Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the metropolitan archdiocese of Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea, presented by Archbishop Douglas William Young, S.V.D.He is succeeded by Archbishop Clement Papa, until now Coadjutor Archbishop of the same See.His Exc. Msgr. Clement Papa was born on 22 February 1971 in Mount Hagen, Western Highlands, (Papua New Guinea).He studied philosophy at the Good Shepherd Seminary in Maiwara, Madang, and, after a pastoral and spiritual experience, he studied theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary and the Catholic Theological Institute in Bomana, National Capital District. He was ordained a priest on 3 December 1999 for the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mount Hagen.He has held the following positions and continued his studies: Assistant Parish Priest of Fatima (2000-2001); Parish Priest of Kol-Ambulua (2002-2003); Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome (2006); Chaplain at Holy Trinity Teachers College (2007); Dean of Studies at Good Shepherd Seminary in Mt. Hagen (2008); Doctorate in Theology at Melbourne College of Divinity (2021); Lecturer at Good Shepherd Seminary (2021); Rector of Good Shepherd Seminary (2011-2014; 2022); Member of the Finance Committee and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Archdiocese (2011-2014; 2023); since 2023 he has been the interim Director of the Spiritual Year at the Good Shepherd Seminary. (Agenzia Fides, 18/3/2025)
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Over 500 young artists from across the Highlands have used their creativity to make powerful works of art that highlight the climate issues that matter most to them.
The public exhibition at the Inverness Botanic Gardens was enjoyed by hundreds of people, including Highland Councillors, MPs, MSPs and business leaders who experienced first-hand the climate challenges expressed by young people through art.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The Art for Action exhibition at Inverness Botanic Gardens offered many young people from across Highland the opportunity to express powerful and inspiring art that reflected their own personal feelings about the climate emergency and its far-reaching effects on climate change. Using art to express the impacts and change that they want to see happen for a more sustainable future.
“It was a really positive event, and my appreciation goes to all the talented pupils who captured thought-provoking art that really helped focus on real climate issues, and I extend my thanks to the team behind the scenes who brought it all together to exhibit in the beautiful surroundings of the Botanic Gardens.”
The exhibition was part of Highland One World’s ‘Art for Action’ Global Citizenship project, funded by the Pebble Trust. The event is part of a larger international project that spans Highland, Nigeria, and Kenya, in partnership with the Open University.
Coordinator at Highland One World, Catriona Willis said: “Children and young people are understandably concerned about the climate emergency and its impact on their future. At Highland One World, we want to support children to believe that a fairer, more sustainable world is possible, while developing key Global Citizenship skills and values to create positive change.
“Through working with Highland schools on Art for Action we were able to provide a creative and engaging platform for children and young people to have a say on climate issues that matter to them and ensure that their voices are heard.”
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael Joseph Dominic Roberts, Associate Dean & Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Communications Studies, Mount Royal University
Examples of this sector include financial technology and investment services, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, and clean technology sectors focused on renewable energy and sustainable resource management.
With tariffs, trade barriers and shifting political dynamics making North American markets increasingly unpredictable, many Canadian businesses are searching for ways to reduce their dependence on the U.S. and expand elsewhere.
Expanding into Asia
Asia has emerged as an attractive alternative for businesses due to its rapidly expanding middle class, growing investments in infrastructure and technology, and rising demand for specialized expertise.
This trend is particularly evident in the energy sector. The Asia-Pacific region — though currently accounting for only eight per cent of the global market — is expected to grow significantly as countries expand energy infrastructure and seek advanced technologies to improve resource extraction for environmental sustainability.
This presents promising growth opportunities for Canadian businesses in sectors like engineering consulting, technology, energy and environmental services, where they already have a competitive edge.
However, entering Asian markets presents unique challenges, requiring businesses to rethink their strategies.
Breaking into Asian markets
Expanding into Asian markets is no easy task for SMEs. These businesses face substantial barriers, including significant differences in regulatory environments, business practices and customer expectations.
For service-based businesses, the challenge is even greater. Unlike physical products, which can be easily displayed and tested, services are harder to quantify and prove to new clients. This makes it more difficult for SMEs to build credibility and demonstrate their value in unfamiliar markets.
Our recent study explored how Canadian SMEs in the service sector can successfully overcome these barriers when entering Asian markets like China, India and South Korea.
We brought together industry experts, government officials and senior executives from SMEs already operating successfully in Asia for a two-day workshop. We analyzed their firsthand experiences, challenges and recommendations to develop a clear and actionable framework called the 4P strategy (potential, proposition, presence and policy).
These four steps offer SMEs a structured approach to understanding local conditions, differentiating offerings, establishing trusted partnerships and gaining government support.
1. Potential: Understand the local market
SMEs must understand Asian market regulations, business culture and market structures. Unlike North America’s relatively stable environment, Asian markets often feature rapidly evolving regulations and unpredictable policy changes.
Businesses should balance these regulatory uncertainties against economic opportunities and be prepared to swiftly adapt when necessary. For example, policy changes in Asian markets, such as shifting foreign investment regulations or evolving environmental standards, can create uncertainty for SMEs operating abroad.
Companies must remain agile to navigate regulatory shifts while leveraging the relative economic stability of the region.
Patience and flexibility are also critical. In many Asian markets, business deals take longer to close due to hierarchical, relationship-driven decision-making. SMEs should anticipate these extended timelines and factor them into their planning.
Our study found that deals that might be finalized quickly in North America can take years to develop in Asia, requiring firms to exercise patience before realizing significant profits. Successful market entry depends on a long-term approach and the ability to adapt to extended gestation periods.
2. Proposition: Adapt services to fit local needs
SMEs need to localize their offerings beyond language translation, adapting their branding, marketing and customer-engagement strategies to fit local contexts.
A clearly defined and differentiated service offering is critical. Businesses must clearly define what sets them apart from local competitors and ensure their services address specific market needs.
Pricing strategies should also align with local market expectations. Many Asian markets, especially in business-to-business services, are highly price-sensitive. SMEs must balance competitive pricing with value.
In some cases, businesses may need to use performance-based pricing models — where clients pay based on results rather than a fixed fee — to remain competitive while protecting profit margins.
3. Presence: Build a local network and partnerships
A strong local presence is vital for success in Asia. SMEs should invest in trusted local partnerships or regional offices to build credibility, facilitate smoother operations and better understand local customer needs.
Relationships play a central role in doing business in Asia. Unlike in North America, where successful transactions often lead to partnerships, in Asia, relationships must be built first.
This relationship-first approach is deeply embedded in business culture, requiring firms to prioritize long-term engagement over immediate gains. Research has shown that trust-building is essential for long-term success in Asian markets, as strong relationships ultimately lead to transactions.
Canadian SMEs entering these markets should be prepared to shift their approach, recognizing that sustained commitment and relationship-building are key to unlocking business opportunities.
4. Policy: Take advantage of government support
Many Canadian SMEs underestimate the extent of available government support and miss out on resources that reduce risks and make it easier to establish a foothold abroad.
Our study found that SMEs expanding to Asia can access valuable support from government departments and trade commissioners at Canadian embassies. In energy services subsectors, government and non-governmental organizations can assist SMEs in forming partnerships with Asian firms.
Additionally, agencies like Export Development Canada offer training, financial support and market-entry resources that many SMEs overlook. Taking advantage of these programs can help businesses navigate regulatory challenges and accelerate their international expansion.
Government-backed programs also support research, development and technology adaptation to help businesses tailor their services to local markets. Our study found that making use of these resources reduces barriers, lowers entry risks and significantly enhances businesses’ likelihood of success in Asia.
Seizing the opportunity
Rather than merely serving as an alternative to the increasingly restrictive U.S. market, Asia presents significant growth opportunities for Canadian SMEs but demands strategic patience, adaptability and sustained commitment.
However, success in Asia won’t come overnight. Unlike the relatively familiar North American market, expanding into Asia requires a patience, adaptability and a willingness to learn a different business culture.
By adopting the 4P strategies, Canadian businesses can effectively navigate market-entry barriers and position themselves for success in an era of shifting global trade dynamics.
Etayankara Muralidharan receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Michael Joseph Dominic Roberts 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.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University
The Supreme Court is seen on March 17, 2025, one day before Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare rebuke of a president. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The subsequent legal back-and-forth, which is still going on, intensified so quickly and dramatically that many legal scholars say the U.S. is past the point of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration appears to be defying a federal court order, for which Boasberg may hold the government in contempt. Trump has also called for Bloasberg to be impeached. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts then issued a rare public statement that day rejecting Trump’s statement.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a written statement on March 18.
Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Conversation U.S., posed a few questions to Cassandra Burke Robertson, a scholar of civil proceedings and legal ethics, to break down some of the dynamics of this complex, evolving case.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 2025. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Is it rare for a Supreme Court justice to weigh in on politicians’ activities or statements?
It’s uncommon for a Supreme Court justice to publicly contradict a president. Roberts has typically shown great respect for the separation of powers between branches of government. He has also consistently recognized that presidents have broad authority to run the federal government.
However, this isn’t the first time Roberts has spoken up to protect judicial independence. During Trump’s first term in 2018, the president criticized rulings as coming from “Obama judges.” Roberts responded publicly, and said, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Why is Roberts’ statement of note, and what influence does he have in this situation?
Roberts takes this leadership role very seriously. He has been willing to speak up when he believes something threatens judicial operations and independence.
When Roberts makes a public statement, it carries weight because he speaks as the top judicial officer in the country. His words are a reminder about the importance of keeping courts free from political interference.
What is most important for people to understand about the Alien Enemies Act case that Judge Boasberg is currently considering?
First, Trump is using a rarely used wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act. This law allows for deportations during a time of war without the normal legal protections like court hearings. Some legal experts argue that Trump doesn’t have the authority to use this law since the U.S. isn’t officially at war with Venezuela or with the gang the administration has cited, Tren de Aragua. They worry that invoking the Alien Enemies Act inappropriately expands presidential power beyond constitutional limits and could be misused to target other immigrant groups.
Second, Boasberg ordered a stop to these deportations on March 15. But the Trump administration went ahead with the deportations anyway. It later claimed it did not violate the judge’s order because the planes were over international waters. Under our legal system, the executive branch must obey valid court orders. This case raises concerns about whether the president is respecting the authority of the courts.
Third, Trump has publicly called for Boasberg to be impeached, saying the judge overstepped his authority by ruling against the president’s actions. There’s no evidence that Boasberg acted corruptly or improperly – he simply made a legal ruling the president disagreed with.
The case touches on fundamental questions about the balance of power between presidents and courts, and what happens when an administration chooses not to follow a judge’s orders. This confrontation between branches represents one of the most direct challenges to judicial authority by a president in American history.
What would it take for a judge to be impeached, and what is the precedent for doing so, based on disagreements about a case?
Federal judges can only be impeached by Congress for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That generally means serious wrongdoing, not just making unpopular decisions.
First, the House of Representatives votes to impeach, needing just a simple majority. Then, the Senate holds a trial where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove the judge.
The only two judicial impeachments during this century involved very serious misconduct – including a judge who lied about sexually abusing two female employees in 2009.
Only judges who have serious misconduct have been impeached and removed from office – not those involved in cases of political disagreements about judicial decisions.
What are the most important legal and ethical questions that this case raises?
This case raises important questions about the rule of law in the U.S. A key American belief is that no one, not even the president, is above the law. As Thomas Paine famously wrote in 1776, “In America, the law is king.”
This doesn’t mean every court decision is always right. That’s why the legal system has appellate courts, as Roberts pointed out – so decisions people disagree with can be challenged through an appeal in proper channels. My scholarly research on the right to appeal explores how this process serves as a crucial safeguard in the country’s legal system.
When a government chooses to ignore court orders instead of appealing them through the legal system, it creates a serious threat to this principle. The current situation raises concerns about whether the federal government will continue to respect the boundaries established by the Constitution in the country’s legal system.
Cassandra Burke Robertson 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.
If you peruse the philosophy section of your local bookshop, you’ll probably find a number of books on Stoicism – an ancient philosophy enjoying a renaissance today. But where are the Epicureans?
Both philosophical schools were popular in the ancient world. However, while stoic works such as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and Seneca’s letters still fill the shelves, alongside contemporary takes such as The Daily Stoic (2016), Epicureanism largely remains a historical curiosity.
Today, the Greek thinker Epicurus (341–270 BCE) is mostly remembered as the originator of the term “epicurean”, which describes someone devoted to sensual enjoyment, particularly of fine food and drink.
And while it’s true Epicurus argued pleasure is the highest human good, there’s a lot more to Epicureanism than merely savouring a glass of Shiraz with haute cuisine.
Philosophers in the garden
Epicurus was born on the island of Samos to Athenian parents. He studied philosophy in Athens before travelling to the island of Lesbos to establish a philosophical academy.
Epicurus was born on the island Samos, a birthplace he shares with the famous polymath Pythagoras. Wikimedia
Upon returning to Athens in 306 BCE, he bought a tract of land and began a philosophical community known as the Garden.
The Garden was radically different from other philosophical communities at the time. While Plato’s Academy generally trained the children of the Athenian elite, and Aristotle tutored nobles such as Alexander the Great, Epicurus’ Garden was far more inclusive. Women and slaves were welcome to join the dialogue.
The community led a frugal life and practised total equality between men and women, which was uncommon at the time. In this atmosphere, noblewomen and courtesans, senators and slaves, all engaged in philosophical debate.
While many early Epicureans have disappeared from the annals of history, we know of some women, such as Leontion and Nikidion, who were early proponents of Epicurean thought.
Away from the main city of Athens, Epicurus’ Garden became a space for his followers to seek relief. gka photo/Shutterstock
Philosophy as a way of life
It isn’t just the Garden’s inclusivity that gives it contemporary appeal, but its entirely unique notion of what constitutes a philosophical life.
According to Epicurus, a philosopher wasn’t someone who taught or wrote philosophical tracts. A philosopher was someone who practised what the French philosopher Pierre Hadot describes, in his work on Epicureanism, as “a certain style of life”.
Epicureanism was a daily practice, rather than an academic discipline. Anyone who strove to live a philosophical life was part of the Epicurean community and was considered a philosopher.
The concept of philosophy Epicurus promoted was more egalitarian and all-encompassing than the narrow definition we often see used today.
The pursuit of pleasure
But what did it mean to be a practising Epicurean? Epicurus conceived of philosophy as a therapeutic practice. “We must concern ourselves with the healing of our own lives,” he wrote.
This process of healing involves developing an inner attitude of relaxation and tranquillity known as anesis in Ancient Greek. To do this, Epicureans sought to turn their minds away from the worries of life and focus instead on the simple joy of existence.
Epicurus distinguished between different types of pleasure and advocated for a life of moderate pleasure, rather than excessive indulgence. Wikimedia
According to Epicurus, unhappiness comes because we are afraid of things which should not be feared, and desire things which are not necessary and are beyond our control.
Most notably, he rejected the idea of an afterlife, arguing the soul did not continue to exist after death. He also argued it was wrong to fear death as it
gives no trouble when it comes [and] is but an empty pain in anticipation.
Instead of fearing punishment in the beyond, he said we should focus on the possibilities for pleasure in the here and now. But that doesn’t mean chasing every pleasure which comes our way; the task of the Epicurean is to understand which pleasures are worth pursuing.
