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Category: Universities

  • MIL-Evening Report: Microsoft just claimed a quantum breakthrough. A quantum physicist explains what it means

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephan Rachel, Professor, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne

    Microsoft says the Majorana 1 processor is a ‘transformative leap toward practical quantum computing’. Microsoft

    Researchers at Microsoft have announced the creation of the first “topological qubits” in a device that stores information in an exotic state of matter, in what may be a significant breakthrough for quantum computing.

    At the same time, the researchers also published a paper in Nature and a “roadmap” for further work. The design of the Majorana 1 processor is supposed to fit up to a million qubits, which may be enough to realise many significant goals of quantum computing – such as cracking cryptographic codes and designing new drugs and materials faster.

    If Microsoft’s claims pan out, the company may have leapfrogged competitors such as IBM and Google, who currently appear to be leading the race to build a quantum computer.

    However, the peer-reviewed Nature paper only shows part of what the researchers have claimed, and the roadmap still includes many hurdles to be overcome. While the Microsoft press release shows off something that is supposed to be quantum computing hardware, we don’t have any independent confirmation of what it can do. Nevertheless, the news from Microsoft is very promising.

    By now you probably have some questions. What’s a topological qubit? What’s a qubit at all, for that matter? And why do people want quantum computers in the first place?

    Quantum bits are hard to build

    Quantum computers were first dreamed up in the 1980s. Where an ordinary computer stores information in bits, a quantum computer stores information in quantum bits – or qubits.

    An ordinary bit can have a value of 0 or 1, but a quantum bit (thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, which govern very small particles) can have a combination of both. If you imagine an ordinary bit as an arrow that can point either up or down, a qubit is an arrow that can point in any direction (or what is called a “superposition” of up and down).

    This means a quantum computer would be much faster than an ordinary computer for certain kinds of calculations – particularly some to do with unpicking codes and simulating natural systems.

    So far, so good. But it turns out that building real qubits and getting information in and out of them is extremely difficult, because interactions with the outside world can destroy the delicate quantum states inside.

    Researchers have tried a lot of different technologies to make qubits, using things like atoms trapped in electric fields or eddies of current swirling in superconductors.

    Tiny wires and exotic particles

    Microsoft has taken a very different approach to build its “topological qubits”. They have used what are called Majorana particles, first theorised in 1937 by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana.

    Majoranas are not naturally occurring particles like electrons or protons. Instead, they only exist inside a rare kind of material called a topological superconductor (which requires advanced material design and must be cooled down to extremely low temperatures).

    Indeed, Majorana particles are so exotic they are usually only studied in universities – not used in practical applications.

    The Microsoft team say they have used a pair of tiny wires, each with a Majorana particle trapped at either end, to act as a qubit. They measure the value of the qubit – expressed by means of whether an electron is in one wire or the other – using microwaves.

    Braided bits

    Why has Microsoft put in all this effort? Because by swapping the positions of Majorana particles (or measuring them in a certain way), they can be “braided” so they can be measured without error and are resistant to outside interference. (This is the “topological” part of “topological qubits”.)

    In theory, a quantum computer made using Majorana particles can be completely free of the qubit errors that plague other designs.

    This is why Microsoft has chosen such a seemingly laborious approach. Other technologies are more prone to errors, and hundreds of physical qubits may need to be combined together to produce a single reliable “logical qubit”.

    Microsoft has instead put its time and resources into developing Majorana-based qubits. While they are late to the big quantum party, they hope they will be able to catch up quickly.

    There’s always a catch

    As always, if something sounds too good to be true, there is a catch. Even for a Majorana-based quantum computer, such as the one announced by Microsoft, one operation – known as T-gate – won’t be achievable without errors.

    So the Majorana-based quantum chip is only “almost error-free”. However, correcting for T-gate errors is much simpler than the general error correction of other quantum platforms.

    Microsoft plans to scale up by grouping together more and more qubits.
    Microsoft

    What now? Microsoft will try to move ahead with its roadmap, steadily building larger and larger collections of qubits.

    The scientific community will closely watch how Microsoft’s quantum computing processors operate, and how they perform in comparison to the other already established quantum computing processors.

    At the same time, research into the exotic and obscure behaviour of Majorana particles will continue at universities around the globe.

    Stephan Rachel receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC).

    – ref. Microsoft just claimed a quantum breakthrough. A quantum physicist explains what it means – https://theconversation.com/microsoft-just-claimed-a-quantum-breakthrough-a-quantum-physicist-explains-what-it-means-250388

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: Chinese scientists achieve breakthrough in integrated photonic quantum chips

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    Chinese scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in integrated photonic quantum chips by demonstrating the first “continuous-variable” quantum multipartite entanglement and cluster states on the chip.
    The breakthrough addresses a critical gap in the development of photonic quantum chips and lays the foundation for scalable quantum entanglement, with potential applications in quantum computing and quantum networks.
    The research, led by scientists from Peking University and Shanxi University, was published in the latest issue of Nature.
    Integrated photonic quantum chips are advanced platforms designed to encode, process, transmit, and store quantum information at the chip level. However, achieving large-scale quantum entanglement of photonic qubits on these chips has long posed a significant challenge.
    One key difficulty has been the deterministic and scalable preparation of cluster states, which are crucial in quantum information science, particularly for photonic quantum chips, said Wang Jianwei, a professor at Peking University.
    By developing new technologies for coherent pumping, control, and measurement of continuous-variable cluster states, the team successfully prepared various cluster states in a deterministic and reconfigurable manner. The entanglement structures were rigorously validated through extensive experimental testing.
    “We have pioneered the development of a continuous-variable quantum chip, enabling the deterministic generation of cluster states directly on the chip,” Wang said. “Our work highlights the potential of these integrated devices for advancing quantum computing, networking and sensing.”
    “This achievement marks a breakthrough by Chinese scientists in the field of integrated photonic quantum chips,” said Gong Qihuang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
    This breakthrough opens a new pathway for the preparation and manipulation of large-scale quantum entangled states, which are critical for the development of quantum computing and quantum network technologies, Gong said.
    Earlier, the research team developed an ultra-large-scale photonic quantum chip that integrates about 2,500 components, providing a scalable and stable core for future quantum computers. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Households are burning plastic waste as fuel for cooking and heating in slums the world over

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bishal Bharadwaj, Adjunct Research Fellow, Curtin Institute for Energy Transition, Curtin University

    Poor people in vast city slums across the Global South are burning plastic to cook their food, warm their homes and boil water for hot showers.

    Waste plastic is plentiful and highly flammable. So it’s not surprising people in developing countries, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, are putting it to use – especially as wood is increasingly scarce.

    But burning plastic is hazardous, as it releases toxins into the surrounding air – and possibly into the food on the stove.

    We wanted to draw attention to this growing problem, which has received little attention to date despite the many potential harms.

    In our new “perspective” paper, published in Nature Cities, we explain why so many communities are using plastic as an energy source.

    We then explore further research needed and recommend ways for policymakers to tackle the issue.

    Mountains of plastic waste

    The world has produced more plastic in the past 20 years than the total previously produced since commercial production began in 1950. Roughly half a billion tonnes of plastic is now produced every year.

    Plastic production is still accelerating. Global plastic use is predicted to almost triple by 2060 due to soaring demand from a growing population with rising incomes.

    Unfortunately, most plastic is not recycled. Instead, it is discarded and ultimately ends up polluting marginal land such as flooded areas and open dumping grounds before making its way into the ocean.

    Burning plastic waste for cooking and heating is becoming increasingly common in city slums. a–f, Photographs showing the use of plastic to start a fire in Koshi Province in Nepal (a), a household heating milk by burning plastic in Madhesh province of Nepal (b) and the burning of plastic in Guwahati, India (c), in Enugu, Nigeria (d,e) and in the slums of Lahore, Pakistan (f). Credits for photographs: a, Srijana Baniya; b, Pramesh Dhungana; c, Monjit Borthakur; d,e, Chizoba Obianuju Oranu; f, Sobia Rose.
    Bharadwaj, B., Gates, T., Borthakur, M. et al. The use of plastic as a household fuel among the urban poor in the Global South. Nat Cities (2025).

    A product of energy poverty in city slums

    Increasing urbanisation is reducing access to traditional fuels such as wood and crop residue from farmland.

    But plastic is readily available. Low-income households with little or no access to gas or electricity often find themselves living alongside mountains of rubbish.

    This plastic, made from fossil fuels, represents a cheap and convenient fuel. It’s lightweight, easy to transport, and a nuisance material that people want to be rid of. Plastic is also relatively easy to dry and store, but can burn even when wet. It’s also flexible and pliable, so it can be used easily in traditional cooking arrangements such as basic stoves.

    Burning plastic releases toxins such as dioxins, furans and heavy metals into the air. These chemicals are known to cause cancer, heart disease and lung diseases.

    The more vulnerable people in the household – including women and children and those who spend more time indoors – tend to be most exposed to the fumes. But the problem also affects people in the neighbourhood and the wider community.

    Burning plastic is likely to also contaminate food. For example, eggs from farms near plastic waste incinerators in Indonesia contained hazardous chemicals from burned plastic. However, more evidence is needed around food contamination.

    Furthermore, when households burn plastic bottles and other containers, some of the original contents also burn. Given chemicals are poorly regulated, the consequences of burning plastic could be greater still.

    Overcoming the problem

    A first step to overcoming the problem is understanding the reality of those living in slums. Policy-makers need to recognise these people’s needs and the challenges they face.

    Extensive research is needed to design the most effective and inclusive policy interventions. This needs to be addressed if we are to reduce the associated health and environmental impacts on such large populations across the world.

    We have gathered a collaborative, multidisciplinary team of researchers from around 35 countries – mostly in the Global South – to better understand the problem. We recently completed a survey of people exposed to the issue such as local government employees, teachers and community workers in more than 100 cities in 26 countries.

    We are also examining the emissions from waste plastic during food preparation to determine the extent of contamination in variety of stoves.

    Nobody wants to burn plastic waste to cook food, so policies like ban on burning plastic with out contextual intervention will not work. There is a need to design inclusive policy interventions that provide equitable benefits to the wider community. For example, encouraging people to:

    • wash any plastic before it is burned, to remove chemical residues
    • use improved cookstoves that vent the fumes outside
    • expand basic urban amenities like waste management to low income settlements
    • provide support to help lift households out of poverty.

    Each approach will depend on the specific requirements of the slum settlement. But by implementing multiple approaches in parallel, we can tackle the problem more effectively.

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

    – ref. Households are burning plastic waste as fuel for cooking and heating in slums the world over – https://theconversation.com/households-are-burning-plastic-waste-as-fuel-for-cooking-and-heating-in-slums-the-world-over-250265

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Having an x-ray to diagnose knee arthritis might make you more likely to consider potentially unnecessary surgery

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Belinda Lawford, Senior Research Fellow in Physiotherapy, The University of Melbourne

    pikselstock/Shutterstock

    Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of chronic pain and disability, affecting more than two million Australians.

    Routine x-rays aren’t recommended to diagnose the condition. Instead, GPs can make a diagnosis based on symptoms and medical history.

    Yet nearly half of new patients with knee osteoarthritis who visit a GP in Australia are referred for imaging. Osteoarthritis imaging costs the health system A$104.7 million each year.

    Our new study shows using x-rays to diagnose knee osteoarthritis can affect how a person thinks about their knee pain – and can prompt them to consider potentially unnecessary knee replacement surgery.

    What happens when you get osteoarthritis?

    Osteoarthritis arises from joint changes and the joint working extra hard to repair itself. It affects the entire joint, including the bones, cartilage, ligaments and muscles.

    It is most common in older adults, people with a high body weight and those with a history of knee injury.

    Many people with knee osteoarthritis experience persistent pain and have difficulties with everyday activities such as walking and climbing stairs.

    How is it treated?

    In 2021–22, more than 53,000 Australians had knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis.

    Hospital services for osteoarthritis, primarily driven by joint replacement surgery, cost $3.7 billion in 2020–21.

    While joint replacement surgery is often viewed as inevitable for osteoarthritis, it should only be considered for those with severe symptoms who have already tried appropriate non-surgical treatments. Surgery carries the risk of serious adverse events, such as blood clot or infection, and not everyone makes a full recovery.

    Most people with knee osteoarthritis can manage it effectively with:

    • education and self-management
    • exercise and physical activity
    • weight management (if necessary)
    • medicines for pain relief (such as paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs).

    Debunking a common misconception

    A common misconception is that osteoarthritis is caused by “wear and tear”.

    However, research shows the extent of structural changes seen in a joint on an x-ray does not reflect the level of pain or disability a person experiences, nor does it predict how symptoms will change.

    Some people with minimal joint changes have very bad symptoms, while others with more joint changes have only mild symptoms. This is why routine x-rays aren’t recommended for diagnosing knee osteoarthritis or guiding treatment decisions.

    Instead, guidelines recommend a “clinical diagnosis” based on a person’s age (being 45 years or over) and symptoms: experiencing joint pain with activity and, in the morning, having no joint-stiffness or stiffness that lasts less than 30 minutes.

    Despite this, many health professionals in Australia continue to use x-rays to diagnose knee osteoarthritis. And many people with osteoarthritis still expect or want them.

    What did our study investigate?

    Our study aimed to find out if using x-rays to diagnose knee osteoarthritis affects a person’s beliefs about osteoarthritis management, compared to a getting a clinical diagnosis without x-rays.

    We recruited 617 people from across Australia and randomly assigned them to watch one of three videos. Each video showed a hypothetical consultation with a general practitioner about knee pain.

    People with knee osteoarthritis can have difficulties getting down stairs.
    beeboys/Shutterstock

    One group received a clinical diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis based on age and symptoms, without being sent for an x-ray.

    The other two groups had x-rays to determine their diagnosis (the doctor showed one group their x-ray images and not the other).

    After watching their assigned video, participants completed a survey about their beliefs about osteoarthritis management.

    What did we find?

    People who received an x-ray-based diagnosis and were shown their x-ray images had a 36% higher perceived need for knee replacement surgery than those who received a clinical diagnosis (without x-ray).

    They also believed exercise and physical activity could be more harmful to their joint, were more worried about their condition worsening, and were more fearful of movement.

    Interestingly, people were slightly more satisfied with an x-ray-based diagnosis than a clinical diagnosis.

    This may reflect the common misconception that osteoarthritis is caused by “wear and tear” and an assumption that the “damage” inside the joint needs to be seen to guide treatment.

    What does this mean for people with osteoarthritis?

    Our findings show why it’s important to avoid unnecessary x-rays when diagnosing knee osteoarthritis.

    While changing clinical practice can be challenging, reducing unnecessary x-rays could help ease patient anxiety, prevent unnecessary concern about joint damage, and reduce demand for costly and potentially unnecessary joint replacement surgery.

    It could also help reduce exposure to medical radiation and lower health-care costs.

    Previous research in osteoarthritis, as well as back and shoulder pain, similarly shows that when health professionals focus on joint “wear and tear” it can make patients more anxious about their condition and concerned about damaging their joints.

    If you have knee osteoarthritis, know that routine x-rays aren’t needed for diagnosis or to determine the best treatment for you. Getting an x-ray can make you more concerned and more open to surgery. But there are a range of non-surgical options that could reduce pain, improve mobility and are less invasive.

    Belinda Lawford receives funding from Arthritis Australia, Medical Research Future Fund and Medibank. She is a Steering Committee Member of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Rehabilitation Group, and also an Editorial Board member for Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy.

    Kim Bennell receives research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Futures Fund as well as Medibank Private. Some of the consumer resources recommended in this article have been developed by her research team. She consults for Wolters Kluwers UptoDate knee osteoarthritis clinical guidelines

    Rana Hinman receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund and Medibank. Some of the consumer resources recommended in this article have been developed by her research team. She is also an Editorial Board member for Journal of Physiotherapy.

    Travis Samuel William Haber is a Steering Committee Member of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Rehabilitation Group and of the Australian and New Zealand Musculoskeletal Clinical Trials Network Osteoarthritis Special Interest Group.

    – ref. Having an x-ray to diagnose knee arthritis might make you more likely to consider potentially unnecessary surgery – https://theconversation.com/having-an-x-ray-to-diagnose-knee-arthritis-might-make-you-more-likely-to-consider-potentially-unnecessary-surgery-249374

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Playing favourites, inconsistency or a fair decision? Unpacking Jannik Sinner’s doping case

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Nichol, Lecturer in Law, CQUniversity Australia

    The tennis world is still reeling after news the number one ranked men’s player, Jannik Sinner, agreed to a three-month suspension issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to be served between the Australian and French Opens.

    Sinner, a three-time Grand Slam winner, received the ban after twice testing positive for clostebol, a steroid banned by the World-Anti Doping Code, in March 2024.



    Read more:
    Tennis is facing an existential crisis over doping. How will it respond?

    The fallout

    “Unintentional doping offences” – as in Sinner’s case – can attract a maximum two-year ban even if the athlete shows no fault or negligence.

    Sinner’s three-month ban was immediately criticised by many in the media and within tennis circles due to its leniency and convenient timing. It also did not result from a hearing before an anti-doping tribunal or the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as has been the case with other tennis players who have received bans in the past.

