase since the Cold War – to support thousands of highly skilled jobs.

Business and Trade Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds said:

A strong, robust defence sector is vital for a Britain that’s both secure at home and strong abroad, and ensures a world where business can benefit from the economic security it brings.

Nearly half a million UK graduates get good, well-paid jobs thanks to our aerospace, defence, security and space sectors. These are areas where the UK excels on the global stage, and where our innovation can add billions to the economy.

That’s why our Plan for Change puts defence at the heart of our Industrial Strategy, helping us drive economic growth while bolstering our national security for the long term.

Science and Tech Secretary, Peter Kyle said:

Britain’s science and research expertise has always played a role in keeping us safe, and still does: from inventions like radar and codebreaking machines in the 20th century, through to innovations around drone technology and cybersecurity, today.

We are dedicated to making sure the UK tech sector has everything it needs to continue to thrive, and to keep playing a critical role in our national security.

As set out in the Plan for Change, national security is the first duty of the government, and investment in defence will protect UK citizens from threats at home while also creating a secure and stable environment for economic growth.

Economic growth is central to the Government’s Plan for Change to put more money into the pockets of working people and will be a core objective of the defence innovation organisation.

The joint meeting with defence industry organisations comes on the final day of the consultation for the Defence Industrial Strategy, which will ensure a strong defence sector and resilient supply chains across the whole of the UK.

Industry leaders’ quotes:

Andy Fraser, Saab UK Group Managing Director said:

Saab UK welcomes the announcement that the UK Government will increase defence spending to 2.5% by 2027, with a route to 3% in the next Parliament.

We live in a challenging world which requires industry and government in the UK to work together more closely. In the UK, we know that the defence industry benefits growth, investment and offers fantastic careers – while also helping to ensure the UK’s resilience. Saab UK has recently opened new facilities in the UK because we know that together we can achieve our aim to keep people and society safe.

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Published 3 March 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Microsoft Dragon Copilot provides the healthcare industry’s first AI assistant for clinical workflow
Source: Microsoft

Headline: Microsoft Dragon Copilot provides the healthcare industry’s first AI assistant for clinical workflow

By combining and extending the proven capabilities of Dragon Medical One (DMO) and DAX Copilot (DAX), Dragon Copilot promotes clinician well-being, increases efficiency, improves patient experiences and drives financial impact

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2025 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. is unveiling Microsoft Dragon Copilot, the first AI assistant for clinical workflow that brings together the trusted natural language voice dictation capabilities of DMO with the ambient listening capabilities of DAX, fine-tuned generative AI and healthcare-adapted safeguards. Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot is built on a secure modern architecture that enables organizations to deliver enhanced experiences and outcomes across care settings for providers and patients alike.

Clinician burnout in the U.S. dropped from 53% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, in part due to technology advancements. However, with an aging population, and persistent burnout felt across the profession, a significant U.S. workforce shortage is projected. In response, health systems are adopting AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance care access, and enable faster clinical insights to improve healthcare globally.

“At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients,” said Joe Petro, corporate vice president of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms. “With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organizations and the patients they serve.”

“With Dragon Copilot, we’re not just enhancing how we work in the EHR — we’re tapping into a Microsoft-powered ecosystem where AI assistance extends across our organization, delivering a consistent and intelligent experience everywhere we work,” said Dr. R. Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital and chief information officer, WellSpan Health. “It’s this ability to enhance the patient experience while streamlining clinician workflows that makes Dragon Copilot such a game-changer.”

Dragon Copilot combines DMO’s speech capabilities, which has helped clinicians document billions of patient records, and DAX’s ambient AI technology, which has assisted over 3 million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organizations in the past month alone. With these ambient AI capabilities, organizations have already realized significant outcomes, with clinicians reporting five minutes saved per encounter,[1] 70% of clinicians reporting reduced feelings of burnout and fatigue,[2] 62% of clinicians stating they are less likely to leave their organization,[3] while 93% of patients report a better overall experience.[4]

Key features of Dragon Copilot allow clinicians and other care providers across specialties to:
- Streamline documentation: Clinicians can take advantage of multilanguage ambient note creation, automated tasks and multilanguage support, personalized style and formatting, natural language dictation capabilities, speech memos, editing, customized texts, templates, AI prompts, and more in one singular user interface.
- Surface information: The embedded AI assistant functionality allows clinicians to conduct general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources.
- Automate tasks: New capabilities allow clinicians to automate key tasks, such as conversational orders, note and clinical evidence summaries, referral letters, and after-visit summaries, in one centralized workspace.
Clinicians working across ambulatory, inpatient, emergency departments and other care settings will benefit from Dragon Copilot’s fast, accurate, secure and intuitive speech and ambient capabilities to document care, navigate electronic health record (EHR) workflows, and perform other administrative tasks. Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the U.S. and Canada in May, followed by the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands. Microsoft is also committed to bringing a new Dragon experience to other key markets using Dragon Medical today.

“We are aware of the administrative burnout affecting our clinicians, and the need for improved care access for our patients, and the newest evolution of Dragon represents a significant step forward in alleviating this strain,” said Glen Kearns, EVP and CIO, The Ottawa Hospital. “We are thrilled to be one of the first customers in Canada to use Microsoft’s ambient and generative AI technology. The newest evolution of Dragon Copilot could help alleviate documentation burden for our clinical teams.”

With Microsoft’s extensive healthcare industry partner ecosystem, healthcare organizations can unlock more value from Dragon Copilot by accessing new solutions and integrated offerings. These partners include leading EHR providers, independent software vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers that each play a unique role in enabling organizations to deliver meaningful outcomes using the Dragon Copilot solution.

Embracing AI innovations with a secure data estate and responsible AI

Dragon’s new capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs. They also align to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles to help guide AI development and use —transparency, reliability and safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy, and security. We remain committed to developing responsible AI by design and ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society and will share our learnings on this journey with our customers.

For more information on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, please visit the Microsoft health and life sciences press site here. For more information on Dragon Copilot, click here or visit us at booth #2221 at HIMSS.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777,
[email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at https://news.microsoft.com/source. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

[1] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[2] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[3] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[4] Survey of 413 patients conducted by multiple healthcare organizations whose clinicians use DAX Copilot; June 2024
MIL OSI Economics –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: When did our ancestors start to eat meat regularly? Fossilised teeth get us closer to the answer

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tina Lüdecke, Leader of the Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption (HoMeCo), Max Planck Institute For Chemistry

Goodboy Picture Company/Getty Images

For decades, scientists have been learning more about the diets of early hominins, particularly their reliance on plants. Yet we still don’t know when these ancestors of humans started eating meat.