The highest pleasures are not those which yield the highest intensity or last the longest, but those which are the least mixed with worry and the most likely to ensure peace of mind. In this vein, Epicurus sought to cultivate feelings of gratitude and appreciation for even the simplest everyday experiences.
While his critics cast him and his followers as unrestrained hedonists, he wrote in one letter that a single piece of cheese was as pleasurable as an entire feast.
For Epicureans, it is precisely the brevity of life that gives us such an exquisite capacity for pleasure. As one Epicurean Philodemus wrote:
Receive each additional moment of time in a manner appropriate to its value; as if one were having an incredible stroke of luck.
A philosophy for outsiders
Epicurus’ perennial appeal resides in how his philosophy gave strength and inspiration to outsiders. In the late 19th century, aesthetes such as critic Walter Pater and playwright Oscar Wilde praised Epicureanism as a way of life.
In Wilde’s letter De Profundis (From the depths) – written in 1897 while imprisoned in Reading Gaol on charges of indecency – he wrote that Pater’s novel Marius the Epicurean (1885) had given him both intellectual and spiritual solace during his trial.
Pater, too, had faced discrimination at Oxford for having homosexual relationships. His novel is an evocative celebration of the possibilities of a life lived in the pursuit of sensual and spiritual beauty.
In one of his earlier texts, The Renaissance (1873), Pater paraphrases Victor Hugo, writing
we are all under a sentence of death but with a sort of indefinite reprieve […] we have an interval, and then our place knows us no more. […] Our one chance lies in expanding that interval, in getting as many pulsations as possible into the given time.
This profoundly Epicurean sentiment, of a life lived in the interval, remains appealing to those who seek to turn their lives into a work of art.
Thomas Moran 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.
The most striking feature of the Australian economy in the 21st century has been the exceptionally long period of fairly steady, though not rapid, economic growth.
The deep recession of 1989–91, and the painfully slow recovery that followed, led most observers to assume another recession was inevitable sooner or later.
And nearly everywhere in the developed world, the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–08 did lead to recessions comparable in length and severity to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Through a combination of good luck and good management, Australia avoided recession, at least as measured by the commonly used criterion of two successive quarters of negative GDP growth.
Recessions cause unemployment to rise in the short run. Even after recessions end, the economy often remains on a permanently lower growth path.
Good management – and good luck
The crucial example of good management was the use of expansionary fiscal policy in response to both the financial crisis and the COVID pandemic. Governments supported households with cash payments as well as increasing their own spending.
The most important piece of good luck was the rise of China and its appetite for Australian mineral exports, most notably iron ore.
This demand removed the concerns about trade deficits that had driven policy in the 1990s, and has continued to provide an important source of export income. Mining is also an important source of government revenue, though this is often overstated.
Still more fortunately, the Chinese response to the Global Financial Crisis, like that in Australia, was one of massive fiscal stimulus. The result was that both domestic demand and export demand were sustained through the crisis.
The shift to an information economy
The other big change, shared with other developed countries, has been the replacement of the 20th century industrial economy with an economy dominated by information and information-intensive services.
The change in the industrial makeup of the economy can be seen in occupational data.
In the 20th century, professional and managerial workers were a rarefied elite. Now they are the largest single occupational group at nearly 40% of all workers. Clerical, sales and other service workers account for 33% and manual workers (trades, labourers, drivers and so on) for only 28%.
The results are evident in the labour market. First, the decline in the relative share of the male-dominated manual occupations has been reflected in a gradual convergence in the labour force participation rates of men (declining) and women (increasing).
Suddenly, work from home was possible
Much more striking than this gradual trend was the (literally) overnight shift to remote work that took place with the arrival of COVID lockdowns.
Despite the absence of any preparation, it turned out the great majority of information work could be done anywhere workers could find a desk and an internet connection.
Despite strenuous efforts by managers, remote or hybrid work has remained common among information workers.
CEOs regularly demand a return to full-time office work. But few if any have been prepared to pay the wage premium that would be required to retain their most valuable (and mobile) employees without the flexibility of hybrid or remote work.
The employment miracle
The confluence of all these trends has produced an outcome that seemed unimaginable in the year 2000: a sustained period of near-full employment. That is defined by a situation in which almost anyone who wants a job can get one.
The unemployment rate has dropped from 6.8% in 2000 to around 4%. While this is higher than in the post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s, this is probably inevitable given the greater diversity of both the workforce and the range of jobs available.
Matching workers to jobs was relatively easy in an industrial economy where large factories employed thousands of workers. It’s much harder in an information economy where job categories include “Instagram influencer” and “search engine optimiser”.
As we progress through 2025, it is possible all this may change rapidly, for better or for worse.
The chaos injected into the global economy by the Trump Administration will radically reshape patterns of trade.
Meanwhile the rise of artificial intelligence holds out the promise of greatly increased productivity – but also the threat of massive job destruction. Economists, at least, will be busy for quite a while to come.
John Quiggin 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.
The world had its eyes on Sydney in 2000. A million people lined the harbour to ring in the new millennium (though some said it was actually the final year of the old one) on January 1.
US television reporters called it “the biggest party in Australian history”. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, whose corporation seemed to represent the coming age, was among those watching on.
Sydney offered not only a world-leading party, but also a litmus test for the much-feared Y2K bug, which threatened to knock planes out of the sky and bring the global economy to a halt. Australia and New Zealand were said to be the “tripwire for the world’s computer systems”.
It was fine in the end, although plenty of work had in fact been undertaken behind the scenes to make Australia’s systems more millennium-proof than they might have been.
This was arguably the defining feature of Australia in the year 2000: a confident display for the world concealing a lot of angst and uncertainty. Australia was the “oldest continent on Earth”, the US broadcasters told their viewers, but it was “much more of an Asian nation”, and much closer to the rest of the world “thanks to technology”.
Those confident claims would probably have surprised many Australians. Theirs was an old country trying to keep up with a new, interconnected world, and also a relatively young one trying to reconcile itself with the ancient cultures that its settler forebears had dispossessed.
A curated Australia
In September, the world’s sporting and political elite, followed by a train of journalists, arrived in Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games. It had been years in the making, and every level of government was involved. There were no fewer than 47,000 volunteers.
There was something for everyone in the well-curated opening ceremony. The event opened with the crack of a stockman’s whip and a fleet of flag-waving bushmen on horseback. There were highly sanitised displays of European arrival, pastoral settlement and a tribute to an armour-clad colonial Victorian bushranger that must have baffled those viewers watching from abroad who had not seen a Sidney Nolan painting before.
Ancient stories and new cultural sensibilities were on display too. There were stylised performances of the Dreaming, striking First Nations dances and the distinctive sounds of the didgeridoo. A section entitled “Arrivals” recognised the importance of migration in the nation’s story.
A young Aboriginal sprinter, Cathy Freeman, lit the cauldron in what became one of the iconic images of the year. The cauldron’s hydraulics unfortunately got stuck as it ascended, and the flame was mere seconds from snuffing out in what could have been a global embarrassment. But big ambitions incur big risks.
This global performance of Australian-ness was arrestingly simple: that of a nation confident in its own diversity and capable of catering to everyone’s tastes.
Even the musical selections seemed to reconcile the needs of the youth (with performances from a young Vanessa Amorosi and even younger Nikki Webster), and the more mature (represented by John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John).
Australia’s athletes had their best ever showing with 58 medals, including Freeman’s own gold.
Not quite comfortable, not quite relaxed
The Olympics masked as much as they revealed.
In 2000, many white Australians still weren’t sure if theirs was, or should be, a multicultural society.
The reactionary Pauline Hanson was out of parliament for the time being, but her One Nation Party had won 7.5% of the vote in New South Wales in the March 1999 state election, and nearly 23% of the vote in Queensland the year before.
Eight weeks before millennium day, Australians had roundly rejected two referendum proposals, one to become a republic, and for a Constitutional preamble that, among other things, recognised Indigenous Australians as “the nation’s first people”.
But whether Hanson liked it or not, her lifetime had coincided with great demographic and social change.
In 1976, roughly 1.8% of the population said they were born in Asia or the Middle East. In the 2001 census, 1.6% of the population were born in China or Vietnam alone, and many more were the descendants of migrants from these places.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population had more than doubled over the same period, while those identifying as Christian decreased from nearly 79% in 1976 to 56% in 2001.
This increasingly diverse Australia claimed to be on a journey to “reconciliation”. That process had been sorely tested during the nasty debates about land rights and the Stolen Generations.
Corroboree 2000, held on May 27 in Sydney, saw the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the nation’s political leaders present their visions for the next phase of national healing. The leaders symbolically left their handprints on a “reconciliation canvas”.
The following day, 250,000 Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a moving display of togetherness. John Howard, the prime minister, declined to participate.
But his treasurer, Peter Costello, made a point of showing up for a similar event in Melbourne that December, leading Victorian Liberals and another 200,000 or so Australians.
Their different approaches showed that the past was still a troubling present. Howard rebuffed suggestions of a treaty between Indigenous and settler Australians and maintained his refusal to apologise on behalf of the Commonwealth to the Stolen Generations, though all the states had done so by this time.
The idea of such an apology was not as popular then as it seemed later on. The prime minister was sensitive to the fact that his was “an unpopular view with a lot of people”, but an opinion poll in The Australian newspaper showed a majority of voters were opposed to a national apology.
Two survivors of the Stolen Generations, Peter Gunner and Lorna Cubillo, sued the Commonwealth for damages in 2000, giving their opponents the chance to challenge the legitimacy of their experiences. None of this looked like a nation that was as “comfortable and relaxed” as Howard had hoped it would be under his watch.
Border politics
Australian collective memory often gravitates toward 2001, the year of the Tampa affair and the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.
But Australia’s border was already highly politicised in 2000.
In January, a boat arrived from Indonesia carrying 54 Christians fleeing religious conflict. They spent ten weeks at Port Hedland Immigration Detention facility, from which 39 went back to Indonesia and only 15 moved on to Adelaide to build new lives.
Port Hedland and other detention centres made the news for all the wrong reasons. There were riots, hunger strikes and multiple breakouts. Authorities responded with upgraded security perimeters, character checks, and strip searches without warrants.
Frustrated refugees set fire to South Australia’s Woomera facility, which former prime minister Malcolm Fraser publicly condemned as a “hell-hole”.
In an end-of-year reflection for The Age newspaper, Gary Tippet said there had been a “touch of mean-spiritedness” about the handling of it all. Chris Wallace rightly suggests 2000 was a crucial moment in the “march towards an absolute offshore, extraterritorial approach” to refugees in Australia.
In the intervening quarter-century, Australian officials have made mean-spiritedness an art form at the border and on the seas.
First-rate democracy, third-rate economy
Compared to the many legal challenges that came out of the US presidential contest in November 2000, Australia’s elections looked pretty smooth and sensible. The US seemed to have a backward democracy grafted onto its world-leading, information-age economy.
Australia looked the opposite: a first-rate democracy with what looked increasingly like a “branch-office economy”.
Reformers had tried for 20 years to make Australia efficient and competitive, but as one editorial in The Australian Financial Review explained, the country still suffered from its “old economy image”.
Certainly, Australia still sold its minerals and farm products to the world in exchange for quality cars and cutting-edge computers.
With global capitalists still enthralled by the global tech boom (though it was soon to become the “tech wreck”), they had little need for the Aussie dollar.
The currency’s value declined through the year to just 50 US cents, and it would fall further in the following months. On its own, this mattered little, but a quarter of negative growth at the end of the year meant, as Paul Kelly later wrote, an “election-year recession” seemed a “real threat”.
In the meantime, the much-debated Goods and Services Tax took effect around midnight on June 30 (a few hours later for businesses trading through the night).
The 10% consumption tax was a big deal. Costello said in his memoir the “prices of three billion products were to change all at the same time”.
The measure was politically brave, but soon became unpopular, helping raise petrol prices and alienate small business owners.
The punters were pretty confident the Howard government was heading for defeat in 2001. They were wrong.
Between the old and new
The pace of social change accelerated from 2000.
In the 2021 census, 2.6% of the population said they were born in India, and a further 3.2% in China and Vietnam. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians had more than doubled over two decades, such that they made up 3.2% of the total population in 2021.
People increasingly related to their economy differently, too. Half of the workforce had been unionised in the 1980s, but coverage fell to roughly a quarter in 2000 and just 12.5% in 2022.
These and other changes make our politics look different from that of 25 years ago. Nailbiter elections are now more common than thumping majorities and attitudes toward the once-feared “minority government” have softened.
For all that, many of the challenges of 2000 are still with us.
Many Australians are less tolerant of overt racism than they once were, but the 2023 Voice referendum and our offshore detention regime remind us that race still matters in this country.
Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations in 2008, but Treaty and Truth-Telling are left unresolved.
And for all our talk about human capital and the digital economy, resources make up a much higher share of our total export mix today than in 2000.
A quarter-century on, Australia is still caught between the old and the new.
Dr Joshua Black is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.
In the remnant rainforests of coastal far-north Queensland, bushwalkers may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a diminutive marsupial that’s the last living representative of its family.
The musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) weighs only 500 grams and looks a bit like a potoroo. It’s part of a lineage that extends back to before kangaroos evolved their distinctive hopping gait.
Unlike their bigger relatives, muskies can be seen out and about during the day, foraging in the forest litter for fruits, fungi and invertebrates.
As the only living macropodoid (the group that includes kangaroos, wallabies, potoroos and bettongs) that doesn’t hop, they can provide a crucial insight into how and when this iconic form of locomotion evolved in Australia.
Our study, published in Australian Mammalogy today, aimed to observe muskies in their native habitat in order to better understand how they move.
Muskies can shed light on the evolution of kangaroo hops, but they haven’t been studied in detail. Amy Tschirn
Why kangaroos are special
If we look around the world, hopping animals are quite rare. Hopping evolved once in macropodoids, four times in rodents, and probably once in an extinct group of South American marsupials known as argyrolagids.
However, the vast majority of animals that hop are really small. The only hopping animals with body masses over 500 grams are kangaroos. And Australia used to have a lot more kangaroo species, many of them quite large.
Despite the abundance of fossil kangaroos, we still don’t really know why they evolved their hopping gait, especially given it only really becomes more efficient at body masses over five kilograms. Hypotheses range from predator escape, to energy preservation, to the opening of vegetation as Australia shifted to a drier climate.
Muskies can sometimes be seen foraging for fallen fruit in the leaf litter in the dense rainforests of far northern Queensland. Aaron Camens
Why muskies are key in roo evolution
Muskies are the last living member of the Hypsiprymnodontidae, a macropodoid family that branched off early in kangaroo evolution. For this reason, it is thought muskies may move in a similar way to early kangaroo ancestors.
Studies on kangaroo evolution will often mention locomotion in muskies, but only in passing. And only a single, brief, first-hand description of locomotor behaviour in muskies has actually been published, in 1982. The authors observed that muskies moved their hindlimbs together in a bound and that all four limbs were used, even at fast speeds.
So, we set out to answer the question: can H. moschatus hop? And if not, what form of locomotion does it use?
Using high-speed video recordings, we studied the sequence in which muskies place their four feet on the ground, and the relative timing and duration of each footfall.
The musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) is the only macropodoid not to hop; instead, it bounds over obstacles on the forest floor. Amy Tschirn
Through this gait analysis, we determined that muskies predominantly use what is called a “bound” or “half-bound” gait. Bounding gaits are characterised by the hindfeet moving together in synchrony – just like when bipedal kangaroos hop. In the case of muskies, the forefeet (or “hands”) also generally move together in close synchrony.