    The suspension was the product of a “case resolution agreement” (a negotiated settlement) between WADA and Sinner.

    WADA initially appealed the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s decision not to suspend Sinner on the basis of demonstrating no significant fault or negligence, but withdrew its case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

    Sinner argued the banned substance entered his system after a massage by a physiotherapist in his entourage who had used a cream with clostebol to treat a cut on his finger.

    Both WADA and the International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted this version of events.

    In the eyes of most, WADA’s actions failed to pass the “pub test” and many high-profile tennis players voiced their concerns.

    Novak Djokovic flagged issues over the treatment of high-ranked athletes such as Sinner compared to lower-ranked players.

    For example, Chilean Nicolas Jarry was suspended for 11 months in 2020 after testing positive to ligandrol and stanozolol that he alleged were in a supplement he took.

    In 2023 Sweden’s Mikael Ymer was suspended for 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for failing to submit to three out-of-competition tests in a 12-month period.

    Great Britain’s Tara Moore took nearly two years to clear her name before an anti-doping tribunal in 2023 revealed contaminated meat had led to her positive tests for nandrolone and boldenone. Despite this decision, Moore served a 19-month ban.

    Djokovic’s view suggested favouritism for higher-ranked players, who can access top lawyers. He also criticised a lack of transparency in the Sinner agreement with WADA.

    However, high-ranked players such as Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova have received lengthy suspensions for doping violations.

    Nick Kyrgios was similarly critical, stating it was a sad day for the sport and that fairness in tennis did not exist.

    Former Spanish player Feliciano Lopez was among those who supported Sinner. He said he believed in clean sport and that Sinner had not enhanced his performance and took responsibility for the actions of his physiotherapist.

    Intentional and unintentional doping

    The criticisms appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the anti-doping provisions in the World Anti-Doping Code and the failure by WADA to clearly communicate its rationale for Sinner’s suspension.

    Rather than favouritism for a high-ranked player, WADA’s decision to suspend Sinner for three months was based on the distinction in the World Anti-Doping Code between intentional and unintentional doping. It found that Sinner:

    • had not intended to cheat using clostebol
    • received no performance-enhancing benefit from the substance
    • had no knowledge of the administration of the substance.

    But WADA argued that under the code, Sinner was responsible for the negligence of his entourage and issued the suspension.

    WADA confirmed its rationale for the three-month suspension after Spanish media pointed out that figure skater Laura Barquero had received a six-year ban for a positive test of clostebol.

    WADA differentiated the two cases based on intention. It was not convinced by Barquero’s explanation of how clostebol entered her system, while it said the evidence supported Sinner’s version of events.

    Lessons from the Sinner case

    So what can be learned from Sinner’s case?

    One of the most important legal issues arising from the Sinner case is the distinction in the anti-doping rules between intentional and unintentional doping.

    This distinction explains the difference in penalties between Sinner and other athletes.

    Also, the facts of a doping case are relevant in determining circumstances that may reduce the severity of a penalty in matters resolved by negotiated case resolution agreements.

    An important lesson for WADA is ensuring transparency in proceedings and the clear communication of the rationale used to arrive at a penalty.

    Finally, a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing may not have been needed for Sinner as the parties agreed on the facts leading to the doping rule violation.

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

    – ref. Playing favourites, inconsistency or a fair decision? Unpacking Jannik Sinner’s doping case – https://theconversation.com/playing-favourites-inconsistency-or-a-fair-decision-unpacking-jannik-sinners-doping-case-250143

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The ASIO threat assessment is a dark outlook for Australia’s security. Are our laws up to the task?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Kendall, Adjunct Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

    Shutterstock

    This week, ASIO chief Mike Burgess delivered his sixth Annual Threat Assessment.

    His approach this time was unprecedented. Instead of focusing on past and present threats, Burgess declassified parts of ASIO’s assessment for the future, warning us about Australia’s security outlook to 2030.

    Over the next five years, ASIO is expecting “an unprecedented number of challenges, and an unprecedented cumulative level of potential harm”, Burgess warned. At the same time, the threat environment will become more diverse.

    Espionage and foreign interference are already at extreme levels, but are anticipated to intensify. Sabotage is expected to pose an increasing threat. Politically motivated violence and communal violence will also remain an elevated concern.

    What does this mean for our criminal laws? Are they robust enough to protect us from the growing and diversifying threat of espionage, sabotage and foreign interference? Or will they need bolstering?

    What are the threats?

    Espionage, or spying, involves the theft of information. Burgess has warned that both our enemies and our friends will seek to steal information from us.

    This includes information about our military capabilities and alliances, such as AUKUS.

    Instead of using traditional spies to gather this information, Burgess expects greater use of proxies.

    These proxies could be unwittingly involved in the espionage efforts of a foreign country – such as private investigators. Or they could know exactly what they’re doing.

    Foreign interference involves covertly shaping decision-making to the advantage of a foreign power. Burgess has warned that foreign governments are monitoring, intimidating and coercing Australians and diaspora communities, including engaging in coerced repatriations.

    He also expects that foreign interference may be used to undermine community support for AUKUS.

    Concerningly, ASIO has disrupted plots by foreign countries to physically harm (or even kill) people living in Australia. This includes activists, journalists and ordinary citizens – all critics of certain foreign governments.

    Both espionage and foreign interference will be enabled by advances in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), deep fakes and large online pools of personal data.

    Sabotage involves deliberately destroying or damaging infrastructure.

    Russia has been engaging in diverse acts of sabotage in Europe, aiming to erode support for Ukraine and damage cohesion. These attacks include arson against various types of infrastructure (including defence and munitions facilities), jamming civil aviation GPS systems, and disrupting railways.

    While Burgess warned that the risk of similar attacks against Australia is increasing (including attacks against infrastructure arising out of AUKUS), cyber-enabled sabotage will be of more concern. At the moment, foreign governments are exploring and exploiting Australia’s critical infrastructure networks to map systems and maintain access in the future.

    As with espionage, Burgess expects criminal proxies to be used more frequently to engage in sabotage. This includes state-sponsored or state-supported terrorist groups.

    Are our laws ready to deal with this?

    With the espionage, sabotage and foreign interference threat growing and diversifying over the next five years, you’d be right to ask whether our criminal laws are robust enough to stand up to the challenge.

    For the most part, they are.

    All the laws apply to conduct that occurs “in the real world” and online. The laws also apply to any foreign country, including our friends, as well as terrorist organisations.

    In addition to foreign countries, the laws apply to conduct on behalf of a foreign country, including where the conduct is directed, funded or supervised by the foreign country or a person acting on its behalf. This means the laws would apply to proxies hired to engage in espionage or sabotage.

    Our sabotage laws are broad enough to cover the explorations of critical infrastructure networks currently being undertaken. An act of sabotage does not have to be committed to be an offence under these laws.

    Our foreign interference laws would cover coerced repatriations. While plots to harm Australians may also fall within these offences, a number of other offences also exist for harming or killing Australian citizens or residents.

    Room for improvement

    Our espionage, sabotage and foreign interference laws certainly are “world-leading”. However, there are some drawbacks.

    For example, the laws are yet to grapple with the rise of AI and its use to gather information for espionage or generate mis- or disinformation for foreign interference.

    While the laws have broad extraterritorial reach – they apply to conduct that occurs within or outside Australia – the practicalities of enforcing the laws when offenders are located overseas is a big barrier.

    But in today’s digital age where espionage, sabotage and foreign interference can be conducted online from the safety of a foreign country and therefore beyond the reach of Australia’s criminal law, we need more than a robust legal response.

    As Burgess stressed, these issues “require whole of government, whole of community, whole of society responses […] national security is truly national security: everybody’s business”.

    We all need to be aware of the risks and what we – as individuals, employees, researchers and business owners – can do to mitigate them.

    This article was written in Sarah Kendall’s personal capacity as an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. It does not reflect the views of the Queensland Law Reform Commission or the Queensland Government.

    – ref. The ASIO threat assessment is a dark outlook for Australia’s security. Are our laws up to the task? – https://theconversation.com/the-asio-threat-assessment-is-a-dark-outlook-for-australias-security-are-our-laws-up-to-the-task-250372

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Playing favourites, inconsistency or a fair decision? Unpacking Jannik Sinner’s doping case

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matt Nichol, Lecturer in Law, CQUniversity Australia

    The tennis world is still reeling after news the number one ranked men’s player, Jannik Sinner, agreed to a three-month suspension issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to be served between the Australian and French Opens.

    Sinner, a three-time Grand Slam winner, received the ban after twice testing positive for clostebol, a steroid banned by the World-Anti Doping Code, in March 2024.



    Read more:
    Tennis is facing an existential crisis over doping. How will it respond?

    The fallout

    “Unintentional doping offences” – as in Sinner’s case – can attract a maximum two-year ban even if the athlete shows no fault or negligence.

    Sinner’s three-month ban was immediately criticised by many in the media and within tennis circles due to its leniency and convenient timing. It also did not result from a hearing before an anti-doping tribunal or the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as has been the case with other tennis players who have received bans in the past.

    The suspension was the product of a “case resolution agreement” (a negotiated settlement) between WADA and Sinner.

    WADA initially appealed the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s decision not to suspend Sinner on the basis of demonstrating no significant fault or negligence, but withdrew its case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

    Sinner argued the banned substance entered his system after a massage by a physiotherapist in his entourage who had used a cream with clostebol to treat a cut on his finger.

    Both WADA and the International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted this version of events.

    In the eyes of most, WADA’s actions failed to pass the “pub test” and many high-profile tennis players voiced their concerns.

    Novak Djokovic flagged issues over the treatment of high-ranked athletes such as Sinner compared to lower-ranked players.

    For example, Chilean Nicolas Jarry was suspended for 11 months in 2020 after testing positive to ligandrol and stanozolol that he alleged were in a supplement he took.

    In 2023 Sweden’s Mikael Ymer was suspended for 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for failing to submit to three out-of-competition tests in a 12-month period.

    Great Britain’s Tara Moore took nearly two years to clear her name before an anti-doping tribunal in 2023 revealed contaminated meat had led to her positive tests for nandrolone and boldenone. Despite this decision, Moore served a 19-month ban.

    Djokovic’s view suggested favouritism for higher-ranked players, who can access top lawyers. He also criticised a lack of transparency in the Sinner agreement with WADA.

    However, high-ranked players such as Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova have received lengthy suspensions for doping violations.

    Nick Kyrgios was similarly critical, stating it was a sad day for the sport and that fairness in tennis did not exist.

    Former Spanish player Feliciano Lopez was among those who supported Sinner. He said he believed in clean sport and that Sinner had not enhanced his performance and took responsibility for the actions of his physiotherapist.

    Intentional and unintentional doping

    The criticisms appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the anti-doping provisions in the World Anti-Doping Code and the failure by WADA to clearly communicate its rationale for Sinner’s suspension.

    Rather than favouritism for a high-ranked player, WADA’s decision to suspend Sinner for three months was based on the distinction in the World Anti-Doping Code between intentional and unintentional doping. It found that Sinner:

    • had not intended to cheat using clostebol
    • received no performance-enhancing benefit from the substance
    • had no knowledge of the administration of the substance.

    But WADA argued that under the code, Sinner was responsible for the negligence of his entourage and issued the suspension.

    WADA confirmed its rationale for the three-month suspension after Spanish media pointed out that figure skater Laura Barquero had received a six-year ban for a positive test of clostebol.

    WADA differentiated the two cases based on intention. It was not convinced by Barquero’s explanation of how clostebol entered her system, while it said the evidence supported Sinner’s version of events.

    Lessons from the Sinner case

    So what can be learned from Sinner’s case?

    One of the most important legal issues arising from the Sinner case is the distinction in the anti-doping rules between intentional and unintentional doping.

    This distinction explains the difference in penalties between Sinner and other athletes.

    Also, the facts of a doping case are relevant in determining circumstances that may reduce the severity of a penalty in matters resolved by negotiated case resolution agreements.

    An important lesson for WADA is ensuring transparency in proceedings and the clear communication of the rationale used to arrive at a penalty.

    Finally, a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing may not have been needed for Sinner as the parties agreed on the facts leading to the doping rule violation.

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

    – ref. Playing favourites, inconsistency or a fair decision? Unpacking Jannik Sinner’s doping case – https://theconversation.com/playing-favourites-inconsistency-or-a-fair-decision-unpacking-jannik-sinners-doping-case-250143

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Building climate resilience into food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

    Source: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

    The world’s highest concentration of rural poverty occurs in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Bangladesh, India and Nepal – a region that is home to 450 million people.

    Livelihoods in this part of the world rely greatly on agriculture. Opportunities to work with smallholder farmers can lay the foundations for a more productive, sustainable and diversified agricultural economy. 

    Among the research-for-development professionals on the ground is a team working on the Rupantar project, an ACIAR-supported initiative led by Dr Tamara Jackson of the University of Adelaide.

    The Rupantar project operates at a whole-of-system level. It spans both social and farming practices and extends all the way through to policy settings, market opportunities and other agrifood system barriers holding smallholders back. It also builds on prior investments by ACIAR and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

    Included in this integrated approach are considerations for climate impacts.

    This concern saw 15 team members from the Rupantar project visit the University of Adelaide and regional South Australia and Victoria in October 2024. Funded as part of a DFAT Australia Awards Fellowship program, the study tour focused on climate resilience and adaptation.

    The Rupantar project

    ‘Rupantar’ has a common meaning in Bangla, Hindi and Nepali. It means change on a level so profound that it is transformative. Launched in 2021, the Rupantar project is identifying opportunities for inclusive and diversified food production innovation. 

    Given the partnership model typical of ACIAR projects, these opportunities need to be priorities for local communities. They also need to be sustainable and to fit with longer-term climate, nutrition and available water resource projections. 

    Achieving this level of integration requires working on multiple levels at the same time. There is ground-up innovation – from personal to organisational. Then there are high-level policies that work down and can make important change on the ground.

    Our hypothesis is that an integrated approach to livelihood change – coupled with inclusive and collaborative approaches – will result in more effective and sustainable development pathways.

    Dr Tamara Jackson, 
    University of Adelaide

    ‘So, our goal is to understand the processes and practices needed to diversify food production in ways that improve farm livelihoods and reduce inequity, production risk and unsustainable resource use.’

    The on-the-ground work with smallholders is implemented at sites in West Bengal (India), Rangpur (Bangladesh) and Koshi Province (Nepal). Implementation involves actioning ‘diversification pathways’ that were co-developed collaboratively with local partners. 

    Diversification pathways

    The aim of these pathways is twofold. The first is to test diversification options and select the most appropriate crop and livestock options that are priorities for local communities. These are then implemented within existing networks and are aligned with institutional settings.

    The second aim is to monitor the changes associated with the pathways, including long-term sustainability. 

    The project is also mindful that diversification can look very different to different members within households and can include off-farm income from seasonal male migration and greater reliance on women household members.

    In all, three types of diversified systems are being explored:

      •  plant-based production, including crops and horticulture
      •  livestock-based, including chickens, goats and dairy that are especially important to women’s income
      •  irrigation-constrained systems.

    ‘The project is working on strengthening what already works about a farming system in the Eastern Gangetic Plain and building on innovations from prior projects, such as ACIAR’s introduction of conservation agriculture cropping practices,’ said Dr Jackson.

    Long-running ACIAR initiatives in the Eastern Gangetic Plains worked with smallholder farmers across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal to introduce sustainable practices and innovations to intensify production.

    The project team has spent the first 2 years on the ground running baseline surveys and mapping villages to better understand the system. 

    Implementation started in 2023 once it became clear what would work best in different settings. The visit to Australia in 2024 provided project partners with opportunities to observe what diversified and climate-resilient Australian farms look like.

    Participants included Rupantar project partners from provincial government, cooperatives, farmer producer companies, NGOs, local university partners and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. 

    Climate-smart innovation

    Dr Jay Cummins from International Agriculture for Development hosted the study tour group and developed the course that focused on addressing the climate realities in collaboration with the Rupantar project.

    The 20-day study tour was entitled ‘Supporting climate-smart, resilient food production networks in the Indo-Gangetic Plains’. 

    Key experts shared their experiences responding to climate change and on-farm visits examined how Australian agriculture builds climate resilience into its practices in different environmental and socioeconomic settings. 

    ‘Included were visits to more rainfed, dryland cropping systems in the Mallee and, in addition, to irrigated production systems in the Murray–Darling Basin,’ said Dr Cummins. 

    The Australia Awards program provided a valuable mechanism to connect the participants with a whole range of Australian organisations and professionals, which in turn will help build international networks and collaboration.

    Dr Jay Cummins 
    International Agriculture for Development 

    In the Eastern Gangetic Plain, food production can be heavily focused on wet season rice crops. In Australia, the visitors were able to explore dry season opportunities for diversified production of crops and livestock, including in mixed farming systems. They saw how Australian farmers manage risks around water scarcity and drought. At South Australian Riverland sites, discussions included irrigation and water management that present different diversification options.

    Participant perspectives

    Loxton farmer Brycen Rudiger (left)discusses the challenges of growing wheat in the Mallee region with Nepali participant Gautam Bhupal (right).