This is a frustrating gap in our understanding of human evolution. We think regular meat consumption was one of the main drivers of brain growth and evolution in hominins, because animal products are calorie-dense and easier to digest than unprocessed plant foods. They also contain all the essential amino acids and are rich in biologically important nutrients, minerals and vitamins.

What we do know is that by the time our genus, Homo, emerged over two million years ago, hominins were regularly eating meat. This is clear from their increased reliance at this point on stone tools to butcher and process meat products. We’ve also found fossil bones with cut marks that indicate butchering.

But that doesn’t explain when and where regular meat eating started and which species of our ancestors made that crucial shift.

Now, thanks to fossilised tooth enamel, we’re a step closer to an answer. In a study with several other co-authors, we measured nitrogen isotopes in the enamel from fossilised teeth belonging to the hominin genus Australopithecus, discovered in South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves. This is one of the oldest known human ancestor species.

Atoms of the same element can have different versions, called isotopes, which have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. This makes them slightly heavier or lighter but chemically similar. For example, nitrogen has two stable isotopes: nitrogen-14 (¹⁴N) and nitrogen-15 (¹⁵N). These occur naturally, but their ratio varies in nature. In food webs, nitrogen isotopes become enriched as you move up the chain, meaning predators have higher ¹⁴N/¹⁵N ratios than herbivores.

Identifying these isotopes is a way to reconstruct ancient diets and ecosystems, helping scientists understand how past environments shaped the survival of species – including early humans.

We also tested the isotopic signature of animals that lived in the ecosystem at the same time. We saw that the isotopic signature of Australopithecus was low – similar to that of herbivores.

Our findings suggest that these ape-like, small-brained early hominins were eating mostly plants. There was little to no evidence of meat consumption. They may have snacked on the occasional egg or insect but they were not regularly hunting large mammals like Neanderthals did millions of years later.

A toothy approach

One of us (Dr Lüdecke) began working with fossilised tooth enamel during her PhD. The focus was on measuring stable carbon isotopes in the enamel as a way to uncover the plant-based part of an extant or extinct animal’s diet.

This approach reveals whether a species relied on lush, leafy plants or hardy, grass-like vegetation in African savanna ecosystems. But there was always that small, unsatisfying sentence in the discussion section of her academic papers: “This dataset cannot inform about the meat portion of the diet.”

Then inspiration struck. The co-authors of the latest study, Alfredo Martínez-García and Daniel Sigman, had developed a method with their teams to measure nitrogen isotopes in marine microfossils – tiny creatures that, like fossilised tooth enamel, contain almost no organic material.

Read more:
The study of tiny fossils reminds us that museums are key to advancing science

We wondered whether the same technique could work for ancient teeth and finally provide a date marker for early hominins’ meat eating behaviour.

We started small by testing the method on rodent tooth enamel from animals with controlled diets in a specialised feeding experiment. It worked. From there, we moved on to the enamel of wild mammals from museum collections and other animals that had lived naturally in African ecosystems.

When these results aligned with what we expected in terms of their known diets, we knew we had a reliable tool. After more laboratory testing, method tweaking and checking, we felt ready to analyse the fossilised tooth enamel of non-primate fauna found in one of the oldest fossil-bearing deposits of South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves. This deposit, Member 4, formed about 3.4 million years ago, during the Late Pliocene period.

Again, these analyses gave us the expected results: it was clear at the isotopic level whether we were dealing with the teeth of a herbivore or a carnivore.

Then we finally sampled seven Australopithecus molars from Member 4 to uncover whether these ancient hominins, which lived and died around the Sterkfontein Caves about 3.4 million years ago, were sinking their teeth into meat or sticking to a largely vegetarian menu.

By comparing the nitrogen isotope ratios of these early hominins with those of other animals from the same ecosystem – like antelopes, monkeys and carnivores – we found that the isotopic signature of Australopithecus was low, similar to that of herbivores.

Future plans

This discovery is just the beginning. We’re now expanding our research to other fossil sites across Africa and Asia, hoping to answer bigger questions. When did meat truly enter the hominin diet? Which species of hominins through our evolution consumed meat? Did the behaviour emerge several times and did it coincide with the rise of larger brains, or marked changes in behaviour, like new stone tool technology? And what does this mean for how we understand the evolutionary path that led to our species?

Tina Lüdecke receives funding from the German Research Foundation Emmy Noether Fellowship (LU 2199/2-1). She is affiliated with the Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Mainz, Germany) and the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa).

Sterkfontein fieldwork is supported by South African governmental platforms DSI-NRF and NRF African Origins Platform, and long-term project and student support from GENUS and PAST.

– ref. When did our ancestors start to eat meat regularly? Fossilised teeth get us closer to the answer – https://theconversation.com/when-did-our-ancestors-start-to-eat-meat-regularly-fossilised-teeth-get-us-closer-to-the-answer-249737

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: When did our ancestors start to eat meat regularly? Fossilised teeth get us closer to the answer

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tina Lüdecke, Leader of the Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption (HoMeCo), Max Planck Institute For Chemistry

For decades, scientists have been learning more about the diets of early hominins, particularly their reliance on plants. Yet we still don’t know when these ancestors of humans started eating meat.

This is a frustrating gap in our understanding of human evolution. We think regular meat consumption was one of the main drivers of brain growth and evolution in hominins, because animal products are calorie-dense and easier to digest than unprocessed plant foods. They also contain all the essential amino acids and are rich in biologically important nutrients, minerals and vitamins.

What we do know is that by the time our genus, Homo, emerged over two million years ago, hominins were regularly eating meat. This is clear from their increased reliance at this point on stone tools to butcher and process meat products. We’ve also found fossil bones with cut marks that indicate butchering.

But that doesn’t explain when and where regular meat eating started and which species of our ancestors made that crucial shift.

Now, thanks to fossilised tooth enamel, we’re a step closer to an answer. In a study with several other co-authors, we measured nitrogen isotopes in the enamel from fossilised teeth belonging to the hominin genus Australopithecus, discovered in South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves. This is one of the oldest known human ancestor species.

Atoms of the same element can have different versions, called isotopes, which have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. This makes them slightly heavier or lighter but chemically similar. For example, nitrogen has two stable isotopes: nitrogen-14 (¹⁴N) and nitrogen-15 (¹⁵N). These occur naturally, but their ratio varies in nature. In food webs, nitrogen isotopes become enriched as you move up the chain, meaning predators have higher ¹⁴N/¹⁵N ratios than herbivores.