No other marsupial that moves on all fours is known to use this distinctive style of movement to the same extent as muskies. Rather, other species tend to use a combination of the half-bound and some form of galloping (the gait that horses, cats and dogs use) or hopping.
From all fours to hopping
We were also able to confirm that tantalisingly brief observation from the 1980s: even when travelling at high speeds, muskies always use quadrupedal gaits, never rearing up on just their back legs.
They are, therefore, the only living kangaroo that doesn’t hop.
Combined with further investigation of their anatomy, these observations help us get closer to understanding how and why kangaroos adopted their distinctive bipedal hopping behaviours.
These results also signal a potential pathway to how bipedal hopping evolved in kangaroos. Perhaps it started with an ancestor that moved about on all fours like other marsupials, such as brush-tail possums, then an animal that bounded like the muskies, and finally evolved into the iconic hopping kangaroos we see in Australia today.
However, we are no clearer on how the remarkable energy economy of kangaroo movement evolved, or why hopping kangaroos got so much bigger than hopping rodents.
The next part of the research needs to focus on that and will be informed by key fossil discoveries from early periods in kangaroo evolution.
There’s more research to be done, but understanding musky gait in detail is a great first step. Amy Tschirn
Amy Tschirn received funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (to G.J.P) during this project.
Aaron Camens and Peter Bishop 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.
Researchers develop technique for storing life-saving drugs in environments without temperature control
A team of researchers led by the recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant has developed a new storage method for protein-based drugs that could potentially eliminate the need for refrigeration of important medicines. Using an oil-based solution and a molecule acting as a coating to enclose the proteins in these drugs, researchers demonstrated a technique to prevent the proteins from degrading rapidly — a protection that traditionally requires refrigeration.
The research is led by Scott Medina at Pennsylvania State University and published in Nature Communications. It demonstrates a possible practical application to eliminate the need to refrigerate hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.
The work could eventually reduce the cost of refrigerating such drugs throughout the supply chain and enable greater use of protein-based therapies where constant refrigeration isn’t possible, including military environments.
“Over 80% of biologic drugs and 90% of vaccines require temperature-controlled conditions. This approach could revolutionize their storage and distribution, making them more accessible and affordable for everyone,” says Medina.
To accomplish this, researchers created an oil-based solution using perfluorocarbon oil, finding that it was naturally sterile and could not be contaminated by bacteria, fungi or viruses, which require a water-based environment to grow and survive.
The team also developed a surfactant — a molecule that coats the surface of the protein — to shield the surface of the protein in a way that would allow it to evenly disperse throughout the solution. The surfactant created a protective shell around the protein, keeping it stable and preventing it from breaking down even at temperatures up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which would normally cause water to boil.
“This method demonstrates a compelling potential approach to eliminating the need for cold storage of many life-saving drugs,” says Nitsa Rosenzweig, program director in the NSF Division of Materials Research. “Keeping these drugs stable without refrigeration could simplify our supply chain and improve healthcare in a wider range of conditions.”
Scientists created and imaged a 2D interlocked polymer that is lightweight yet flexible and strong — and contains the highest density of mechanical bonds ever achieved
Researchers supported by grants and instrumentation provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation have created the first 2D polymer material that mechanically interlocks, much like chainmail, and used an advanced imaging technique to show its microscopic details. The material combines exceptional strength and flexibility and could be developed into high-performance and lightweight body armor that moves fluidly with the body as it protects it.
The nanoscale material was developed by researchers at Northwestern University and the electron microscopy was conducted at Cornell University. The results are published in a paper inScience.
Credit: David Muller, Schuyler Shi and Desheng Ma/Cornell University
The microscopic structure of a two-dimensional, mechanically interlocked polymer captured using an advanced electron microscopy technique.
Groundbreaking in more ways than one, the paper describes a highly efficient and scalable polymerization process that could potentially yield high volumes of this material at mass scale. In addition to being the first 2D mechanically interlocked polymer, it also contains 100 trillion mechanical bonds per 1 square centimeter — the highest density of mechanical bonds ever achieved in a material.
“We made a completely new polymer structure,” says William Dichtel, a researcher at Northwestern University and one of the study’s authors. “It’s similar to chainmail in that it cannot easily rip because each of the mechanical bonds has a bit of freedom to slide around. If you pull it, it can dissipate the applied force in multiple directions.”
The creation process involves coaxing polymers to form mechanical bonds, a feat that has challenged researchers for years. The research team created a novel process to make these bonds happen: arranging ordered crystalline structures of polymer molecules and then causing the crystals to react with another molecule to create bonds inside the crystal’s molecules. The resulting crystals comprise layers and layers of 2D interlocked polymer sheets.
The polymer’s crystallinity and interlocking structure were confirmed at Cornell University, where an advanced electron microscopy method was used to atomically image a crystalline material for the first time.
“The results were remarkable — sharp and high-contrast — clearly revealing the structure,” says Schuyler Zixiao Shi, a doctoral student at Cornell University who conducted the imaging.
Dichtel credits the paper’s first author and doctoral candidate Madison Bardot for creating this innovative method for forming the mechanically interlocked polymer. “It was a high-risk, high-reward idea where we had to question our assumptions about what types of reactions are possible in molecular crystals,” says Dichtel.
Collaborators at Duke University tried adding the chainmail polymer material to Ultem, a strong and protective material in the same family as Kevlar. The researchers developed a composite material of 97.5% Ultem fiber and just 2.5% chainmail polymer that significantly boosted Ultem’s toughness.
“We have a lot more analysis to do, but we can tell that it improves the strength of these composite materials,” Dichtel said. “Almost every property we have measured has been exceptional in some way.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in PLOS One looks at ADHD TikTok content and its association with ADHD perception.
(From our colleagues at SMC Germany) Prof Kathrin Karsay, Assistant Professor for Entertainment Research, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria, said:
Evaluation of the study methodology
“Pre-registration is to be positively mentioned in the sense of Open Science, as it makes the planning and execution of the study transparent in advance. The selection of the videos, on the other hand, is not representative, as it was not drawn from the population of available Tiktok videos. The chosen method of selecting the 100 most popular videos at a specific point in time with a newly created account is therefore not ideal. Under the circumstances, it is a pragmatic, but nevertheless legitimate, approach. Overall, the number of videos analyzed remains relatively low, especially considering that Tiktok users often consume many videos. Another critical point is that no information is available on coder training (training of the evaluators; editor’s note) and that an evaluation of inter-coder reliability is missing for all selected variables. This does not meet the typical standard for communication science studies, but it is not uncommon in studies outside the field.”
Contextualization of the results
“It is particularly noteworthy that the majority of the videos (93.9 percent) only address symptoms, while only a small minority of the videos discuss treatment options. Especially when it comes to health topics, social media is a central source of information and a place for exchange. At the same time, the algorithms favor those posts that generate a lot of interaction because they are particularly entertaining or emotional. It is therefore not surprising that the symptoms are not presented correctly or are exaggerated – similar findings already exist for other conditions, such as Tourette’s syndrome, epicondylitis (tendonitis at the elbow; editor’s note) or prostate cancer. On Tiktok, people with ADHD are often portrayed as lively, lovable and almost entertaining – a ‘cute disorder’ that is staged in short, humorous clips. Much of the content shows everyday situations and relies on self-irony and entertaining narratives. This creates a positive, sometimes trivializing, romanticized image of the disorder. It is also particularly interesting that the experts classified around two-thirds of the ADHD-related statements as normal human experiences. In other words, everyday situations are shown with which many people can identify, which can encourage self-diagnosis.”
“This presentation can be explained, among other things, by the fact that content creators usually pursue monetary interests, as the study also shows. Half of all content creators advertise products on their profiles or ask for financial donations. This does not include sponsorships or marketing collaborations. Of course, influencers have an interest in their videos being seen by many and being considered personally relevant.”
When asked how the results on the correlation between self-diagnosed ADHD, the extent of ADHD video consumption and the perception of the prevalence of ADHD can be explained: “Frequently consuming ADHD-related content attracts increased attention and draws focus to corresponding symptoms. Priming (improved processing of a stimulus due to it or a similar one having been presented previously; editor’s note) activates cognitive schemata that can lead people to identify more readily with these symptoms. In the long term, repeated exposure reinforces the impression that ADHD is particularly widespread, even if the actual prevalence is lower. Since the videos often stage common experiences as pathological symptoms, those affected are more likely to identify with the clinical picture. This results in a so-called ‘confirmation bias’: people tend to interpret, seek out, and remember information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses. This also fits with the study’s finding that participants with self-diagnosis significantly overestimate the prevalence of ADHD in the general population – far more than those with a formal ADHD diagnosis and those without ADHD. They also tend to rate videos with the lowest psychological ratings as more recommendable.”
Practical implications
“Those who already suspect they have ADHD perceive more matching symptoms in the videos and interpret them as confirmation. This can reinforce the belief in one’s own diagnosis without professional clarification. Constant consumption of such content can lead to overidentification: everyday difficulties are then possibly interpreted too quickly as symptoms. I would therefore recommend taking a critical look at the source of the information and considering professional diagnosis.”
Dr Blandine French, Senior Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, said:
“Due to the recent nature of social media engagement on platforms such as TikTok, very few studies have been able to evaluate the impact it has. As mentioned by the authors, the huge rise of TikTok ADHD content has only been observed in the last 5 years and little has been published on this. In fact, ADHD fell within the 10 most -viewed health related hashtags on TikTok so we really need to understand more about its impact on those viewing this content.
“It is therefore great to see a study starting to address this. This study is very well conducted, with a thorough analysis and robust findings. The rational for the way the study was conducted is sound, well designed and well explained.
“One limitation of the study is that the majority of participants in the second study were females (669/843) which does not represent the ADHD general population (ratios of male to female vary from 1:4 male to 1:2) so we must be cautious in generalising the findings.
“It would also have been useful to see more detail on what they defined as misinformation. The experts rated according to DSM-V diagnosis (attention, hyperactivity, impulsivity) which is a robust and scientific way of approaching content. However, we know that many things are linked with ADHD but not part of diagnostic symptoms (emotion dysregulation, sleep, social difficulties etc). Therefore, content that would have been rated as misinformation can be relevant (and authors acknowledge this) but would not be scored as such as they are not technically linked with ADHD in terms of strict diagnosis criteria. This nuance would have been good to include and reflect a more holistic approach and understanding of ADHD that is not solely based on criteria but still has significant evidence-based studies behind.
“Overall, this paper has some important implications and offers a balanced view of the impact on social media. On one hand it supports how much young people rely on social media, the breadth of reach of this kind of content (over 500 million views) and that there are positives from viewing such videos (sense of community, greater understanding etc). But it also raises concern about viewers relying on this content as educational and support sources. The lack of nuance, evidence-base and reliability of these video is very high. Now this doesn’t mean that it is always bad, but it is to be taken with extreme caution.
“The findings also show that the group more prone to highly rate or engage with these videos is the group that is self-diagnosed which is interesting but potentially worrying. The diagnosed group seemed better able to tell the difference between quality of information, while self-diagnosed were not as able to do so.
“Therefore, if any person has seen this type of content on TikTok and thinks they may have ADHD, I would say that I am glad they might have found an answer to ongoing difficulties. But I would advise to do some further research from more reliable sources and evidence-based criteria. Social media can be a great source of support but shouldn’t be a place for diagnosis as it is not made for this. It should be used alongside other more reliable methods, sources, and information.”
Prof Philip Asherson,Emeritus Professor of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, said:
“The methodology is fair as an initial investigation of the association of Tik Tok use and content related to ADHD; and is well conducted. The first study investigates the content of the top 100 Tik Tok watched videos related to #ADHD. This is a reasonable approach to understand how specific the content is to ADHD, rather than mental health more broadly. The second study is limited primarily by the sole participation of psychology students, which suggests that the findings cannot be generalised to a general (unselected) population. Further research is therefore needed. The sample sizes are reasonable for an initial investigation. It is to be commended that the study design was lodged within the Open Science Framework, increasing the robustness of the study findings. Agreement between psychologist ratings was good.
“The findings on symptoms in the video are not entirely ‘incorrect’; but fit with my expectations. First it is important to recognise that the TikTok videos reflect personal experience and not that of professional trained mental health specialists. Also, that not all the symptoms commonly experienced by adults with ADHD are specified as specific criteria in DSM-5. Given that, around 49% of the videos were a good reflection of specific (DSM-5) symptoms. However, non-specific symptoms are also commonly seen in people with ADHD and are an independent source of impairment. The prime example of this is emotional dysregulation which is cited as an example of 42% reflecting transdiagnostic symptoms. The paper does not list all of the other transdiagnostic symptoms but other common symptoms include sleep problems (delayed sleep onset), and low self-esteem related to the impairments of ADHD are common as part of ADHD. Without a more detailed evaluation it is not clear that these ‘non-ADHD’ symptoms may also reflect other common aspects of ADHD which are not among the 18 specific DSM symptoms of ADHD. Note that emotional dysregulation is not specific to ADHD, but it is cited in DSM-5 as a common symptom that supports the diagnosis; and is a common part of the lived experience of most adults with ADHD.
“So, the other symptoms may not all be ‘incorrect’ but just not specific to ADHD. However, it is possible that this could lead some people to think they might have ADHD unless they also consider the full diagnostic criteria for ADHD (which is not included as an aim in these studies).
“It is of interest that those with a formal diagnosis access Tik Tok most, followed by those with self-diagnosis. This suggests that the main driver of looking at Tik Tok videos of ADHD is to learn more about ADHD, rather than the videos leading to excess self-diagnosis.
“A more subtle but essential point is that many ADHD symptoms are a continuous trait/dimension in the general population. So there is no clear boundary between those with clinically significant levels of ADHD symptoms and impairments, and those with higher than average levels of ADHD symptoms. Many people who do not meet full ADHD criteria may nevertheless struggle with some ADHD symptoms at times and seek information on better to manage this aspect of their lives. The videos are therefore of more general relevance than only adults meeting full ADHD criteria. Many self-diagnosed people may fall in this category.
“It is also true that some people with other mental health problems may conclude they have ADHD, as the videos do not detail the full diagnostic criteria. This indicates the importance of an assessment that considers ADHD alongside other mental health disorders for those that seek help. Similarly, people with ADHD might consider they have an anxiety or mood disorder or personality disorder, when ADHD is the main problem. In general the non-expert Tik Tok videos are not generally specific to ADHD. However, they usually reflect common symptoms experienced by adults with ADHD.
“The relationship between ADHD self-diagnosis, video consumption and perception of prevalence only indicates an association but there is no information on the causal relationship. It seems likely that having ADHD or symptoms of ADHD leads to increased TikTok use as one form of information, since those without ADHD consume the less (as expected). While a causal role of watching TikTok on self-diagnosis could be implied or play a role in some cases, this publication provides no information on the causal direction – so should not be interpreted in that way without further research.
“Watching these videos may be helpful to people with ADHD to understand the experiences of ADHD they are having. However, it would be important to discuss this with other people with ADHD (ADHD user/support groups could be helpful here) and to seek professional advice.
“The conflict of interests and Tik Tok algorithms are a concern and might lead to over diagnosis in some cases – but overall the greater awareness of ADHD is a benefit.”
‘A double-edged hashtag: Evaluation of #ADHD-related TikTok content and its associations with perceptions of ADHD’ byVasileia Karasavvaet al.was published in PLOS One at 18:00 UK time on Wednesday 19th March.