    Among the participants were Dr Deepa Roy from India, Ms Bimala Pokhrel from Nepal and Dr Mamunur Rashid from Bangladesh. 

    Dr Roy is an agricultural extension expert based at Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, India. She told ACIAR that smallholder farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains face numerous challenges that can lock them into poverty.

    These range from small and fragmented landholdings that make mechanisation difficult, to a lack of agronomic knowledge, limited agricultural support services, limited market access, financial constraints and climatic hazards.

    ‘Through the course several key insights and learnings emerged that may help our farmers in understanding and adopting climate resilient technologies,’ said Dr Roy.

    Key insights for participants included:

      •  assessing the carbon footprint of farming and taking action to reduce it
      •  introducing efficient soil moisture management strategies such as mulching
      •  adopting agronomic practices such as crop rotations and climate-resilient crops 
      •  building soil fertility
      •  advocating for improved climate forecasting
      •  adopting grower-led research and extension
      •  developing digital tools to monitor the adoption of innovation
      •  providing financial management training to smallholder farmers
      •  using podcasts and radio to provide farm advisory services. 

    Overall, Dr Roy said that the course equipped attendees with a holistic understanding of climate-smart practices. ‘It helped us not only to strengthen technical knowledge but also to develop critical soft skill and a deeper understanding of sustainable climate resilient farming.’

    It’s a point of view shared by Ms Pokhrel, who works with the Ministry of Industry Agriculture and Cooperatives in Koshi Province, Nepal. She said the course enriched efforts to both help farmers and policymakers with future planning. And it worked by enhancing both her professional and personal capacity.

    ‘What stood out was the extent that Australian farmers have already adopted technology to mitigate against climate change,’ said Ms Pokhrel. ‘This was particularly stark when it came to soil health and sustainable soil management practices. One of the key learnings is that we can tailor these practices for our context in the Koshi Province and, in that way, improve crop productivity by improving soil health.’

    Mr Rashid agreed. He is a research fellow at Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He noted that while ACIAR is helping to introduce conservation agriculture to Bangladesh, South Australian farmers have already adopted these soil and soil-moisture conserving practices. 

    They are also growing more legume crops for soil health and fertiliser benefits, adopting risk-aversion strategies amid climate variability, and introducing carbon farming to adapt to climate change.

    Improved water management

    Both Ms Pokhrel and Mr Rashid were especially impressed by Australian water management systems in drought-prone landscapes. They think these kinds of Australian practices have a role to play at the project sites.

    While the cost and expertise required to adopt and maintain technologies such as drip irrigation systems used in Australia may be beyond the capacity of many smallholder farmers, the study tour has already inspired a new water conservation pilot project.

    The Bangladesh team will launch ‘Conserving soil moisture through mulching technique in chili farming’ in the Rupantar project areas, focusing on farmers in northern Bangladesh, who experience frequent floods and droughts.

    The Rupantar project delegation on tour in the northern Mallee of South Australia.

    ‘This initiative aims to use soil moisture and reduce irrigation in chilli farming, aided by Chameleon soil water sensors that can support decision-making for the farmers of the Rupantar project,’ said Mr Rashid.

    Ms Pokhrel was greatly impressed by the grower-centric research, development and extension infrastructure built around farmers’ needs in Australia. For her, this was typified by organisations such as the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Almond Board.

    She thinks there are opportunities to ‘sensitise’ the different boards in Nepal to this approach. 

    Surprises for the project partners included the large size of farms given the small number of people working in agriculture. 

    What also surprised us is the rate of technology adoption by farmers, along with their dedication and the satisfaction they receive from the agricultural profession.

    Ms Bimala Pokhrel
    Nepal 

    ‘Mallee Sustainable Farming System was impressive and working with farmers groups and developing the communication material in local languages are the things that we can develop for our smallholder farmers too.’

    Finally, they praised the networking opportunities provided by the course, including with farmers, and opportunities to understand the people, country and culture. 

    ACIAR Project WAC/2020/148: ‘Transforming smallholder food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plain’

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: With Whyalla steelworks forced into administration, Australia has crucial decisions to make on the future of its steel industry

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoffrey Brooks, Professor of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology

    Alex Cimbal/Shutterstock

    Whyalla is a proud steel town. The steelworks physically dominates the townscape, and most jobs in the town are either directly at the steelworks or heavily reliant on it.

    In recent months, however, the steelworks have lurched from one setback to another, from serious technical problems that forced shutdowns to rising debts owed to suppliers and the state government.

    On Wednesday, the South Australian government forced Whyalla steelworks into administration. To do so, it quickly passed amendments to the Whyalla Steelworks Act. Current owner GFG Alliance will no longer operate the site.

    For me, someone intimately involved in the steel industry, the news that the steelworks has been put into administration is not a shock. This has been coming for some time.

    On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a A$2.4 billion rescue package.

    A portion of this money will be used to address immediate debt issues and keep the plant afloat. But $1.9 billion has been earmarked for major, long-term infrastructure upgrades under a new owner.

    The next steps will be crucial if this vital component of Australia’s manufacturing infrastructure – and heart of the town of Whyalla – is to survive.

    How we got here

    Whyalla’s steelworks was founded by BHP and opened in 1941, originally concentrating on ship building. It later transitioned to producing structural and rail products during the 1970s and ‘80s.

    After the steel division was spun out of BHP in 2000, the steelworks operated under the OneSteel banner, which was renamed Arrium in 2012.

    The plant has been in decline for a couple of decades. Its products have had difficulty competing against overseas imports and there have been issues with the scale of production and costs.

    GFG Alliance took over Whyalla’s struggling steelworks in 2017, to great fanfare and optimism.

    GFG is led by Indian-born British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, who owns steel plants across the world. Until recently, he was a relatively unknown figure in the steel industry, but rapidly built up a steel empire after buying his first major steel plant in the UK in 2013.

    Gupta’s business practices have recently drawn close scrutiny from regulators in the UK, particularly the financing arrangements for several of his businesses. GFG’s largest lender, Greensill Capital, collapsed in 2021.

    A failure to turn things around

    Upon purchasing the plant in 2017, GFG promised to invest in upgrading the equipment and move the steelworks towards “green” steel production.

    But these investments never materialised, and the operations have continued to lose money. There have also been significant operational issues over the past year, resulting in months of no production.

    These challenges have been compounded by what appears to be poor management of key equipment in the plant, particularly the blast furnace.

    The steelworks has been beset by technical issues over the past year.
    Adwo/Shutterstock

    Keeping blast furnaces running smoothly is one most important technical issues facing any steelmaker.

    A string of recent breakdowns, resulting in major production shutdowns in 2024, does not reflect well on GFG.

    On Wednesday, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said the state government had been forced to step in, given debts of more than $300 million owed by GFG and reports workers weren’t being paid.

    Still a valuable asset

    The town of Whyalla will be watching the outcome of the state and federal governments’ rescue plan with bated breath. If it’s not to be GFG, who should be trusted with taking over and running the steelworks?

    In such times, it is worth pointing out some of the key advantages of the plant that could make it an attractive asset to prospective owners.

    Whyalla has good port facilities, a major iron ore deposit (Middleback Range) nearby, and abundant renewable energy.

    It also has an experienced and trained workforce, with established product lines that are in demand (particularly rail steel).

    Bluescope has been touted as one potential new owner. But there is also likely to be foreign interest, given the potential for linking steel production to renewable energy in Whyalla.

    Taking Whyalla into the future

    The current scale of the Whyalla steelworks, about 1.2 million tonnes of raw steel per year, is simply too small to be competitive. It is operating in a market where plants producing more than 3 million tonnes per year are common.

    The plant’s product range could be broadened and raised in value by investing in key steelmaking equipment.

    The general shift towards green production routes also presents opportunities for Whyalla. The local abundance of solar energy is likely to be a significant advantage for the plant’s future.

    However, converting from the plant from its current coal-based technology to non-coal based technology (such as hydrogen ironmaking) will take significant investment and technical skill.

    Whyalla is close to iron ore deposits in the Middleback Range.
    Adwo/Shutterstock

    Opportunities for Australia

    Could Australia simply let the steelworks shut down and import its rail steel instead?

    That would draw parallels with Australia’s car manufacturing sector, which the government ultimately allowed to collapse. But I believe this position is unlikely to attract much support.

    For one, there would be an enormous human cost to the people of Whyalla. The town of 20,000 people would be economically devastated by the plant’s closure.

    There’s also a fear such a move would further weaken Australia’s ability to generate long-term wealth. Historically, the steel industry has been an important generator of long-term jobs and national wealth.

    And it would certainly be demoralising for our manufacturing sector. Australia has plentiful ore, energy and a huge railway network. We should be able to run a sustainable steel plant specialising in rail and structural steel.

    All these challenges need investment and strong technical leadership. The decisions taken by the state and federal government in the next few months will be vital for Whyalla’s future.

    Geoffrey Brooks receives funding from the HILT CRC, ARC Steel Innovation Hub and Victorian Hydrogen Hub for fundamental research into steelmaking. The Liberty GFG company and other steel companies financially invest into these research bodies and directly support some of his steelmaking research. He is also the Chairman of the Association of Iron and Steel Technology Australian and New Zealand Chapter. This organisation organises conferences and seminars on steelmaking topics. His activity in this Chapter is on a voluntary basis.

    – ref. With Whyalla steelworks forced into administration, Australia has crucial decisions to make on the future of its steel industry – https://theconversation.com/with-whyalla-steelworks-forced-into-administration-australia-has-crucial-decisions-to-make-on-the-future-of-its-steel-industry-250317

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Two in five scientists in our survey reported harassment and intimidation. Often, the perpetrators are inside the institution

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hales, Director, Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith University

    Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

    The goal of science is to uncover truths and create new knowledge. But this is not always welcome. Increasingly, scientific findings are being attacked or downplayed. And scientists themselves face intimidation or harassment.

    In our global study of more than 2,000 scientists across six areas of science, two-fifths (41%) of respondents had, as a result of their work, been harassed or intimidated at least once over a five-year period.

    Intimidation efforts included online abuse, physical threats, and threats to budgets or employment. Harassment, while personal, could be meted out by superiors, colleagues or outsiders. Some scientists felt their leaders had thrown them under the bus to protect the institution’s reputation.

    Who’s doing the intimidation? Strikingly, a majority of cases of intimidation and harassment actually came from inside the institution for most fields. That is, it was perpetrated by senior colleagues or managers. But for climate scientists, most intimidation efforts came from outside.

    Intimidation of scientists doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In recent years, there has been a rise in populist leaders who pour scorn on “elites” and evidence. Scientific issues are increasingly politicised. Disinformation is rampant. This atmosphere adds to the pressure faced by scientists, especially those working in politically sensitive areas such as climate science or COVID.

    Harassment and intimidation can silence or isolate scientists.
    Hayk_Shalunts/Shutterstock

    What did we find?

    We used an online database of scientists to find and contact experts publishing in six fields: climate science, medical health, humanities and social science, food and plant science, astronomy, and other STEM areas.

    More than 2,000 responded to our survey on whether they had experienced various types of intimidation or harassment. We asked respondents for more detail on the perpetrators, what triggered the incident, and what effect it had on them.

    Many respondents had a clear view as to what the intimidation or harassment was meant to do. The motivations of perpetrators varied greatly. But the most common reasons were to damage their reputation, to stop them from publishing certain types of research, or to “put me in my place”.

    Specific fields of science were more prone to harassment and intimidation – in particular climate science, and humanities and social science.

    Among those scientists who had been intimidated, climate scientists reported online abuse three times more often than astronomers. Climate science is politically charged, because climate change is clearly linked to pollution from some of the world’s largest industries – oil, gas and coal. Astronomy is not. Half of the climate scientist respondents experiencing intimidation saw the bad behaviour as a way to discourage them from undertaking specific research and speaking about it.

    Researchers from humanities and social sciences faced similar levels of online abuse to climate scientists.

    When it came to personal harassment, there was a clear gender dimension. Among those who reported experiencing harassment, female scientists were more than four times more likely to report “unwelcome or inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature” than their male counterparts. Women were affected almost twice as much as men by non-sexual forms of personal harassment.

    Our findings follow earlier research finding similar rates of intimidation. For instance, a 2021 survey of 321 scientists working on COVID-19 found 15% had received death threats and 22% received threats of sexual violence.

    Intimidation and harassment are damaging

    The consequences of intimidation are profound and far-reaching. Many scientists told us the experience had caused lasting damage, whether to wellbeing, career prospects or research activities.

    More than 40% of those affected said their career prospects had worsened following incidents of harassment. Just over a third (34%) reported a decline in their desire to work in science. Scientists who experienced intimidation often cut back their collaboration with colleagues (35%), leaving them more isolated.

    Many of our respondents described flow-on effects such as decreased access to funding (35% of respondents) and less public communication from their institution about their work (23%).

    Scientists targeted with multiple types of harassment reported very damaging effects, from difficulty finding their next job to poor mental health.

    Intimidation slows progress

    Intimidation and harassment have a chilling effect on science. This, in turn, could hinder progress on crucial issues such as climate change, public health and technological advancements.

    The disproportionate impact on women and researchers in politically sensitive fields threatens to undermine diversity and inclusivity in science.

    Without targeted interventions, women in science may continue to suffer disproportionate levels of harassment and intimidation. This will have long-term implications for gender diversity in scientific leadership and the direction of research in various fields.

    In the United States, the Trump administration’s withdrawals from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization are likely to further embolden anti-science movements. Many American scientific institutions are engaged in anticipatory obedience of the Trump administration’s demands that diversity and anti-discrimination programs be abolished, or climate change stop being mentioned. Many even go beyond what is explicitly sought.

    Female scientists are targeted in different ways.
    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    What can be done?

    Science and academia is often seen as a bastion of free inquiry and open discussion. One of our most surprising findings was how common intimidation was within scientific institutions.

    The key to beating intimidation is organisational support and clear strategies, not obedience. These include:

    • genuine commitment to institutional policies protecting scientists from both internal and external intimidation

    • formal, well-resourced support systems for researchers facing harassment or pressure (not the HR office)

    • programs to increase public understanding of the scientific process to build trust and resilience to misinformation

    • boosting international collaboration between scientists and policymakers to ensure resilience against country-specific efforts to undermine science

    • educating the public on the importance of scientific independence and of fostering respectful dialogue around contentious topics.

    As populist movements gain traction in many countries, scientists working on controversial issues will face heightened scrutiny – and potentially more intimidation.

    Climate science is likely to remain a particularly contested field. As the damage wrought by climate change becomes more and more apparent, it will get even more contentious.

    Over the last few centuries, science has produced breakthroughs in many areas. But the integrity of science is not guaranteed. Harassment and intimidation from both inside and outside institutions has a very real effect on scientists.

    The future of evidence-based decision-making and ability to tackle global challenges depends on fostering an environment where scientists can work free from fear and undue pressure.

    Robert Hale receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    David Peetz undertook research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics, employers and unions. He has been and is involved in several Australian Research Council-funded projects, including this one.

    Ian Lowe was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2004 to 2014.

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

    – ref. Two in five scientists in our survey reported harassment and intimidation. Often, the perpetrators are inside the institution – https://theconversation.com/two-in-five-scientists-in-our-survey-reported-harassment-and-intimidation-often-the-perpetrators-are-inside-the-institution-248013

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ has long suffered from low productivity. A simple fix is keeping workers happy

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dougal Sutherland, Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    bbernard/Shutterstock

    The low-productivity bogeyman has long haunted New Zealand, with people working longer hours for lower output than other comparable countries. The country is now one of the least productive in the OECD.

    At its most basic level, productivity measures how much output can be produced with a set of inputs. The inputs can be the work of staff, as well as technical innovation, research and development and automation to encourage more efficient processes.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has committed to resolving this persistent productivity crisis with science sector reforms and overseas investment.

    But after decades of lagging behind the rest of the world, a growing body of research shows the answer could lie in greater support for workers’ mental health.

    Linking productivity and mental health

    For many, increasing productivity equates to people working “harder” for longer hours – the implication being that if only we “pulled finger” and “knuckled down” the country’s productivity would magically increase.

    Instead, could the answer to our productivity crisis be in improving the psychological functioning and mental health of our workforce?

    There is a substantial body of evidence showing poor mental health is related to poor productivity. Recent New Zealand data show workers with the poorest mental health lost more than three times the number of productive workdays annually (71 days) than those with the highest mental health (19 days).

    Poor mental health can take a toll in the form of time away from work (absenteeism), loss of focus, and emotional exhaustion (presenteeism).

    Conversely, measures taken by employers to improve the mental health of workers show a strong positive relationship with increased productivity.

    Data from more than 1,600 publicly listed companies in the United States found employee wellbeing predicts higher company valuations, return on assets, gross profits and stock market performance.

    Of those interventions used to improve mental health and productivity at work, the most promising appear to target leadership capability, health screening and psycho-socially healthy working environments.

    One of the more notable initiatives happened in our own backyard. Andrew Barnes from Perpetual Guardian has been a vocal proponent of four-day work week.