Identifying these isotopes is a way to reconstruct ancient diets and ecosystems, helping scientists understand how past environments shaped the survival of species – including early humans.

We also tested the isotopic signature of animals that lived in the ecosystem at the same time. We saw that the isotopic signature of Australopithecus was low – similar to that of herbivores.

Our findings suggest that these ape-like, small-brained early hominins were eating mostly plants. There was little to no evidence of meat consumption. They may have snacked on the occasional egg or insect but they were not regularly hunting large mammals like Neanderthals did millions of years later.

A toothy approach

One of us (Dr Lüdecke) began working with fossilised tooth enamel during her PhD. The focus was on measuring stable carbon isotopes in the enamel as a way to uncover the plant-based part of an extant or extinct animal’s diet.

This approach reveals whether a species relied on lush, leafy plants or hardy, grass-like vegetation in African savanna ecosystems. But there was always that small, unsatisfying sentence in the discussion section of her academic papers: “This dataset cannot inform about the meat portion of the diet.”

Then inspiration struck. The co-authors of the latest study, Alfredo Martínez-García and Daniel Sigman, had developed a method with their teams to measure nitrogen isotopes in marine microfossils – tiny creatures that, like fossilised tooth enamel, contain almost no organic material.

Read more: The study of tiny fossils reminds us that museums are key to advancing science

We wondered whether the same technique could work for ancient teeth and finally provide a date marker for early hominins’ meat eating behaviour.

We started small by testing the method on rodent tooth enamel from animals with controlled diets in a specialised feeding experiment. It worked. From there, we moved on to the enamel of wild mammals from museum collections and other animals that had lived naturally in African ecosystems.

When these results aligned with what we expected in terms of their known diets, we knew we had a reliable tool. After more laboratory testing, method tweaking and checking, we felt ready to analyse the fossilised tooth enamel of non-primate fauna found in one of the oldest fossil-bearing deposits of South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves. This deposit, Member 4, formed about 3.4 million years ago, during the Late Pliocene period.

Again, these analyses gave us the expected results: it was clear at the isotopic level whether we were dealing with the teeth of a herbivore or a carnivore.

Then we finally sampled seven Australopithecus molars from Member 4 to uncover whether these ancient hominins, which lived and died around the Sterkfontein Caves about 3.4 million years ago, were sinking their teeth into meat or sticking to a largely vegetarian menu.

By comparing the nitrogen isotope ratios of these early hominins with those of other animals from the same ecosystem – like antelopes, monkeys and carnivores – we found that the isotopic signature of Australopithecus was low, similar to that of herbivores.

Future plans

This discovery is just the beginning. We’re now expanding our research to other fossil sites across Africa and Asia, hoping to answer bigger questions. When did meat truly enter the hominin diet? Which species of hominins through our evolution consumed meat? Did the behaviour emerge several times and did it coincide with the rise of larger brains, or marked changes in behaviour, like new stone tool technology? And what does this mean for how we understand the evolutionary path that led to our species?

– When did our ancestors start to eat meat regularly? Fossilised teeth get us closer to the answer
– https://theconversation.com/when-did-our-ancestors-start-to-eat-meat-regularly-fossilised-teeth-get-us-closer-to-the-answer-249737

MIL OSI Africa –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: A Palestinian-Israeli film just won an Oscar − so why is it so hard to see?

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Drew Paul, Associate Professor of Arabic, University of Tennessee

Left to right: Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham pose with their Oscars for ‘No Other Land’ at the 2025 Academy Awards. Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images

For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar win is a golden ticket.

The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases, along with more on-demand rentals and sales.

However, for “No Other Land,” a Palestinian-Israeli film that just won best documentary feature at the 2025 Academy Awards, this exposure may not translate into commercial success in the U.S. That’s because the film has been unable to find a company to distribute it in America.

“No Other Land” chronicles the efforts of Palestinian townspeople to combat an Israeli plan to demolish their villages in the West Bank and use the area as a military training ground. It was directed by four Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists: Basel Adra, who is a resident of the area facing demolition, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. While the filmmakers have organized screenings in a number of U.S. cities, the lack of a national distributor makes a broader release unlikely.

Film distributors are a crucial but often unseen link in the chain that allows a film to reach cinemas and people’s living rooms. In recent years it has become more common for controversial award-winning films to run into issues finding a distributor. Palestinian films have encountered additional barriers.

As a scholar of Arabic who has written about Palestinian cinema, I’m disheartened by the difficulties “No Other Land” has faced. But I’m not surprised.

The role of film distributors

Distributors are often invisible to moviegoers. But without one, it can be difficult for a film to find an audience.

Distributors typically acquire rights to a film for a specific country or set of countries. They then market films to movie theaters, cinema chains and streaming platforms. As compensation, distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by theatrical and home releases.

The film “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” another finalist for best documentary, shows how this process typically works. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was acquired for distribution just a few months later by Kino Lorber, a major U.S.-based distributor of independent films.

The inability to find a distributor is not itself noteworthy. No film is entitled to distribution, and most films by newer or unknown directors face long odds.

However, it is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film festivals and award shows. Some have pegged it as a favorite to win best documentary at the Academy Awards. And “No Other Land” has been able to find distributors in Europe, where it’s easily accessible on multiple streaming platforms.

So why can’t “No Other Land” find a distributor in the U.S.?

There are a couple of factors at play.

Shying away from controversy

In recent years, film critics have noticed a trend: Documentaries on controversial topics have faced distribution difficulties. These include a film about a campaign by Amazon workers to unionize and a documentary about Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican congresspeople to vote to impeach Donald Trump in 2021.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course, has long stirred controversy. But the release of “No Other Land” comes at a time when the issue is particularly salient. The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip have become a polarizing issue in U.S. domestic politics, reflected in the campus protests and crackdowns in 2024. The filmmakers’ critical comments about the Israeli occupation of Palestine have also garnered backlash in Germany.

Locals attend a screening of ‘No Other Land’ in the village of A-Tuwani in the West Bank on March 14, 2024.
Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Yet the fact that this conflict has been in the news since October 2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as “No Other Land” – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric that distributors care about the most.

Indeed, an earlier film that also documents Palestinian protests against Israeli land expropriation, “5 Broken Cameras,” was a finalist for best documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. It was able to find a U.S. distributor. However, it had the support of a major European Union documentary development program called Greenhouse. The support of an organization like Greenhouse, which had ties to numerous production and distribution companies in Europe and the U.S., can facilitate the process of finding a distributor.

By contrast, “No Other Land,” although it has a Norwegian co-producer and received some funding from organizations in Europe and the U.S., was made primarily by a grassroots filmmaking collective.