Prof Kathrin Karsay: “There are no conflicts of interest.”
Dr Blandine French: Dr. BF reports personal fees and nonfinancial support from Takeda and Medice.
Prof Philip Asherson: In the last 4 years, Asherson received payments for consultancy and/or educational talks from Takeda, Jannsen, Flynn Pharma, Medice and AGB Pharma, and royalties from PATOSS and Cambridge University. He is Honorary President of the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN).
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Siobhan Mclernon, Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing and co-lead, Ageing, Acute and Long Term Conditions. Member of Health and Well Being Research Center, London South Bank University
As a nurse working in a neurocritical care, I witnessed the sudden and devastating effects of stroke on survivors and their carers.
Following my nursing career, I became a researcher specialising in stroke. Knowledge of stroke risk factors in the general public is poor, so stroke prevention is a priority for public health.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in England – yet it is largely preventable. It’s often considered an older person’s illness but, although stroke risk does increase with age, it can happen at any time of life. In fact, stroke incidence is increasing among adults below the age of 55 years.
Stroke risk factors that tend to be more common among older people – such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet – are increasingly found in younger people. Other lifestyle risks include heavy alcohol consumption or binge drinking and recreational drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.
Some risk factors are not modifiable such as age, sex, ethnicity, family history of stroke, genetics and certain inherited conditions. Women, for example, are particularly susceptible to strokes – and women of all ages are more likely than men to die from a stroke.
Stroke risks unique to women include pregnancy and some contraceptive pills (especially for smokers), as well as endometriosis, premature ovarian failure (before 40 years of age), early-onset menopause (before 45 years of age) and oestrogen for transgender women.
Some risk factors are social rather than biological, however. Studies have found that people with a lower income and education level are at a higher risk of having a stroke. This is due to a combination of factors. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as smoking, heavier drinking and lower physical activity levels are more common in people with lower incomes.
However, research also shows that people with lower socioeconomic status are less likely to receive good quality healthcare than people with higher incomes.
But, regardless of biological or social risk factors, there are things you can do – right now – to reduce your risk of having a stroke.
Essential eight
1. Stop smoking Smokers are more than twice as likely to have a stroke than non-smokers. Smoking causes damage to blood vessel walls, increases blood pressure and heart rate but reduces oxygen levels. Smoking also causes blood to become sticky, further increasing the risk of blood clots that can block blood vessels and cause a stroke.
2. Keep blood pressure in checkHigh blood pressure damages the walls of blood vessels, making them weaker and more prone to rupture or blockage. It can also cause blood clots to form, which can then travel to the brain and block blood flow, leading to a stroke. If you’re over 18 years of age, get your blood pressure checked regularly so, if you do show signs of developing high blood pressure, you can nip it in the bud and make appropriate changes to your lifestyle to help reduce your risk of stroke.
3. Keep an eye on your cholesterol According to the UK Stroke Association your risk of a stroke is nearly three and a half times higher if you have both high cholesterol and high blood pressure. To lower cholesterol, aim to keep saturated fat – found in fatty meats, butter, cheese, and full-fat dairy – below 7% of your daily calories, stay active and maintain a healthy weight.
4. Watch your blood sugar High blood glucose levels are linked to an increased risk of stroke. This is because high blood sugar damages blood vessels, which can lead to blood clots that travel to the brain. To reduce blood glucose levels, try to take regular exercise, eat a balanced diet rich in fibre, drink enough water, maintain a healthy weight, and try to manage stress.
5. Maintain a healthy weight Being overweight is one of the main risk factors for stroke. It is associated with almost one in five strokes, and increases your stroke risk by 22%. Being obese raises that risk by 64%. Carrying too much weight increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, which all contribute to higher stroke risk.
6. Follow a Mediterranean diet One way to eat a fibre-rich balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight is to follow a Mediterranean diet. This has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke, especially when supplemented with nuts and olive oil.
7. Sleep well Try to to get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. Too little sleep can lead to high blood pressure, one of the most important modifiable risk factors for stroke. Too much sleep, however, is also associated with increased stroke risk, so try to stay as active as possible so you can sleep as well as possible.
8. Stay active The NHS recommends that people should avoid prolonged sedentary behaviour and aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week. Exercise should be spread evenly over four to five days a week, or every day. Do strengthening activities, usually more than two days per week.
The good news is that while the effects of stroke can be devastating and life-changing, it is largely preventable. Adopting these eight simple lifestyle changes can help to reduce stroke risk and optimise both heart and brain health.
Siobhan Mclernon 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.
Canadian Parliament has been unanimous in its response: “Canada is not for sale.” But Canada’s head of state, King Charles, has remained largely silent on the matter — until recently.
Over the last several weeks, observers have started to pick up on subtle signs of support for Canadians from the King. But many people have no doubt been wondering why there’s not been a direct statement of support from King Charles.
The answer to that question isn’t as simple as many people might think.
King of Canada
Since 1689, Britain has been a constitutional monarchy. The sovereign is the head of state, but the prime minister leads the government. As such, the King can’t interfere with politics. He is supposed to remain neutral and be the embodiment of the nation.
This crucial separation between palace and Parliament was solidified in Canada and throughout the Commonwealth in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster. In 1954, the Royal Styles and Titles Act separated the British Crown from the other Commonwealth realms. Queen Elizabeth became the first sovereign to ever be called Queen of Canada.
As a constitutional monarch, King Charles is bound by parliamentary limitations on his authority. He cannot act without taking advice from the prime ministers in his various realms.
This means King Charles can’t make a political statement about the ongoing tensions between Canada and the U.S. without the green light from Ottawa. When asked about the situation in January, a palace official said simply that this is “not something we would comment on.”
“For Canadians disappointed that King Charles has not commented on President Trump’s threats to annex Canada: in his capacity as King of Canada, he can only act on the advice of his Canadian first minister, i.e. Justin Trudeau.”
Or, at this moment, Mark Carney.
Signs of support
The King met with Trudeau at Sandringham, the royal family’s private estate in Norfolk, England, on March 3. This meeting seems to have prompted a series of symbolic gestures demonstrating the monarchy’s solidarity with Canadians.
The next day, the King conducted an inspection of the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in his capacity as head of the Armed Forces. Canadian medals and honours adorned his naval dress uniform during the inspection.
A week later, the King planted a red maple tree at Buckingham Palace to honour Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to the preservation of forests and the bonds among Commonwealth nations.
On March 12, the King met with representatives from the Canadian Senate.
He presented a ceremonial sword to Gregory Peters, the Usher of the Black Rod (one of the Senate’s chief protocol officers). Raymonde Gagné, the speaker of the Senate, was also present for that meeting.
And on March 17, the King met with Carney as part of new prime minister’s whirlwind diplomatic tour of western Europe.
Some observers even pointed to the Princess of Wales’s red dress at the Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration on March 10 as yet another nod of recognition for Canada.
Soft power and the Royal Family
These sorts of gestures are examples of what is known as “soft power.” Unlike the hard power of military and economic force used by governments, soft power describes any number of ways that people or groups can influence others through culture, personal diplomacy and even fashion.
One of the best known forms of the monarchy wielding soft power is through the use of state visits. At the British prime minister’s request, world leaders are invited to London by the sovereign. The red carpet is rolled out for them, they’re wined and dined in lavish dinners at Buckingham Palace and they often make a speech to Parliament.
These state visits are a way for the Royal Family to use their soft power to positively influence diplomatic relations.
In February, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented Trump with an invitation from the King for a second state visit to the U.K.. So far, no date for the trip has been announced, but the King’s meetings with Trudeau and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly irritated Trump.
It remains to be seen how King Charles navigates his constitutional role as both king of the United Kingdom and of Canada. Will Trump’s state visit only be about British interests? Or will Charles use it as a chance to address the concerns of his Canadian subjects?
Justin Vovk received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Justin Vovk is an advisory board member for the Institute of the Study of the Crown in Canada.
Defendants Arrested During the Laken Riley Murder Investigation in Athens, Georgia
ATHENS, Ga. – A Venezuelan man who entered the United States illegally and who admitted to possessing a fraudulent Green Ccard during the murder investigation of a 22-year-old nursing student was sentenced to serve 48 months in prison—above the federal sentencing guidelines—and to be deported along with his brother and a former roommate.
Diego Jose Ibarra, aka “Gocho,” 29, was sentenced to serve a total of 48 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document on July 15, 2024. Argenis Ibarra, aka “Meny,” 25, of Venezuela, was sentenced to time served after he pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a fraudulent document on Dec. 10, 2024. Rosbeli Flores-Bello, aka “La Gorda,” 29, of Venezuela, was sentenced to time served after she pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a fraudulent document on Dec. 11, 2024.
All three defendants are to be delivered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. Diego Ibarra will be placed in ICE custody at the conclusion of his federal prison sentence; Argenis Ibarra and Flores-Bello will be placed in ICE custody immediately. U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self, III handed down the sentences on March 19 in Athens. There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents and statements referenced in court, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was made aware of Deigo Ibarra’s undocumented presence in the United States on Feb. 23, 2024, during the murder investigation of Laken Hope Riley, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered on Feb. 22, 2024, during a morning run at the University of Georgia, where she previously attended as an undergraduate prior to transferring to the Augusta University College of Nursing. At the time, an Athens-Clarke County Police Department (ACCPD) officer approached Diego Ibarra because he matched the description of the primary suspect in the murder investigation, which was his brother, Jose Antonio Ibarra. Diego Ibarra gave the ACCPD officer a counterfeit U.S. Permanent Resident Card (also called a Green Card) as identification and was taken into custody. Jose Ibarra was convicted of Laken Riley’s murder on Nov. 20, 2024, in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court and is serving a life sentence.
On April 30, 2023, Diego Ibarra illegally entered the United States, along with four other Venezuelan men, by crossing the border near the Ysleta station in El Paso, Texas. The men fled when approached by the United States Border Patrol (USBP) agents. Diego Ibarra resisted an agent’s efforts to detain him and grabbed the agent’s service radio, threw it into a nearby yard, and then attempted to bite the agent. Agents scuffled with him and another Venezuelan man for several minutes before the National Guard arrived and assisted in subduing both men. Diego Ibarra was taken to a local hospital after complaining of chest pains and pain in his back and leg, which he indicated to FBI agents he sustained from scaling and falling from the border fence during his illegal crossing. He admitted to illegally crossing the border, resisting arrest and attempting to avoid apprehension at any cost. He said his injuries were not from the fight with agents.
According to information uncovered during the investigation and provided in multiple court documents, Diego Ibarra is likely affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), based on evidence including his multiple TdA tattoos and photos of him on social media making the TdA gang signs and wearing TdA clothing. Further investigation concluded that Diego Ibarra was previously removed from the United States to Mexico on April 3, 2023, after agents apprehended him illegally entering the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas. After the above incident on April 30, 2023, Diego Ibarra claimed asylum and fear of return to Venezuela. On May 11, 2023, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) placed him in the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, and he was released from immigration custody the following day. The ATD program required Diego Ibarra to wear a global positioning system (GPS) ankle monitoring device, and he was directed to report to New York, New York, pending asylum proceedings. He failed to report in New York as directed.
On May 25, 2023, Diego Ibarra’s ankle monitor last “pinged” near Littleton, Colorado, and he cut it off at some point prior to his final arrest in Athens, Georgia. Diego Ibarra settled in Athens and was subsequently arrested three times by law enforcement: on Sept. 24, 2023, he was arrested by ACCPD for driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license; on Oct. 27, 2023, he was arrested by ACCPD for theft by shoplifting; and on Dec. 8, 2023, he was arrested by ACCPD for shoplifting and for an outstanding arrest warrant that was issued when he failed to appear in court for his DUI charge. In addition, ACCPD responded to a domestic incident involving Diego Ibarra and his girlfriend on Sept. 26, 2023. And, while in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and housed in the Butts County Detention Center, Ibarra caused “severe water damage” inside the jail when he damaged the fire sprinkler system in a jail cell block. On June 25, 2024, jail officers found Ibarra in possession of two improvised weapons: a sharpened sprinkler head with a make-shift grip and a pen wrapped in saran wrap.
Co-defendants Argenis Ibarra (Diego and Jose Ibarra’s younger brother) and Flores-Bello (Deigo and Jose Ibarra’s roommate) admitted to possessing a fraudulent U.S. Permanent Resident Card in the names of Argenis Jose Ibarra Ibarra and Rodrianny Brito Brito respectively on Feb. 23, 2024. In addition, agents found counterfeit Social Security cards for Argenis Ibarra and Flores-Bello in the apartment they shared with Diego and Jose Ibarra.
Investigators determined that Argenis Ibarra entered the United States illegally on April 3, 2023, near Eagle Pass, Texas, and the USBP returned him to Mexico. On April 30, 2023, the USBP encountered and arrested him near El Paso, Texas, and transported him to an ICE processing center in El Paso. Because the processing center lacked space, Ibarra was released on his own recognizance on May 4, 2023. Argenis submitted Form I-765 for Employment Authorization on Oct. 20, 2023, and Nov. 2, 2023, both of which were rejected.
Flores-Bello illegally entered the United States on May 3, 2023, and was arrested by the USBP. She was transported to an ICE processing center in El Paso. On May 5, 2023, Flores-Bello was released on her own recognizance because the processing center lacked space. She provided a residential address in New York and was scheduled for immigration court there on Oct. 18, 2023. In Dec. 2023, she and Jose Ibarra, whom she met in New York, took a humanitarian flight from New York to Atlanta, Georgia. She settled in Athens and lived with the Ibarra brothers until Laken Riley was murdered.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with critical assistance from FBI, GBI, Athens-Clarke County Police Department, University of Georgia Police Department and Clarke County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Morrison prosecuted the case for the Government
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Siobhan Mclernon, Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing and co-lead, Ageing, Acute and Long Term Conditions. Member of Health and Well Being Research Center, London South Bank University
As a nurse working in a neurocritical care, I witnessed the sudden and devastating effects of stroke on survivors and their carers.
Following my nursing career, I became a researcher specialising in stroke. Knowledge of stroke risk factors in the general public is poor, so stroke prevention is a priority for public health.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in England – yet it is largely preventable. It’s often considered an older person’s illness but, although stroke risk does increase with age, it can happen at any time of life. In fact, stroke incidence is increasing among adults below the age of 55 years.
Stroke risk factors that tend to be more common among older people – such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet – are increasingly found in younger people. Other lifestyle risks include heavy alcohol consumption or binge drinking and recreational drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.
Some risk factors are not modifiable such as age, sex, ethnicity, family history of stroke, genetics and certain inherited conditions. Women, for example, are particularly susceptible to strokes – and women of all ages are more likely than men to die from a stroke.
Stroke risks unique to women include pregnancy and some contraceptive pills (especially for smokers), as well as endometriosis, premature ovarian failure (before 40 years of age), early-onset menopause (before 45 years of age) and oestrogen for transgender women.
Some risk factors are social rather than biological, however. Studies have found that people with a lower income and education level are at a higher risk of having a stroke. This is due to a combination of factors. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as smoking, heavier drinking and lower physical activity levels are more common in people with lower incomes.
However, research also shows that people with lower socioeconomic status are less likely to receive good quality healthcare than people with higher incomes.
But, regardless of biological or social risk factors, there are things you can do – right now – to reduce your risk of having a stroke.