    This doesn’t mean packing a 40-hour week into four days instead of five. Rather, its central tenet is reducing the working week (usually to 32 hours), keeping workers’ salaries at 100%, and continuing productivity at 100% (at least) of its existing level.

    Results from a pilot with 61 companies in the United Kingdom show an average increase of 36% per annum in revenue for participating businesses, with over 90% of UK businesses that have trialled the programme choosing to continue with it.

    Similarly positive results came from a widespread trial of a shorter working week (at full pay) in Iceland, involving 1% of the working population, including office workers, teachers, and healthcare workers.

    The four-day work week trial in Iceland has been heralded as a success.
    Canadastock/Shutterstock

    More than a ‘nice-to-have’

    But despite the need to improve productivity and the growing business case for improving employee wellbeing, demand for organisational mental health services has dipped.

    Anecdotally, organisations involved in supporting the mental health of New Zealand workplaces have reported a decrease in demand, with many businesses and government agencies citing budget constraints as a major barrier to investing in this area.

    This is likely a sign of the economic times, with more than three-quarters of New Zealand business leaders citing economic uncertainty as a key threat to their organisation in 2025.

    To some, providing psychological support to workplaces may appear frivolous at worst, and a “nice-to-have” at best. Understanding the mechanisms by which these interventions can boost productivity may help dispel these doubts.

    If we consider some of the core symptoms of poor mental health at work – namely exhaustion, reduced focus and greater sickness absence – it’s easy to see how improving workers’ mental health can improve the productivity of a business.

    Maintaining workers

    The idea of sustainable labour practices isn’t new or radical, nor is it just another attempt to load businesses with extra responsibility for worker mental health.

    It is a way to enable people to work more efficiently in the time they have, and to keep them in their jobs for longer. In turn, this improves overall company performance and, crucially, improves population health.

    For many businesses, people are their biggest asset. Ensuring your biggest asset is functioning well is as essential to enhancing productivity as regular maintenance and capital expenditure on physical machinery and buildings.

    Like any business strategy worth its while, it’s not always easy. But there is too much at stake not to get it right.

    Dougal Sutherland is an Honorary Teaching Fellow at Te Herenga Waka. He is also Principal Psychologist at Umbrella Wellbeing.

    Dr Amanda Wallis from Umbrella Wellbeing contributed to this article

    – ref. NZ has long suffered from low productivity. A simple fix is keeping workers happy – https://theconversation.com/nz-has-long-suffered-from-low-productivity-a-simple-fix-is-keeping-workers-happy-248752

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Five best articles in Russian for 19.02.2025

    MIL Analysis: Here are the top five Russian language articles published today. The analysis includes five key articles currently prioritized.

    The economy is productive. The Moscow Exchange is providing its new records of profitability and opportunities for investors and traders to expand.

    Education is evolving, with an increasing trend toward humanitarization. Peter the Great University in St. Petersburg strengthens the psychological health of students, staff and parents.

    At Novosibirsk University you can see the exhibition “Life as a Vocation” dedicated to the work of Varlen Lvovich Soskin on February 26 at 11:50.

    You can read one of the articles below.

    1. Financial news: Moscow Exchange launched a full-featured version of the Algopack analytical service.

    Moscow Exchange has expanded opportunities for investors and traders by launching a full-featured version of the analytical service “Algopack”. All users of the service now have access to a graphical interface for presenting data on all stocks and futures traded on the Moscow Exchange.

    2. Financial news: The Moscow Exchange Full Yield Index updated its historical maximum.

    The Moscow Exchange Total Return Index set a historical record, at the close of trading on February 17, 2025, its value was 8,199.68 points. This is the maximum index value since the start of calculation in January 2004. The previous maximum was recorded on October 20, 2021 at 8,125.76 points.

    3. Do you want to talk about it? Polytechnic’s psychologists help you cope with stress.

    Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    “All diseases come from nerves,” people say, and for good reason. Constant stress is not harmless at all, and sometimes we do not even realize what serious consequences can result from worrying about personal troubles or events in the world, anxiety and worry, fear of failure and hyper-responsibility, and other similar things. In order to preserve mental health and performance, it is better to seek help from a specialist in a timely manner.

    4. Dmitry Chernyshenko, Sergey Kravtsov, Valery Falkov and Grigory Gurov, Head of Rosmolodezh, commented on the results of the stratsession on the development of education.

    Dmitry Chernyshenko took part in the stratsession on education development.

    Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, Head of Rosmolodezh Grigory Gurov and Head of Rosobrnadzor Anzor Muzayev took part in the strategic session chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

    5. The exhibition “Life as a Vocation” will open at NSU.

    Novosibirsk State University -.

    On February 26 at 11:50 a.m., the NSU History Museum will open the exhibition “Life as a Vocation” dedicated to the activities of Varlen Lvovich Soskin. The exhibition is part of a series of events timed to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Varlen Lvovich Soskin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Honorary Professor of NSU, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, founder of the scientific school of modern Siberian science and cultural studies, veteran of the Great Patriotic War.

    Learn more about MIL’s content and data services by visiting milnz.co.nz.

    Regards MIL!

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: President Trump Announces Appointments to the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs

    US Senate News:

    Source: The White House
    class=”has-text-align-left”>Alex Meyer will join the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Meyer previously served as the Deputy Political Director for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign directly managing President Trump’s victorious operations in the battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Meyer in the 2024 Presidential Primary served as the Senior Advisor for President Trump’s Iowa Caucus Campaign. Meyer brings over a decade of successful campaign experience up and down the ballot. Jared Borg will join the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for State Governments. Jared is a campaign veteran of both President Trump’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns. He has also been a part of several high-profile national races throughout his career. Borg is a graduate of The Ohio State University and is a United States Navy Veteran. Christine Serrano Glassner will join the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for Local and Tribal Governments. Prior to joining the White House, she served as Mayor of the Borough of Mendham, New Jersey for the last six years and on Council for two years. Connor Reardon will join the White House as Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to this role, Reardon served as Pennsylvania State Director for the Republican National Committee and, most recently, as Pennsylvania Director of Operations for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign. Chase Wilson will join the White House as Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Wilson served as State Director of Oklahoma during the 2024 Presidential Primary and then Deputy State Director in North Carolina for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign. Michael Silvio will join the White House as Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Most recently, Michael served as the Nevada State Director for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign. Prior to that, Michael served as Political Director for Trump-endorsed Daniel Cameron for Governor (KY). Sam Martinez will join the White House as Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Martinez served as Pennsylvania Deputy State Director for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign. Hope Moreland will join the White House as Deputy Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Moreland served as Iowa Political Coordinator and Fulton County Field Director for the Trump-Vance 2024 Campaign. Finley Varughese will join the White House as Coordinator in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, he served as Programming & Political Manager and Regional Political Coordinator at the Republican National Committee. Elizabeth McAlindon will join the White House as Staff Assistant in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, McAlindon served as Assistant to the Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (TN). 
    About the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs:The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) reports to Assistant to the President and White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. The Office is managed by Deputy Assistant to the President and IGA Director Alex Meyer. The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs serves as the Administration’s principal liaison to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, fostering an open channel for advancing key administration priorities and interagency coordination.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: CDC layoffs strike deeply at its ability to respond to the current flu, norovirus and measles outbreaks and other public health emergencies

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jordan Miller, Teaching Professor of Public Health, Arizona State University

    The CDC played an instrumental, if imperfect, role in the response to COVID-19. JHDT Stock Images LLC/iStock via Getty Images

    In just a few short weeks, the Trump administration has brought drastic changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health. Beginning with the removal of websites and key public health datasets in January 2025, the Trump administration has taken actions to dismantle established public health infrastructure as part of its second-term agenda.

    In addition, the administration has begun a widespread purge of the federal public health workforce. As of Feb. 19, around 5,200 employees at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health had been let go. About 10% of the CDC’s staff have been removed, with plans for additional firings.

    As a teaching professor and public health educator, I, like thousands of other health professionals, rely on CDC data and educational resources throughout my work. CDC websites are the first stop for health information for my students and for health care practitioners, and are vital to protecting the U.S. from infectious diseases, like avian flu and COVID-19, as well as noninfectious health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

    Here’s a quick look at what the CDC does to protect Americans’ health, and how it’s likely to be affected by the Trump administration’s actions:

    Gutting the CDC’s capacity

    Prior to the February cuts, the CDC employed over 10,000 full-time staff in roles spanning public health, epidemiology, medicine, communications, engineering and beyond to maintain this critical public health infrastructure.

    In addition to the centers’ wide variety of functions to protect and promote public health in the U.S., a vast amount of research in the U.S. relies on CDC data. The CDC obtains data from all 50 states, territories and the District of Columbia, which is collated into widely utilized databases such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Health Interview Survey and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

    Several of these datasets and CDC websites were removed at the start of the second Trump term, and while they are currently back online due to a federal court order, it remains to be seen if these important sources of information will remain accessible and updated going forward.

    The CDC also publishes the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which allows for ongoing and timely surveillance of key health conditions. The reports cover a wide range of topics, including wildfires, motor vehicle accidents, autism, asthma, opioids, mental health and many others. The CDC plays a central role in monitoring and reporting the spread of flu in winter months through its FluView, which informs clinical practice as well as public health interventions.

    Physicians are reporting that their ability to respond to the surges in respiratory viruses they are seeing has been hobbled by the missing data and by prohibitions on CDC staff communicating outside the agency.

    The CDC’s famed “disease detectives,” part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, appear to have been spared following public outcry after more than half of its members were initially told they would be let go as part of the Feb. 14 mass layoffs.

    It remains to be seen if this group will remain intact long term. Concerns are growing that shakeups to the nation’s infectious disease surveillance teams will hamper the government’s ability to respond effectively at a time when avian flu and measles are growing concerns in the U.S.

    The CDC’s headquarters are in Atlanta.
    Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    History of the CDC

    The CDC began as a small branch of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1946 as an outgrowth of successes fighting malaria in southern states during World War II and before. Its founder, Dr. Joseph W. Mountin, envisioned that it would come to serve all states, addressing all communicable diseases. Since that time, the CDC has evolved into the nation’s premier public health organization, leveraging both clinical and population health sciences to prevent and mitigate challenges to the nation’s health.

    In its first 40 years, the CDC helped eradicate smallpox and identify the causes of Legionnaires’ disease, toxic shock syndrome and HIV.

    As the country’s primary health challenges have shifted from communicable diseases to noncommunicable ones over recent decades, the organization has adapted, expanding its reach and priorities to meet changing public health needs. The CDC also has the ability to flex and scale up efforts rapidly when needed to respond to novel outbreaks, which is essential for containing infectious diseases and preventing escalation.

    CDC’s global reach

    Recognizing that health does not exist in a vacuum, the CDC also operates internationally to mitigate health challenges that could threaten health in the U.S. over time. The agency is active in addressing diseases that are endemic in certain areas, such as tuberculosis and HIV. It also responds to outbreaks from emerging threats, like Ebola and Marburg virus disease.

    The CDC played a crucial role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinating with the World Health Organization, domestic health agencies and others to plan and execute a robust response.

    In 2024, the CDC worked with the WHO to respond to a Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda that lasted for several months. On average, about half of people infected with Marburg virus do not survive, so early detection and effective response are essential to prevent loss of life and contain outbreaks before they spread widely.

    On Jan. 20, 2025, the White House announced President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw from the WHO. This move further weakens the country’s ability to manage and mitigate threats to Americans’ health and national security.

    Not only does the WHO do essential work to protect children around the world from needless death due to starvation, but it monitors and responds to infectious diseases. The U.S. has been the largest contributor to the WHO, with approximately 12%-15% of its operating costs coming from the U.S. That means that removal of U.S. support will also affect the WHO’s capacity to respond to international public health issues.

    As the COVID-19 pandemic made plain, a delayed response to infectious disease outbreaks can exponentially increase long-term costs and consequences. It remains to be seen what impact the established relationships between the CDC and the WHO will have on their ability to coordinate effectively during times of crisis.

    The CDC’s work around the world helps to stop outbreaks before they spread – and reach the U.S.

    Future health care workforce threatened

    The reach, flexibility, adaptability and robust foundation of relationships developed over the past eight decades enable the CDC to respond to threats quickly, wherever in the world they arise. This is important for protecting health, and it plays a vital role in global and national security as well.

    In addition to its direct actions to promote public health, the CDC provides workforce development and training to help create an enduring public health infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad. This is more important than ever, as systemic factors have placed pressure on health professionals. The domestic public health workforce has shrunk drastically, losing 40,000 workers since the start of the Great Recession in 2009 due to economic constraints and social pressures during the pandemic. The CDC’s workforce development efforts help counteract these trends.

    Public health workers were reporting high rates of burnout and stress even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which the pandemic worsened. Cuts to the federal workforce, as well as funding for public health programs, will no doubt add to these strains.

    Jordan Miller received funding from CDC in the past.

    – ref. CDC layoffs strike deeply at its ability to respond to the current flu, norovirus and measles outbreaks and other public health emergencies – https://theconversation.com/cdc-layoffs-strike-deeply-at-its-ability-to-respond-to-the-current-flu-norovirus-and-measles-outbreaks-and-other-public-health-emergencies-248486

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Feisty Feminist Murder Mystery He Had It Coming Announced

    Source: Australia Government Statements 4

    18 02 2025 – Media release

    Stars of He Had It Coming, Lydia West, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Liv Hewson. 
    Stan and Screen Australia have announced the brand-new series He Had It Coming, produced by Jungle Entertainment with major production investment from Screen Australia.
    Starring Lydia West, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Liv Hewson, the series is an odd couple comedy-drama of two women accidentally entangled in a murder mystery when their spontaneous feminist art activism is co-opted by a killer.
    From Executive Producer Gretel Vella (Totally Completely Fine, The Great), with Chloe Rickard (Population 11, No Activity), Shay Spencer (Wakefield), Bridget Callow-Wright (Population 11), Robert Taylor and Ellie Gibbons. He Had It Coming is a comedic whodunnit following mismatched friends who get caught up in gender politics on campus and murder.
    Created and written by Gretel Vella and Craig Anderson (Double The Fist), with writers Emme Hoy (Renegade Nell), Belinda King (Wellmania), Nicholas Cole (Bump) and Hannah Samuel (The Heights). Directed by Rachel House (Mountain) and Anne Renton (The Good Doctor, The Bold Type).
    He Had It Coming stars Lydia West (Big Mood, It’s a Sin) and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Ahsoka: Star Wars, The Voyeurs) who are also Executive Producers, and Liv Hewson (Yellowjackets, Bombshell), with ensemble cast Duncan Fellows (Deadloch), Roxie Mohebbi (Critical Incident), Tom Dawson (Total Control), Alex Campion De Crespigny (Heartbreak High) and Miah Madden (The Sapphires).
    Lydia West plays Elise, an awkward English scholarship student (for the bagpipes, she has the shoulders for it) who forms an unlikely alliance with Barbara (Liu Bordizzo), a fashion influencer who posts about girl power all day but is always too busy to attend a protest. After a series of mishaps with men, both decide to take a stand. Barbara spearheads an activist art project in the dead of night and drunk as skunks, the girls deface a statue of the university’s male founder in the University’s Quadrangle.
    When the girls wake to discover that the university’s star athlete has been murdered and displayed at the foot of their political statement, they must urgently erase all ties to the crime. With Detective Shepherd (Hewson) following the breadcrumbs they have been trying to sweep up, Barbara and Elise need to find the real culprit amid rising gender tensions on campus and a growing body count.
    Screen Australia Director of Narrative Content Louise Gough said, “He Had It Coming is a fun, feminist romp that approaches gender equality in a contemporary, innovative and hilarious way. With a standout cast and powerhouse creative and producing teams, this is must-watch TV.”
    Stan Chief Content Officer Cailah Scobie said, “He Had It Coming is a clever and sharp exploration of gender politics led by an extraordinary cast in this vacuum-sealed murder mystery. We celebrate the ongoing collaboration with Gretel Vella who has developed yet another exciting script, attracting an incredible cast to film in Australia. We are also thrilled to continue our ongoing successful collaboration with Jungle Entertainment with support from FIFTH SEASON, Screen Australia and Screen NSW.”
    Ava Knight, Director of Acquisitions at FIFTH SEASON said, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Jungle Entertainment and creator Gretel Vella on He Had It Coming. Gretel expertly uses humour to explore universal themes around gender politics in a way that feels incredibly fresh and timely. We’re excited to bring this brilliant and bold female-led crime caper to audiences around the world – where nothing is quite as it seems.”
    Jungle partner and Executive Producer Chloe Rickard said, “We have absolutely loved collaborating again with Stan, Screen Australia and Screen NSW and new partners FIFTH SEASON to bring another unique Australian voice and story to the world. Add Lydia West, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Liv Hewson to the mix and you’ve got the sizzle for a completely original and fun campus caper.”
    Head of Screen NSW Kyas Hepworth said, “Jungle Entertainment continues to produce leading Australian content, and Screen NSW is pleased to support them to bring another first-class project to NSW. With a standout creative team led by NSW-based Gretel Vella and Craig Anderson, the series is a clever and hilarious whodunnit story. I look forward to audiences tuning in when it arrives on Stan.”
    The Stan Original series He Had It Coming is produced by Jungle Entertainment. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Stan. Financed with support from Screen NSW. International sales by FIFTH SEASON. Post, digital, and visual effects supported by Screen NSW. Developed with the assistance of Screen NSW and in association with The Development Partnership. Stan Executive Producers are Cailah Scobie and Alicia Brown.
    The Stan Original Series He Had It Coming has wrapped production and is coming soon, only on Stan.
    Stan Media Enquiries
    [email protected]
    Media enquiries
    Maddie Walsh | Publicist
    + 61 2 8113 5915  | [email protected]
    Jessica Parry | Senior Publicist (Mon, Tue, Thu)
    + 61 428 767 836  | [email protected]
    All other general/non-media enquiries
    Sydney + 61 2 8113 5800  |  Melbourne + 61 3 8682 1900 | [email protected]

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Expanding Next-Generation Battery Innovation Company

    Source: US State of New York

    Governor Kathy Hochul and Senator Charles Schumer today announced that BAE Systems is investing $65 million to expand operations in the Village of Endicott, Broome County. The company will add a total of 150,000 square-feet to its existing site to make way for the addition of a new battery production line and lab space, and new office space. As a result of the expansion, the company has committed to creating up to 134 good-paying jobs onsite. BAE Systems is a global defense, aerospace and security company with approximately 93,500 employees worldwide. The BAE Systems facility in Endicott designs, develops and produces a broad portfolio of safety-critical electronic systems from flight and engine controls to power and energy management systems. The company has been operational at the Huron Campus site since 2011.