Stages for protest

While distribution challenges may be recent, controversies surrounding Palestinian films are nothing new.

Many of them stem from the fact that the system of film festivals, awards and distribution is primarily based on a movie’s nation of origin. Since there is no sovereign Palestinian state – and many countries and organizations have not recognized the state of Palestine – the question of how to categorize Palestinian films has been hard to resolve.

In 2002, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the first ever Palestinian film submitted to the best foreign language film category – Elia Suleiman’s “Divine Intervention” – because Palestine was not recognized as a country by the United Nations. The rules were changed for the following year’s awards ceremony.

In 2021, the cast of the film “Let It Be Morning,” which had an Israeli director but primarily Palestinian actors, boycotted the Cannes Film Festival in protest of the film’s categorization as an Israeli film rather than a Palestinian one.

Film festivals and other cultural venues have also become places to make statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and engage in protest. For example, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the right-wing Israeli culture minister wore a controversial – and meme-worthy – dress that featured the Jerusalem skyline in support of Israeli claims of sovereignty over the holy city, despite the unresolved status of Jerusalem under international law.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev wears a dress featuring the old city of Jerusalem during the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
Antonin Thuillier/AFP via Getty Images

At the 2024 Academy Awards, a number of attendees, including Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali, wore red pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, and pro-Palestine protesters delayed the start of the ceremonies.

As he accepted his award, “No Other Land” director Yuval Abraham called out “the foreign policy” of the U.S. for “helping to block” a path to peace.

Even though a film like “No Other Land” addresses a topic of clear interest to many Americans, I wonder if the quest to find a U.S. distributor just got even harder.

This article has been updated to clarify that the film was a collaborative effort between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers. It has also been updated to reflect the film’s win at the 2025 Academy Awards.

Drew Paul 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. A Palestinian-Israeli film just won an Oscar − so why is it so hard to see? – https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-israeli-film-just-won-an-oscar-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-249233

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Laurie Devaney Named Department Head of Kinesiology

Source: US State of Connecticut

Following an internal search, Laurie Devaney, associate professor in residence, has been selected to serve as the head of the Department of Kinesiology, effective March 1, 2025. She has served as interim head of the Department of Kinesiology since May 2023.

“Dr. Devaney has exhibited a collaborative approach to leadership that supports the strategic goals of the department, as well as the mission of UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources,” says Dean Indrajeet Chaubey. “Her unique expertise, along with her commitment to student success, innovative research, and dedicated community engagement are all critical assets in this important role.”

Devaney has previously served as the director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, and she is the current co-director of the UConn Institute for Sports Medicine and a consultant for the UConn Division of Athletics.

Devaney is an experienced educator and researcher with decades of clinical experience in orthopedic and sports physical therapy. She has been a certified athletic trainer since 1993 and holds a Ph.D. in exercise science from UConn.

Devaney’s expertise encompasses sports injuries and neck pain and impairments, focusing on athletes and older adults. Her current research involves injury prevention in overhead athletes and modeling of central and peripheral neuromuscular impairments in patients with ongoing functional deficits after ligament injury and/or surgical reconstruction.

“In this role, I believe I can be an effective connector, facilitator, and advocate for the needs and values of our department,” says Devaney. “UConn’s Department of Kinesiology is rapidly growing and diversifying in programming and research, and I’m privileged to continue to serve my colleagues, our students, and the communities we support.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Government of Saskatchewan will be well Represented at Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada Convention in Toronto

Source: Government of Canada regional news

Released on March 3, 2025

Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young, along with representatives from the Government of Saskatchewan, are in Toronto, Ontario this week for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention. Over the four-day convention, PDAC will bring together almost 30,000 attendees from over 135 countries.

The Ministry of Energy and Resources will be joined at PDAC by the Ministry of Trade and Export Development and the Saskatchewan Research Council. Together they will host a pavilion at the convention trade show. The pavilion is an excellent opportunity for both national and international delegates to speak with government officials about the opportunities for mining, developments in geoscience and investment in Saskatchewan.

“For over 30 years the Government of Saskatchewan has attended PDAC and since that time we have grown our presence and our outreach efforts,” Young said. “PDAC truly is an excellent opportunity to build relationships and grow Saskatchewan’s mining sector. PDAC is one of the world’s premier mineral exploration and mining events. I look forward to meeting with current partners and potential investors while I am in Toronto.”

In addition to the Saskatchewan booth, PDAC provides learning and networking opportunities for attendees. Government officials will also be meeting with investors and stakeholders on site. As Canada’s largest mining convention, and one of the world’s largest mining and exploring events, PDAC provides an excellent opportunity for the province to showcase Saskatchewan as a key player in the industry and an open and attractive place to invest in.

-30-

For more information, contact:

MIL OSI Canada News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Jeito Capital announces significant participation in $187 million Series A financing for Callio Therapeutics to advance innovative multi-payload ADC programs designed to maximize therapeutic benefit for cancer patients
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Jeito Capital announces significant participation in $187 million Series A financing for Callio Therapeutics to advance innovative multi-payload ADC programs designed to maximize therapeutic benefit for cancer patients
- Callio Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing multi-payload ADCs with technology and programs exclusively in-licensed from Singapore-based Hummingbird Bioscience
- Investment will contribute to achieve clinical proof-of-concept for
  Callio’s HER-2-targeted dual-payload ADC and a second undisclosed ADC program
- Jeito’s investment reinforces its commitment to cutting-edge oncology innovations addressing treatment resistance and improving patient outcomes
Paris, March 3^rd2025 – Jeito Capital (“Jeito”), a global leading independent Private Equity fund dedicated to biopharma, announced today its significant participation in the $187 million (€180.2 million¹) Series A financing round in Callio Therapeutics (“Callio”), a newly launched biotechnology company focused on realizing the promise of multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to improve cancer therapy.

Callio Therapeutics was founded by Frazier Life Sciences to develop next-generation multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) based on technology and programs exclusively in-licensed from Singapore-based Hummingbird Bioscience. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Piers Ingram, PhD, alongside a founding management team with deep expertise in ADC development bringing experience from leading biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies (including Hummingbird Bioscience, ProfoundBio, Silverback Therapeutics, SeaGen, Medarex, and Genentech).

The $187 million Series A financing was led by Frazier Life Sciences with significant participation from Jeito alongside an investment syndicate including Novo Holdings A/S Omega Funds, ClavystBio, Platanus, Norwest, Pureos Bioventures, SEEDS Capital and EDBI. The strength of this syndicate underscores the broad confidence in Callio’s innovative ADC platform and its potential to reshape cancer therapy.

Callio Therapeutics will use the proceeds from the Series A financing to achieve clinical proof-of-concept for its HER2-targeted dual-payload ADC and a second undisclosed ADC program, all designed to maximize therapeutic benefit for cancer patients by overcoming the limitations of single-payload therapies. By enabling the targeted delivery of rational drug combinations to tumor cells, Callio’s approach has the potential to significantly enhance efficacy and address resistance mechanisms.

Rachel Mears, Partner at Jeito will join Callio’s Board of Director as Board member.

Through this investment, Jeito reinforces its commitment to supporting transformative oncology innovations that address key resistance mechanisms in cancer treatment. Callio’s differentiated multi-payload ADC platform aligns with Jeito’s investment thesis of backing high-potential biopharma companies developing next-generation therapies with the potential for global leadership.

Dr Rafaèle Tordjman, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital said: “We are pleased to support Callio Therapeutics as it advances its differentiated multi-payload ADC platform to address some of the biggest challenges in oncology. As long-standing investors in this therapeutic area, we recognize the quality and potential of Callio’s approach to overcome resistance mechanisms and improve outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. At Jeito, we believe that strategic collaboration and bold innovation are key to accelerating the next generation of targeted therapies, and we look forward to working alongside the Callio team to bring these advances to patients in need. “

Rachel Mears, Parner at Jeito Capital added: “Callio is a highly innovative company that benefits from an experienced management team and deep expertise in oncology, where new therapies remain highly needed for those suffering from various forms of cancer. We look forward to collaborating with Callio’s team through our collective knowledge and expertise in both ADC and oncology with the ambition to go faster to patients with high unmet needs. “

Piers Ingram, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Callio Therapeutics concluded: “We are delighted to be launching Callio Therapeutics with this very strong syndicate of investors. Multi-payload ADCs have the potential to enable the targeted delivery of rational drug combinations to cancer cells, and may provide significantly enhanced efficacy. This new generation of ADC therapies may meaningfully improve outcomes for patients.”

About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading Private Equity fund with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports managers through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito Capital has €534 million under management and a rapidly growing portfolio of investments. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States.
For more information, please visit www.jeito.life or follow us on LinkedIn or X.

About Callio Therapeutics
Headquartered in Seattle and Singapore, Callio Therapeutics is focused on realizing the promise of multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates to transform cancer patient outcomes. The company is developing next-generation, multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that feature differentiated payload and linker technologies that enable targeted delivery of multi agents to tumor cells to maximize therapeutic benefit. Callio Therapeutics’ lead program is a HER2-targeted dual-payload ADC. Callio Therapeutics was created by Frazier Life Sciences, a longstanding investment firm focused on innovative therapeutics, based on ADC technology and programs exclusively in-licensed from Hummingbird Bioscience. For more information , please visit www.calliotx.com and follow Callio Therapeutics on LinkedIn.

Contacts:
Jeito Capital
Rafaèle Tordjman, Founder & CEO
Jessica Fadel, EA
Tel: +33 6 33 44 25 47

Maior
Stéphanie Elbaz – Tel: +33 6 46 05 08 07

ICR Healthcare
Mary-Jane Elliott / Davide Salvi / Kris Lam
Jeito@icrhealthcare.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700

¹EUR/USD exchange rate: 1 EUR = 1.0377 USD date February 7, 2025 (source: Banque de France)

The MIL Network –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: “Focusing on Technology”: Academic Council Discusses How to Develop Science at HSE

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

Meeting Academic Council of the National Research University Higher School of Economics February 26 was dedicated to science. The participants of the meeting discussed the results of the university’s scientific activities, the work of the postgraduate school and dissertation councils through the prism of the priorities of the country’s scientific and technological policy. In addition, a competition was held to fill the positions of professors and teachers.

HSE Rector Nikita Anisimov gave a report on the scientific activities of HSE. He emphasized that HSE has established itself as a research university and that the further development of science should be inextricably linked with the tasks facing the country. They have been defined in key documents of the last two years, including decrees of the President of Russia on national goals, priority areas of scientific and technological development and the most important science-intensive technologies and other strategic development documents.

In his report, Nikita Anisimov noted that changes that facilitate the integration of HSE into solving technological leadership problems are already underway at the university – in particular, new institutes and laboratories have been opened, partnerships with industry have been expanded, etc.

It is important that HSE has managed to maintain the high quality of fundamental research. This is confirmed by the university’s position among Russian universities in terms of the number of scientific articles of the 1st level of the national “White List” indexed in databases: HSE ranks 2nd. The rector emphasized that this is the result of the motivation system created at the university – academic bonuses. Thus, in 2020, 1,050 employees received academic bonuses, in 2024 – 1,139.

The rector noted that the volume of R&D at the university in 2024 amounted to more than 8.5 billion rubles, since 2020 it has grown by more than 3 billion rubles. HSE is among the top 3 universities in terms of R&D in Russia. The main topics of research and development at HSE are economic and social-humanitarian areas. To increase the contribution of the university team to solving the problems of technological leadership, the share of STEM topics in the HSE fundamental research program has been increased to 45% in 2026.

While maintaining HSE’s integration into global science, the next step in the development of scientific activity is to concentrate efforts on technologies that are in demand by the state, society and business. It is necessary to move from individual research to large projects, from isolated fundamental research to full-cycle interdisciplinary projects, from integration into the global agenda to participation in its formation. “It is important for us that the scientific schools and teams of the university intensify their interaction with their industrial partners as much as possible,” the rector added.

Head of the Academic Council Commission for the Organization of Scientific Research, Dean Faculty of Economic Sciences Sergey Pekarsky supported the theses proposed by the rector. In his opinion, everything that the university has achieved in recent years is important not only to preserve, but also to critically rethink and reconfigure in order to respond to modern challenges.

About the activity postgraduate studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics said Vice-Rector Sergey Roshchin. Currently, the university has 1,317 postgraduate students, including 142 foreigners, 59 programs in 72 scientific specialties, 23 postgraduate schools. The unified track “Master’s degree – postgraduate study” is being successfully implemented. The effectiveness of postgraduate study (the share of those who defended their theses on time from the number of those accepted in the corresponding year) varies across faculties and subject schools, and it needs to be increased to 30% in 2026, including by increasing the responsibility of departments for the result.