Essential eight
1. Stop smoking Smokers are more than twice as likely to have a stroke than non-smokers. Smoking causes damage to blood vessel walls, increases blood pressure and heart rate but reduces oxygen levels. Smoking also causes blood to become sticky, further increasing the risk of blood clots that can block blood vessels and cause a stroke.
2. Keep blood pressure in checkHigh blood pressure damages the walls of blood vessels, making them weaker and more prone to rupture or blockage. It can also cause blood clots to form, which can then travel to the brain and block blood flow, leading to a stroke. If you’re over 18 years of age, get your blood pressure checked regularly so, if you do show signs of developing high blood pressure, you can nip it in the bud and make appropriate changes to your lifestyle to help reduce your risk of stroke.
3. Keep an eye on your cholesterol According to the UK Stroke Association your risk of a stroke is nearly three and a half times higher if you have both high cholesterol and high blood pressure. To lower cholesterol, aim to keep saturated fat – found in fatty meats, butter, cheese, and full-fat dairy – below 7% of your daily calories, stay active and maintain a healthy weight.
4. Watch your blood sugar High blood glucose levels are linked to an increased risk of stroke. This is because high blood sugar damages blood vessels, which can lead to blood clots that travel to the brain. To reduce blood glucose levels, try to take regular exercise, eat a balanced diet rich in fibre, drink enough water, maintain a healthy weight, and try to manage stress.
5. Maintain a healthy weight Being overweight is one of the main risk factors for stroke. It is associated with almost one in five strokes, and increases your stroke risk by 22%. Being obese raises that risk by 64%. Carrying too much weight increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, which all contribute to higher stroke risk.
6. Follow a Mediterranean diet One way to eat a fibre-rich balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight is to follow a Mediterranean diet. This has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke, especially when supplemented with nuts and olive oil.
7. Sleep well Try to to get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. Too little sleep can lead to high blood pressure, one of the most important modifiable risk factors for stroke. Too much sleep, however, is also associated with increased stroke risk, so try to stay as active as possible so you can sleep as well as possible.
8. Stay active The NHS recommends that people should avoid prolonged sedentary behaviour and aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week. Exercise should be spread evenly over four to five days a week, or every day. Do strengthening activities, usually more than two days per week.
The good news is that while the effects of stroke can be devastating and life-changing, it is largely preventable. Adopting these eight simple lifestyle changes can help to reduce stroke risk and optimise both heart and brain health.
Siobhan Mclernon 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.
Marie Campagna has been a member of the WDBA Board of Directors since 2017 and has most recently served in the role of interim Chair since May 2024.
Since retiring from her role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare, Ms. Campagna was appointed as an Executive in Residence at the University of Windsor’s Odette School of Business. She is a facilitator in the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario’s CFO of the Future program.
Ms. Campagna holds several governance positions that include Board Chair of Essex Energy Corporation, Member of the LaSalle Police Board, Member of Assumption University, Member of Invest Windsor Essex, Past Chair of Transform Shared Services Organization, and a past Board Member of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. She also previously held many board and committee positions with Essex Power Corporation, CMA Ontario, and CMA Canada.
Ms. Campagna holds an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors, a CPA designation, and is a Fellow and life member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from the University of Windsor.
Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Wes Streeting, the UK health secretary, expressed concerns that some mental health conditions were overdiagnosed. The Conversation asked two experts to comment on Streeting’s claim. Is the health secretary right?
Mental distress is under-diagnosed – but over-medicalised
Susan McPherson, Professor in Psychology and Sociology, University of Essex
A year ago, the UK’s then prime minister, the Conservative Rishi Sunak, announced “sick note culture” had gone too far. His work and pensions secretary claimed “mental health culture”, Mel Stride, had gone too far.
These statements merged concern about affordability of disability benefits with ideas about overdiagnosis of mental illness. This appeared to be in response to a report from the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank.
The report said that people in their 20s were more likely to be out of work than people in their 40s. The report attributed this to an increase in young people reporting mental distress (from 24% in 2000 to 34% in 2024).
A year on, the UK now has a Labour government. Wes Streeting, the secretary of state for health and social care, is facing criticism for appearing to echo conservative tropes. In an interview about government plans to reduce benefits for disabled people, he agreed that overdiagnosis accounts for an increase in people on benefits due to mental illness. This appears to mirror those media stereotypes about work-shy millennials.
If that is what Streeting meant, then the evidence is not on his side. Ten years ago, a UK national survey of psychiatric symptoms found that a third of people whose psychological symptoms were severe enough to merit a diagnosis, did not have a diagnosis.
More recent research using the UK Longitudinal Household Study grouped people according to whether they do or do not have a psychiatric diagnosis and whether they do or do not have psychological symptoms severe enough to merit a diagnosis. The study found 12 times as many people in the “undiagnosed distress” category (with severe symptoms but no diagnosis) than the overdiagnosed category.
The study also identified significant inequalities. People living with a disability had nearly three times the risk of undiagnosed distress compared with people without a disability.
Women had 1.5 times the risk of undiagnosed distress compared with men. Lesbian, gay or bisexual people were 1.4 times more likely to have undiagnosed distress compared with heterosexual people. People aged 16-24 had the highest risk compared with all other age groups.
This all suggests inequalities in undiagnosed distress are a much bigger problem than overdiagnosis in the UK. Given that many forms of support in the UK depend on having a diagnosis, undiagnosed distress probably means people are not getting the support they need.
However, Streeting also said that too many people “just aren’t getting the support they need. So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.”
Given this nod towards prevention and the importance of non-medical support, it is conceivable that Streeting’s sentiment may have been about “over-medicalisation” of mental distress rather than overdiagnosis. The difference is important.
The term “diagnosis” reflects a medical model of mental illness. Many would agree that the medical idea of “diagnose and treat” does not serve people with mental distress well. This is because there is a lot of evidence suggesting the underlying causes of mental distress are social, economic, environmental or a result of past trauma.
If Streeting had said “over-medicalised”, he would have been in tune with a growing global concern about over-medicalisation and over-use of medication to treat mental distress, a position advocated by the UN and the World Health Organization.
Despite UK guidelines recommending psychological treatments as first line interventions for depression, antidepressant prescribing has risen 46% over the last seven years with over 85 million prescriptions in 2022-23. This alongside an increase in long-term use of psychiatric medication with no reduction in mental distress at the population level. If Streeting had said “over-medicalised”, the evidence would have been on his side.
A mental health diagnosis is just a label – and usually an unhelpful one
Joanna Moncrieff, Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry, UCL
There has been a dramatic escalation in the number of people seeking treatment for mental health problems in recent years. In the year from April 2023 to 2024, 3.8 million people were in contact with mental health services in England alone, which is 40% higher than before the COVID pandemic. The figures include 1 million children. One in five 16-year-old girls is in contact with services.
The statistics reveal a tendency to over-medicalise a variety of human problems that was supercharged by the pandemic and is likely to result in harmful effects on physical and mental health.
What many people don’t realise about a mental health diagnosis is that it is nothing like the diagnosis of a physical condition. It doesn’t name an underlying biological state or process that can explain the symptoms someone is experiencing, as it does when someone gets a diagnosis of cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, for example.
A mental health diagnosis doesn’t explain anything. It is simply a label that can be applied to a certain set of problems. The process by which this label is conferred is not scientific or objective and is influenced by commercial, professional and political interests.
In most situations, giving people with mental health problems a diagnostic label is unhelpful. It convinces people they have a biological defect, it leads to ineffective and often harmful medical treatment, and most of the time, it misses the actual problems.
Because getting a diagnosis implies you have a medical condition, it misleads people into thinking that they have an underlying biological abnormality, such as a chemical imbalance, even though there is no good evidence that mental disorders are caused by underlying brain or bodily dysfunctions. Research has shown this makes people pessimistic about their chances of recovery and less likely to improve.
Being diagnosed often leads to being prescribed a psychiatric drug, such as an antidepressant. About 8.7 million people in England now take an antidepressant, half of them on a long-term basis.
Prescriptions for other drugs, such as stimulants (prescribed for a diagnosis of ADHD), are also rising fast, even leading to medication shortages. Yet the evidence that any of these drugs improve people’s wellbeing or ability to function is minimal. Moreover, like all substances that alter our normal biological make-up, particularly those that interfere with brain function, they cause side-effects and health risks.
Antidepressants can cause severe and prolonged withdrawal symptoms, sexual dysfunction (which may persist) and emotional numbing or apathy, among other unwanted effects. Stimulants can cause cardiovascular problems and neurological conditions. The widespread, unwarranted prescribing of these drugs will adversely affect the health of the population.
Giving people a diagnosis can also obscure the nature of the person’s underlying problems and prevent these from being addressed.
Mental health problems are often meaningful reactions to stressful circumstances, such as financial, housing and relationship problems and experiences of abuse, trauma, loneliness and lack of meaning. Reducing over-medicalisation doesn’t necessarily mean fewer services. What we need is different services that provide appropriate support for people’s actual problems, not treatment for medical labels.
We also need ways to excuse people from responsibilities when necessary, without making them feel like they have to take on a “sick” role that implies they are forever ill and helpless.
Much of today’s employment is poorly paid, insecure, boring, exploitative and pressurising. It shouldn’t surprise us that some people find it hard to endure. We need to improve working conditions for everyone, but we also need to support people who find these conditions especially challenging, without having to label them as sick.
Joanna Moncrieff is or has been a co-investigator on grants funded by the UK’s National Institute of Health Research and the Australian government Medical Research Future Fund for studies exploring methods of antidepressant discontinuation. She is co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal and unfunded group of psychiatrists
Susan McPherson receives funding from NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England. She is affiliated with the Labour Party.
A graph I saw in high school appeared to show the Earth breathing.
It was a graph that plotted carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. CO₂ had risen steadily, and then more rapidly, but it hadn’t gone up in a straight line. Each year it had fallen sharply before rising to a new peak, increasing over time in an upwards zig-zag.
What explained this annual, temporary fall in CO₂, the gas that is overwhelmingly responsible for climate change? The answer was photosynthesis, my physics teacher explained – the miracle by which plants turn light and CO₂ into food.
This is how our planet has regulated atmospheric carbon for longer than our species has existed. Fossil fuels are disrupting this equilibrium in several ways.
Spring is dawning in the northern hemisphere, where most of the planet’s green land is situated. Trees are unfurling leaves that will soak up carbon in the air and turn it into new bark, roots and branches. On a global scale, it’s like a gigantic inhalation of carbon. In autumn, when trees shed their leaves, Earth will exhale again.
The air we all breathe is increasingly polluted by fossil fuels. That includes products of fossil fuels, like plastic, which is now so ubiquitous that research suggests simply breathing can introduce microscopic fragments into your brain.
Something similar is happening in plants – and it could have global consequences.
Plants are losing their appetite
“Microplastics are hindering photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert energy from the sun into the fruit and vegetables we eat,” says Denis J. Murphy, an emeritus professor of biotechnology at the University of South Wales.
These are the conclusions of a recent study by researchers in China, Germany and the US. Murphy wasn’t involved, but his own research with plant cells – which the tiniest microplastics can infiltrate, and damage the organs involved in photosynthesis – has him worried.
“Given the potential (albeit speculative) risk to global food production, more priority should be given to rigorous scientific research of microplastics and their effects on both crops and the marine life that supports fish and seafood stocks,” he says.
Not so long ago, people wondered if our fossil fuel habit might actually benefit plant photosynthesis. After all, plants eat CO₂. Flooding the atmosphere with more of it each year could only whet their appetites, right?
“The amount of CO₂ used by photosynthesis and stored in vegetation and soils has grown over the past 50 years, and now absorbs at least a quarter of human emissions in an average year,” say ecologists Amanda Cavanagh (University of Essex) and Caitlin Moore (University of Western Australia).
Most of this extra carbon absorption has come from crops and young trees, the pair say, less from mature forests where a lot of the world’s carbon is stored. Cavanagh and Moore say this carbon pump is slowing down, as the other necessary ingredients for photosynthesis – soil nutrients and water – have fallen or stayed the same.
Microplastics could slow the rate at which plants remove carbon further. And then there are the effects of climate change, like drought, fires and floods, which will intensify as long as we continue burning fossil fuels.
After monitoring forests and shrublands in Australia for 20 years, Moore and a team of six colleagues concluded that these ecosystems are at risk of losing their ability to bounce back, and continue absorbing carbon, after successive climate disasters.
We may have done plenty to reduce global photosynthesis, but a team of scientists at the University of Oxford and the Fraunhofer Society in Germany is trying to turn things around. How? By hacking plants to help them get more out of the process.
“You would be forgiven for thinking nature has perfected the art of turning sunlight into sugar,” say Jonathan Menary, Sebastian Fuller and Stefan Schillberg.
“But that isn’t exactly true. If you struggle with life goals, it might reassure you to know even plants haven’t yet reached their full potential.”
The team say that plants tend to convert less than 5% of sunlight into new tissue – often as little as 1%. That’s because of a mistake plants regularly make, in which an enzyme involved in photosynthesis latches on to oxygen instead of CO₂.
Cyanobacteria are Earth’s most ancient photosynthesisers. Menary, Fuller and Schillberg say these microscopic organisms could possess useful genes for better sunlight management that might benefit crops like rice and potato plants. Another technique involves helping plants recover from high light exposure quicker.
More efficient photosynthesis, with the help of gene editing and other tools, is not “a silver bullet”, the team stress. Certainly not while fossil fuels continue to drown our green planet in carbon it cannot metabolise.
However, this work is likely to prove useful as farmers seek to grow more in an increasingly volatile environment, while sparing enough land for nature.
“This research is about making sure we can grow enough food to feed ourselves,” the team say.
As 2025 marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War, The D-Day Story in Portsmouth is launching a new project to record the memories of those who lived and worked in the city during this pivotal time in history.
With the 80th anniversaries of Victory in Europe (VE) Day on Thursday 8 May and Victory over Japan (VJ) Day on Friday 15 August, The D-Day Story is seeking to gather personal accounts from individuals who experienced life in wartime Portsmouth. These recollections will contribute to a valuable archive ensuring that future generations understand and appreciate the impact of the war on the city and its people.
Councillor Steve Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council with responsibility for culture, said:
“The anniversary of the end of that conflict is an opportunity to reflect on the many impacts of the wartime years, which forever changed the city and the lives of its residents. This project is a chance for people to have their memories and experiences recorded for posterity, so these stories are not lost.”
The D-Day Story, in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Libraries & Archive, will be filming interviews to preserve these narratives for future generations. The interviews will take place on selected dates in May at The D-Day Story at Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, and at Cosham Library.
Do you have memories or stories of Portsmouth during the Second World War? Do you have any photographs you would be willing to share?
For an initial discussion, please call the museum on 023 9288 2555 and ask about the “Memories Project.” For more information on The D-Day Story, visit theddaystory.com.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natalya Chernyshova, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Queen Mary University of London
Germany’s ex chancellor, Angela Merkel, and France’s former president, François Hollande, were key to brokering the Minsk agreements.Sodel Vladyslav / Shutterstock
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has agreed to pause attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days following a phone call with his American counterpart, Donald Trump. On social media, Trump said the call was “very good and productive” and came “with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire”.
This optimism is misplaced. The White House did not mention that Putin issued additional conditions for a ceasefire. The Kremlin demands that Ukraine be effectively disarmed, leaving it defenceless against a Russian takeover. Such terms would be unacceptable to Ukraine and its European partners.