    “BAE Systems’ decision to further expand its business represents yet another win for New York State and for the Southern Tier, which is laser focused on becoming a global hub for next-generation battery innovation efforts,” Governor Hochul said. “Since taking office, I have remained committed to bringing jobs back to Upstate New York. This incredibly successful company chose to grow its operations here, spurring top-quality, good-paying job creation in the region because they have seen firsthand how hardworking New Yorkers are.”

    Senator Charles Schumer said,“BAE Systems is adding 130+ good-paying jobs right here in the Southern Tier to make sure the next generation of America’s batteries are stamped ‘Made in Upstate NY.’ This $65 million expansion to add a new battery production line, research lab, and office helps show how we can bring this supply chain back from overseas, with the Southern Tier leading the way to make sure the future of battery manufacturing is manufactured in Broome County, not Beijing. BAE Systems is a vital part of the Southern Tier economy, with a world-class workforce of over 1200 people, and selecting this area for their major battery production expansion is no accident. I’m proud of the millions in federal support I’ve delivered – via the American Rescue Plan and my bipartisan CHIPS & Science Act – to the region to make it a global center for battery research and set the stage for today’s announcement. Today BAE is helping add another loop to establish this region as a core of manufacturing and innovation for America’s battery belt.”

    The project involves the expansion of BAE Systems battery production line, including the purchase and installation of machinery and equipment to efficiently produce an energy storage system for electric/hybrid electric aircraft. This facility will include an automated state-of-the-art production line, an engineering lab, and an aftermarket center, and is expected to be fully complete in 2027.

    Empire State Development is assisting the project with up to $8.5 million in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program in exchange for the job creation commitments. Broome County is also providing assistance for the project.

    BAE Systems Senior Director Jim Garceau said, “This facility expansion reinforces our commitment to the Southern Tier and builds on New York State’s vision to create a regional hub for battery innovation. With this investment, we will enhance our capabilities to address the emerging needs of the next-generation hybrid/electric aircraft.”

    Bolstering Next-Generation Battery Innovation
    Governor Hochul and Senator Schumer were instrumental in the company’s decision having worked closely with company officials to ensure that the project would move ahead in New York’s Southern Tier region which is laser-focused on supporting next-generation energy efforts – a top priority for the governor and senator.

    In January 2024, the Governor and Senator announced that the U.S. National Science Foundation had designated the New Energy New York (NENY) Storage Engine as a Regional Innovation Engine (NSF Engine), which was created by the Senator’s bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law. The NENY Storage Engine, anchored at Binghamton University in the Southern Tier Region, will receive up to $15 million in federal funding for two years and up to $160 million over 10 years to establish a hub that will accelerate innovation, technology translation and the creation of a skilled workforce to grow the capacity of the domestic battery industry. Through Empire State Development, New York State will match up to 20 percent for the first five years of the project as well as provide support through established programs. The NENY Storage Engine was chosen for its diverse, cross-sector coalition that will build a leading ecosystem driving battery technology innovation, workforce development and manufacturing to support U.S. national security and global competitiveness.

    Schumer has long fought to secure federal investment to boost the Southern Tier’s battery manufacturing and R&D. In 2021, Schumer created the Build Back Better Regional Challenge in the American Rescue Plan that he led to passage as Majority Leader. The senator personally advocated for the selection of the Binghamton University-led New Energy New York’s (NENY) battery hub proposal, helping deliver a $63.7 million federal investment with a $50 million funding match from New York State. In 2023, Schumer also delivered the prestigious federal Tech Hub designation, also created by his bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law for the Binghamton University-led NENY proposal.

    Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Hope Knight said, “Governor Hochul’s strategic and laser-focused support for next-generation clean energy companies accelerates this cutting-edge industry’s growing presence in New York State. BAE Systems’ expansion will create top-quality jobs and opportunities in the Southern Tier, furthering the region’s leadership in battery technology innovation.”

    New York State’s Climate Agenda
    New York State’s climate agenda calls for an affordable and just transition to a clean energy economy that creates family-sustaining jobs, promotes economic growth through green investments, and directs a minimum of 35 percent of the benefits to disadvantaged communities. New York is advancing a suite of efforts to achieve an emissions-free economy by 2050, including in the energy, buildings, transportation, and waste sectors.

    New York Power Authority President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll said, “BAE Systems has been a major driver of economic growth in Broome County, and I congratulate them on their new $65 million expansion. Thanks to strategic investments from Governor Hochul and Senator Schumer, New York has become a testbed for battery storage innovation, and NYPA will continue to support firms like BAE Systems developing cutting-edge technology and spurring economic growth with low-cost power.”

    New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “With this investment in next generation battery technology at their Broome County location, BAE Systems is supporting local jobs and strengthening the state’s clean energy supply chains, ensuring New York continues to lead the way in innovation and clean tech economic opportunity. The expansion will also advance clean transportation in the aviation industry and support NYSERDA’s efforts in research, development, and demonstration of new technologies in the energy storage sector.”

    State Senator Lea Webb said, “It’s exciting to see BAE Systems expand its next-generation battery innovation operations right here in the Southern Tier, bringing up to 134 new jobs to the Village of Endicott, ” said State Senator Lea Webb. “This investment strengthens our region’s role as a leader in clean energy technology and advanced manufacturing. I want to thank Governor Hochul for her commitment to growing our local economy and everyone who made this expansion possible. This investment not only creates new opportunities for workers but also reinforces New York’s leadership in the future of sustainable energy solutions.”

    Assemblymember Donna Lupardo said, “Years of hard work and dedication have made our area a designated hub for battery innovation and manufacturing. BAE’s expansion to include a new battery production line will further establish our community as a leader in clean-energy technology. Their work on electric/hybrid bus and aircraft battery systems are game changers for the industry and for our local workforce. I’d like to thank BAE Systems for their continued investment in our community, and the Governor and Empire State Development for their ongoing support of this important work.”

    Broome County Executive Jason Garnar said, “BAE Systems’ expansion in Endicott is another major win for Broome County, reinforcing our region’s role as leader in next-generation battery innovation while creating even more job opportunities for our community. Thank you to Governor Hochul for her continued commitment to economic growth in the Southern Tier and to BAE Systems for choosing to expand here in Broome County.”

    Village of Endicott Mayor Nick Burlingame said, “BAE Systems’ decision to expand its operations in Endicott is a testament to the strength of our community, our workforce, and our region’s commitment to innovation. This investment not only reinforces Endicott’s legacy as a hub for cutting-edge technology but also brings new opportunities for local families and businesses. We are proud to support BAE Systems as they continue to grow and shape the future of clean energy and battery innovation right here in our village. We look forward to the jobs, economic impact, and advancements this expansion will bring to Endicott.”

    For additional information about BAE Systems, visit: https://jobs.baesystems.com/global/en/.

    Accelerating Economic Development in the Southern Tier
    Today’s announcement advances the Southern Tier Strategic Plan and complements “Southern Tier Soaring” strategy by facilitating economic growth and community development. These regionally designed plans focus on attracting a talented workforce, growing business and driving next-generation innovation. More information is available here.

    About Empire State Development
    Empire State Development is New York’s chief economic development agency, and promotes business growth, job creation, and greater economic opportunity throughout the state. With offices in each of the state’s 10 regions, ESD oversees the Regional Economic Development Councils, supports broadband equity through the ConnectALL office, and is growing the workforce of tomorrow through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development.

    The agency engages with emerging and next generation industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing looking to grow in New York State, operates a network of assistance centers to help small businesses grow and succeed, and promotes the state’s world class tourism destinations through I LOVE NY. For more information, please visit esd.ny.gov, and connect with ESD on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Universities – Power struggles: The psychology behind workplace energy use – UoA

    Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

    Do you ever take the stairs instead of the lift or print double-sided – not for fitness, or to stretch the last few sheets of paper, but to save energy?
      
    An international study co-authored by researchers from the University of Auckland looks at how businesses can support these kinds of everyday choices, often overlooked in corporate sustainability plans.

    Published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, the study analyses 70 research papers on employee energy-saving behaviours and shows that a combination of personal attitudes, social norms, habits, organisational culture and peer feedback shapes employees’ willingness to save energy.
       
    It suggests that businesses looking to cut energy use should focus on engagement rather than enforcement.

    Employees who feel encouraged, rather than monitored or penalised, are more likely to develop lasting energy-saving habits.
       
    “A work environment that recognises the value of energy-saving behaviour and employees with intentions to save energy are very effective,” says Business School Professor Sholeh Maani.

    The economics professor says businesses that integrate energy-saving behaviours into workplace policies and culture see greater engagement from staff.

    For example, giving employees control over lighting and temperature settings and regular feedback on energy use, combined with positive reinforcement, can motivate staff to save energy. 

    Digital tools like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and gamified apps can help staff track their energy use, says Maani, encouraging autonomy and responsibility.

    And while many businesses rely on employee education campaigns to encourage energy conservation, the research suggests that providing information alone is not enough, and in some cases, it may even backfire if it’s seen as personal monitoring.

    One study the researchers point out took place at a university in Canada and surveyed 595 employees in 24 buildings. The results found that feedback and peer education reduced energy use by seven percent and four percent respectively, while energy consumption increased by four percent in the buildings that educated employees on how and why to save energy.

    Another study in the Netherlands examined a 13-week energy-saving initiative at an environmental consulting firm with 83 employees across five departments. Employees received weekly rewards for saving energy, with some receiving monetary incentives and others getting positive public  recognition. The results were clear: public feedback was more effective than financial incentives.
       
    These results and others highlight that awareness alone won’t necessarily drive change – practical interventions that reinforce personal and group habits, such as social incentives and feedback can be effective, say Maani and co-author Dr Le Wen.

    If businesses want to reduce energy waste, they need to focus on building a workplace culture that supports and normalises energy-saving behaviours, says Maani.
     
    “Employees are more likely to conserve energy when they see their colleagues doing the same, receive regular feedback on workplace energy use, and feel supported to make changes and take control.

    “And when managers and colleagues actively participate in energy-saving initiatives, other employees are far more likely to follow suit.”

    With rising electricity costs and increasing pressure to cut carbon emissions, New Zealand businesses have a lot to gain from empowering employees to be part of the solution, says Maani.
      
    “In a country where sustainability is a priority, reducing workplace energy waste is a low-cost, high-impact way for businesses to reach their environmental goals.”  

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Stein Announces 61 New Jobs, $6 Million Investment In Chowan County

    Source: US State of North Carolina

    Headline: Governor Stein Announces 61 New Jobs, $6 Million Investment In Chowan County

    Governor Stein Announces 61 New Jobs, $6 Million Investment In Chowan County
    lsaito

    Raleigh, NC

    Today, Governor Josh Stein announced that Provalus, an information technology outsourcing firm, will establish a Center of Excellence in  Edenton that will create 61 jobs. The Provalus project brings an investment of $6.48 million to Chowan County and will add to the company’s existing presence in North Carolina. 

    “Companies like Provalus that need skilled workers recognize North Carolina offers talent in great small-town locations like Edenton,” said Governor Josh Stein.  “From our state’s highly regarded workforce and public education system to our business climate and world-class infrastructure, companies know they’ll find everything they need to succeed in North Carolina.” 

    Founded in 2017, Provalus – the operating name of Optomi, LLC – is a 100 percent United States-based outsourcing organization dedicated to creating technology opportunities in areas where few have traditionally existed. By leveraging a unique approach that includes developing talent in rural, veteran-heavy American communities, Provalus is generating a dedicated and superior workforce. Provalus hires and develops the best and brightest talent in every small town they call home to deliver a remarkable experience for their technology clients and end-users alike.  The company’s project in Edenton will upfit a downtown building previously used as a Sears retail store and establish a Center of Excellence, allowing the company to meet growing demand from clients in the areas of cybersecurity, application development, and network operations, among other areas.  The company previously announced a project in North Wilkesboro and already operates a facility in Whiteville. 

    “This new Center of Excellence represents more than just business growth; it’s a testament to our commitment to empowering communities and unlocking potential,” said Provalus’ President Mike Keogh.  “We are proud to bring our mission to Edenton and look forward to creating lasting opportunities for the people and businesses here. It’s a reflection of our belief in the region’s talent and the promise of its future.” 

    “As a military-friendly state with a deep pool of talented veterans, it’s great to see a company proactively tap into that strength,” said Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. “North Carolina will continue to invest in the workforce development programs that connect veterans and everyone else with growing companies like Provalus.”  

    Although wages will vary depending on the position, the average salary for the new jobs will be $46,393.  The current average wage in Chowan County is $46,384. 

    A performance-based grant of $150,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will help facilitate Provalus’ project in Edenton.  The OneNC Fund provides financial assistance to local governments to help attract economic investment and to create jobs. Companies receive no money upfront and must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify for payment.  All OneNC grants require a matching grant from local governments and any award is contingent upon that condition being met. 

    “We welcome this new investment and the new jobs Provalus is bringing to Edenton,” said N.C. Representative Edward Goodwin. “With today’s news, our community will see more economic vitality in Edenton, Chowan County, and across the entire region.”  

    “Once again, North Carolina proves why it’s one of the top states for business in the nation,” said N.C. Senator Norman Sanderson. “Our community looks forward to helping Provalus grow their company and write a new success story for Edenton.”   

    Partnering with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, the Commerce Department’s Division of Workforce Solutions, the Edenton Chowan School Board, John A. Holmes High School, College of the Albemarle, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, the Northeastern Workforce Development Board, Main Street Edenton, the Town of Edenton, Chowan County, and the Edenton Chowan Partnership. 

    Feb 19, 2025

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Bill introduced to extend term of acting conflict of interest commissioner

    Legislation has been introduced to extend the appointment term of the acting conflict of interest commissioner until the next conflict of interest commissioner can be appointed.

    Without the proposed legislation, the office will become vacant before the next commissioner can be appointed. Victoria Gray, KC, was appointed to the acting role on Jan. 6, 2025. The term expires 20 sitting days of legislative assembly after the appointment date, on April 7, 2025, as per the Member’s Conflict of Interest Act.

    The search for a commissioner is carried out by a special committee of the legislature through a process that takes approximately six to eight months. Typically, this process would have been already underway, but it has been delayed due to the 2024 provincial general election and interregnum period. Government anticipates that the special committee will be struck imminently and will begin its work shortly.

    The commissioner is an independent officer of the legislative assembly of British Columbia. The commissioner serves five-year terms and provides advice to members of the legislative assembly concerning their obligations under the Members’ Conflict of Interest Act. The commissioner’s primary roles are:

    • to provide confidential advice to members about their obligations under the act;
    • to oversee the disclosure process, including meeting with each member at least annually to review the disclosure of the member’s financial interests; and
    • to respond to allegations that a member has contravened the act and conduct an inquiry if needed.

    Gray completed a five-year term as commissioner from Jan. 6, 2020, to Jan. 5, 2025. She sat on the B.C. Supreme Court from 2001 until 2017, after 19 years of practicing as a commercial litigator in Vancouver and teaching civil litigation at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

    Learn More:

    For information about the conflict of interest commissioner, visit: https://coibc.ca/

    To read about the appointment of Gray as acting commissioner, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/31886

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Benton Exhibit Honors Minnie Negoro, Pioneering UConn Ceramics Professor

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    A new exhibition at the William Benton Museum of Art celebrates the contributions of Minnie Negoro, a former professor who laid the foundation for UConn’s ceramics program, while also highlighting her journey through one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history. 

    Curated by faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) with help from students, the exhibition tells the story of Negoro’s life — from her forced relocation to a Japanese American incarceration camp during World War II to her lasting influence as a beloved professor and artist.  