First Vice-Rector Vadim Radaev spoke about the dissertation councils of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. There are 21 dissertation councils at the HSE, including 369 permanent members, while dissertations are reviewed by committees consisting of 900 scientists, including 620 external ones. The number of defenses has increased from 71 in 2020 to 180 in 2024. The speaker described the new criteria for assessing the publications of applicants and members of dissertation councils introduced by the Higher Attestation Commission, and the corresponding adjustments that are coming at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

The Academic Council meeting also held a competition for filling the positions of the teaching staff in the form of a secret ballot. Based on the results of the vote, a decision is made on whether to elect or not to the position; its results will be announced in the near future. Before the vote, Vice-Rector Alexey Koshel spoke about the main trends of the competition, and the head of the Academic Council Commission on Personnel and Awards Marina Oleshek reported on the results of its work and presented final recommendations. During the discussion, Vadim Radaev recommended paying more attention to the fight against grade inflation, and his position was supported by the Rector.

Nikita Anisimov, HSE Academic Director Yaroslav Kuzminov and HSE President Alexander Shokhin presented honorary certificates from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science:

Olga Afanasyeva, Deputy Dean Faculty of Creative Industries;

To Daniel Karabekyan, Director of academic development;

Igor Osipov, Deputy Director for operation and maintenance of buildings and structures;

Natalia Malykhina, Acting Senior Director of HR;

Rimma Pogodina, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Creative Industries;

To Lyudmila Kuzmina, Associate Professor MIEM.

Maxim Shkurnikov, Deputy Dean, received a letter of gratitude from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology. The honorary title “Honorary Lawyer of the City of Moscow” was awarded to Irina Bogdanovskaya, professor Faculty of Law.

Director MIEF Sergey Yakovlev and his deputy Oleg Zamkov received HSE medals “Recognition – 25 years of successful work”, and employees Faculty of Computer Science Associate Professor Maxim Rakhuba and Senior Lecturer Sergei Samsonov received the “Young Scientist” badge.

Nikita Anisimov congratulated his colleagues, awarded the medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” of the 2nd degree and awarded the title “Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation” in January, as well as Vice-Rector Victoria Panova, in February received Badge of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Attention to people, assessment of their personal merits and the merits of those groups in which they have succeeded and received these awards is the most important part of the university’s life,” the rector concluded.

Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: LIS Technologies Inc. (“LIST”) Awarded AFWERX SBIR Phase I

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

LIST wins contract to conduct feasibility study on enriching uranium to empower Department of the Air Force’s global operations

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — LIS Technologies Inc. (“LIST”) announces it has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase I contract focused on enhancing our Chemical Reaction by Isotope Selective Laser Activation (C.R.I.S.L.A) technology to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now as of January 15th, 2025, LIST will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

Quote From Company Leadership

“LIS Technologies is proud to support the Air Force with transformative solutions that enhance Uranium supply chain resilience and maintain America’s technological and strategic superiority.” – Chairman, Jay Yu.

“This AFWERX Phase I award validates LIS Technologies’ CRISLA innovation as a critical tool for strengthening the U.S. industrial base and advancing national security through cutting-edge isotope separation technology to secure America’s Uranium supply chain.” -C.E.O., Christo Liebenberg.

“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.”

About LIS Technologies Inc.

LIS Technologies Inc. (LIST) is a USA based, proprietary developer of a patented advanced laser technology, making use of infrared lasers to selectively excite the molecules of desired isotopes to separate them from other isotopes. The Laser Isotope Separation Technology (L.I.S.T) has a huge range of applications, including being the only USA-origin (and patented) laser uranium enrichment company, and several major advantages over traditional methods such as gas diffusion, centrifuges, and prior art laser enrichment. The LIST proprietary laser-based process is more energy-efficient and has the potential to be deployed with highly competitive capital and operational costs. L.I.S.T is optimized for LEU (Low Enriched Uranium) for existing civilian nuclear power plants, High-Assay LEU (HALEU) for the next generation of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and Microreactors, the production of stable isotopes for medical and scientific research, and applications in quantum computing manufacturing for semiconductor technologies. The Company employs a world class nuclear technical team working alongside leading nuclear entrepreneurs and industry professionals, possessing strong relationships with government and private nuclear industries.

In 2024, LIS Technologies Inc. was selected as one of six domestic companies to participate in the Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) Enrichment Acquisition Program. This initiative allocates up to $3.4 billion overall, with contracts lasting for up to 10 years. Each awardee is slated to receive a minimum contract of $2 million.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this context, forward-looking statements mean statements related to future events, which may impact our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would” or “may” and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this news release and represent management’s current views and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, events or results and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control. For LIS Technologies Inc., particular risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following which are, and will be, exacerbated by any worsening of global business and economic environment: (i) risks related to the development of new or advanced technology, including difficulties with design and testing, cost overruns, development of competitive technology, loss of key individuals and uncertainty of success of patent filing, (ii) our ability to obtain contracts and funding to be able to continue operations and (iii) risks related to uncertainty regarding our ability to commercially deploy a competitive laser enrichment technology, (iv) risks related to the impact of government regulation and policies including by the DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and other risks and uncertainties discussed in this and our other filings with the SEC. Only after successful completion of our Phase 2 Pilot Plant demonstration will LIS Technologies be able to make realistic economic predictions for a Commercial Facility. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this news release. These factors may not constitute all factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in any forward-looking statement. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a predictor of actual results. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this news release, except as required by law.

About AFRL

The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX

As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370 military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,200 new contracts worth more than $4.7 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit afwerx.com.

Company Press Contact:
For more information please visit: LaserIsTech.com
For further information, please contact:
Email: info@laseristech.com
Telephone: 800-388-5492
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The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How are clouds’ shapes made? A scientist explains the different cloud types and how they help forecast weather

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ross Lazear, Instructor in Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York

Lenticular clouds, like this one over a mountain in Chile, can look like flying saucers. Bilderbuch/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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

“How are clouds’ shapes made?” – Amanda, age 5, Chile

I’m a meteorologist, and I’ve been fascinated by weather since I was 8 years old. I grew up in Minnesota, where the weather changes from wind-whipping blizzards in winter to severe thunderstorms – sometimes with tornadoes – in the summer. So, it’s not all that surprising that I’ve spent most of my life looking at clouds.

All clouds form as a result of saturation – that’s when the air contains so much water vapor that it begins producing liquid or ice.

Once you understand how certain clouds develop their shapes, you can learn to forecast the weather.

Cloud types show their general heights.
Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Cotton ball cumulus clouds

Clouds that look like cartoon cotton balls or cauliflower are made up of tiny liquid water droplets and are called cumulus clouds.

Often, these are fair-weather clouds that form when the Sun warms the ground and the warm air rises. You’ll often see them on humid summer days.

Cumulus clouds over Lander, Wyo.
Ross Lazear, CC BY-ND

However, if the air is particularly warm and humid, and the atmosphere above is much colder, cumulus clouds can rapidly grow vertically into cumulonimbus. When the edges of these clouds look especially crisp, it’s a sign that heavy rain or snow may be imminent.

Wispy cirrus are ice clouds

When cumulonimbus clouds grow high enough into the atmosphere, the temperature becomes cold enough for ice clouds, or cirrus, to form.

Clouds made up entirely of ice are usually more transparent. In some cases, you can see the Sun or Moon through them.

Cirrus clouds over the roof of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Ross Lazear, CC BY-ND

Cirrus clouds that forms atop a thunderstorm spread outward and can form anvil clouds. These clouds flatten on top as they reach the stratosphere, where the atmosphere begins to warm with height.

However, most cirrus clouds aren’t associated with storms at all. There are many ice clouds associated with tranquil weather that are simply regions of the atmosphere with more moisture but not precipitation.

Fog and stratus clouds

Clouds are a result of saturation, but saturated air can also exist at ground level. When this occurs, we call it fog.

In temperatures below freezing, fog can actually deposit ice onto objects at or near the ground, called rime ice.

Reading clouds, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

When clouds form thick layers, we add the word “stratus,” or “layer,” to the name. Stratus can occur just above the ground, or a bit higher up – we call it altostratus then. It can occur even higher and become cirrostratus, or a layer or ice clouds.

If there’s enough moisture and lift, stratus clouds can create rain or snow. These are nimbostratus.

How mountains can create their own clouds

There are a number of other unique and beautiful cloud types that can form as air rises over mountain slopes and other topography.

Lenticular clouds, for example, can look like flying saucers hovering just above, or near, mountaintops. Lenticular clouds can actually form far from mountains, as wind over a mountain range creates an effect like ripples in a pond.

A banner cloud appears to stream out from the Matterhorn, in the Alps on the border between Italy and Switzerland.
Zacharie Grossen via Wikimedia, CC BY

Rarer are banner clouds, which form from horizontally spinning air on one side of a mountain.

Wind plays a big role

You might have looked up at the sky and noticed one layer of clouds moving in a different direction from another. Clouds move along with the wind, so what you’re seeing is the wind changing direction with height.

Cirrus clouds at the level of the jet stream – often about 6 miles (10 kilometers), above the ground – can sometimes move at over 200 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour). But because they are so high up, it’s often hard to tell how fast they are moving.

Ross Lazear 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. How are clouds’ shapes made? A scientist explains the different cloud types and how they help forecast weather – https://theconversation.com/how-are-clouds-shapes-made-a-scientist-explains-the-different-cloud-types-and-how-they-help-forecast-weather-247682

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: From opposing robber barons to the New Deal to desegregation to DOGE, state attorneys general have long taken on Washington

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

State attorneys general are teaming up to check Trump’s executive power. erhui1979/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

The start of President Donald Trump’s second term has been a bonanza for the attorneys general of blue states. As the president has released his blizzard of executive orders and axed federal funding and programs on which states rely, these attorneys general have filed suits designed to put the brakes on what Trump is trying to accomplish.

As the Washington Post reported on Feb. 22, 2025, “In the past month alone, multistate coalitions have sued the Trump administration seven times.”

Here’s one example: In late January, 22 states and the District of Columbia asked a federal district court in Rhode Island for a temporary restraining order to stop the Office of Management and Budget from halting federal grants and financial assistance that would go to residents, organizations or governmental entities in their jurisdictions.

In early February, the attorneys general of Minnesota, Oregon and Washington sought and were granted an order to stop the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that, according to Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group, “targets transgender and gender-diverse youth.”

Almost a week later, 14 attorneys general went to court to prevent Elon Musk “from issuing orders to any person in the Executive Branch outside of DOGE and otherwise engaging in the actions of an officer of the United States.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong both sued to stop DOGE from obtaining Americans’ personal data.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

As a student of law and politics, I see the attorneys general actions against the Trump administration as the latest chapter of an ongoing story dating to the 19th century in which state officials push back against the national government, breathing life into this country’s federal system. That system, designed by the framers to protect liberty and as a guard against tyranny, gave powers to both federal and state governments.

Hybrid role of state attorneys general

The work of attorneys general in the various states involves a mix of law and politics. As the National Association of Attorneys General describes their role, attorneys general are “chief legal officers” and serve “as counselor to state government agencies and legislatures, and as a representative of the public interest.”

Attorneys general use the law to advance their political goals. Though their precise duties vary from state to state, state attorneys general do not completely eschew politics.

In 43 states, they are elected officials who run for office as partisans. These candidates offer programs and promise to take actions that are typically in line with the platforms of the parties that nominate them. As attorney Marissa Smith wrote in the Cornell Law Review, “The position of State AG has long been said to stand for ‘Aspiring Governor’ rather than Attorney General.”

Smith argues that state attorneys general “have leaned into our nation’s divisive partisanship – often as an integral part of a quest for higher office – and used their traditional roles and powers to grandstand and showcase their party loyalty on a national stage.”

When, as in the recent spate of suits, state attorneys general pursue the federal government or another target on the national stage, there’s really no way for them to lose, politically speaking. As journalist Alan Greenblatt writes, “It’s all upside. If a lawsuit succeeds, you achieve a policy goal. If it fails, you’ve still made a name for yourself and often delayed a policy for months and even years,” especially when that policy is unpopular.

Suing the federal government

There is nothing new about what state attorneys general are now doing. At one time or another, lawsuits against the federal government have come from both Democratic and Republican attorneys general.

For example, during the so-called Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century, because of their “unique institutional position,” progressive state attorneys general “were able to serve as opportunity points for the expression of the ‘public interest’ in the absence of administrative mechanisms or actions by other political institutions,” political scientist Paul Nolette writes.

These attorneys general sued railroad companies and other big businesses, seeking to get state courts to rein in the growing power of what were called at the time “robber barons.”

As the New Deal unfolded in the 1930s, some Republican state attorneys general tried to resist what they saw as federal government encroachment on state power, though the primary opposition to the New Deal came from other political actors.

After the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ordered the desegregation of schools, a few Southern Democratic state attorneys general were involved in organizing “massive resistance” in the region, by offering legal advice to state officials opposed to the Brown decision and defending segregation in court.

In the 1980s, state attorneys general banded together to sue federal agencies for failing to enforce the law or to implement acts of Congress, including those concerning the deregulation of industry. A decade later, they launched a concerted campaign of lawsuits against major tobacco companies because the federal government was not, they alleged, adequately regulating the tobacco industry.

And when Barack Obama entered the White House, state attorneys general enthusiastically embraced the role of watchdog and nemesis. Republican state attorneys general led the resistance with lawsuits over health policy, immigration and environmental regulations, using their powers much like their Democratic counterparts are doing today.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims to have sued the Obama administration 100 times.
Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images

Former West Virginia Solicitor General Elbert Lin, who served as the chief litigator in his state’s attorney general’s office, tells the story this way: “During the eight years of the Obama Administration, states led mostly by Republican attorneys general made it a priority, early and often, to challenge President Obama’s initiatives.”

One of them, Texas’ Greg Abbott, sued the Obama administration 31 times, at one point describing his job this way: “I go into the office, I sue the federal government, and I go home.”

During the first Trump administration, Democratic attorneys general continued what had happened under Obama. They filed 138 multistate lawsuits, up from the 78 times Republicans sued the Obama administration.

And at the end of President Joe Biden’s term, Ken Paxton, Texas’ Republican attorney general, issued a press release saying that over the previous four years, he had sued the administration 100 times, calling it “an historic milestone.”

‘Expect to be sued’

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called states “laboratories of democracy.” More recently, Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center praised federalism for continuing “to promote ideological diversity” in an increasingly polarized nation.

That diversity has long been on display in what state attorneys general have done on the national stage.

Today, when some worry that the U.S. constitutional system is breaking down, state attorneys general are trying to realize the founders’ vision of limited government. They are mobilizing legal tools to vindicate legal claims while also using the courts for political purposes.

All presidents should expect to be sued early and often by state attorneys general of the opposite party. But as attorney Jeffrey Toobin writes in The New York Times, “political victories matter more, and last longer, than court cases” in the United States.

In recent years, suits brought by state attorneys general have protected the rights of immigrants, defended reproductive rights and asserted state prerogatives in many areas. But while these lawsuits have an important role to play in America’s constitutional system, what citizens do is more important.

Even successful litigation by state attorneys general typically brings only a one-time victory, but political action is needed to sustain what they achieve in court. And their work cannot be done without the support of the citizens they serve and who, by and large, elect them.

Austin Sarat 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. From opposing robber barons to the New Deal to desegregation to DOGE, state attorneys general have long taken on Washington – https://theconversation.com/from-opposing-robber-barons-to-the-new-deal-to-desegregation-to-doge-state-attorneys-general-have-long-taken-on-washington-250758

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: What is isolationism? The history and politics of an often-maligned foreign policy concept

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Andrew Latham, Professor of Political Science, Macalester College

Isolationism has deep roots in American foreign policy stretching back to George Washington. FotografiaBasica/Getty Images

Few terms in American foreign policy discourse are as misunderstood or politically charged as “isolationism.”

Often used as a political weapon, the term conjures images of a retreating America, indifferent to global challenges.

However, the reality is more complex. For example, some commentators argue that President Donald Trump’s return to the White House signals a new era of isolationism. But others contend his foreign policy is more akin to “sovereigntism,” which prioritizes national autonomy and decision-making free from external constraints, and advocates for international engagement only when it directly serves a nation’s interests.

Understanding isolationism’s role in U.S. policy requires a closer look at its historical roots and political usage.

‘Entangling alliances’

The idea of avoiding foreign entanglements has been a part of American strategic thinking since the country’s founding. President George Washington’s famous warning against “entangling alliances” reflected a desire to insulate the young republic from European conflicts.

Throughout the 19th century, this sentiment shaped U.S. policy, though not exclusively. The country expanded its influence in the Western Hemisphere, maintained strong economic ties abroad and occasionally intervened in regional affairs.

This cautious approach allowed the U.S. to develop its economy and military strength without becoming deeply embroiled in European rivalries.

After World War I, isolationism became more pronounced. The staggering human and financial costs of the war led many Americans to question deep international involvement. Skepticism toward President Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations reinforced this sentiment, and in the 1930s, the U.S. passed Neutrality Acts designed to keep the country out of foreign wars. However, this approach proved unsustainable.

Though getting increasingly involved in the European conflict in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that day officially led the U.S. into World War II, marking the definitive end of traditional isolationism. With the war’s conclusion, American strategic thinking shifted, recognizing that even partial disengagement was no longer an option in a globalized world.

Isolationism as a slur

In the postwar era, isolationism devolved from a coherent strategic perspective into a term of political derision. During the Cold War, those who opposed military alliances like NATO or U.S. interventions in Korea and Vietnam were often dismissed as isolationists, regardless of their actual policy preferences.

This framing marginalized critics of U.S. global engagement, even when their concerns were grounded in strategic prudence rather than a reflexive desire to withdraw from the world.

The same pattern persisted going into the 21st century. In debates over U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, critics of expansive military commitments were frequently labeled isolationists, despite advocating for a recalibration of foreign policy rather than outright disengagement.

Many of those calling for an end to America’s “forever wars” did not argue for global retreat but for a prioritization of national interests over the broad defense of the so-called rules-based international order.

A persistent myth is that isolationism represents a total disengagement from the world. Historically, even during its peak, isolationism in the U.S. was never absolute. Trade, diplomacy and cultural exchanges continued even in periods marked by reluctance to intervene militarily. What critics of interventionism have historically sought is prudence in foreign affairs – avoiding unnecessary wars while ensuring the protection of core national interests.

Moving beyond isolationism

In recent years, “restraint” has gained traction as a more precise and useful framework for U.S. foreign policy. Unlike isolationism, restraint does not imply withdrawal from global affairs but rather advocates a more selective and strategic approach.

Proponents argue that the U.S. should avoid unnecessary wars, focus on core national interests and work with its allies to maintain stability rather than relying on unilateral military action. This perspective acknowledges the limits of American power and the risks of overextension while still recognizing the necessity of international engagement. Advocates of restraint suggest that recalibrating U.S. foreign policy would allow the country to address pressing domestic concerns while maintaining a strong international presence where it matters most.

As the U.S. reassesses decades of intervention, restraint offers a middle path between disengagement and unrestrained global activism. It encourages a more thoughtful and sustainable approach to foreign policy that prioritizes long-term stability and national interests over automatic involvement in conflicts.

Moving beyond the outdated and politically charged debate over isolationism would, I believe, allow for a more productive conversation about how the U.S. can engage globally in a way that is both effective and aligned with its strategic interests.

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

– ref. What is isolationism? The history and politics of an often-maligned foreign policy concept – https://theconversation.com/what-is-isolationism-the-history-and-politics-of-an-often-maligned-foreign-policy-concept-245201

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025