At this juncture, Trump and his negotiators would do well to ponder why previous attempts to restrain Russia and secure a lasting peace for Ukraine did not succeed.
This war did not start when shells began to rain on Kyiv in February 2022. Russia had already been waging an undeclared war on its neighbour for nearly eight years in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, where pro-Russian proxy forces have been stoking up trouble in the border regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Attempts to end the fighting there were made in September 2014 and February 2015, when Russia and Ukraine signed ceasefire agreements during negotiations in Minsk, Belarus.
Both sets of Minsk agreements proved to be non-starters. The fighting in the region rumbled on until it culminated in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The accords stored problems for the future.
Russia-backed separatists have controlled the south-eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2015. Viacheslav Lopatin / Shutterstock
Minsk-1 and Minsk-2
The first Minsk protocols were signed in 2014 by Russia, Ukraine, separatists from Donbas and representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The agreement provided for an immediate ceasefire monitored by the OSCE, the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries” from Ukraine and the establishment of a demilitarised buffer zone.
But Moscow also insisted that Kyiv grant temporary “special status” to the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the two separatist regions in Donbas. Instead of helping Ukraine regain control over its eastern territories, the agreement allowed the Russia-backed rebels to hold local elections and legalised them as a party to the conflict.
The ceasefire collapsed within days of signing. The provisions that sought to demarcate the lines of the conflict and give Ukraine back control over its eastern border were not observed by the rebels, and fighting intensified during the winter.
With the death toll rising, the leaders of France and Germany rushed to broker a fresh round of negotiations in February 2015. The resulting accords, which were known as Minsk-2, also failed to bring peace.
Russia and its proxy militants in Donbas immediately and repeatedly violated its terms. Astonishingly, Minsk-2 did not even mention Russia, despite it signing the protocols. Moscow continued to deny its involvement in eastern Ukraine, while stepping up armed assistance to the rebels.
Kyiv was saddled with peace terms that were impossible to implement unless Ukraine was prepared to throw away its sovereignty. Minsk-2 stipulated that the “special status” of the eastern separatist regions was to become permanent, and that the Ukrainian constitution was to be amended to allow for “decentralisation” of power from Kyiv to the rebel regions.
These regions were to be granted autonomy in financial matters, responsibility for their stretch of the border with Russia, and the right to conclude foreign agreements and hold referenda. To undercut Ukrainian independence further, a neutrality clause inserted into its constitution would effectively bar the country’s entry into Nato.
Understandably, no one in Kyiv rushed to implement these self-destructive terms. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel in 2023, Volodymyr Zelensky said that when he became Ukraine’s president in 2019 and examined Minsk-2, he “did not recognise any desire in the agreements to allow Ukraine its independence”.
Russia-backed separatists in Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, in 2014. Fotokon / Shutterstock
Zelensky’s comment points to the fundamental flaw of the Minsk-2 agreement. Its western brokers failed to recognise that Russian war aims were irreconcilable with Ukrainian sovereignty. Moscow’s objective from the start was to use Donbas to destabilise the government in Kyiv and gain control over Ukraine.
Western peacemakers searched for a compromise, but the Kremlin used Minsk-2 to advance its goals. As Duncan Allan of the Chatham House research institute noted in 2020: “Russia sees the Minsk agreements as tools with which to break Ukraine’s sovereignty.” The war in Donbas raged on and, by 2020, had claimed 14,000 lives, with 1.5 million people becoming refugees.
Germany’s ex-chancellor, Angela Merkel, a key broker, subsequently defended the Minsk agreements. She said they bought Kyiv time to arm itself against Russia. It was a costly purchase. Minsk-2 froze the conflict in one locality rather than ended it. And it encouraged Russia, paving the way for a full-scale invasion.
Emphasising Ukrainian sovereignty
The existential differences between Ukraine and Russia that plagued the Minsk agreements remain today. Ukraine has demonstrated its resolve to defend its sovereignty, while Russia’s invasion in 2022 testifies to its determination to squash Ukrainian resolve. The timing of the attack so close to the seventh anniversary of Minsk-2 adds grim emphasis to that point.
This clash of objectives must be addressed head-on in any peace negotiations. The only way to secure lasting peace in Europe is to avoid rewarding the aggressor and punishing its victim.
The Kremlin has already openly declared that it sees Trump-led brokerage as the west’s acknowledgement of Russian strategic superiority. It needs to be disabused of this notion. As argued by Nataliya Bugayova, a fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, the war is not lost yet. Russia is far from invulnerable, and it can be made to accept defeat.
But for any agreement to be effective, there can be no ambiguity or middle ground on the subject of Ukrainian sovereignty. It must be protected and backed by security guarantees.
So far, the Trump administration has shown little understanding of this. But ten years down the line from Minsk-2, Europeans have finally grasped it.
Finland’s president, Aleksander Stubbs, told reporters on March 19 that Ukraine must “absolutely” not lose sovereignty and territory. And, on the day Trump and Putin had their discussion, Germany’s parliament voted for a massive boost in defence spending – another indicator that Europeans are no longer taking Putin on trust.
Natalya Chernyshova received funding from the British Academy during 2020-2022.
Even before the recent protest by a group of well-known musicians at the UK government’s plans to allow AI companies to use copyright-protected work for training, disquiet around artists’ rights was already growing.
In early February, an open letter from artists around the world called on Christie’s auction house to cancel a sale of art created with the assistance of generative AI (GenAI). This is a form of artificial intelligence that creates content – including text, images, or music – based on the patterns learned from colossal data sets.
Without giving specific examples, the letter suggested that many of the works included in the sale, which was entitled “Augmented Intelligence” were “known to be trained on copyrighted work without a licence” and suggested that such sales further “incentivises AI companies’ mass theft of human artists’ work”.
This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.
If we think about Dall-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, all of which use text prompts to generate images and are trained on data sets harvested from online sources, the letter raised significant issues about the nature of artistic creativity and how the legal concept of “fair use” and originality is applied in such cases.
These are complex debates, encompassing perennial misgivings about machine automation, intellectual property (IP), and the cherished ideal that ingenuity and originality remain the sole preserve of humanity.
How to think from within GenAI
The impact of AI on the creative industries has become a major issue in the UK and elsewhere, so much so that we are faced with an existential question: how do we understand the evolving impact of AI on human creativity today?
The scope of this enquiry reveals a simple fact: we need to develop more accessible and inclusive ways to think from within AI image processing models. This is exactly what my latest research, produced in collaboration with the acclaimed artist and photographer Trevor Paglen, proposes.
How, this research asks, do we better understand the mechanisms behind the collation and labelling of the data sets that are used to train AI? And how, in turn, can we create new ways for understanding the extent to which AI image-production models inform our experience the world?
It is, I argue, through the development of interdisciplinary research methods that draw upon the arts and humanities that we can critically engage with these concerns.
Although the open letter addressed to Christie’s alluded to these topics, it did not, perhaps unsurprisingly, observe the degree to which some of the more prominent artists in the Augmented Intelligence sale had actively engaged in providing visual methods and insights into how GenAI functions.
It is notable that Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst’s work xhairymutantx scrutinises how the data sets used in AI models of image production both define and transform images. For example, if you type the word “Holly Herndon” into Midjourney, it will produce images that are based on data sets derived from Herndon’s online presence.
To draw attention to, and simultaneously disrupt, this process, the artists generated their own data sets of images and labelled them “Holly Herndon”. The images in these data sets had been previously manipulated to emphasise certain qualities associated with Herndon (her red hair, for example). Once fed back into the AI image processing model, the ensuing images of “Holly Herndon” became evermore outlandish and exaggerated.
This clearly shows that AI image processing is a highly inconsistent and selective procedure that can be manipulated with ease.
Reflecting upon aerial photography in his work Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams, artist and data visualisation pioneer Refik Anandol used a data set of 1.2 million images collated by the International Space Station (ISS). Alongside other satellite images of Earth, he produced an AI-generated composition.
Employing generative adversarial networks (GANs) – an AI model that trains neural networks to recognise, classify and, crucially, generate new images – Anandol effectively produced a unique landscape that changes over time and never seems to repeat itself.
In both these examples, artists are not simply engaging in either “mass theft” or using AI models that have been trained on large data sets to mechanically produce images. They are explicitly drawing attention to how the data sets used to train AI can be both strategically engineered and actively disrupted.
In our recent book (to which I contributed as editor and author), Trevor Paglen, whose work was not in the Christie’s sale, reveals how data sets regularly produce disquieting, hallucinatory allegories of our world.
Given that GANs are trained on specific data sets and do not experience the world as such, they often produce hallucinatory and uncanny versions of it. Although often considered to be a fault or a glitch in the system, the event of hallucination, as Paglen demonstrates, is nevertheless central to GenAI.
In images such as Rainbow, which was produced using a data set created and labelled by Paglen, we see a ghostly image of our world that discloses the inner, latent mechanics of image production in GANs.
Paglen’s practice, alongside that of Dryhurst, Herndon and Anandol, defines a clear distinction between those artists who casually use AI to generate yet more images and those who critically investigate the operative logic of AI. The latter approach is precisely what is needed when it comes to thinking through GenAI and rendering it more accountable as a technology that has evolved to define significant aspects of our lives.
If we allow that the internal workings of AI are opaque to users and programmers alike, it is all the more crucial that we explore how art practices – and the humanities more broadly – can encourage us to think from within these unaccountable systems. In doing so we could significantly improve levels of understanding and engagement with a technology that is defining the future and our relationship to it.
Anthony Downey 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.
If you are trying to stop smoking, you may have heard of nicotine patches or gum to help reduce cravings. But how about nicotine pouches? Small, tobacco-free sachets containing a powder made up of nicotine, flavourings and other additives, nicotine patches are placed between the upper lip and gum to release a nicotine buzz without the damage to lungs.
Nicotine pouches were first introduced to the UK market in 2019. Common brands in the UK include ZYN, Velo and Nordic Spirit. Nicotine pouches are similar to snus – loose tobacco in a pouch that is used in the same way as nicotine pouches. Although snus has been used for many years in Scandinavia, it was banned in the UK in 1992. Today’s generation of nicotine pouches are marketed as a way to get the benefits of nicotine without the harmful effects of cigarettes or vapes.
So, are they a helpful tool for those trying to kick the habit?
Nicotine replacement therapy
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is available to buy over-the-counter in the UK. Common brands include Nicorette and Niquitin. NRT comes in different forms such as patches, lozenges and chewing gum. Nicotine pouches haven’t been approved for use as NRT – so why are they becoming a popular alternative to smoking and vaping?
Pouches are heavily marketed on social media and, unlike NRTs, they’re readily available from supermarkets and shops from as little as £5 per box. Social media influencers are sponsored to promote nicotine pouches as “clean”, discreet and convenient. They come in a wide range of flavours, from cinnamon to citrus, which attracts younger consumers.
Recent research found that approximately 1% of adults and 1.2% of youths aged 11-18 years-old reported currently using nicotine pouches. However, over 5% of adults and more than 3% of youths said they had used these pouches at some point. Although these are relatively low figures, data shows nicotine pouches are becoming increasingly popular in the UK and US.
Instead, nicotine pouches are governed by the General Product Safety Regulations, which means they are not regulated as stringently as NRT. Companies producing NRTs must apply for a marketing license because medicinal products have to undergo extensive testing to show they are safe and effective. This is not the case for nicotine pouches.
‘Healthy’ nicotine?
Nicotine acts on receptors in the brain, releasing chemical messengers including the “happy hormone” dopamine. These chemical messengers are responsible for the pleasurable feelings and addictive behaviour that people often experience when using tobacco or nicotine products. The faster a drug is absorbed and activates brain receptors, the higher the addiction potential.
Research shows that nicotine is released more slowly from pouches compared to cigarettes, so it may be less addictive than cigarettes. However, pouches can also vary in the amount of nicotine they contain – evidence shows some have very high levels, higher than cigarettes and NRT.
Pouches can be marketed as a “clean” form of nicotine consumption – but, although they are smoke-free, they can contain other chemical ingredients such as pH adjusters like sodium carbonate, which allow nicotine to be absorbed in the mouth more easily. Pouches do not contain tobacco, which contains many chemicals and cancer-causing agents. However, nicotine on its own can still be harmful.
Common side effects of nicotine pouch use include nausea, vomiting, headaches and heart palpitations. Nicotine causes the body to release of chemicals such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. Studies show increased levels of these can raise heart rate and blood pressure and the heart’s need for oxygen.
Animal studies suggest that nicotine use during teenage years can cause long-term changes in the brain and behaviour as well as an increased likelihood of using other drugs, lower attention levels and mood problems.
Young people have more nicotine receptors in the areas of the brain related to reward. This makes nicotine’s effects stronger in teenagers than in adults.
Currently there is not enough evidence to confirm nicotine pouches are harmful to oral health but dentists are concerned about their potential effects. Last year, a review found that oral side effects include dry mouth, sore mouth, blisters on the gums and sometimes changes in the gum area – such as receding gumline – where the pouches were placed. This is similar to side effects of oral NRT. Unlike NRT, which is normally used for a three-month course, pouches may be used for longer – potentially raising the risk of side effects.
Belgium and the Netherlands have banned nicotine pouches because of the potential risks. In the UK, the new Tobacco and Vapes bill will allow the government to regulate the use of nicotine pouches so that they can only be sold to people aged 18 and older. Advertising will be banned and the content and branding regulated.
This could be a welcome move for those concerned that nicotine pouch brands are targeting young people who’ve never smoked. But, for current smokers looking for a product to help them quit, it might be wise to opt for the regulated NRTs – even if the flavours aren’t as appealing.
Dipa Kamdar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Siobhan Mclernon, Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing and co-lead, Ageing, Acute and Long Term Conditions. Member of Health and Well Being Research Center, London South Bank University
As a nurse working in a neurocritical care, I witnessed the sudden and devastating effects of stroke on survivors and their carers.
Following my nursing career, I became a researcher specialising in stroke. Knowledge of stroke risk factors in the general public is poor, so stroke prevention is a priority for public health.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in England – yet it is largely preventable. It’s often considered an older person’s illness but, although stroke risk does increase with age, it can happen at any time of life. In fact, stroke incidence is increasing among adults below the age of 55 years.
Stroke risk factors that tend to be more common among older people – such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet – are increasingly found in younger people. Other lifestyle risks include heavy alcohol consumption or binge drinking and recreational drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.
Some risk factors are not modifiable such as age, sex, ethnicity, family history of stroke, genetics and certain inherited conditions. Women, for example, are particularly susceptible to strokes – and women of all ages are more likely than men to die from a stroke.
Stroke risks unique to women include pregnancy and some contraceptive pills (especially for smokers), as well as endometriosis, premature ovarian failure (before 40 years of age), early-onset menopause (before 45 years of age) and oestrogen for transgender women.
Some risk factors are social rather than biological, however. Studies have found that people with a lower income and education level are at a higher risk of having a stroke. This is due to a combination of factors. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as smoking, heavier drinking and lower physical activity levels are more common in people with lower incomes.
However, research also shows that people with lower socioeconomic status are less likely to receive good quality healthcare than people with higher incomes.
But, regardless of biological or social risk factors, there are things you can do – right now – to reduce your risk of having a stroke.
Essential eight
1. Stop smoking Smokers are more than twice as likely to have a stroke than non-smokers. Smoking causes damage to blood vessel walls, increases blood pressure and heart rate but reduces oxygen levels. Smoking also causes blood to become sticky, further increasing the risk of blood clots that can block blood vessels and cause a stroke.
2. Keep blood pressure in checkHigh blood pressure damages the walls of blood vessels, making them weaker and more prone to rupture or blockage. It can also cause blood clots to form, which can then travel to the brain and block blood flow, leading to a stroke. If you’re over 18 years of age, get your blood pressure checked regularly so, if you do show signs of developing high blood pressure, you can nip it in the bud and make appropriate changes to your lifestyle to help reduce your risk of stroke.
3. Keep an eye on your cholesterol According to the UK Stroke Association your risk of a stroke is nearly three and a half times higher if you have both high cholesterol and high blood pressure. To lower cholesterol, aim to keep saturated fat – found in fatty meats, butter, cheese, and full-fat dairy – below 7% of your daily calories, stay active and maintain a healthy weight.
4. Watch your blood sugar High blood glucose levels are linked to an increased risk of stroke. This is because high blood sugar damages blood vessels, which can lead to blood clots that travel to the brain. To reduce blood glucose levels, try to take regular exercise, eat a balanced diet rich in fibre, drink enough water, maintain a healthy weight, and try to manage stress.
5. Maintain a healthy weight Being overweight is one of the main risk factors for stroke. It is associated with almost one in five strokes, and increases your stroke risk by 22%. Being obese raises that risk by 64%. Carrying too much weight increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, which all contribute to higher stroke risk.
6. Follow a Mediterranean diet One way to eat a fibre-rich balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight is to follow a Mediterranean diet. This has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke, especially when supplemented with nuts and olive oil.
7. Sleep well Try to to get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. Too little sleep can lead to high blood pressure, one of the most important modifiable risk factors for stroke. Too much sleep, however, is also associated with increased stroke risk, so try to stay as active as possible so you can sleep as well as possible.
8. Stay active The NHS recommends that people should avoid prolonged sedentary behaviour and aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week. Exercise should be spread evenly over four to five days a week, or every day. Do strengthening activities, usually more than two days per week.
The good news is that while the effects of stroke can be devastating and life-changing, it is largely preventable. Adopting these eight simple lifestyle changes can help to reduce stroke risk and optimise both heart and brain health.
Siobhan Mclernon 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.
A longstanding question in evolutionary biology is how sexual selection influences how entire genomes develop. Sexual selection is where individuals with certain traits have higher reproductive success, leading to the spread of those traits throughout a species.
A study by me and my colleagues at the Milner Centre for Evolution has uncovered a significant link between the difference in body size between males and females – known as sexual size dimorphism (SSD) – and genetic changes in mammals. These findings provide new insights into how sexual selection shapes the structure and function of the genome.
Sexual selection is a powerful evolutionary force that influences reproductive traits. It typically acts through mate choice (intersexual selection) and competition among individuals of the same sex (intrasexual selection). Over time, these constant pressures shape genome architecture, driving rapid evolution in genes associated with reproductive success.
This may affect the voice, body size, plumage or other feature of a species over time. In fact, such pressures may be behind a rise in height in male humans compared with females.
Recent work highlights how sexual selection contributes to changes in the genetic blueprint (genome) and genes actively used (transcriptome).
Many sexually dimorphic traits arise through sex-specific differences in gene expression. This allows a single shared genome to produce distinct male and female types.
Males and females differing in body size is a common outcome of sexual selection. Some examples are the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) and northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), where males are more than 250% heavier than females. In contrast, species such as the natal long-fingered bat (Miniopterus natalensis), humans and wombats (vombatus ursinus) show lower SSD, with males weighting less than 50% more than females.
Male sumatran orangutans (left) are much larger than female ones (right). wikipedia, CC BY-SA
A large difference often correlates with intense male-male competition, leading to the evolution of traits that enhance reproductive success, such as tall stature. However, while the impact of this difference on physical traits is well documented, its influence on genome evolution has remained largely unexplored.
Sense of smell versus brain size
We analysed groups of related genes called gene families across 124 mammalian species. Our study provides compelling evidence that SSD is associated with major shifts in the sizes of such families.
Specifically, species with high SSD have an expansion of gene families linked to sense of smell. At the same time, their gene families related to brain development tend to contract.
This suggests that in species with strong male competition, investment in traits that aid in reproductive success, such as olfactory cues for mate recognition, is prioritised over cognitive development.
Conversely, species with low SSD show an expansion of brain-related gene families. This pattern suggests that in these mammals, natural selection may favour cognitive abilities and complex social behaviours rather than traits driven by sexual competition.
Sexual conflict, where selection acts in opposing directions in males and females, plays an important role in genome evolution. This may involve males evolving brighter colours and outstanding features, as seen in peacocks (Pavo cristatus) and guppies (Poecilia reticulata). While these traits enhance male success by attracting females, they might also increase the risk of being spotted by predators.
Many sex differences arise due to selection acting differently on shared genetic material, creating evolutionary tension. This can lead to sex-biased gene expression, allowing genes to function differently in males and females. This is the case for genes controlling bright colouration in guppies, for example.
Studies have suggested that genes under strong sexual selection tend to evolve rapidly, particularly those associated with male reproductive traits, such as body size or colour. Additionally, genomic features, such as the duplication of genes, can help the evolution of sex-specific traits, helping to alleviate conflicts between the sexes.
Our findings support these ideas by demonstrating that SSD influences gene family evolution, shaping molecular pathways critical for sexual and cognitive development.
Evolutionary give and take
Sexual selection does not act in isolation. It interacts with other evolutionary forces, such as natural selection and ecological pressures, to shape diversity. For example, larger body size in males may confer advantages in physical competition. But it can also increase metabolic demands and the risk of being caught by predators.
Similarly, large brains and complex social structures may be favoured in species where cognitive abilities play a role in reproductive success, such as humans. But this comes at the cost of slower development and greater energy expenditure.
This interplay between sexual selection and other evolutionary pressures highlights the complexity of genome evolution. Traits that provide reproductive advantages may not always align with those that enhance survival. This leads to give-and-take situations that shape species diversity over time.
By examining the genetic underpinnings of SSD, our study provides new perspectives on how these situations play out at the molecular level. Our findings ultimately refine our understanding of how sexual selection influences genome evolution among mammals.
Future research should explore in depth how these genomic changes influence behaviour and cognitive abilities in different species. These findings will open exciting new avenues for research, helping to answer fundamental questions about how evolution shapes biodiversity at the genetic level.
Benjamin Padilla-Morales 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christina Philippou, Associate Professor in Accounting and Sport Finance, University of Portsmouth
The women’s rugby side Gloucester-Hartpury have had a pretty good season. On March 16 they won their third Premiership Women’s Rugby Championship in a row, beating Saracens 31-19 in the final.
But the sport as a whole is enjoying an impressive run too. Fellow Premiership side Harlequins broke the world attendance record for a women’s rugby club game at the Allianz Stadium (Twickenham) in December 2024, with a crowd of 18,055. And ticket sales for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August (hosted by England) have already broken records.
There has also been a surge in commercial interest. Research I was involved in suggests that rugby is following a trend seen in other women’s sports, including football and basketball, where brands previously not associated with sport are finally joining the party. The skincare brand Clinique is now a key sponsor of Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), for example.
And despite issues with financial sustainability across rugby union clubs generally, some clubs are showing a clear appetite for commercial growth. Leicester Tigers’ women’s side, for example, is currently seeking a “principal partner” to sign up to a “six-figure annual commitment” of investment and sponsorship – in return for naming rights of a planned new stadium.
Broadcasting interest (and income) has increased too. PWR and TNT Sports have a multi-year deal to show live matches, while BBC Sport had live access to four key games this year, starting with Harlequins against Bristol Bears in February and ending with the PWR final. For the national teams, the 2025 Women’s Six Nations tournament will also be shown on the BBC.
Overall then, women’s rugby in England is winning more coverage, higher attendances, and greater involvement from commercial brands just in time for the World Cup. And the effects are already visible for the tournament, with “unprecedented demand” for tickets an early indicator of financial success. A number of matches already have limited availability.
That said, any large sporting event carries risks, and research shows that the aftermath (for sporting involvement) can be disappointing and the effects on the domestic game limited. A proper legacy depends on the support of national governing bodies.
Star power
So women’s rugby still faces barriers. But without wishing to place further weight on her shoulders, the sport has a not-so-secret weapon in the form of a player who has elevated the sport to new levels in a very short space of time.
Ilona Maher, 28, has 3.5 million followers on Tiktok, more than any other rugby player in the world, of any gender. She represented the US rugby sevens national team at the Paris Olympics (they came third) and her appearance on the US dance competition show Dancing With the Stars (where she finished in second place) made her even more famous. Next on her list it playing for her country in this year’s World Cup.
To do so, she needed to bolster her experience in the 15-a-side game – so ended up signing for PWR side Bristol Bears.
This was a commercially shrewd deal for both sides. Maher is getting semi-professional experience, and Bristol Bears have already seen a financial boost. They doubled their attendance record (to 9,240) on Maher’s debut weekend in January 2025, having moved venue to accommodate the surge in ticket sales. The club is also selling more merchandise.
Nor is it just Bristol Bears which have benefited from the Ilona Maher effect. Interest in the league as a whole has increased, both in the UK and abroad, bringing new audiences to the sport just in time for the international competition.
Those audiences can hopefully look forward to an entertaining and exciting World Cup in England this summer. And if the current momentum behind the sport continues, a bright future for women’s rugby.
Christina Philippou 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University
How much would it really cost the European Union to defend itself against aggression? In the immediate term, that question, of course makes us think of Russia, but we can no longer exclude multiple other possibilities, including the potential need to defend territory – say, Greenland – from a former ally.
How much would it cost to defend Europe if we added in the need to defend the UK, Norway, Turkey or even Canada – and any other Nato country willing to pool resources to fill the void left by US disengagement? Is there an intelligent way to avoid painful trade-offs between this and, say, spending on healthcare or education?
It looks like EU institutions are finally “doing something” (as former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi recently asked them to do). They may even break the taboo of raising common debt in order to increase spending on joint defence procurements.
Yet, it also seems they are about to launch a plan that could change the very nature of the European Union without even tackling the question of its financial feasibility. The answer to how joint defence can be paid for certainly doesn’t come from the plan that the European Commission has unveiled on “rearming Europe”. At the very last line of that statement, a figure of €800 billion is posited, but it is not clear how the sum was calculated and quite a few critical qualifications are missing.
The debate over how much it costs to prevent a war (which is a very different notion from fighting one), has been dominated by what I would call “the fallacy of the percentage of GDP”.
In 2014 (at the time of Russia’s annexation of Crimea), the leaders of Nato countries agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence (specifying that retirement benefits to veterans should be included). Yet by 2022, the overall ratio for Nato defence spending had, in fact, shrunk from 2.58% of GDP to 2.51% (thanks to the sharp reduction in the percentage of GDP contributed by the US). And, according to the European Defence Agency, the EU is spending around €279 billion, which is 1.6% of its GDP. Most likely, the €800 billion figure that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was citing in her communique is simply an estimate of how much it would yield to increase that spending up to 2% of GDP for each of the next ten years.
Politicians sometimes need to make back-of-the-envelope calculations, but I would argue that here it points to a much broader problem. Europe hasn’t yet bothered to try to develop a strategy for how this additional money would be spent. A proper strategy should, in fact, start from three key technical considerations. To which I would add a no-less important political one.
1. Spending smart is better than spending big
Technologies (including AI) are radically changing the equation. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza demonstrate that cheap drones are now the key to modern warfare – not super expensive F35 strike fighters. Why spend billions designing, building and maintaining 2,500 F35s when a drone the size of a mobile phone can cross enemy lines unnoticed?
In a world in which data is a weapon, and a large-scale attack can be mounted by taking remote control of pagers, what generals call “supremacy” doesn’t necessarily belong to the biggest spender.
Israel’s military budget is one-third that of Saudi Arabia, yet it dominates the Middle East because its perpetual state of conflict forces innovation. Russia spends less than half of the 27 EU member states, but it has much more experience in hacking other countries’ infrastructures. The EU spends as much as China, but China invests more than twice in research and development and is the world’s largest exporter of drones as a result.
2. Spending together is better value
The European parliament estimates that merging the 27 member states’ defence budgets would free up €56 billion (which is a third of what the defence bonds proposed by the Commission would raise).
Yet the trend is to spend more alone than together. According to the European Defence Agency, the bloc has more than doubled its expenditure on new digital technologies; yet the percentage of that going into joint projects between member states fell from 11% before Ukraine’s invasion to 6.5% in 2023.
Any common defence would also have to rely on “buying European” as much as possible. The F35 fighter jet is another good example here. Denmark agreed to buy 27 of them (to the tune of around €3 billion) with an idea to station four of them in Greenland. The problem is that, according to the former president of the Munich security conference Wolfgang Ischinger, they cannot even take off if remotely disabled by the US. Again, Europe is not walking the walk. The share of equipment that European nations import from the US has massively increased in the last five years.
A new era for the union
Defence is probably the most important issue when talking about the Europe of the future. It provides a concrete opportunity to fill a technological gap out of the necessity to do so. Spending on defence in the interests of self-protection may have longer-term benefits beyond the military arena. It has been often the case that military research leads to major breakthroughs that can applied in public services. Who knows. Military innovations with drone or AI technology on today’s battlefields could lead to beneficial uses in peace time.
The historic opportunity to transform the way we protect ourselves may even force a radical rethinking of not just the EU treaties but of the nature of the EU. The idea of the “coalition of the willing” may, indeed, push Europe towards an alliance which does not include some of its members (such as Hungary) but does include non-members like the UK, Norway and even Turkey. New arrangements will need to be pragmatically flexible.
Europeans need much more strategy, whereas we now largely have rhetorical announcements with little substance. And we need much more democracy. After all, defence is one of the defining dimensions of the state. Having a common defence policy in Europe could make people feel more like European citizens. But that cannot happen without engaging citizens in an intelligent debate.
Francesco Grillo is affiliated with the think tank Vision.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natalya Chernyshova, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Queen Mary University of London
Germany’s ex chancellor, Angela Merkel, and France’s former president, François Hollande, were key to brokering the Minsk agreements.Sodel Vladyslav / Shutterstock
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has agreed to pause attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days following a phone call with his American counterpart, Donald Trump. On social media, Trump said the call was “very good and productive” and came “with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire”.
This optimism is misplaced. The White House did not mention that Putin issued additional conditions for a ceasefire. The Kremlin demands that Ukraine be effectively disarmed, leaving it defenceless against a Russian takeover. Such terms would be unacceptable to Ukraine and its European partners.
At this juncture, Trump and his negotiators would do well to ponder why previous attempts to restrain Russia and secure a lasting peace for Ukraine did not succeed.
This war did not start when shells began to rain on Kyiv in February 2022. Russia had already been waging an undeclared war on its neighbour for nearly eight years in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, where pro-Russian proxy forces have been stoking up trouble in the border regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Attempts to end the fighting there were made in September 2014 and February 2015, when Russia and Ukraine signed ceasefire agreements during negotiations in Minsk, Belarus.
Both sets of Minsk agreements proved to be non-starters. The fighting in the region rumbled on until it culminated in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The accords stored problems for the future.
Russia-backed separatists have controlled the south-eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2015. Viacheslav Lopatin / Shutterstock
Minsk-1 and Minsk-2
The first Minsk protocols were signed in 2014 by Russia, Ukraine, separatists from Donbas and representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The agreement provided for an immediate ceasefire monitored by the OSCE, the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries” from Ukraine and the establishment of a demilitarised buffer zone.
But Moscow also insisted that Kyiv grant temporary “special status” to the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the two separatist regions in Donbas. Instead of helping Ukraine regain control over its eastern territories, the agreement allowed the Russia-backed rebels to hold local elections and legalised them as a party to the conflict.
The ceasefire collapsed within days of signing. The provisions that sought to demarcate the lines of the conflict and give Ukraine back control over its eastern border were not observed by the rebels, and fighting intensified during the winter.
With the death toll rising, the leaders of France and Germany rushed to broker a fresh round of negotiations in February 2015. The resulting accords, which were known as Minsk-2, also failed to bring peace.
Russia and its proxy militants in Donbas immediately and repeatedly violated its terms. Astonishingly, Minsk-2 did not even mention Russia, despite it signing the protocols. Moscow continued to deny its involvement in eastern Ukraine, while stepping up armed assistance to the rebels.
Kyiv was saddled with peace terms that were impossible to implement unless Ukraine was prepared to throw away its sovereignty. Minsk-2 stipulated that the “special status” of the eastern separatist regions was to become permanent, and that the Ukrainian constitution was to be amended to allow for “decentralisation” of power from Kyiv to the rebel regions.
These regions were to be granted autonomy in financial matters, responsibility for their stretch of the border with Russia, and the right to conclude foreign agreements and hold referenda. To undercut Ukrainian independence further, a neutrality clause inserted into its constitution would effectively bar the country’s entry into Nato.
Understandably, no one in Kyiv rushed to implement these self-destructive terms. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel in 2023, Volodymyr Zelensky said that when he became Ukraine’s president in 2019 and examined Minsk-2, he “did not recognise any desire in the agreements to allow Ukraine its independence”.
Russia-backed separatists in Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, in 2014. Fotokon / Shutterstock
Zelensky’s comment points to the fundamental flaw of the Minsk-2 agreement. Its western brokers failed to recognise that Russian war aims were irreconcilable with Ukrainian sovereignty. Moscow’s objective from the start was to use Donbas to destabilise the government in Kyiv and gain control over Ukraine.
Western peacemakers searched for a compromise, but the Kremlin used Minsk-2 to advance its goals. As Duncan Allan of the Chatham House research institute noted in 2020: “Russia sees the Minsk agreements as tools with which to break Ukraine’s sovereignty.” The war in Donbas raged on and, by 2020, had claimed 14,000 lives, with 1.5 million people becoming refugees.
Germany’s ex-chancellor, Angela Merkel, a key broker, subsequently defended the Minsk agreements. She said they bought Kyiv time to arm itself against Russia. It was a costly purchase. Minsk-2 froze the conflict in one locality rather than ended it. And it encouraged Russia, paving the way for a full-scale invasion.
Emphasising Ukrainian sovereignty
The existential differences between Ukraine and Russia that plagued the Minsk agreements remain today. Ukraine has demonstrated its resolve to defend its sovereignty, while Russia’s invasion in 2022 testifies to its determination to squash Ukrainian resolve. The timing of the attack so close to the seventh anniversary of Minsk-2 adds grim emphasis to that point.
This clash of objectives must be addressed head-on in any peace negotiations. The only way to secure lasting peace in Europe is to avoid rewarding the aggressor and punishing its victim.
The Kremlin has already openly declared that it sees Trump-led brokerage as the west’s acknowledgement of Russian strategic superiority. It needs to be disabused of this notion. As argued by Nataliya Bugayova, a fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, the war is not lost yet. Russia is far from invulnerable, and it can be made to accept defeat.
But for any agreement to be effective, there can be no ambiguity or middle ground on the subject of Ukrainian sovereignty. It must be protected and backed by security guarantees.
So far, the Trump administration has shown little understanding of this. But ten years down the line from Minsk-2, Europeans have finally grasped it.
Finland’s president, Aleksander Stubbs, told reporters on March 19 that Ukraine must “absolutely” not lose sovereignty and territory. And, on the day Trump and Putin had their discussion, Germany’s parliament voted for a massive boost in defence spending – another indicator that Europeans are no longer taking Putin on trust.
Natalya Chernyshova received funding from the British Academy during 2020-2022.
Microplastics are hindering photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert energy from the sun into the fruit and vegetables we eat. This threatens massive losses in crop and seafood production over the coming decades that could mean food shortages for hundreds of millions of people.
So concludes an alarming new study. The authors combined more than 3,000 observations of the effects of microplastics on plants from 157 separate scientific reports, and then extrapolated the results using machine learning, a type of computer model that trains AI to spot patterns in data.
Microplastic exposure, they found, reduces photosynthesis in land plants and marine and freshwater algae by 7% to 12%. The authors calculated that this could eventually reduce yields of staple crops such as rice, wheat and maize by between 4% and 14%.
How realistic is this scenario? While the new study does not fully support such dramatic conclusions, it does draw attention to the possible future risks from microplastics.
The complexities of microplastics
Plastics are useful and versatile products. But they are also difficult to recycle and during 2025 alone, will probably account for 360 million tonnes of solid waste.
More insidious are the trillions of tiny fragments these plastic products break up into, now found everywhere from the deep sea to your brain. These microplastics are less than 5mm in size and some of them are as small as 1 micron (micro-metre), meaning that 10,000 of them could easily fit inside an average plant or animal cell.
More microplastics are formed as larger plastic waste breaks down in the environment. Chayanuphol/Shutterstock
Scientists have estimated that about 11 million tonnes of these microplastics, including 51 trillion individual particles, are released into the ocean each year.
Researchers increasingly use AI models to analyse complex datasets. The results can often be useful. My colleagues and I used similar methods to analyse massive molecular datasets and determine the chemical composition of palm oil in different regions of the tropics.
In that case, it was difficult to analyse one group of compounds across a relatively small geographic region. The risks of misleading conclusions are many times greater when trying to analyse microplastics and their different effects globally, as in this new study.
Indeed, the authors of the new study sought to answer questions that are orders of magnitude more complex, involving vast quantities of microplastics in the entirety of the global biosphere. Other scientists have expressed concern about the limited data used by the current model, that could lead to overspeculation about the possible consequences for food supplies.
Despite these concerns, the new study is useful for highlighting the growing body of scientific data on the deleterious effects of microplastics, found in ecosystems from the Arctic to the Amazon. Over the past 20 years, evidence of the potential risk of microplastics has steadily accumulated.
More research is needed
The main conclusions of the new study are based on extrapolations that may not apply on a global scale. The reality is that there are many thousands of types of microplastics, that differ significantly in their chemical composition, size, environmental distribution and biological effects. The new study did not discriminate between them. This means that it is difficult to study their effects on individual processes within human or plant health.
Larger microplastics accumulate in the soil while much smaller microplastics can be present in the air and can be directly absorbed into plant cells. In some cases, the smaller microplastics can damage the cellular bodies, called chloroplasts, involved in photosynthesis.
Previous studies have shown that exposing some algae to microplastics can reduce photosynthesis and increase stress, leading to cell damage similar to the effects of ageing in people. Other studies on crop plants such as tobacco have concluded that the effects of microplastics on photosynthesis vary with the type and dose, exposure duration and plant species. In other words, there is no single approach for comparing the effects on plants as different as a lettuce and an apple tree.
Given the potential (albeit speculative) risk to global food production, more priority should be given to rigorous scientific research of microplastics and their effects on both crops and the marine life that supports fish and seafood stocks.
The World Economic Forum has labelled microplastics as a top ten threat and recommends urgent action. In its latest analysis, it also reported that the average person could ingest between 78,000 and 211,000 of these particles each year. It is estimated that the emission of microplastic particles is likely to more than double in the next 15 years, possibly over 40 million tonnes annually.
Despite growing concern among scientists and civil society, several of the larger public bodies involved in microplastics research in the US and Europe are considering radical cuts to both environmental research funding and regulatory oversight.
While poorly understood, the threat of microplastics could rival other serious threats, including climate change and biodiversity loss.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Denis J. Murphy 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.
A new sustainable travel hub at the University of Derby’s Kedleston Road site is now open, giving students and staff greater choice when deciding how to travel.
Home to the new hub, Kedleston Road is the University’s largest site, two miles from the city centre.
Now, thanks to a partnership between Derby City Council and the University of Derby, students and staff can take full advantage of the city’s growing sustainable transport offer. The first-of-its-kind in the city, the hub has been designed with the capacity to grow as Derby’s sustainable travel offer continues to expand.
To begin with, the hub offers:
11 Electric Vehicle (EV) charge points
Real Time Information (RTI) screens with live travel updates
Secure undercover cycle parking for up to 58 bicycles, plus a further 12 uncovered spaces
Councillor Carmel Swan, Cabinet Member Climate Change, Transport and Sustainability said:
I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to partner with the University of Derby to bring this new travel hub to life. A big thanks to everyone from the council and University, as well as our partners, for all their hard work to bring this project to fruition.
We’ve made great progress over the past few years to expand and diversify the sustainable transport choices available across the city and it’s vital that we make sure that these schemes are also accessible to students who choose to study in Derby.
Providing students and University staff with accessible and affordable alternative transport options will further support our climate ambitions and enhance Derby’s attractiveness as a leading university city.
Stephen Dudderidge, Chief Operating Officer at the University of Derby, officially opened the hub with members from Derby City Council. He said:
We are delighted to launch the new sustainable travel hub at our Kedleston Road Campus, providing greater access to sustainable travel options for our students, staff, partners, and visitors.
We understand the importance of reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the sustainability of our environment. From our estate to our teaching, learning and research, we are making a concerted effort to reduce our emissions, set green targets and put sustainability at the heart of our growth and development plans, and this new travel hub reinforces this commitment.
Work began on site in late 2024 and the hub was officially opened on Friday 14 March ahead of the University’s Go Green Week; an annual event to encourage staff, students and visitors to consider making greener choices.
The hub, funded by £800,000 from the Government’s Future Transport Zones Fund, complements the city’s growing active travel offer which gives citizens a range of sustainable transport options.
BOSTON, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BlueShift, the electrochemical climate tech innovator, today emerged from stealth with the announcement of a successful $2.1 million pre-seed funding round. ConocoPhillips Company, Ridgeline and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center(MassCEC), with participation from others, have provided funding to enable BlueShift to begin construction of its pilot facility.
Working out of North America’s largest climate tech incubator, Greentown Labs, and MIT’s The Engine accelerator, BlueShift will direct the bulk of its funding to the first pilot installation of its electrochemical technology in Boston Harbor.
Combining proprietary membrane-free technology from the University of Michigan, Harvard and supported by ARPA-E—along with additive manufacturing elements and existing infrastructure—BlueShift’s innovative electrochemical systems process alkaline industrial waste and seawater to isolate critical minerals using infrastructure commonly found at desalination and power plants. As a bonus, BlueShift’s low-cost, energy-efficient technologies also extract CO2 directly from seawater as limestone, helping to address the growing environmental issue of ocean acidification.
“BlueShift was founded with the mission of promoting economic resilience by unlocking underutilized resources using advanced technologies,” said BlueShift Founder & CEO Deep Patel. “And there is perhaps no other class of resources better positioned to benefit from this mission today than that of critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs). Given the dramatic scale of environmental degradation, operational inefficiencies, and global trade imbalances plaguing this market, we felt it was imperative to develop a more sustainable, scalable, and geopolitically stable source of these vital resources. The result is a new system that addresses all of these issues while also offering a low-cost, energy-efficient method for direct carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from our Earth’s ailing oceans.”
Why a New Path to Critical Mineral Extraction Is Needed Now More Than Ever
Like most traditional mining practices, those used in the extraction of critical minerals and REEs cause significant environmental damage, including ecosystem destruction, water pollution, and toxic waste production.
Nonetheless, multiple trillion-dollar global industries depend on these raw materials to produce everything from steel and cosmetics to advanced battery technologies. Indeed, the demand for critical minerals for clean energy technologies is expected to nearly triple by 2030.
Adding to the challenge, China currently accounts for 70% of global REE extraction, 87% of global REE processing, and roughly two-thirds of the world’s processing and refining capacity for critical minerals. Domestic sources of these raw materials have become increasingly important for both the U.S. sustainable energy goals and national security.
A Closer Look at BlueShift’s Electrochemical Technology
Recognizing these problems, the BlueShift team developed its electrochemical systems to unlock resilient, rapidly scalable critical mineral supply chains. Past efforts at isolating these minerals from industrial waste have struggled to scale due to the high energy costs and intensive capital requirements associated with prevailing electrochemical processes.
This is where BlueShift’s innovations stand apart. Using efficient, modular electrochemical units combined with the power of the ocean, BlueShift’s system is up to 10 times more energy efficient than competing technologies. Furthermore, by avoiding the use of previous materials or bipolar membranes, BlueShift’s technology requires significantly reduced capital expenditures.
Simultaneously, these technologies offer a low-cost, energy-efficient means of combatting ocean acidification through direct carbon dioxide removal from seawater. In fact, within 14 months of its deployment, BlueShift’s Boston Harbor pilot facility is expected to see a 30x increase in total carbon dioxide removed annually.
How BlueShift’s Technology Is Advancing the Energy Transition
“Meeting our climate goals is going to require low-cost, large-scale carbon dioxide removal. BlueShift’s electrochemical technology is a promising new solution to this problem, while its domestic production of critical minerals could contribute to resilient supply chains for clean-energy industries,” said David Wilson, Investment Principal at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. “We’re delighted to be working with the team, as they build their company and pilot the technology in Massachusetts, and glad to have ConocoPhillips bringing its energy industry expertise and support.”
BlueShift’s business model comprises multiple distinct revenue streams, including the sale of: critical minerals such as nickel, REE products such as neodymium and dysprosium, carbon credits, and licensing and engineering packages to utilities, desalination plants, and others.
The BlueShift team has already secured several suppliers of input materials for the extraction of critical minerals and REE, including coal ash and olivine mining waste. Both inputs will be processed over the next three quarters as an initial go-to-market implementation of their electrochemical technology and carbon removal system. Additional capital will be used to acquire key production materials, fulfill various technical milestones, and recruit top-tier talent.
“BlueShift raises the bar for sustainable industrial innovation—advancing domestic critical-mineral production while capturing carbon from seawater. At Ridgeline, we’re proud to back a team proving we can unlock vital resources and build a more resilient future,” said Ridgeline Co-Founder & Managing Partner Ryan Clinton.
About BlueShift
Founded in 2024 by a small team of academics, engineers, and climate-tech veterans, BlueShift’s mission is to cultivate economic resilience and environmental sustainability by unlocking underutilized resources with advanced technologies. The company’s electrochemical mineral extraction with carbon removal system is designed to provide more sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective access to alternative critical mineral supply chains, while simultaneously helping to combat climate change. The company utilizes a redox-based, membrane-free electrochemical process to upcycle industrial waste into critical minerals like nickel, and rare earth elements like neodymium, while capturing carbon dioxide directly from the ocean—ultimately enabling industrial sectors to access sustainable sources of these vital materials while simultaneously removing gigatons of excess carbon dioxide from the Earth’s oceans. To learn more about BlueShift, please visit http://buildblueshift.com.
Media Contact: Janabeth Ward Scratch Marketing + Media for BlueShift blueshift@scratchmm.com