    Hana Maruyama, assistant professor of history and social and critical inquiry in CLAS and lead curator of the exhibition, hopes it will honor Negoro’s legacy at UConn while spotlighting the importance of public history.  

    “Her former students knew she had existed, her colleagues in the art department knew she had existed, but from the Asian American studies side, that kind of institutional memory had kind of been lost,” Maruyama says. 

    Rediscovering a Forgotten Story 

    Jason Chang—head of the Department of Social and Critical Inquiry, associate professor of history, and co-curator of the exhibition— first uncovered Negoro’s story while leading the former Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. Recognizing its significance, he partnered with Maruyama and a team of scholars and artists to examine Negoro’s impact at UConn. Their research soon uncovered an unexpected discovery—this year marks 60 years since Negoro’s arrival at the University. 

    Maruyama, who studies Japanese American incarceration and had family imprisoned at Heart Mountain, quickly realized that while Negoro had a profound impact on her students and the School of Fine Arts, little had been documented in archives or other public history sources. 

    Determined to preserve that legacy, Maruyama began seeking out information from Negoro’s former colleagues and students.  

    “One year is not a lot of time to create an exhibition,” says Maruyama, who previously worked at the Smithsonian Institution. “It’s very typical for an exhibition to take five to eight years, but I just think her story is so important and hasn’t gotten the attention that she deserved.” 

    From Internment to UConn Professor  

    Just a semester away from graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, Negoro and her family were among the 125,000 Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast and placed in incarceration camps across the U.S. in 1942.  

    Although Negoro was an art major, she didn’t learn to use a potter’s wheel until she arrived at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. There, she was one of six people hired to work at the Heart Mountain Ceramics Plant, according to Maruyama.  

    She developed her skills through a government initiative to use imprisoned Japanese Americans to produce tableware for the U.S. Army and other incarceration camps. Despite the repressive circumstances, Negoro’s training at Heart Mountain launched her career and eventually paved the way for UConn’s ceramics program.  

    Negoro was able to leave Heart Mountain through a program that permitted Japanese American students to attend colleges outside the exclusion zone. Under the guidance of one of her mentors from Heart Mountain, she pursued an MFA at Alfred University.  

    After earning her degree, Negoro ran her own ceramics studio in New York for a decade and taught at institutions such as the Rhode Island School of Design and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before arriving at UConn in 1965.  

    “They just kept renewing her contract and eventually she got on a tenure track and the rest is history,” Maruyama says. “She taught here for the next 20-plus years.”  

    Maruyama says now, decades later, many of Negoro’s former students are still eager to share how she impacted not only their education and careers but also their lives.  

    “They are so committed to preserving her legacy,” Maruyama says. “As an educator, it was inspiring for me to hear them talk about how much she impacted their lives.” 

    Minnie Negoro demonstrates the use of the potter’s wheel to a group of students on December 5, 1967. (Courtesy of UConn Archives and Special Collections).

    Students Help Share Negoro’s Story 

    To further honor Negoro’s legacy, Maruyama involved her own students in the process of putting together the exhibit. She revamped her spring 2024 “Topics in Public History” course to have them create an initial draft of the exhibition.  

    “The students were excited to be working on something that was going to go on display,” Maruyama says. “They put their hearts and souls into it.” 

    Everett Padro ’26 (CLAS), a history major, says he’s been interested in public history since childhood.  

    “I used to go to the Smithsonian because I have family members that work there,” he says. “I would just be blown away by not only the artifacts they had but how they organized and kept track of and cared for them.” 

    Padro, who is now considering a career in museum curation, was excited to learn Maruyama’s class would allow him to get some hands-on experience while also exploring the history of something close to home.  

    “It was a pleasant surprise getting to work so intimately with first-hand accounts and structuring this as a teamwork effort to create this exhibit,” Padro says. 

    According to Maruyama, students contributed to multiple aspects of the exhibit, including working on oral and digital histories, writing content, researching UConn’s special collections, and creating a social media campaign. 

    Padro appreciated the opportunity to work on his interests, choosing to work on digitally archiving old photos.  

    “I was interested to see how we can preserve and tell this story to future generations–not only who she was but how she’s relevant to the University,” Padro says. 

    A Lasting Legacy 

    The exhibit features images, artifacts, and writing that explain Negoro’s life and impact as a teacher, as well as examples of her work. It also showcases the work of alumni, many of whom credit her guidance for their success.  

    “What I find kind of incredible about her is that she also had a reputation for being a tough teacher,” Maruyama says. “She was making those undergrads do ceramics math, and ceramics chemistry. This was not just an art class. She really got into the science of ceramics and that’s not something that a lot of undergraduate ceramics programs do.” 

    The exhibit will remain on display until July 27, 2025. Maruyama hopes it will cement Negoro’s legacy at UConn while also bringing attention to the broader history of Japanese American incarceration.  

    “This history is still so personal for many of us,” she says. “Minnie Negoro’s story is about resilience, creativity, and the power of education. It’s about making sure we don’t forget.” 

    — 

    Minnie Negoro: From Heart Mountain to UConn, will be on display in the Benton Museum through July 2025. Hana Maruyama, Assistant Professor of History and Social and Critical Inquiry at UConn, will lead a guided tour of the exhibit on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: UConn Nursing Alumna Honored with Nursing Leadership Award

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    UConn Nursing graduated its largest Accelerated Second Degree BS/CEIN class to date. In celebrating this milestone, the School also awarded the Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award to Lucinda Canty.  

    Students in this accelerated program receive their second bachelor’s in nursing in just one year. Faculty, student, and alumni awards were announced by the School of Nursing’s Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson, Ph.D, RN, FAHA, FHFSA, FAAN.  

    Canty first received her BSN at Columbia University, then went on to obtain her MSN from Yale. She joined UConn Nursing alum in 2020 when she completed her Ph.D. “It was a life-changing experience for me,” said Canty. “When I graduated from my undergraduate program, I would not have believed if you told me I would return to school for a doctorate.” 

    Lucinda Canty giving a speech to graduating BS/CEIN students (photo provided by Defining Studios)

    She now works as an associate professor and is the director of the Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing. She is a certified nurse-midwife and in 2022 created Lucinda’s House, a maternal health collective that aims to reduce racial disparities in maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in Black mothers and mothers of color – dismantling systemic barriers to care through community, education, and research. 

    Canty was heavily involved and featured in the SHIFT Films documentary “Everybody’s Work: Healing What Hurts Us All”. Along with other UConn alumna Krystal Myers, DNP-c, MSN, BSN, RN, and Professor Emerita Peggy Chinn, RN, Ph.D., DS.c.(Hon), FAAN, Canty hosts critical conversations about racism in health care in this impactful film. In 2020, she and Christina Nyirati, Ph.D., RN, co-founded “Overdue Reckoning on Racism in Nursing”, a series of discussions amplifying the voices of nurses of color. 

    Lucinda Canty giving a speech to graduating BS/CEIN students (photo provided by Defining Studios)

    Canty is co-chair of the Black Maternal Health Taskforce, serves as a member of the National Black Nurses Association, and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American College of Nurse Midwives. 

    Preceding the 2024 Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the UConn School of Nursing, she was named recipient of the 2023 Yale School of Nursing Alumni Association (YSNAA) Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2023 Florence S. Wald Award awardee from the Connecticut Nurses’ Association. Most recently, she received the 2024 School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award for Nursing Practice at Columbia University. 

    The Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award is given to a UConn Nursing graduate for impactful contributions to practice, education, research, and service. Dean Dickson attributes this award to Canty’s outstanding contributions to the profession of nursing, exceptional leadership, and unwavering commitment to advancing health equity. 

    “Dr. Canty’s three-decade nursing career is driven by her vision for a more equitable future for new mothers, nurses, and midwives, achieved by fusing science with creativity and care delivery with compassion,” said Dean Vaughan Dickson. 

    “Her research focus on maternal health has led to an increased awareness of health disparities in maternal health outcomes and uses a Black feminist approach to center on the experiences, perceptions, and voices of Black women to understand the issues and challenges they face and develop solutions to promote health equity.” 

    Lucinda Canty and Dean Dickson together on stage in Jorgensen Theater (photo provided by Defining Studios)

    Addressing the CEIN students, Canty said, “I graduated from my nursing program 33 years ago and remember it like yesterday.” 

    “Be open to continued growth and a journey that you will continue to learn about who you are,” she continued. “There will be things that will test you and challenge you.” She urged students to stay true to themselves and to remember that they will find support when they look for it. 

    “Understand that nursing is a foundation for many things you can do in your career,” she said. “This is only the beginning.” 

    She concluded, “As you step into your new nursing roles, remember that your backgrounds, history, experiences, and varied paths have uniquely prepared you for this journey. You are not just nursing program graduates; you are the future of health care – innovative, compassionate, and driven to make a difference.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The success of the Delta Flight 4819 rescue effort highlights the need for co-ordinated responses

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada

    The day after the Delta Flight 4819 crash on Feb. 17 at Toronto Pearson International Airport, the damaged aircraft remained on the runway as the crash investigation ramped up.

    Whether it was due to luck, skill, heroism or aircraft design, the evacuation of passengers took place quickly and everyone aboard the ill-fated flight were able to exit the plane and make it on to the tarmac.

    Post-accident investigations will provide more details about what contributed to the accident, and the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency response. But one point is already obvious: the positive outcome speaks to the importance of the institutions and expertise that keep our aviation system safe overall.

    The response

    The response to Delta Flight 4819 air crash was an example of just how important inter-agency collaboration is in emergency response.

    Within minutes of the crash, not only were the airport’s firefighters on the scene to douse any flames and assist with the rescue of passengers, but other agencies were already providing aid. Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services sent six vehicles to the airport as part of the mutual aid effort.

    The news conference following the accident involving Delta Flight 4819 at Toronto Pearson Airport.

    Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance system, also sent multiple units to the scene to help transport injured passengers to hospitals, aiding Peel Region paramedics who were also triaging passengers.

    Multiple agencies collaborated to save lives. This collaboration in emergency response isn’t developed on the fly, but instead follows a highly choreographed and practised set of plans.

    Both the airport and partner agencies maintain air crash emergency response plans that lay out the details of how help will be requested, where aid will arrive and how to scale up the response as needed.

    Preparation facilitates response

    A primary reason the air crash response worked so well was preparation. An important component of preparation at airports is regularly testing response plans and operations with specialized full-scale mock disaster exercises.

    In these exercises, airport response personnel work through scenarios that simulate emergencies. Real emergency equipment is tested, volunteer victims participate in search-and-rescue scenarios and theatrical make-up is even used to simulate injuries.

    These exercises serve multiple purposes, including increasing familiarity with the plan for responders and creating real challenges that will help to find any potential weaknesses in the plan before a real event.

    Practice saves lives

    Another less desirable way responses can be improved is for an actual disaster to happen. Actual air crash disasters force plans to be activated, require response actions to be taken, and — ideally — foster adaptive learning through hard-won experience.

    According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 23 aircraft accidents at or near Pearson Airport since 1939. As a testament to safety at Pearson, no casualties occurred in 18 of those 23 accidents.

    One past significant Pearson crash with no casualties is especially relevant to revisit now. In August 2005, Air France Flight 358 rolled off the runway during landing and caught fire.

    All 309 people on board evacuated and survived. An organizational analysis of the 2005 accident highlighted that the crash investigation report “praised the seamless tracking of events and communication between the parties involved” in response.

    Twenty years later, and Pearson CEO Deborah Flint said the crew, airport emergency workers and first responders mounted a “textbook response” to the Delta incident.

    An investigation begins

    While the immediate response may have been over fairly quickly after passengers were successfully evacuated, the mutual aid and collaboration between agencies will continue in the months ahead.

    The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has already launched an investigation into the incident. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been retrieved from the wreckage, a key aspect in what will be a slow and methodical investigation.

    The integrity of the investigation depends on strong institutions and trust in experts. In the context of air crashes, lessons learned from these investigations are critical to improving airline procedures for maintaining safety, creating better regulation to avoid accidents in the first place and ensuring emergency systems are well prepared.

    Safety in aviation

    According to the most recent TSB data, the 2023 overall air transportation accident rate of 2.8 per 100,000 aircraft movements is among the lowest recorded by the federal agency since it began measuring in 2004.

    Within the first 24 hours after the Delta crash, a pivot from the emergency response phase to the investigation phase took place.

    It’s far too early to speculate on what the ultimate cause of the accident may have been. While learning about what contributed to the crash of Delta Flight 4819 is important, we can also seek comfort in the fact that air travel in Canada continues to be a safe activity for passengers.

    Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.


    – ref. The success of the Delta Flight 4819 rescue effort highlights the need for co-ordinated responses – https://theconversation.com/the-success-of-the-delta-flight-4819-rescue-effort-highlights-the-need-for-co-ordinated-responses-250211

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canada’s cuts to newcomer English language programs puts communities’ well-being at risk

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Natalia Balyasnikova, Assistant Professor of Adult Education, York University, Canada

    The impact of of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s 2024-25 department plan, released about a year ago, are only now starting to become clear in cities across Canada.

    Whether it’s colleges in Vancouver, Lethbridge or Toronto, many federally funded English-language training programs are experiencing crushing funding cuts resulting in closures, layoffs and fewer classes available.



    Read more:
    To really narrow digital divides, Canada should consistently fund adult education programs

    At risk is the future of Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) — a federally funded program that has been running since 1992.

    Instead of further cutting funding to LINC, the government should expand the programming in recognition that learning a language is about much more than acquiring a discrete set of skills.

    Importance of language programs

    The LINC program has 60 assessment sites across the country and has served roughly 50,000-60,000 learners per year.

    Language learning programs expecting to receive the most significant cuts will be those focused on building employment skills and preparing learners for higher education.

    Rather than the reducing barriers to newcomers’ employment as promised, the changes will make it more difficult for newcomers to access the language learning programs needed for work and life.

    Immigration is central

    The IRCC states “immigration is central to our future” and that its sustainable development strategy remains committed to addressing the barriers to employment and social belonging that newcomers face.

    While not without critique, LINC classes have an important function beyond helping newcomers acquire language skills.

    Through these programs, newcomers build confidence to be able to advocate for themselves, develop a sense of citizenship, contribute to values of equality, respect and rights and access resources essential for life in Canada. All of these contribute to one’s sense of belonging.

    Addressing connection, community

    There is strong evidence that learning in groups reduces isolation, loneliness and feelings of unbelonging, and increases sense of community and connection for immigrants.

    Research shows that learning activities that have goals beyond developing practical language skills such as drama and poetry are opportunities to build a sense of community, empowerment and belonging to facilitate intercultural dialogue.

    They also contribute to the development of learners’ resilience and leadership.



    Read more:
    Theatre shows how the art of inclusion can help build a better Canada

    A vision for sustainability

    Canada is often portrayed as a tolerant and welcoming country, a stronghold of multiculturalism and multilingualism. Canada has made promises to build a nation that is economically, socially and culturally prosperous.

    To make this promise sustainable, it is essential to continue addressing the complex needs of newcomers, especially by ensuring access to inclusive and quality education throughout their lives.

    IRCC’s choice to cut funding is influenced by a short-term economic model that seems to forget that nearly 20 per cent of Canada’s population are new permanent residents.

    These residents should have access to learning offerings and intercultural socialization opportunities. These would ideally include offerings centred on critical conversations, discussions of shared experiences, visions for life in Canada and building allyships between new immigrants and long-time citizens. Such learning, socialization and relationship-building opportunities could be made accessible through LINC.

    Social stratification concerns

    By reducing funding available for English-language classes, the federal government is denying thousands of people their fundamental right to education. The current budget cuts will inevitably contribute to growing social stratification and increase the challenges faced by the already overwhelmed immigration and educational sectors.

    A recent statement by TESL Ontario, the certification body for educators who teach English as another language in Ontario, urges the Canadian government to consider impacts on language teachers who face precarious employment and low pay, a concern shared by unions across the public sector.

    Language learning programs are foundational to ensuring sustainable settlement in Canada. A truly sustainable development strategy would see the continued funding of English-language programs as essential to ensuring the continued economic and societal well-being of all people living in Canada.

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

    – ref. Canada’s cuts to newcomer English language programs puts communities’ well-being at risk – https://theconversation.com/canadas-cuts-to-newcomer-english-language-programs-puts-communities-well-being-at-risk-249103

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The desert among the snow: how Anmatyerr ceremony men came to create ground paintings in Switzerland

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason M. Gibson, DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University

    Cliffy Tommy working on the _rrpwamper_ (common brushtail possum) ground painting sculpture. Georges Petitjean, CC BY

    A ground painting is known in Anmatyerr as Ahelh Anety-irrem, meaning “broken” or perhaps even “transformed ground”. The name refers to the process of clearing an even surface on the red earth, building a sculpture and then deconstructing it.

    Anmatyerr people live in the desert community of Laramba, 200 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs. Now, the work of Anmatyerr artists has been shown in Switzerland for the first time.

    In December, four men from Laramba travelled to the Canton of Valais, just east of Geneva.

    Anmatyerr men Morris Wako, Martin Hagan, Cliffy Tommy and Michael Tommy with the ground paintings.
    Jason M. Gibson, CC BY

    Elder Michael Tommy, Morris Wako, Cliffy Tommy and Martin Mpetyan/Kemarr Hagan (one of the authors of this piece) were invited to create three ground paintings for the international exhibition Rien de Trop Beau pour les Dieux (Nothing Too Beautiful for The Gods).

    Working alongside artists from Cameroon, Tibet, Cuba and Aotearoa New Zealand, the Anmatyerr group represented a uniquely Australian culture.

    Creating the paintings

    Along with body and artefact designs, ground paintings were an important cultural source for the emergence of contemporary desert art in the early 1970s.

    During that decade, Anmatyerr, Warlpiri, Luritja and Pintupi men began experimenting with representing ceremonial designs and stories using acrylic paint.

    Drawing largely on designs and stories embedded in central Australian religious activities the men developed the style of “dot” painting now known across the world.

    Two of the ground paintings shown in Switzerland were principally made from a native daisy (Chrysocephalum apiculatum), or anteth mpay-mpay in the Anmatyerr language.

    The plant was harvested from Anmatyerr lands, chopped finely and coloured with red or white ochres before being shipped to Switzerland.

    A bunch of cockatoo feathers along with an alkwert (beanwood shield) and an atnartenty (ceremonial pole) made by Anmatyerr artist Wayne Scrutton also made the journey.

    Michael Tommy, a ceremonial expert amongst the Anmatyerr people, oversaw the making of the ceremonial designs.

    Each of the men possessed personal connections to different designs. Martin created the rrpwamper (common brushtail possum) ground sculpture belonging to his mother’s father.

    Martin Hagan and his possum ground painting.
    Jason Gibson., CC BY

    Morris painted the atwerneng (flying ant) and rrwerleng (honey grevillea) Dreamings of his father.

    Michael and Cliffy constructed their father and grandfather’s yerramp (honey-ant) ground painting.

    The works were created in the gallery over three days with artists from other parts of the globe regularly coming by to chat and share ideas.

    As the men worked, they sang the songs for each of the designs. These voices reverberated across the room and brought life to works that were steeped in old traditions but also very much part of the present.

    On opening night, the men painted their bodies with the correct designs and explained how their art stemmed from Anengekerr (Dreaming), Country and family inheritance. The exchange was translated into French for the local audience.

    Recording culture

    In 2023 the Laramba men began recording their ceremonial traditions, recognising these practices were vulnerable in a rapidly changing world.

    One of the writers of this piece, Jason Gibson, has worked closely with the community over the last 15 years on the repatriation of relevant recordings of ceremonies from the Strehlow and other collections. The Strehlow collection is made up of recordings of Aboriginal ceremony, ritual and song from central Australia collected by the anthropologist TGH Strehlow between 1932 and 1972. It is now held at the Strehlow Research Centre in Alice Springs.

    Museum collections like this were made by anthropologists over the last 130 years and hold important information about ceremonial practices, family histories and stories for Country. Having access to this material has enabled the community to think deeply about how art and museum collections might be used to their advantage.

    The men have now decided to build a collection of their own, serving their cultural future.

    Morris Wako, Jason Gibson and Cliffy Tommy with Morris Wako’s painting.
    Arthur Gibson (Kemarr), CC BY

    A part of this strategy has been to reach out to galleries and museums in search of collaborations.

    Through giving and showing, they are striving to establish better relationships and wider recognition.

    Aboriginal art in Europe

    Established in 2018, by collector Bérengère Primat, Fondation Opale is the sole contemporary art centre dedicated to the promotion of Australian Aboriginal art in Europe.

    The building’s architecture and décor showcase Australian Aboriginal themes. An Aboriginal flag flies from the rooftop and sculptures of boomerangs and shields adorn the grounds. This desert culture stands against a contrasting backdrop of alpine snow and ice.

    Fondation Opale in Lens, Switzerland.
    Isabelle dlC/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

    Though unusual, the setting created a familiar and comforting place from which to work.

    The men were hand-picked because of their expertise in ceremony. Michael Tommy had made acrylic paintings alongside Clifford Possum and Tim Leura, founders of desert acrylic painting, but none of the men had invited or sought fame as painters. Their focus has been on the retention of song and ceremony.

    The knowledge encrypted in the works created by these men in Switzerland is known to only a small group of people in Laramba and nearby communities. The ground paintings are usually only made as a part of local ceremonial events.

    Only on a few other occasions have men from Anmatyerr and Warlpiri men created ground paintings for international audiences, notably at the Asia Society in New York in 1988, and the Magiciens de la Terre (Magicians of the Earth) exhibition in Paris in 1989.

    Magicians of the Earth, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, was controversial for presenting non-Western artistic practice on an equal footing with the artistic traditions of Western Europe and North America. The show significantly influenced the way contemporary art is understood and presented on a global scale, and remains a touchstone for discussions about cultural representation and inclusion in the art world.

    Nothing Too Beautiful for the Gods was also curated by Martin, and shines a light on the relationship between culturally diverse forms of spirituality and artistic practices. It was the perfect context for the men to demonstrate how their art and religious practices are intertwined. It also showed how traditions rooted in place, can also be part of a contemporary, global conversation.

    The three works will now stay on permanent exhibition at Fondation Opale. Culture practiced and shared is culture sustained.

    Jason M. Gibson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

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

    – ref. The desert among the snow: how Anmatyerr ceremony men came to create ground paintings in Switzerland – https://theconversation.com/the-desert-among-the-snow-how-anmatyerr-ceremony-men-came-to-create-ground-paintings-in-switzerland-246985

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Collateral damage: how the war on ‘woke banking’ could backfire on New Zealand

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martien Lubberink, Associate Professor of Accounting and Capital, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    Getty Images

    It would be hard to think of an industry less obviously “woke” than banking, but that’s how coalition partner NZ First has characterised certain practices within the finance sector.

    The party’s tortuously titled Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment (Duty to Provide) Amendment Bill – dubbed the “woke banking” bill – takes aim at efforts to build sustainability concepts into investment practices.

    Known as the “environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework”, such policies are designed to guide how a bank manages risks and opportunities beyond basic profit and loss.

    NZ First’s bill seeks to ensure no New Zealand business can be denied banking services unless the decision is grounded in law. Its proponents argue it will prevent ESG standards from perpetuating “woke ideology” in the banking sector, driven by what they describe as “unelected, globalist, climate radicals”.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has supported the bill’s aims, recently calling it “utterly unacceptable” that petrol stations and mines were being denied banking services due to banks’ commitment to climate change goals.

    Coalition partner ACT similarly called for the end of “banking wokery”. And last week the Finance and Expenditure Committee announced an extension of its inquiry into banking competition to include, among other issues, the “debanking of legitimate sectors”.

    Risk management isn’t ‘woke’

    Much of this is largely politically performative, however. A broader international trend has for, some time now, seen financial institutions increasingly aligning their lending practices with ESG criteria.

    In Europe, for example, data from the European Banking Authority show banks have halved their exposures to mining firms since 2020, reflecting that global shift towards sustainability and risk management.

    This is about more than “woke” agendas and is unlikely to reverse, given current global efforts to decarbonise. Encouraging or forcing banks to invest in carbon-emitting industries introduces financial risk. If those assets lose value, it constitutes irresponsible lending.

    While the current US administration may be embracing fossil fuel industries, consumer and investor demand for sustainable policies is still strong. When banks such as the BNZ prepare for an orderly exit from declining industries, they are simply engaging in risk management.

    Banks also manage regulatory risk. While the current government may enact the bill and force banks to invest in carbon-emitting industries, a future government could reverse that policy. This undermines long-term investment strategies.

    Regulatory uncertainty

    There is also a danger New Zealand is perceived internationally as not being serious about business and investment. In particular, the prime minister’s pressure on bank lending policies cuts across his stated commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

    The resulting regulatory uncertainty is counterproductive: it potentially deters international investors at a time when the government aims to attract foreign investment.

    Ultimately, if bank lending policies lead to poor outcomes, it is ordinary New Zealanders who will likely bear the costs through higher interest rates or even bank failures.

    In its eagerness to boost lending, the government is also encroaching on the Reserve Bank’s territory by directing it to prioritise competition, including reviewing risk weightings and capital thresholds (designed to build buffers against failure) for new entrants to the market.

    But history shows that before the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, similar bank-friendly initiatives – often labelled “principles-based” – led to bad debt accumulation and increased economic vulnerability.

    Institutional failure

    The shift towards what we might call populist banking policies is not confined to New Zealand. Globally, there is a declining political interest in financial stability and prudential regulation.

    For example, agreement on the “Basel III” reforms – developed in response to the global financial crisis and aimed at strengthening the regulation, supervision and risk management of banks – will likely be delayed by the Trump administration.

    This will have ripple effects in Europe, Britain and the rest of the world, signalling a softening of global capital requirements. As Erik Thedéen, chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, described this:

    Shaving off a few basis points of capital will not unlock a wave of new lending, but it will weaken your resilience. More generally, being well capitalised is a competitive advantage for banks and their shareholders. It ensures they can continue to grow and invest in profitable projects across the financial cycle.

    Politicians need to be very careful when interfering with bank supervision policies in general. They risk undermining the independence of crucial institutions, with real consequences.

    Last year’s Nobel Prize for economics went to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for their “studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity”. Their warning is that institutional failure can lead to the failure of nations.

    A resilient banking system

    While New Zealand isn’t in such imminent danger, political leaders need to be aware that populist appeals to certain voter segments can lead to policies that undermine the banking system and economic growth, and disproportionately affect the most vulnerable.

    As Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of low-cost airline EasyJet, once remarked: “if you think safety is expensive, try an accident”.

    New Zealand needs to focus on policies that promote long-term financial stability, enhance productivity and sustainable economic growth. Globally, there needs to be a recommitment to prudential regulation to ensure the lessons of the global financial crisis are not forgotten.

    Only by doing so can we build a resilient banking system that serves the interests of all, not just a privileged few.

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

    – ref. Collateral damage: how the war on ‘woke banking’ could backfire on New Zealand – https://theconversation.com/collateral-damage-how-the-war-on-woke-banking-could-backfire-on-new-zealand-249930

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Can you afford a private school? Average fees for Year 12 are at least $15,000

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Rowe, Associate Professor in Education, Deakin University

    Monkey Business Images/ Shutterstock

    This week, updated figures once again showed an increasing number of Australian families are choosing to send their children to private schools.

    Just over 63% of Australian students are enrolled in government schools. Almost 20% are in Catholic schools and almost 17% go to independent schools, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics.

    How much is it costing parents?

    While headlines often focus on the most expensive schools, there is a huge range of private schools operating in Australia.

    In our new analysis, which is not peer-reviewed, we looked at private school fees in New South Wales and Victoria (the two most populous states).



    Read more:
    More Australian families are choosing private schools – we need to understand why

    Fees for Year 12

    We looked only at independent schools. The non-government school sector is made up of Catholic and independent schools, but Catholic private schools typically charge lower fees and this can skew the data on the sector.

    The tuition fees we refer to are based on what is publicly available through each school’s website.

    We collected all available data for Year 12 tuition fees in every independent school in NSW and Victoria in 2021 and 2024. We chose to focus on Year 12, as this is typically the most expensive year at school.

    • In NSW, we found fee information for 369 schools (77% of independent schools).

    • In Victoria we found fee information for 138 schools (92% of independent schools).

    Private school fees don’t necessarily include other expenses such as music or sport.
    DGLimages/Shutterstock



    Read more:
    Are public schools really ‘free’? Families can pay hundreds of dollars in voluntary fees

    What is the average tuition fee?

    In 2024, the average tuition fee for a Year 12 student in NSW was A$15,674 and in Victoria it was $20,923.

    This is in keeping with other analyses showing Victoria is the most expensive state for school fees in Australia.

    These figures suggest while many schools are far from the headlines of “$50,000 fees”, many families are still paying substantial amounts for a private education – particularly if they have more than one child.

    However, there were significant variations in tuition fees between schools. In NSW, 12% of schools in our sample charged under $5,000 per year per student. In Victoria, 9% charged less than $5,000.

    One alternative school in NSW charged just $100 per student per year. This is less than parents typically pay out of their own pocket at the average public school.

    This shows us there some cheaper options available, depending on where families live although they are certainly not the majority.

    At the other end of the sample, The Scots College in NSW and Geelong Grammar School in Victoria charged the highest tuition fees in their respective states for 2024. Geelong Grammar charged $49,720 for Year 12; Scots charged $46,920.

    There are other costs

    While we only looked at tuition fees, families might also have to pay levies for infrastructure or technology.

    There are also extra charges for activities such as camps, excursions and incursions, as well as fees for uniforms, school buses, and special subjects such as music and sport.

    For the majority of independent schools, parents are asked to pay to enrol or go on the waiting list. The average application fee in Victoria was $156 and in NSW was $197. These fees widely differed between schools, ranging from zero to $650.

    How much are fees growing?

    Fees keep climbing each year, and media reports tell us some school fees have already increased for 2025.

    Our analysis found in Victoria, tuition fees in independent schools increased by an average of 15% from 2021 to 2024 – roughly 3.75% each year. In NSW, fees increased by 13% from 2021 to 2024, or about 3.25% per year.

    In media coverage, individual schools have blamed fee increases on inflation, “operational costs”, rising staff costs, and a drop in federal funding.

    Will fees keep rising?

    In some OECD countries, if private schools receive government funding, there are conditions placed on what they can charge for tuition.

    This is not the case in Australia, where the system is unregulated and uncapped.

    Unless this policy approach changes, we can expect private schools to keep increasing fees, as long as there are families willing and able to pay them.

    Emma Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

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

    – ref. Can you afford a private school? Average fees for Year 12 are at least $15,000 – https://theconversation.com/can-you-afford-a-private-school-average-fees-for-year-12-are-at-least-15-000-248769

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Two in five scientists report harassment and intimidation. Often, the perpetrators are inside the institution

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hales, Director, Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith University

    Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

    The goal of science is to uncover truths and create new knowledge. But this is not always welcome. Increasingly, scientific findings are being attacked or downplayed. And scientists themselves face intimidation or harassment.

    In our global study of more than 2,000 scientists across six areas of science, two-fifths (41%) of respondents had, as a result of their work, been harassed or intimidated at least once over a five-year period.

    Intimidation efforts included online abuse, physical threats, and threats to budgets or employment. Harassment, while personal, could be meted out by superiors, colleagues or outsiders. Some scientists felt their leaders had thrown them under the bus to protect the institution’s reputation.

    Who’s doing the intimidation? Strikingly, a majority of cases of intimidation and harassment actually came from inside the institution for most fields. That is, it was perpetrated by senior colleagues or managers. But for climate scientists, most intimidation efforts came from outside.

    Intimidation of scientists doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In recent years, there has been a rise in populist leaders who pour scorn on “elites” and evidence. Scientific issues are increasingly politicised. Disinformation is rampant. This atmosphere adds to the pressure faced by scientists, especially those working in politically sensitive areas such as climate science or COVID.

    Harassment and intimidation can silence or isolate scientists.
    Hayk_Shalunts/Shutterstock

    What did we find?

    We used an online database of scientists to find and contact experts publishing in six fields: climate science, medical health, humanities and social science, food and plant science, astronomy, and other STEM areas.

    More than 2,000 responded to our survey on whether they had experienced various types of intimidation or harassment. We asked respondents for more detail on the perpetrators, what triggered the incident, and what effect it had on them.

    Many respondents had a clear view as to what the intimidation or harassment was meant to do. The motivations of perpetrators varied greatly. But the most common reasons were to damage their reputation, to stop them from publishing certain types of research, or to “put me in my place”.

    Specific fields of science were more prone to harassment and intimidation – in particular climate science, and humanities and social science.

    Among those scientists who had been intimidated, climate scientists reported online abuse three times more often than astronomers. Climate science is politically charged, because climate change is clearly linked to pollution from some of the world’s largest industries – oil, gas and coal. Astronomy is not. Half of the climate scientist respondents experiencing intimidation saw the bad behaviour as a way to discourage them from undertaking specific research and speaking about it.

    Researchers from humanities and social sciences faced similar levels of online abuse to climate scientists.

    When it came to personal harassment, there was a clear gender dimension. Among those who reported experiencing harassment, female scientists were more than four times more likely to report “unwelcome or inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature” than their male counterparts. Women were affected almost twice as much as men by non-sexual forms of personal harassment.

    Our findings follow earlier research finding similar rates of intimidation. For instance, a 2021 survey of 321 scientists working on COVID-19 found 15% had received death threats and 22% received threats of sexual violence.

    Intimidation and harassment are damaging

    The consequences of intimidation are profound and far-reaching. Many scientists told us the experience had caused lasting damage, whether to wellbeing, career prospects or research activities.

    More than 40% of those affected said their career prospects had worsened following incidents of harassment. Just over a third (34%) reported a decline in their desire to work in science. Scientists who experienced intimidation often cut back their collaboration with colleagues (35%), leaving them more isolated.

    Many of our respondents described flow-on effects such as decreased access to funding (35% of respondents) and less public communication from their institution about their work (23%).

    Scientists targeted with multiple types of harassment reported very damaging effects, from difficulty finding their next job to poor mental health.

    Intimidation slows progress

    Intimidation and harassment have a chilling effect on science. This, in turn, could hinder progress on crucial issues such as climate change, public health and technological advancements.

    The disproportionate impact on women and researchers in politically sensitive fields threatens to undermine diversity and inclusivity in science.

    Without targeted interventions, women in science may continue to suffer disproportionate levels of harassment and intimidation. This will have long-term implications for gender diversity in scientific leadership and the direction of research in various fields.

    In the United States, the Trump administration’s withdrawals from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization are likely to further embolden anti-science movements. Many American scientific institutions are engaged in anticipatory obedience of the Trump administration’s demands that diversity and anti-discrimination programs be abolished, or climate change stop being mentioned. Many even go beyond what is explicitly sought.

    Female scientists are targeted in different ways.
    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    What can be done?

    Science and academia is often seen as a bastion of free inquiry and open discussion. One of our most surprising findings was how common intimidation was within scientific institutions.

    The key to beating intimidation is organisational support and clear strategies, not obedience. These include:

    • genuine commitment to institutional policies protecting scientists from both internal and external intimidation

    • formal, well-resourced support systems for researchers facing harassment or pressure (not the HR office)

    • programs to increase public understanding of the scientific process to build trust and resilience to misinformation

    • boosting international collaboration between scientists and policymakers to ensure resilience against country-specific efforts to undermine science

    • educating the public on the importance of scientific independence and of fostering respectful dialogue around contentious topics.

    As populist movements gain traction in many countries, scientists working on controversial issues will face heightened scrutiny – and potentially more intimidation.

    Climate science is likely to remain a particularly contested field. As the damage wrought by climate change becomes more and more apparent, it will get even more contentious.

    Over the last few centuries, science has produced breakthroughs in many areas. But the integrity of science is not guaranteed. Harassment and intimidation from both inside and outside institutions has a very real effect on scientists.

    The future of evidence-based decision-making and ability to tackle global challenges depends on fostering an environment where scientists can work free from fear and undue pressure.

    Robert Hale receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    David Peetz undertook research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics, employers and unions. He has been and is involved in several Australian Research Council-funded projects, including this one.

    Ian Lowe was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2004 to 2014.

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

    – ref. Two in five scientists report harassment and intimidation. Often, the perpetrators are inside the institution – https://theconversation.com/two-in-five-scientists-report-harassment-and-intimidation-often-the-perpetrators-are-inside-the-institution-248013

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: More people are asking generative AI questions about their health. But the wrong answer can be risky

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Ayre, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Sydney Health Literacy Lab, University of Sydney

    Shvets Production/Pexels

    More people are turning to generative artificial intelligence (AI) to help them in their daily and professional lives. ChatGPT is one of the most well-known and widely available generative AI tools. It gives tailored, plausible answers to any question for free.

    There is so much potential for generative AI tools to help people learn about their health. But the answers are not always correct. Relying solely on ChatGPT for health advice can be risky and cause unnecessary concern.

    Generative AI is still a relatively new technology, and is constantly changing. Our new study provides the first Australian data about who is using ChatGPT to answer health questions, for what purposes.

    The results can help tell people how to use this new technology for their health, and the new skills needed to use it safely – in other words, to build “AI health literacy”.

    Who uses ChatGPT for health? What do they ask?

    In June 2024 we asked a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 Australians if they had used ChatGPT to answer health questions.

    One in ten (9.9%) had asked ChatGPT a health question in the first half of 2024.

    On average they reported that they “somewhat” trusted ChatGPT (3.1 out of 5).

    We also found the proportion of people using ChatGPT for health was higher for people who had low health literacy, were born in a non-English speaking country, or spoke another language at home.

    This suggests ChatGPT may be supporting people who find it hard to engage with traditional forms of health information in Australia.

    One in ten Australians asked ChatGPT a health question in the first half of last year.
    Kampus Productions/Pexels

    The most common questions that people asked ChatGPT related to:

    • learning about a health condition (48%)
    • finding out what symptoms mean (37%)
    • asking about actions (36%)
    • or understanding medical terms (35%).

    More than half (61%) had asked at least one question that would usually require clinical advice. We classified these questions as “riskier”. Asking ChatGPT what your symptoms mean can give you a rough idea, but cannot substitute clinical advice.

    People who were born in a non-English speaking country or who spoke another language at home were more likely to ask these types of questions.

    Why does this matter?

    The number of people using generative AI for health information is likely to grow. In our study, 39% of people who had not yet used ChatGPT for health would consider doing so in the next six months.

    The overall number of people using generative AI tools for health information is even higher if we consider other tools such as Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Meta AI.

    Notably, in our study we saw that people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities may be more likely to use ChatGPT for health information.

    If they were asking ChatGPT to translate health information, this adds another layer of complexity. Generative AI tools are generally less accurate in other languages.

    We need investment in services (whether human or machine) to ensure speaking another language is not a barrier to high quality health information.

    What does ‘AI health literacy’ look like?

    Generative AI is here to stay, presenting both opportunities and risks to people who use it for health information.

    On the one hand, this technology appeals to people who already face significant barriers accessing health care and health information. One of its key benefits is its ability to instantly provide health information that is easy to understand.

    A recent review of studies showed generative AI tools are increasingly capable of answering general health questions using plain language, although they were less accurate for complex health topics.

    This has clear benefits as most health information is written at a level that is too complex for the general population, including during the pandemic.

    On the other hand, people are turning to general-purpose AI tools for health advice. This is riskier for questions that require clinical judgment and a broader understanding of the patient.

    There have already been case studies showing the dangers of using general purpose AI tools to decide whether to go to hospital or not.

    Where else can you go for this information?

    We need to help people think carefully about the kinds of questions they’re asking AI tools, and connect them with appropriate services that can answer these riskier questions.

    Organisations such as HealthDirect provide a national free helpline where you can speak with a registered nurse about whether to go to hospital or see a doctor. HealthDirect also provides an online SymptomChecker tool to help you figure out your next steps.

    While many Australian health agencies are developing AI policies, most are focused on how health services and staff engage with this technology.

    We urgently need to equip our community with AI health literacy skills. This need will grow as more people use AI tools for health, and it will also change as the AI tools evolve.

    Julie Ayre receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (APP2017278). The Health Literacy Editor is a research tool owned by the University of Sydney. It is sublicensed to Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd to enable wider public use. Julie Ayre (study author) is a co-director of Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd. She takes no personal income from Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd or the Health Literacy Editor.

    Kirsten McCaffery receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (APP2016719). The Health Literacy Editor is a research tool owned by the University of Sydney. It is sub-licensed to Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd to enable wider public use. Kirsten McCaffery is a co-director of Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd. She takes no personal income from Health Literacy Solutions PTY Ltd or the Health Literacy Editor.

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

    – ref. More people are asking generative AI questions about their health. But the wrong answer can be risky – https://theconversation.com/more-people-are-asking-generative-ai-questions-about-their-health-but-the-wrong-answer-can-be-risky-249383

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The prime minister earns $607,000 a year. Why does his top public servant earn more than $1 million?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra

    Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie represents the lowest-income Australians, with median weekly earnings of $1,208 a week. In the Australian Capital Territory, where the nation’s highest median weekly earners live, including the brains trust of the Australian Public Service, it’s $1,688 a week – 40% higher.

    As a federal politician, Lambie shuttles between these two starkly different earnings worlds and is not happy about the disparity.

    Of course, Lambie herself is on a reasonable wicket. Parliamentarians’ base salaries are $233,660 a year, according to an Instagram post she made this month drawing attention to the issue.

    At a time of considerable financial stress for Australians hit by the combination of inflation, high interest rates and housing shortages, Lambie struck a nerve with her post, which listed a range of public roles drawing big six figure-plus annual salaries.

    In doing so, Lambie underlined the far higher salaries paid to senior public servants compared to the ministers to whom they’re responsible.

    Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Glyn Davis earns $1,011,410 a year, 66% more than the man he serves, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who earns $607,516.

    Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy’s salary is more than double that of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who is paid $438,112. Another three departmental secretaries each earn $960,840.

    Lambie’s Instagram post drew hundreds of comments including:

    How does a public servant earn more than the prime minister? That’s wrong!!

    Politicians get flak about their salaries from belligerent constituents, but also keenly feel the injustice of earning far less than senior public servants.

    Higher pay for higher risk

    The salaries of both politicians and public servants have long and specific histories. Without an income, only the rich could afford to be politicians, so publicly paid allowances and salaries have historically been an important equity and inclusion measure. They remain so today.

    The original framers of the public service component of our Westminster system of government believed that to prevent conflicts of interest that drive corruption, the bureaucracy ought to be staffed by “permanent officers” with job security. In exchange for what, barring wrongdoing, was going to be a lifetime career, public service pay was historically adequate but not extravagant.

    This nexus was broken when, in exchange for higher pay, the Keating government introduced five-year contracts for departmental secretaries in March 1994. Three departmental secretaries refused contracts and continued as “permanent officers”. The rest took the money and the increased employment risk that went with it.

    Two years later, the Keating government lost office and incoming Prime Minister John Howard summarily fired nearly a third of departmental secretaries, fatally eroding the “frank and fearless” tradition of public service advice underpinned by security of employment.

    Compromised advice

    Contract employment for secretaries, who effectively can now be fired at will, not only created pressure for public servants to tell ministers what they wanted to hear, but also untethered their salaries from historical norms. Higher pay reflected that insecurity. The flow-on effect meant other salaries in the senior executive service also floated upwards.

    Contracts for secretaries have also been central to the revolving door that’s developed between the top of the public service and large consulting firms, creating conflicts of interest unknown in the traditional Westminster public service.

    The big four consulting firms are attractive alternative employers for highly paid and insecure departmental secretaries.

    Little wonder, then, that a quasi-privatisation of public service advice through consultancy contracts to those firms occurred, at vast expense to taxpayers – something Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has made strong efforts to reverse.

    Lambie’s push for answers

    Lambie has introduced the Remuneration Tribunal Amendment (There for the Public Service, Not Profit) Bill 2025 to cap senior APS pay at $430,000. It’s a bid to address remuneration which has raced far beyond ministerial salaries, and well beyond reasonable public expectations.

    The Lambie bill has been referred to a Senate committee, which presents an opportunity to evolve debate on the deeper reasons for what has gone awry in the public service and to devise a response that gets to the root of the problem.

    The precarity of contract employment for departmental secretaries, which is used to justify high salaries, is both unnecessary and harmful to the quality of public policy and administration in Australia.

    The intrinsic interest and challenge of working for the nation and the betterment of its citizens has always paid well in terms of a “psychic wage” on top of senior public servants’ actual salaries. If the complaint is that an executive could make much more in the private sector, they’re probably not the right person to work in the public service anyway.

    One reply to Lambie’s Insta post summed up the situation:

    It’s the pollies that made this mess.

    Politicians are the ones who are going to have to clean it up.

    It is neither likely nor plausible that highly paid public service leaders will cut their own salaries in return for an end to the five year contract system for secretaries.

    But that is what a return to good public service governance – and to frank and fearless advice in the national interest – now requires.

    Chris Wallace has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. The prime minister earns $607,000 a year. Why does his top public servant earn more than $1 million? – https://theconversation.com/the-prime-minister-earns-607-000-a-year-why-does-his-top-public-servant-earn-more-than-1-million-250045

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Will the government’s online gambling advertising legislation ever eventuate? Don’t bet on it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

    Lukas Coch/AAP, Shutterstock, X.com, The Conversation

    As the next federal election came into view before the summer break, concern increased that Labor wouldn’t be honouring its commitment to introduce new restrictions on online (especially sport) gambling advertising during the current parliamentary sitting.

    Those fears were well-founded, despite pressure from many sides and broad bipartisan political support.

    The Greens made a last-ditch attempt to cooperate with the government to pass some reforms in the February 2025 sitting, but were rebuffed.

    Instead, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland blamed the delay on the complexity of advertising reform and the need to continue consultation.

    This is despite a House of Representatives inquiry into the harmful impacts of online gambling, led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, concluding in June 2023.

    In the meantime, much less well-researched but wider-ranging legislation banning children under 16 from using social media was introduced and passed in just eight days in November 2024.

    There are both deep historical and immediate political reasons why this legislation has been bogged down.

    A nation of sporting gamblers

    Professional sport in Australia has an inglorious history of promoting unhealthy goods and services, including cigarettes, sugary drinks, fast food, alcohol and gambling.

    Television and, later, online advertisements have been particularly effective vehicles for connecting sport gambling with potential consumers.

    This has prompted widespread objections to the health and social consequences and intrusiveness of gambling advertising.

    There is convincing evidence that Australia’s world-leading per capita expenditure on gambling and the integral role of sport gambling ads cause harm to a considerable number of people, families and communities.

    Such harm includes negative effects on relationships, health, psychological wellbeing, finances, work and study.

    The gamblification of sport

    Although sport comes third among the main areas of gambling in Australia, it is by far the most prominent, especially in homes.



    Read more:
    Pokies? Lotto? Sports betting? Which forms of problem gambling affect Australians the most?

    The so-called gamblification of sport, accelerated by digitisation, normalises the concept of betting odds among children and young people.

    Sport and media’s enthusiasm for gambling money has provoked strong pushback over its negative social consequences, with mounting public pressure for greater controls on gambling advertising.

    A recent poll found about 72% of those surveyed wanted to ban online gambling ads, while another of AFL fans reported 76% supported television and radio ad bans.

    The response of and to the Murphy Report

    The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs was charged with investigating online gambling and its impacts.

    It made 31 recommendations, with rare cross-party support, in its “you win some, you lose more” report (which was not only about sport).

    Contrary to most public debate and media reporting, it did not formally recommend a blanket ban on all gambling advertising. Its terms of reference only covered online gambling.

    But Murphy’s foreword – calling for a “phased, comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising on all media; broadcast and online, that leaves no room for circumvention” – caught the most attention.

    The main recommendation was for a three-year, four-phase ban on all forms of online gambling advertising. Dedicated racing channels and programming were exempted and small community radio broadcasters given extra time to comply.

    After further consultation lasting almost 18 months, it’s clear this calibrated proposal is not favoured by the government.

    Journalists were backgrounded about a watered down law capping ads for gambling at two per hour per TV channel before 10pm, and banning them for an hour either side of a live sport event. A blanket ban would apply only to betting ads on social media and other digital platforms.

    Yet even these more modest reforms did not proceed as anticipated.

    The reason, it has been widely reported, was heavy lobbying by the sport, media and gambling industries.

    High-stakes horse trading

    The privileged access to government gained by these sectional interests has had a powerful impact on gambling legislation.

    The Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports has continually resisted tightening regulations on sport sponsorship and gambling ads.

    It claims their reduction or loss would damage the financial viability of its members and their support for grassroots sport.

    However, Australia’s major sports leagues derive significant gambling revenue from direct sources (sponsorship, product fees) and indirectly from the value of media rights.

    The AFL and NRL generated cumulative revenues of $1.06 billion and $701 million respectively in 2023.

    So while sport leagues would have less capacity to monetise their media rights if gambling ads were reduced, it would neither threaten professional sport in general nor seriously jeopardise funding of junior participation.

    Follow the money

    An Australian Communications and Media Authority report discovered capital city free-to-air television featured 1,381 gambling spots per day between May 2022 and April 2023.

    Gambling companies spent $162 million on free-to-air television advertising during this period, not including further investment on subscription platforms.

    As free-to-air commercial TV is already losing advertising income to digital media platforms, restrictions on this lucrative advertiser category would not be as easily absorbed today as the tobacco advertising bans in the 1970s.

    This is why sports and their media and betting partners are fighting so hard against the legislation.

    And all this capital flowing to and through sport, gambling, and media has created the potential to inflict political harm on gambling reforming governments.

    Negotiations behind closed doors can easily break out into public campaigns, akin to the infamous “axe the (carbon) tax” agitation, if powerful organisations are not satisfied.

    Gambling and the young voter

    Sport gambling ads in Australia have especially targeted young men in a jocular larrikin style. But young women are now also being induced to gamble in greater numbers.



    Read more:
    9 out of 10 Australian sports bettors are men. Here’s why that might change

    Those who want curbs on sport gambling advertisements have been cast by some as “wowsers” and “puritans”.

    State intervention in the sport-media-gambling nexus may provoke a backlash that working-class men are under attack for engaging in their favourite pastimes.

    Like the latest reforms to sport TV anti-siphoning laws, new policies are the product of high-stakes horse trading between nervous governments and pressure groups with manifestly variable degrees of influence.

    As in the gambling world, evidence-based policy can confront very uneven odds.

    David Rowe has received funding from the Australian Research Council to support research relating to this article: Struggling for Possession: The Control and Use of Online Media Sport (with Brett Hutchins, DP0877777); ‘A Nation of “Good Sports”? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia’ (DP130104502), and ‘Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics’ (with Tony Bennett et al, DP140101970).

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

    – ref. Will the government’s online gambling advertising legislation ever eventuate? Don’t bet on it – https://theconversation.com/will-the-governments-online-gambling-advertising-legislation-ever-eventuate-dont-bet-on-it-238084

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –