Category: Universities

MIL-OSI Global: The UK would be lucky to avoid US tariffs – but a global trade war would hurt everyone

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University

Below the Sky/Shutterstock

The first weeks of the Donald Trump’s administration have been marked by a flurry of announcements and U-turns on US trade policy.

One of the first decrees centred on Trump’s favourite word: tariffs. He announced that US consumers and businesses would be taxed an extra 25% when they bought Canadian or Mexican products. (Canadian oil got off more lightly, with a 10% tariff.)

But because this is Donald Trump we’re talking about, it later emerged that none of this was actually happening, for now. It might be next month, or later, or maybe not at all.

However, US residents definitely face an additional 10% on the cost of products from China. There is also a plan for a 100% tax on semiconductors from Taiwan.

And President Trump announced new import taxes will “definitely happen” on products from the European Union. If these do ever come to pass, it’s possible there may be a better deal for the UK.

The reason for the possible Great British exemption from new US import taxes is that the stated goal of these taxes is to reduce the US trade deficit. This deficit refers to the fact that the US buys much more from the rest of the world than the rest of the world buys from it.

And, depending on how we measure the financial flows coming in and out of tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, the UK is one of the few countries in a position to make the case that it actually has a trade deficit with the US (the UK buys more from the US than the US buys from it).

What about consumers?

Being able to avoid new US tariffs would be very good news for the UK. If the US imposed import taxes on UK products and services, it would be bad for their consumers, who end up paying more. But it would also be bad for UK industry. Moreover, the UK would likely retaliate and tax US products, ultimately hurting British consumers as well.

In theory, the UK miraculously escaping new US import taxes might even mean it indirectly benefits from a trade war between the US and the EU. If the UK can sell and buy more cheaply to both sides while they tax each other, it becomes more competitive. The UK would also get its imports more cheaply, and international businesses may want to establish subsidiaries in the UK.

It is interesting to imagine a world in which a medium-sized, free trade supporting country like the UK ends up the winner of a global commercial war between its two most important trading partners.

Things are not that simple however. Research shows that a major impact of tariffs is changes in global supply chains.

As the UK has learned the hard way with Brexit, modern supply chains are increasingly interconnected. British exports are typically made with components from the European continent, which are themselves made with Chinese inputs.

Additional costs anywhere in the chain result in more expensive products. Moreover, it is not clear that UK products made with EU and Chinese components would be exempt from US import tax.

Disruption to supply chains could force up the cost of UK exports.
Peter Titmuss/Shutterstock

This is a global problem. For every final product a UK consumer ends up buying, there are many firms trying to source the best possible components and materials to make it with. If the US levies a 100% tax on chips and semiconductors from Taiwan, this means that products from the US tech industry will become more expensive for UK firms to use. This is even more pertinent given that China has retaliated to the new 10% US tax on its products by limiting the export of metals the US uses to produce its own chips.

In this way it is easy to underestimate how sensitive supply chains are to small shocks, and what the butterfly effect of a trade war between two other countries might be on products bought and sold in the UK. So, while the UK would definitely be better off not being subject to US taxes, the main focus should be on helping to avoid global trade wars.

How to do this is not clear, because no one seems to understand what Trump really wants from his tariffs. One theory is that he wants to pass for a madman and bully other countries into committing to buy more US-manufactured products.

Or, in the case of Europe, to increase military spending by buying more US military equipment. In that case, tariffs would be short-lived and the impact limited. It will simply increase the incentives for international firms not to depend too much on the US.

Or perhaps Trump really has no idea what he is doing, seemingly pursuing the two opposing goals of keeping domestic prices low while attempting to reduce its trade imbalance with ever-increasing import taxes. In that case, the consequences for consumers all over the world would be very bad. This is in part because of the effect on supply chains, but also because when the US economy is in bad shape the entire world suffers.

Renaud Foucart 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 UK would be lucky to avoid US tariffs – but a global trade war would hurt everyone – https://theconversation.com/the-uk-would-be-lucky-to-avoid-us-tariffs-but-a-global-trade-war-would-hurt-everyone-248963

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The 30-plants-a-week challenge: you’ll still see gut health benefits even if you don’t meet this goal
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aisling Pigott, Lecturer, Dietetics, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Plant foods can have many benefits for our health. marilyn barbone/ Shutterstock

The more plants you include in your diet, the more health benefits you’ll notice. This is why public health guidelines have long encouraged people to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

But the 30-plants-a-week challenge circulating online suggests that, instead of only aiming to eat five servings a day, we should instead aim to eat 30 different plant foods per week to improve our health. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, wholegrains, herbs and spices would all count as a plant serving.

Some advocates of the approach have even created some ground rules and have generated a points system that gives a point to each different type of plant you consume. However, not every plant counts as a full point. For instance, herbs and spices only count as one-quarter of a plant point. Refined plant products, such as fruit juices or processed wholegrains (such as white bread), don’t count at all.

Current NHS dietary recommendations around fruits and vegetables (such as the five-a-day message) place the emphasis on quantity – ensuring people eat enough fruit, vegetables and wholegrains to get all the essential nutrients and fibre their body needs. But, the 30 plants approach shifts the focus to diversity – arguing that eating a wide variety of plant foods provides greater health benefits than eating the recommended amount of only a few select fruits and vegetables.

So does eating 30 plants a week offer any additional health benefits over eating five servings a day?

Exploring the science

The 30 plants a week challenge is based on the American Gut Project – a citizen science study of 10,000 participants from across the US, UK and Australia. The findings suggest that people who eat a greater variety of plant-based foods each week have a more diverse gut microbiome compared to those who eat fewer plants. The gut microbiome refers to the trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and microorganisms that live in our digestive tract.

Research shows a more diverse microbiome is associated with a lower risk of chronic disease, better immune function and even improved mental health.

So in simple terms, it looks like the more plant diversity we eat, the more diverse the population of microbes living in our gut are. This leads to better overall health.

But does eating 30 plants really provide a greater number of benefits compared to current public health messages? These recommend we eat at least five portions of fruit and veg daily, choose wholegrain carbohydrates and limit refined sugar, processed meats and foods as much as possible.

Incidentally, research shows that following these recommendations also leads to a more diverse gut microbiome and better health outcomes compared to those who do not meet recommendations.

So, it looks like following either current public health recommendations or the 30 plants diet will improve microbial diversity and have benefits for health. While 30 is a meaningful and realistic target, it’s important to recognise that small, sustainable changes can also have a lasting health impact.

Diet changes

Like any trend, the 30 plants message isn’t without its drawbacks. One major concern is accessibility. Buying 30 different plant foods each week can be expensive – which could exacerbate existing health inequalities.

The 30-plants-a-week challenge has benefits and limitations.
Kulkova Daria/ Shutterstock

There are ways around these limitations, such as buying in bulk and freezing portions, using canned and frozen fruits, veggies, pulses and lentils and meal planning to reduce food waste.

However, these solutions often require extra resources such as storage, cooking space and time – which may not be possible for everyone.

There’s also a risk that the message could oversimplify the complexity of public health guidance – potentially overlooking the importance of individual nutrients and overall dietary balance.

On the other hand, there’s a strong argument that the 30 plants per week challenge is simply the same, old public health advice packaged in a slightly different, more engaging way. As a dietitian, I quite like that.

Current public health messages around food, nutrition and lifestyle are not landing. Despite the evidence for these guidelines, rates of lifestyle-related health problems are increasing. It’s not that these recommendations don’t work – it’s that as a population we struggle to follow them.

The 30-plants-a-week challenge is a positive message that encourages adding more variety – rather than restricting foods. If people are encouraged to eat more plant-based foods, they may naturally displace less nutritious choices – which is a win for health.

If you’re thinking of trying the 30-plants-a-week challenge, here are some easy ways to increase variety in your diet:
1. Swap your carbs: Swap white bread, rice or pasta for wholegrain bread, rice or pasta. You can also consider alternative wholegrain carbohydrates such as quinoa or wholegrain couscous.
2. Include nuts and seeds: Easily overlooked, but an effortless way to add diversity. A small handful is a portion.
3. Add pulses and lentils: Add lentils to a meat dish (such as spaghetti bolognese) for extra protein and more plant points.
4. Buy tinned and frozen foods: Stock up on frozen berries, mixed vegetables, canned beans and chickpeas to make plant variety easier to achieve and more affordable.
The challenge to eat 30 different plants is an exciting and positive way to potentially encourage nutritious choices. However, we don’t yet fully understand its acceptability or impact on food choices in real-world settings. While the scientific evidence strongly supports the benefits of plant diversity for health, it would be valuable to gather more research on its practical effectiveness before incorporating it into public health messaging.

Aisling Pigott receives a research award from RCBC Wales/Health Care Research Wales
Aisling Pigott is a non-executive director for the British Dietetic Association

– ref. The 30-plants-a-week challenge: you’ll still see gut health benefits even if you don’t meet this goal – https://theconversation.com/the-30-plants-a-week-challenge-youll-still-see-gut-health-benefits-even-if-you-dont-meet-this-goal-248491
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Colleen Morgan, Senior Lecturer in Digital Archaeology and Heritage, University of York

Generative AI is often seen as the epitome of our times, and sometimes even as futuristic. We can use it to invent new art or technology, analyse emerging data, or simulate people, places and things. But interestingly, it is also having an impact on how we view the past.

AI imagery has already been used to illustrate popular articles, such as covering scientific discoveries about Neanderthals. It was employed to animate the Mesolithic period (from about 9,000 to 4,300 years ago) in a museum. TikTok users have adopted it to make realistic short videos about archaeology and history. It’s even been used in a TV documentary about Stonehenge.

Yet there are many issues with using AI imagery in archaeology – some of which are also found more broadly within generative AI use. These include its environmental impact and the violation of intellectual property (using training data created by humans).

But others are more specific to archaeology. As an academic who has worked extensively on “resurrecting” the past through digital technology, generative AI has both fascinating potential and enormous risk for archaeological misrepresentation.

Even before the use of AI, it was widely accepted within archaeology that visualisations of the past are highly fraught and should be treated with extreme caution. For example, archaeologist Stephanie Moser examined 550 reconstructions published in academic and popular texts on human evolution. Her review found highly biased depictions, such as only males hunting, making art and tools and performing rituals, while women were in more passive roles.

A similar study by Diane Gifford-Gonzalez revealed that “not one of 231 depictions of prehistoric males shows a man touching a child, woman, or an older person of either sex … no child is ever shown doing useful work.” These reconstructions do not reflect scientists’ nuanced understanding of the past. We know humans organised themselves in an incredible array of variety, with a multitude of gender roles and self-expression.

A recent DNA-based study, for example, showed that women were actually at the centre of societies in the iron age.

The stakes of representation in archaeology are high. For example, the hotly-debated, dark-skinned reconstruction of “Cheddar Man”, originally found in south-west England, was based on ancient DNA analysis. It made headlines for disrupting the perception that all human ancestors in the north were light-skinned.

Reconstructed head of the Cheddar Man based on the shape of his skull and DNA analysis, shown at the Natural History Museum in London.
wikipedia, CC BY-SA

This and similar controversies reveal the iconic power of reconstructions, their political implications, and their ability to shape our understanding of the past.

While the Cheddar Man reconstruction demonstrates that research is iterative, such reconstructions are sticky. They have profound visual legacies and are not easily supplanted when new data becomes available.

This is exacerbated as they are incorporated into generative AI data sets.
Beyond the use of outmoded data, generative AI visualisations of the past can be extremely poor.

Even when more plausible details are included, they can be seamlessly integrated with other highly inaccurate elements. For example, it is impossible for viewers to disentangle the data-led from the so-called hallucinations (mistakes) produced by AI.

Highlighting uncertainty is of central importance and concern among archaeologists. Archaeological illustrator Simon James noted that reconstruction artists have used strategically placed clouds of smoke to obscure unknown elements.

As a digital archaeologist, I have made virtual reconstructions of many different sites and subjects. I know there is often estimation and guesswork involved in making holistic representations.

Indeed, photo-realistic accuracy is not always the paramount consideration in visualisation – particularly when exploring different hypotheses or addressing young audiences. But knowing what is backed by archaeological data and what is more speculative is key for authentic visual communication.

Pseudoarchaeology

This is particularly important at a time when pseudoarchaeology is increasingly prevalent in popular media, such as the Ancient Apocalypse show on Netflix. The celebrity host and author Graham Hancock asserts there was a lost ice age civilisation of Atlantis, with advanced technology. But this claim has been thoroughly repudiated by archaeologists.

Arguably, hoaxes will be much easier to perpetuate using generative AI.
Beyond the high potential for misinformation about archaeology, the use of generative AI for archaeological visualisations can actually be harmful for archaeological knowledge production.

My research has shown that crafting reconstructions and illustrations in archaeology is incredibly important for understanding and interpreting the past. Creating visualisations based on science – and indeed soundscapes, smellscapes and other interpretations based on multiple senses – is very helpful for generating new questions.

Drawing allows archaeologists to create more detailed mental models and therefore a better understanding of archaeological remains. By delegating this creation to AI, archaeologists lose a powerful tool for knowledge generation. Moreover, my collaborative work with artists has demonstrated the intriguing possibilities that creative approaches open up to tell new stories about the past.

Even with all of these problems, I encourage an engaged, critical, applied approach to understanding the impact of digital technologies on our investigation of the past. And this includes exploring the uses of generative AI for archaeological visualisation.

Archaeologists and non-specialists are able to leverage generative AI to creatively produce interpretive media. Indeed, some archaeologists are already exploring AI to generate hypotheses about ancient life. And we are teaching critical uses of AI to our archaeology students.

But what remains imperative is that archaeologists engage with and critique all visualisations – both those created by generative AI and using other media.

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

– ref. How AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology – https://theconversation.com/how-ai-imagery-could-be-used-to-develop-fake-archaeology-247838

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Go Back to Where You Came From: Channel 4’s social experiment makes a spectacle of empathy for refugees

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Fiona Murphy, Assistant Professor in Refugee and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University

The White Cliffs of Dover have become associated with irregular migration via small boat. DaisyKDesigns/Shutterstock

The new Channel 4 programme Go Back to Where You Came From is unsettling viewing, almost unbearable at times. It takes six British citizens – some staunchly anti-immigration, others more open – and drops them into lives shaped by conflict and displacement.

The premise is to cultivate understanding of the refugee experience, to make the unimaginable tangible. But in doing so, the show risks turning forced displacement into spectacle, reducing suffering to an immersive learning experience for those with the privilege of ignorance.

The show opens with participants offering their views – filmed in their homes or standing at the cliffs of Dover, where one man declares: “What I’d do is, I’d set landmines up, and then any boat that comes within 50m of this beach, they’d get blown up.”

Then, two teams, two journeys. One is sent to Somalia, the other to Syria.

In Mogadishu, Nathan, Jess and Matilda navigate a city carved up by checkpoints, escorted by an American security team. Nathan surveys the streets like a man assessing a lost cause: a “shithole”, he mutters. Jess, fiercely anti-immigration, feels exposed – her fear magnified by the weight of unfamiliar eyes, the choreography of a life not her own. She wants to leave.

At a camp for internally displaced people, women speak of gender-based violence, of female genital mutilation, of lives spent in spaces never built for them. Jess listens, nods and files their words neatly into the folder of convictions she brought with her. She does not question; she confirms. The mindsets of Somalian men, she concludes, are the problem.

In Raqqa, Bushra, Chloe and Dave pick their way through streets reduced to rubble. Chloe complains about the rubbish, as if it were neglect rather than obliteration. “They should stay and clean it up,” she says. The children sifting through debris do not register. In a bombed-out home, a father speaks of safety, the only thing he wants for his children. The children do not speak.

The violence of ‘refuge’

Watching the show, I thought of the conversations I’ve had with asylum seekers and refugees on the island of Ireland as part of my research. Many speak of the quiet violence of exclusion – how “welcome” is so often a hollow gesture, how refuge can feel like another form of exile.

Many recount racial hatred in the streets, the fear woven into daily movements, the gnawing sense that they are barely tolerated, not wanted. Some have told me, with devastating clarity, that had they known what awaited them here – homelessness, suspicion, a life in bureaucratic limbo – they might never have fled at all. Not because home was safe, but because this isn’t living either.

These experiences are not anomalies. They are built into the asylum systems in the UK and Ireland, where deterrence is policy. As of mid-2024, 122.6 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide, yet the UK hosts just 1% of them.

And “hosting” often takes the form of offshore detention, indefinite waiting and policies designed to make seeking refuge as inhospitable as possible. In Ireland, the failure is just as insidious: asylum seekers sleeping rough, vulnerability assessments in name only, the quiet withdrawal of care until people simply disappear from view.

Read more:
‘When you get status the struggle doesn’t end’: what it’s like to be a new refugee in the UK

After the first episode of the Channel 4 show, I am left wondering: what is the point of each participant’s journey? The documentary trades in empathy – tracking transformation by how much the participants feel, learn and change. But empathy, when it stops at the self, is just another performance. It asks: how have I been altered? Instead of: what must I do with what I now know?

This is the trap of a genre that packages suffering into something neatly consumable. As film researcher Pooja Rangan argues, humanitarian documentaries often render asylum seekers passive, their worth measured by how much sympathy they can elicit. Go Back to Where You Came From follows this script, focusing not on the agency of the displaced, but on the moral awakenings of those who continue to look away.

The real question is not whether the participants feel something, but whether feeling will ever translate into action – by them, or by us as viewers. To hold governments to account. To insist that refuge is a right, not a privilege. To refuse the quiet, grinding violence of neglect.

“Go back to where you came from” is a phrase hurled not just at refugees, but at anyone deemed out of place. The programme inverts it, sending its wielders on a reckoning. But in the end, they return. To safety, to comfort, to homes untouched by war or exile. Or, as one put it, back to the pub.

And yet, for those seeking refuge, the journey drags on – through border camps, detention centres, doorways, the freezing cold and the bureaucracy of the asylum system – while the world watches, then turns off their televisions.

Fiona Murphy receives funding from British Academy and the Irish Research Council

– ref. Go Back to Where You Came From: Channel 4’s social experiment makes a spectacle of empathy for refugees – https://theconversation.com/go-back-to-where-you-came-from-channel-4s-social-experiment-makes-a-spectacle-of-empathy-for-refugees-248803

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump wants Greenland – but here’s what the people of Greenland want

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gustav Agneman, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Kulusuk village in East Greenland. Shutterstock/Muratart

In 2018, a colleague and I, together with a team of Greenlandic research assistants, conducted one of the most comprehensive surveys to date on public opinion in Greenland. We travelled to 13 randomly selected towns and settlements across the island nation, conducting in-person interviews with a representative sample of adult residents.

The survey explored a wide range of topics. We asked for views on climate change, economic matters – and the prospect of independence from Denmark. Until recently, this was the latest poll on what the people of Greenland thought about this issue.

Greenland, a former Danish colony, is currently an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. This political arrangement grants Greenland extensive self-rule, including control over most domestic affairs, as well as its own prime minister and parliament. However, Denmark retains authority over foreign policy, defence and monetary policy.

While our survey results were covered in Greenlandic and Danish media upon their release, they received scant international attention. This changed abruptly on January 15, when newly re-elected US president Donald Trump reposted an old news article about our results. The headline stated that two-thirds of Greenlandic citizens support independence.

Trump posting the 2018 poll in 2025.
Truth Social

Trump did not add a comment in the post but the insinuation was clear given his recent statements about annexing Greenland from Denmark: Greenlandic residents want independence from Denmark, and therefore, they might be open to other political or economic arrangements with the US.

“I think we’re going to have it,” Trump recently said after a phone call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, who told him the land was “not for sale”. Trump has in the past spoken of somehow “purchasing” Greenland but has since moved on towards speaking in more assertive terms about taking control of the territory.

Back in 2018, when we conducted the survey, Trump had not yet revealed any plans to annex the island nation. It was a scenario we could hardly even have imagined and therefore did not ask our participants about. As such, regardless of how Trump framed them, the survey results in no way indicated that the population harboured a desire to join the US.

In fact, a recent survey conducted by Sermitsiaq (a Greenlandic newspaper) and Berlingske (a Danish newspaper) directly addressed this question and found that only 6% of respondents wanted Greenland to leave Denmark and instead become part of the US.

In the study I published based on the 2018 data collection, I reported that a majority of the Greenlandic population aspired to independence. Two-thirds of the participants thought that “Greenland should become an independent country at some point in the future”.

Opinions were more divergent regarding the timing of independence. When asked how they would vote in an independence referendum if it were held today, respondents who stated a preference were evenly split between “yes” and “no” to independence.

The Act on Greenland Self-Government, passed in 2009, grants the Greenlandic government the legal authority to unilaterally call a referendum on separating from the political union with Denmark. According to the law, “the decision regarding Greenland’s independence shall be taken by the people of Greenland”.

During the 15 years since its passage, the option to call a referendum has not been exercised. This is likely due to the potential economic consequences of leaving the union with Denmark.

Each year, Denmark sends a block grant that covers approximately half of Greenland’s budget. This supports a welfare system that is more extensive than what is available to most Americans. In addition, Denmark administers many costly public services, including national defence.

This backdrop presents a dilemma for many Greenlanders who aspire to independence, as they weigh welfare concerns against political sovereignty. This was also evident from my study, which revealed that economic considerations influence independence preferences.

For many Greenlanders, the island nation’s rich natural resources present a potential bridge between economic self-sufficiency and full sovereignty. Foreign investments and the associated tax revenues from resource extraction are seen as key to reducing economic dependence on Denmark. Presumably, these natural resources, which include rare earths and other strategic minerals, also help explain Trump’s interest in Greenland.

As Greenland’s future is likely to remain at the centre of a geopolitical power struggle for some time, it is crucial to remember that only Greenlanders have the right to determine their own path. What scarce information is available on their views suggests that while many aspire to independence, it is not driven by a desire to join the US.

Gustav Agneman 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. Trump wants Greenland – but here’s what the people of Greenland want – https://theconversation.com/trump-wants-greenland-but-heres-what-the-people-of-greenland-want-248745

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Emilia Pérez: the film’s wildly unrealistic representation of Mexican narco-violence and trans lives is insulting

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ailsa Peate, Lecturer in Latin American and Museum Studies, University of Westminster

You would think that Jacques Audiard’s 13-time Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez was the most watched film of the year given the discussion it has generated. The Mexican-set, French-made film’s opening weekend in Mexico tells a different story.

Emilia Pérez sees the eponymous antagonist-heroine experience a transformation, undergoing gender-affirming procedures in order to leave behind her former dangerous, violent life as a cartel leader in Mexico.

It came eighth at the box office in Mexico, which is hardly surprising. The effects of narco violence saw 613 murders and 626 disappearances between September and December 2024 in Sinaloa State in northwestern Mexico as its eponymous cartel’s factions fight for territory.

Considering the context in which it was released, little positive noise has been made about Emilia Pérez within Mexico given its sensationalist, reductive representations of violence. Internationally, its representation of trans experiences has been criticised.

Though well acted, it is thoughtless. The luxurious life Emilia lives as a trans woman is far detached from reality of most trans people in Mexico, where the average life expectancy for a trans person is 35.

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We follow Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), an underappreciated lawyer who works hard only for men to take the credit. Rita is hired by cartel head Juan “Manitas” del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) to find a surgeon for her transition to start again as Emilia Pérez. After the transition, Emilia has Manitas declared dead, leaving behind her mourning wife, Jessi (Selena Gómez) and their two young sons who she has relocated to Switzerland for their safety.

After four years, Emilia tracks down Rita to have Jessi and the children moved back to Mexico, posing as Manitas’ distant relative. Emilia then works with Rita to launch a non-profit, “La Lucecita”, that helps the families of missing persons after Emilia becomes appalled by how many disappeared people there are in Mexico.

Emilia’s immediate reaction to such social injustice demonstrates a naivety on Audiard’s part. Despite Manitas having destroyed lives, Emilia wants to dignify them. We are asked to believe that she had no idea about these wretched, miserable souls. But thankfully, Emilia’s “La Lucecita” is here to rescue them. The NGO will find the remains of the disappeared, making them visible again. Good thing Emilia made all that (drug) money to fund the work…

Trailer for Emilia Pérez.

The sheer unbelievability of Pérez not knowing about the violent reverberations of her work aside, I was gratified to see the disappeared of Mexico centralised in the film. The stories of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Guatemala and Colombia usually dominate when it comes to the consequences of human rights abuses in the region.

Political prisoners, state terrorism, death flights and extrajudicial murders date back at least as far as the 1960s in Mexico, with the Indomitable Memory Museum in Mexico City doing fantastic work to highlight this history and dignify victims. In particular, the story of the Ayotzinapa 43, who were disappeared en route to Mexico City for an annual march against state corruption and human rights abuses in 2014.

But, considering its direction, Emilia Pérez takes on a white saviour narrative and our heroine simply throws (drug) money at the problem. Audiard’s (admitted) lack of serious thought given to violence ,wealth and power in this context is laughable. Ask “searcher” groups, who go looking for the remains of their disappeared loved ones, like Las Rastredoras de El Fuerte to conjure up money for their work at a fancy gala (and watch I Called for You in Silence, a heartbreaking documentary on their struggles) and see what the reaction is.

Emilia Pérez had the chance to add some nuance to the violence in Mexico today, to demonstrate that this does not exist in a vacuum. It had a chance to go beyond what the transfeminist philosopher Sayak Valencia and the expert in feminist visual culture Sonia Herrera Sánchez would term a kind of sensationalist, colonialist “pornomisery” to present gender fluidity and sexuality in a troubled and troubling context.

I was disappointed. I found it impossible to watch the film without seeing constant instances of what Sayak Valencia deems gore capitalism in action. “Death has become the most profitable business in existence,” according to Valencia.

She outlines that in the era of drug war Mexico (2006 to the present) power is the new capital in a moment where hyper-masculinity and levels of violence are out of control. The lifeless body signifies a capital of fear and power.

Rather than Emilia Pérez forming any coherent commentary on this, the film contributes to it – how much will Audiard make from a film about bodies, what is done to them and how they are destroyed by Mexico’s drug war? How many awards? How much (more) power gained?

Zoe Saldaña sings “El Mal” from Emilia Pérez.

Bodily transition – from living to dead; from male to female – is a motif in the film, and one used as a lazy plot device. Emilia is no longer Manitas; in fact, she’s Manitas’ antithesis, who, therefore, does good for society. This dichotomy between “giving woman” and “violent man” only serves to perpetuate outdated views of womanhood. Karla Sofía Gascón was strong in this role, though I must ask why a Mexican trans actress couldn’t have played Pérez. For instance, Nava Mau of Baby Reindeer.

We know that Emilia Pérez isn’t that bothered about nuance, being one reason the film has been so ripe for satire. It is a narco-telenovela-cum-queer musical from the perspective of a 72-year-old white French man.

If you are looking for a show or film that does what Emilia Pérez should have, I can only recommend the one-off series Somos, a thoughtful take on the 2011 Allende massacre to temper such thoughtless representation.

Ailsa Peate 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. Emilia Pérez: the film’s wildly unrealistic representation of Mexican narco-violence and trans lives is insulting – https://theconversation.com/emilia-perez-the-films-wildly-unrealistic-representation-of-mexican-narco-violence-and-trans-lives-is-insulting-249066

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Putting DeepSeek to the test: how its performance compares against other AI tools

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Simon Thorne, Senior Lecturer in Computing and Information Systems, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Mojahid Mottakin / Shutterstock

China’s new DeepSeek Large Language Model (LLM) has disrupted the US-dominated market, offering a relatively high-performance chatbot model at significantly lower cost.

The reduced cost of development and lower subscription prices compared with US AI tools contributed to American chip maker Nvidia losing US$600 billion (£480 billion) in market value over one day. Nvidia makes the computer chips used to train the majority of LLMs, the underlying technology used in ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. DeepSeek uses cheaper Nvidia H800 chips over the more expensive state-of-the-art versions.

ChatGPT developer OpenAI reportedly spent somewhere between US$100 million and US$1 billion on the development of a very recent version of its product called o1. In contrast, DeepSeek accomplished its training in just two months at a cost of US$5.6 million using a series of clever innovations.

But just how well does DeepSeek’s AI chatbot, R1, compare with other, similar AI tools on performance?

DeepSeek claims its models perform comparably to OpenAI’s offerings, even exceeding the o1 model in certain benchmark tests. However, benchmarks that use Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) tests evaluate knowledge across multiple subjects using multiple choice questions. Many LLMs are trained and optimised for such tests, making them unreliable as true indicators of real-world performance.

An alternative methodology for the objective evaluation of LLMs uses a set of tests developed by researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan, Bristol and Cardiff universities – known collectively as the Knowledge Observation Group (KOG). These tests probe LLMs’ ability to mimic human language and knowledge through questions that require implicit human understanding to answer. The core tests are kept secret, to avoid LLM companies training their models for these tests.

KOG deployed public tests inspired by work by Colin Fraser, a data scientist at Meta, to evaluate DeepSeek against other LLMs. The following results were observed:

The tests used to produce this table are “adversarial” in nature. In other words, they are designed to be “hard” and to test LLMs in way that are not sympathetic to how they are designed. This means the performance of these models in this test is likely to be different to their performance in mainstream benchmarking tests.

DeepSeek scored 5.5 out of 6, outperforming OpenAI’s o1 – its advanced reasoning (known as “chain-of-thought”) model – as well as ChatGPT-4o, the free version of ChatGPT. But Deepseek was marginally outperformed by Anthropic’s ClaudeAI and OpenAI’s o1 mini, both of which scored a perfect 6/6. It’s interesting that o1 underperformed against its “smaller” counterpart, o1 mini.

DeepThink R1 – a chain-of-thought AI tool made by DeepSeek – underperformed in comparison to DeepSeek with a score of 3.5.

This result shows how competitive DeepSeek’s chatbot already is, beating OpenAI’s flagship models. It is likely to spur further development for DeepSeek, which now has a strong foundation to build upon. However, the Chinese tech company does have one serious problem the other LLMs do not: censorship.

Censorship challenges

Despite its strong performance and popularity, DeepSeek has faced criticism over its responses to politically sensitive topics in China. For instance, prompts related to Tiananmen Square, Taiwan, Uyghur Muslims and democratic movements are met with the response: “Sorry, that is beyond my current scope.”

But this issue is not necessarily unique to DeepSeek, and the potential for political influence and censorship in LLMs more generally is a growing concern. The announcement of Donald Trump’s US$500 billion Stargate LLM project, involving OpenAI, Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, and Arm, also raises fears of political influence.

Additionally, Meta’s recent decision to abandon fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram suggests an increasing trend toward populism over truthfulness.

DeepSeek’s arrival has caused serious disruption to the LLM market. US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic will be forced to innovate their products to maintain relevance and match its performance and cost.

DeepSeek’s success is already challenging the status quo, demonstrating that high-performance LLM models can be developed without billion-dollar budgets. It also highlights the risks of LLM censorship, the spread of misinformation, and why independent evaluations matter.

As LLMs become more deeply embedded in global politics and business, transparency and accountability will be essential to ensure that the future of LLMs is safe, useful and trustworthy.

Simon Thorne 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. Putting DeepSeek to the test: how its performance compares against other AI tools – https://theconversation.com/putting-deepseek-to-the-test-how-its-performance-compares-against-other-ai-tools-248368

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Pet flea treatments may be harming wildlife – but owners can help

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, Research Fellow, Ecology & Evolution, University of Sussex

Toxic substances used in flea and tick treatments pet owners give to their dogs and cats have been detected in birds’ nests, according to new UK research.

Fipronil and imidacloprid, two common insecticides distributed by vets in pipettes to kill or stunt fleas, were previously found in nearly all English rivers. These chemicals are known to harm aquatic insects, which has repercussions for the species that eat them. Birds are also known to ingest these insecticides in their food and water.

Our study now raises the risk of direct skin contact, as veterinary drugs were the most common insecticides colleagues and I found in bird nests. How do they get there – and what are they doing?

Many birds, including garden visitors such as blue tits and great tits, nest in tree hollows and nest boxes. To keep their eggs and chicks warm, these birds line their nests with soft materials such as fur. In fact, around 74% of European bird species use fur as nest insulation.

Across the UK, pet owners and wildlife enthusiasts leave brushed pet fur outside for birds to collect. But with around 80% of the country’s 22 million cats and dogs receiving regular flea and tick treatments, this well-meaning act can inadvertently expose birds to harm.

A previous study in the Netherlands found that insecticides used in flea treatment were appearing in birds’ nests. The study I led with colleagues is the first to identify the problem in the UK.

Banned on farms, used in homes

We examined 103 nests of blue tits and great tits and found the residue of 17 out of 20 insecticides commonly used as flea treatments in the UK. The most prevalent were fipronil, which we found in every single nest, imidacloprid and permethrin, which were both detected in 89% of nests.

All three of these chemicals are banned for use as pest control on EU farms due to their harmful effects on wildlife. Studies have shown that these insecticides can damage the nervous and reproductive systems of birds, and threaten their overall health. Yet they remain widely used in veterinary medicine.

We collected nests months after the breeding season, and so the concentrations of chemicals we found are likely to be lower than what was present in the nests during spring, when birds gather material for nests. This suggests that eggs and chicks were exposed during the whole breeding season.

The nests we found with higher concentrations of insecticides contained more unhatched eggs and dead chicks. Other factors could explain these deaths, such as predation. But the known dangers of these chemicals should make us question their wider impact on the environment. While more research is needed to fully understand their risks, the evidence already suggests that exposure could be harming nestlings, which are at a critical stage of development.

Flea and tick treatments either kill insects or halt their development.
Nick Alias/Shutterstock

Scientists and conservation groups are urging the UK government to conduct a more thorough environmental risk assessment of veterinary treatments, particularly those used on dogs and cats.

Public awareness will also be key to addressing the problem. Many pet owners do not know that their routine flea treatments affect wildlife. Small changes could help reduce this impact. For example, year-round flea treatment is not necessary, particularly in winter when fleas and ticks are less active.

If treatment is required then tablets could be a better choice as they do not involve direct skin contact for birds and would not wash away every time a pet swims or is bathed either. They may be excreted in faeces and contaminate the soil, however – that’s why a thorough environmental risk assessment is necessary.

Pet owners who enjoy helping birds can still leave out fur as nesting material, perhaps by saving the brushed fur from untreated pets during winter and putting it out the following spring.

As awareness of this issue grows, pet owners, scientists and policymakers can ensure that veterinary treatments do not come at the cost of the UK’s wildlife.

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

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

Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu receives funding from UK charity SongBird Survival.

– ref. Pet flea treatments may be harming wildlife – but owners can help – https://theconversation.com/pet-flea-treatments-may-be-harming-wildlife-but-owners-can-help-248481

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: PASSED: Sens. Moran, Daines, Heinrich Resolution Designating National Tribal Colleges & Universities Week

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Kansas – Jerry Moran

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) today announced the Senate passage of the bipartisan resolution designating the week beginning February 3, 2025, as “National Tribal Colleges and Universities Week.” This week is dedicated to the recognition of and support for the achievements of students pursuing postsecondary educational opportunities in Tribal Colleges and Universities.

“Tribal colleges and universities, like Haskell Indian Nations University, provide native students the opportunity to receive a higher education in an environment that prioritizes their heritage and culture,“ said Sen. Moran. “This legislation provides an opportunity to applaud and support the accomplishments of tribal students and their educators – both of which are deserving of our recognition”

“Our tribal colleges and universities play a vital role in Montana’s communities and provide incredible opportunities for higher education on or near Montana’s reservations,” said Sen. Daines. “I’m proud to introduce legislation so the hard work and great achievements of our Montana students, teachers and educational institutions can be recognized nationally.”

“I’m pleased the Senate passed my resolution designating this week as National Tribal Colleges and Universities Week,” said Sen. Heinrich. “This resolution recognizes the vital role of Tribal colleges and universities in creating opportunities for the next generation of Tribal leaders, upholding Tribal educational sovereignty, and preparing Native students for careers they can build their families around in their home communities.”

Read the full text of the resolution here.

In December, Sen. Moran released draft legislation that would federally charter Haskell Indian Nations University and transfer governance from the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) to the Haskell Board of Regents, while maintaining federal funding for the university.

The Senators were also joined by Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.).

MIL OSI USA News –

February 5, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Māori communities lead innovative ways of financing housing on ancestral lands

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Barrett, Lecturer in Business, Auckland University of Technology

New Zealand’s housing crisis disproportionately affects Māori in rural areas where healthy homes are in short supply and collective land ownership presents a challenge to banks.

Governments have been grappling with this issue. The previous Labour-led government committed more than NZ$730 million to Māori-led housing solutions, and an announcement this week by the current coalition government saw a $200 million investment into affordable rentals.

But Whare Ora, a community-run housing initiative in Te Tairāwhiti (East Coast), shows that innovative approaches to home ownership can be found within communities.

Since 2020, Whare Ora has developed a social enterprise model, focused on producing healthy, affordable and transportable whare (houses) for local communities. Run by the charitable company Hikurangi Enterprises, Whare Ora has now supplied more than 80 homes for local whānau.

This project is directly addressing regional housing deprivation and the finance barriers for building on Māori land under multiple ownership.

This holds particular potential for Indigenous housing.

Financial barriers

Despite Whare Ora producing high-quality houses at affordable prices, access to finance remains a significant barrier for whānau placing homes on ancestral lands.

This is mainly due to the perceived risk of lending against Māori freehold land, which is inalienable and often collectively owned. This creates issues for mainstream retail lenders that require land to be alienable to a single owner to secure a mortgage.

In exceptional circumstances, such as Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei’s recent agreement with BNZ, this can be mitigated if a trust can provide a guarantee over lending. This usually requires a large asset base or financial holdings.

However, the majority of Māori who want to build homes on ancestral lands are individual or collective whānau who don’t have access to such resources. The perceived risk excludes many who could service a loan but are unable to because the financial services don’t exist or aren’t designed for collectively-owned land.

For a region such as Te Tairāwhiti where about 25% of land is under Māori governance, this creates a lost opportunity for whānau to utilise ancestral lands for housing.

This is a systemic issue, documented by the National Housing Commission in 1983 and the Auditor General’s reports in 2011 and 2014.

Affordable portable houses provide an opportunity to build on ancestral lands.
Hikurangi Enterprises, CC BY-SA

Community partnerships

Seeking a solution to this finance barrier, Hikurangi Enterprises collaborated with Community Finance, a community-to-community lender, to investigate possible ways to administer lending for housing on collectively-owned land.

Supported by philanthropic organisations, this collaboration has given way to Kaenga Hou, a new trust set up to provide a range of progressive home-ownership options in Te Tairāwhiti.

Significantly, one option facilitates lending on ancestral land through a license-to-occupy agreement, based on an ethical finance model funded by impact investors.

Impact investors provide finance capital at below-market interest rates, while producing a social or environmental benefit (in this case addressing regional housing issues and strengthening Māori wellbeing through connections to ancestral lands).

This allows for more compassionate and innovative forms of investment, where complex issues can be worked through rather than written off as too risky or not profitable enough.

An ethical finance model

In designing a model to attract impact investment, Kaenga Hou and Community Finance sought innovative ways to mitigate investor risk while placing whānau at the centre of decisions, protecting them from exploitative lending and ensuring fair outcomes.

This was achieved through a creative rent-to-buy programme using whānau rental payments to reduce risk and build resilience into the model.

In short, whānau make rental payments to the trust. A portion of these payments repays the trust’s interest payments to investors funding the model. Another part builds a savings account, allowing the whānau to buy the home outright over time.

A final portion will be directed toward a support mechanism for all whānau in the programme. Known as the aroha fund, this aspires to support others if they face unexpected financial difficulty.

Innovation lies in the subtle details that reduce risk for both whānau and the investors. For example, the aroha fund increases the chance of programme completion, setting whānau up to succeed, while ensuring financial and social returns for the ethical investor.

Similarly, in the unlikely event whānau have to exit the programme, a proportion of the money accrued through the savings account can be returned and they would have paid an affordable rent while in the programme.

In this worst-case scenario, the programme aims to leave whānau in a better-off position than when they entered, uplifting whānau and safeguarding the reputation of investors. Collectively, these aspects ensure that positive whānau outcomes are just as important as creating a financial return.

Lessons for Te Tiriti-led futures

At its heart, housing on ancestral lands is a Te Tiriti issue. The Waitangi Tribunal recently concluded the Crown has a duty to provide housing because of the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga over kāinga (homes and settlements).

The government currently provides a loan scheme for housing on whenua Māori, but since its inception in 2010 it has been constantly scrutinised for low uptake and accessibility, with similar pitfalls to retail lending.

This highlights the importance of taking lessons from community-led innovations and their approaches. In this case, more compassionate investment and a whānau-centred finance model created new possibilities for managing risk associated with lending to ancestral Māori lands.

Genuine partnerships, seeking to protect whānau while participating in finance systems, were key. This provides a road map for how Aotearoa might face such pressing issues, now and into the future.

Jack Barrett 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. Māori communities lead innovative ways of financing housing on ancestral lands – https://theconversation.com/maori-communities-lead-innovative-ways-of-financing-housing-on-ancestral-lands-247179

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI: Willis appoints Mike Giacobbe as Client Strategy Leader, Corporate Risk & Broking, North America

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

NEW YORK, Feb. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Willis, a WTW business, (NASDAQ: WTW), today announced the appointment of Mike Giacobbe as Client Strategy Leader for Corporate Risk & Broking, North America. Giacobbe will report to Adam Garrard, Chairman, Global Risk & Broking.

In this new role, Giacobbe will drive an integrated value proposition that brings consistent service across client segments, ensuring every client gets the right, relevant service and expertise for their specific needs. Giacobbe will also focus on maximizing the use of Willis consulting capabilities and analytics tools, working closely with the Risk and Analytics team, tailoring them for clients across North America, whatever their size, industry, location and purchasing patterns.

Giacobbe joins Willis from Marsh, where he was most recently U.S. and Canada Leader of Marsh Advisory, focused on the company’s consulting, analytics and claims advisory capabilities. He was previously Global Head of Data, Analytics & Consulting at JLT, before JLT’s acquisition by Marsh. Before that, Giacobbe was at Aon, where he was latterly Managing Director, Broking, at Aon Risk Solutions after holding leadership positions in Aon’s consulting group.

Located in Chicago, Giacobbe holds a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois. He will join Willis in Q2 2025.

Adam Garrard, Chairman, Global Risk & Broking, commented:

“We are delighted to have Mike join Willis in this important new role. Ensuring consistency of client service and tailoring our consulting capabilities and analytics tools to the needs of every client, regardless of size, industry, location or purchasing patterns, will distinguish Willis in the North America marketplace.”

About WTW

At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance.

Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you.

Learn more at wtwco.com.

Media contacts
Douglas Menelly
Douglas.Menelly@wtwco.com +1 (516) 972 0380

The MIL Network –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: DRC: history is repeating itself in Lubumbashi as the world scrambles for minerals to go green

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Brandon Marc Finn, Research Scientist at the School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Lubumbashi is a city in the mineral-rich Katanga region in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Many people might not have heard of it, but Lubumbashi and its surrounding region have been at the centre of global geopolitics since the start of the 20th century. The area provided immense sources of copper, a metal that helped electrify the planet in the 1900s. It was also the source of all the uranium for the atom bombs used in the second world war.

The global demand for these minerals came at a great price. Lubumbashi grew as a divided city where housing and labour were spatially and racially segregated. Congolese workers were exploited, abused and taxed as urban and mining strategies were used to reshape society.

History is repeating itself. Neocolonialism now shapes the extraction of DRC resources.

Read more: DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt – how control by local elites can shape the global battery industry

Today, the southern DRC produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt. Cobalt is a mineral essential to decarbonisation – a strategy to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Cobalt is present in batteries in electric vehicles, mobile phones, laptop computers and renewable energy storage systems.

Like copper and uranium before it, cobalt mining has been linked to widescale exploitation and child labour. Corruption and elite capture remain defining features of mining in the DRC.

We are academics who research urbanisation, mining and sustainability as well as urban planning and environmental management. Our recent paper addresses the fact that African cities like Lubumbashi are at the heart of events that have shaped the modern world, yet they are woefully neglected in global urban theory (thinking about how cities form and develop) and urban geography.

Focusing on the global north and neglecting the south leads to major data gaps and contributes to mismatched and outdated urban policy.

Rock containing cobalt. © Brandon Marc Finn

We also argue that the human rights abuses and perils of today’s cobalt mining are new forms of old colonial practices. They strip the land and people of resources without proper pay. They offer green minerals to the global north at the cost of lives in the global south.

Sustainable cities and global decarbonisation are essential if we are to reduce cities’ carbon footprints and decarbonise economies in the face of the climate crisis.

Lubumbashi’s history, therefore, can offer a fuller understanding of the human and historical costs of minerals that shape cities – and the world.

A brief history of Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi was originally called Elisabethville. It was established by colonial Belgium in 1910 precisely to extract copper for global markets. This was done through a company named Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK).

Concessionary companies made enormous profits in the Congo Free State between 1885 and 1908. The entire country stood under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium. These companies were given the right to extract minerals and rubber through taxes imposed on local people.

A road being built in the Belgian Free State in 1890. PHAS/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The Belgian Compagnie du Katanga (which later founded UMHK) had the task of establishing the physical and economic infrastructure of the region. In exchange for laying the groundwork for the extractive industries, soon to be headquartered in Elisabethville, the company was given a third of all unoccupied land in Katanga. The Belgians established a copper smelter and constructed roads. Temporary headquarters were established to supervise Elisabethville’s expansion.

One initial method of controlling the local rural people was a “hut tax” that had to be paid to live in Lubumbashi. Later, a “head tax” was introduced to raise funds for colonial management. It forced people into labour as the only means to pay off their newly acquired debt to the colonial state.

Elisabethville served as the device to assert effective occupation. It also staved off the possibility of British occupation of the territory. The Belgians planned Elisabethville by reproducing the urban forms and racial segregation of Bulawayo’s grid in Southern Rhodesia (part of today’s Zimbabwe) and Johannesburg in South Africa.

Elisabethville’s early plan. F Grevisse/Institut Royal Colonial Belge

UMHK dominated the colonial economy as demand for copper increased worldwide. UMHK also stipulated which seeds would be planted where for agriculture. It dissolved local markets and whipped labourers.

Copper was in such high demand because it is a non-corrosive material that conducts electricity well. It lined telegraph and electrical transmission cables across the globe.

Copper mining acted as a springboard from which UMHK could spread its influence. It developed railways, cities, labour camps and mining sites throughout Katanga.

Spatial segregation in Elisabethville. P Vandenbak

This allowed UMHK access to the extraction of another resource that would shape the global geopolitical landscape: uranium – extracted from the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga.

It was the Belgian colonial presence that allowed the US to have access to uranium deposits as they sought to beat Germany in the race to build atomic weapons. All the uranium used in the two nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from Katanga.

This highlights the global significance of, but a neglected focus on, the impacts of mineral supply chains in the global south. Control over Lubumbashi’s minerals cannot be underplayed in this global historical event.

Katanga seceded from the Congo for three years, 11 days after the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960. The fight to gain control over Katanga’s resources led to the US and Belgian-backed assassination of the first independence leader, Patrice Lumumba. He was intent on reunifying Congo.

Mobutu Sese Seko became president of Zaire (today’s DRC) after a coup in 1965. He nationalised UMHK a year later. Mobutu served as president for almost 32 years, and his regime was characterised by autocratic corruption and economic exploitation.

Cobalt and global decarbonisation

The growth of modern technology relies, at least in part, on the extraction of cobalt in the DRC before it is shipped, mainly to China.

Cobalt is extracted as a byproduct of copper mining. Artisanal and small-scale mining and child labour remain a salient feature of cobalt extraction in the DRC. These miners receive little to no support and reflect the historical structural marginalisation created in the region.

Europeans settled in the city centre and locals in camps and informal areas. Junior Kannah/AFP/Getty Images

Lubumbashi serves as the mining headquarters of the southern DRC, and other cities, like Kolwezi, have grown rapidly in response to the surge in cobalt demand. Spatial and labour-related inequalities from the past are being replicated and expanded on in the present.

The DRC’s impoverishment continues apace as South African, Kazakh, Swiss and, with increasing influence, Chinese mining companies maintain their practice of exclusionary extraction, social displacement and political corruption.

Why this matters

Our research shows the importance of understanding the history of extraction and urban settlement in the region to shed light on new forms of old practices associated with decarbonisation. We see this as a continuing form of colonial power – as neocolonialism.

Contemporary debates around global inequalities associated with decarbonisation highlight how African populations must endure poor living conditions while the global north transitions to low-carbon technologies. We must find ways to move away from carbon-based economies that do not reproduce colonial inequalities.

Read more: Patrice Lumumba’s tooth represents plunder, resilience and reparation

Lubumbashi demonstrates the importance of African cities and resources in understanding critical global developmental and geopolitical issues.

For decarbonisation to be socially and environmentally just, it must contend with the people, places, and environments on which the future of low-carbon technology is based. Lubumbashi’s history shows how challenging this task will be.

– DRC: history is repeating itself in Lubumbashi as the world scrambles for minerals to go green
– https://theconversation.com/drc-history-is-repeating-itself-in-lubumbashi-as-the-world-scrambles-for-minerals-to-go-green-248571

MIL OSI Africa –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: New Horizons for International Tourism Education: GUU and RIAT Sign Cooperation Agreement

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

On February 4, 2024, an agreement was signed between the State University of Management and the Russian International Academy of Tourism.

On behalf of GUU, the agreement was signed by Rector Vladimir Stroyev, on behalf of RIAT – by Rector Evgeny Trofimov. Also present at the meeting were Vice-Rector of our university Maria Karelina, Director of the Institute of Personnel Management, Social and Business Communications of GUU Alexey Chudnovsky, Vice-Rector and Dean of the Faculty of Tourism Management of RIAT Elena Aliluyko, Vice-Rector for Development of Master’s and Postgraduate Programs of the Academy of Tourism Tatyana Rassokhina and Director of the Center for International Educational Programs, Projects and Public Relations of RIAT Alexey Ryabov.

Welcoming the guests, Vladimir Stroyev noted that the Russian International Academy of Tourism has always been one of the leaders in its specialized sector. Now the state pays special attention to this area. Despite the fact that the key area for the State University of Management is industry management, tourism disciplines in the Institute of Management and Budgetary Culture are also in demand, so it makes sense to strengthen work in this area. Speaking about the international activities of the State University of Management, the rector reported that our university has a secretariat of the Eurasian Network University, which has recently been joined by educational institutions in Transnistria and Cuba, and Iran is showing increasing interest.

“In addition to love and friendship, ESU also has material contours: 345 places for additional professional education, a budgetary master’s program, the Eurasian Olympiad,” Vladimir Vitalyevich shared. The rector also spoke about the university’s work within the BRICS Business School and the foreign internships organized by the State University of Management for graduates of the Presidential Program for the Training of Management Personnel for the Organization of the National Economy of the Russian Federation – “also entrepreneurial tourism.”

Rector of the Russian Academic Materiel Union Evgeny Trofimov briefly spoke about the 55-year history of the academy, complained about the objective difficulties in developing international cooperation related to the geopolitical situation in the world, but at the same time noted the successes in maintaining business ties with the largest European universities and international tourism organizations, which warmly congratulated the Russian Academic Materiel Union on its anniversary in May. Some joint programs were successfully defended and will continue to operate. In addition, new agreements were signed with universities in India and the Philippines. Evgeny Nikolaevich reported that during the crisis in relations, the academy added new programs to its portfolio of educational services: customs, law, logistics, design and architecture. In total, the Russian Academic Materiel Union currently trains students in 28 areas. The academy has six branches: in Yerevan, Kazan, Pskov, two in the Moscow region and one in Moscow, at the Izmailovo hotel complex. Secondary vocational education is growing rapidly; the number of graduates has recently increased from 60 to 750 people per year.

Vladimir Stroyev specifically focused on the development of network educational programs at the State University of Management: “We clearly understood that no university, even a large and state-owned one, can advance its agenda alone. Universities now face so many important tasks that it is very difficult to cope with them on their own. Only together are we strong.”

Vice-Rector of the State University of Management Maria Karelina told the guests that Vladimir Stroyev and Alexey Chudnovsky were awarded the state prize in the field of education for organizing and conducting the “University Shifts” program, which is also related to tourism.

Alexey Chudnovsky thanked his colleagues for the visit and noted their long-term joint work on international programs. It is natural that our universities came to sign a cooperation agreement. First of all, the emphasis will be on combining efforts to develop international educational programs.

“They are of interest to your and our students, so we are taking the first step towards network agreements that will expand coverage and provide an opportunity to use each other’s network programs. Tourism is a messenger of peace, it must be taken seriously. We have something to offer each other, we are opening a second wind to international relations in the field of education and will work on additional agreements to give more opportunities to our common students,” Alexey Danilovich summed up the meeting.

Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 02/04/2025

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: DRC: history is repeating itself in Lubumbashi as the world scrambles for minerals to go green

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Brandon Marc Finn, Research Scientist at the School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Lubumbashi is a city in the mineral-rich Katanga region in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Many people might not have heard of it, but Lubumbashi and its surrounding region have been at the centre of global geopolitics since the start of the 20th century. The area provided immense sources of copper, a metal that helped electrify the planet in the 1900s. It was also the source of all the uranium for the atom bombs used in the second world war.

The global demand for these minerals came at a great price. Lubumbashi grew as a divided city where housing and labour were spatially and racially segregated. Congolese workers were exploited, abused and taxed as urban and mining strategies were used to reshape society.

History is repeating itself. Neocolonialism now shapes the extraction of DRC resources.

Read more:
DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt – how control by local elites can shape the global battery industry

Today, the southern DRC produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt. Cobalt is a mineral essential to decarbonisation – a strategy to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Cobalt is present in batteries in electric vehicles, mobile phones, laptop computers and renewable energy storage systems.

Like copper and uranium before it, cobalt mining has been linked to widescale exploitation and child labour. Corruption and elite capture remain defining features of mining in the DRC.

We are academics who research urbanisation, mining and sustainability as well as urban planning and environmental management. Our recent paper addresses the fact that African cities like Lubumbashi are at the heart of events that have shaped the modern world, yet they are woefully neglected in global urban theory (thinking about how cities form and develop) and urban geography.

Focusing on the global north and neglecting the south leads to major data gaps and contributes to mismatched and outdated urban policy.

We also argue that the human rights abuses and perils of today’s cobalt mining are new forms of old colonial practices. They strip the land and people of resources without proper pay. They offer green minerals to the global north at the cost of lives in the global south.

Sustainable cities and global decarbonisation are essential if we are to reduce cities’ carbon footprints and decarbonise economies in the face of the climate crisis.

Lubumbashi’s history, therefore, can offer a fuller understanding of the human and historical costs of minerals that shape cities – and the world.

A brief history of Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi was originally called Elisabethville. It was established by colonial Belgium in 1910 precisely to extract copper for global markets. This was done through a company named Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK).

Concessionary companies made enormous profits in the Congo Free State between 1885 and 1908. The entire country stood under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium. These companies were given the right to extract minerals and rubber through taxes imposed on local people.

The Belgian Compagnie du Katanga (which later founded UMHK) had the task of establishing the physical and economic infrastructure of the region. In exchange for laying the groundwork for the extractive industries, soon to be headquartered in Elisabethville, the company was given a third of all unoccupied land in Katanga. The Belgians established a copper smelter and constructed roads. Temporary headquarters were established to supervise Elisabethville’s expansion.

One initial method of controlling the local rural people was a “hut tax” that had to be paid to live in Lubumbashi. Later, a “head tax” was introduced to raise funds for colonial management. It forced people into labour as the only means to pay off their newly acquired debt to the colonial state.

Elisabethville served as the device to assert effective occupation. It also staved off the possibility of British occupation of the territory. The Belgians planned Elisabethville by reproducing the urban forms and racial segregation of Bulawayo’s grid in Southern Rhodesia (part of today’s Zimbabwe) and Johannesburg in South Africa.

UMHK dominated the colonial economy as demand for copper increased worldwide. UMHK also stipulated which seeds would be planted where for agriculture. It dissolved local markets and whipped labourers.

Copper was in such high demand because it is a non-corrosive material that conducts electricity well. It lined telegraph and electrical transmission cables across the globe.

Copper mining acted as a springboard from which UMHK could spread its influence. It developed railways, cities, labour camps and mining sites throughout Katanga.

This allowed UMHK access to the extraction of another resource that would shape the global geopolitical landscape: uranium – extracted from the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga.

It was the Belgian colonial presence that allowed the US to have access to uranium deposits as they sought to beat Germany in the race to build atomic weapons. All the uranium used in the two nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from Katanga.

This highlights the global significance of, but a neglected focus on, the impacts of mineral supply chains in the global south. Control over Lubumbashi’s minerals cannot be underplayed in this global historical event.

Katanga seceded from the Congo for three years, 11 days after the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960. The fight to gain control over Katanga’s resources led to the US and Belgian-backed assassination of the first independence leader, Patrice Lumumba. He was intent on reunifying Congo.

Mobutu Sese Seko became president of Zaire (today’s DRC) after a coup in 1965. He nationalised UMHK a year later. Mobutu served as president for almost 32 years, and his regime was characterised by autocratic corruption and economic exploitation.

Cobalt and global decarbonisation

The growth of modern technology relies, at least in part, on the extraction of cobalt in the DRC before it is shipped, mainly to China.

Cobalt is extracted as a byproduct of copper mining. Artisanal and small-scale mining and child labour remain a salient feature of cobalt extraction in the DRC. These miners receive little to no support and reflect the historical structural marginalisation created in the region.

Lubumbashi serves as the mining headquarters of the southern DRC, and other cities, like Kolwezi, have grown rapidly in response to the surge in cobalt demand. Spatial and labour-related inequalities from the past are being replicated and expanded on in the present.

The DRC’s impoverishment continues apace as South African, Kazakh, Swiss and, with increasing influence, Chinese mining companies maintain their practice of exclusionary extraction, social displacement and political corruption.

Why this matters

Our research shows the importance of understanding the history of extraction and urban settlement in the region to shed light on new forms of old practices associated with decarbonisation. We see this as a continuing form of colonial power – as neocolonialism.

Contemporary debates around global inequalities associated with decarbonisation highlight how African populations must endure poor living conditions while the global north transitions to low-carbon technologies. We must find ways to move away from carbon-based economies that do not reproduce colonial inequalities.

Read more:
Patrice Lumumba’s tooth represents plunder, resilience and reparation

Lubumbashi demonstrates the importance of African cities and resources in understanding critical global developmental and geopolitical issues.

For decarbonisation to be socially and environmentally just, it must contend with the people, places, and environments on which the future of low-carbon technology is based. Lubumbashi’s history shows how challenging this task will be.

Brandon Marc Finn has received funding from the University of Michigan and Harvard University to conduct this research.

Patrick Brandful Cobbinah has received research funding from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

– ref. DRC: history is repeating itself in Lubumbashi as the world scrambles for minerals to go green – https://theconversation.com/drc-history-is-repeating-itself-in-lubumbashi-as-the-world-scrambles-for-minerals-to-go-green-248571

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada are stoking a new Canadian nationalism

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration, Toronto Metropolitan University

Is the threatened trade war between Canada and the United States igniting a new form of Canadian nationalism? Polls suggest Canadians are overwhelmingly opposed to any notion of becoming the 51st American state as the U.S. anthem is being roundly booed at sporting events in Canada.

If a new Canadian nationalism is emerging, what will it look like in a country that declared itself in 2015 the first post-national state, stoking envy around the world over Canada’s inclusive nationalism?

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to launch 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian exports in a month’s time after weeks of persistently provoking both Canadian leaders and citizens with his repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state.

Read more:
Canada, the 51st state? Eliminating interprovincial trade barriers could ward off Donald Trump

Such calls have led to significant outrage, prompting Canadian leaders that include Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland and Doug Ford to respond that Canada is not for sale and that Canada is a country by choice.

Opposed to joining the U.S.

If there was any suggestion that being a “post-national” state would lead to an openness to join the U.S., recent polls show the opposite: 90 per cent of Canadians reject that scenario.

Two thirds of Canadians polled in 2021 felt that Canada is faring better than the U.S. on most counts, including quality of life, protection of rights, standards of living and opportunities to get ahead.

This percentage had significantly grown compared to the 1980s or 1990s.

So how does a feeling of being an inclusive, post-national state reconcile with a firm sentiment of patriotism that is growing stronger by the day? And what are the contradictory currents in Canadian identity today?

Contemporary Canadian identity

I have been studying nationalism for 30 years, with a special focus on how immigration, migration and national identity interact. My work suggests there are a few elements that buttress and support Canada’s identity today.

National identity is not a closed container of cultural elements. It develops interactively. As we’re seeing today, amid uncertainty, geopolitical competition as well as close socio-economic interdependence, national identity can emerge with a renewed force.

Diversity can lead either to a plural national identity that is open to change or a neo-tribal identity that is reactionary. Plural nationalism acknowledges the changing demographic or political circumstances of the nation, and through a process of tension, conflict and change, it creates something new.

This nationalism is plural not because it acknowledges diversity as a fact, but because it makes a commitment to engage with diversity.

But dealing with new challenges and increasing diversity may also lead to rejecting “the other.” I use the term tribal to emphasize that this type of nationalism, regardless of whether the in-group is defined in territorial-civic or blood-and-belonging terms, is predicated on an organic, homogenous conception of the nation.

In this situation, the nation is represented as a compact unit that does not allow for variation or change. The only way to deal with challenges of mobility and diversity is to close rank, resist and reject it.

Neo-tribal nationalism is not static. It is dynamic and interactive too — although its reaction to new challenges and to diversity, from within or from outside, involves closure and rejection.

It is neo-tribal because it develops and thrives in a world that is ever more interconnected. Social media platforms play an important role here as their algorithms create neo-tribal digital ecochambers where everyone is closed within their digital bubble of like-minded people.

COVID-19 experiences

Challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Canada faced important dilemmas. For instance, should temporary residents be encouraged to return home or or stay when the pandemic broke out and borders closed around the world? Canada opted for the latter.

Unlike Australia — where temporary workers and international students were encouraged to go home — the Canadian government stated that temporary migrants whose “effective residence” was in the country would be supported to stay.

The term “effective residence” defined membership on the basis of habitual residence; where people lived, worked, sent their kids to school and paid taxes. Living together formed a sense of common fate, reinforcing an expansive and inclusive view of who is a Canadian.

In addition, recognizing the essential work performed by many temporary residents, such as asylum-seekers employed in senior care homes, Canada introduced special measures to facilitate their transition to permanent status.

Read more:
Working more and making less: Canada needs to protect immigrant women care workers as they age

In August 2020, Marco Mendicino, Canada’s immigration minister at the time, announced a special path to permanent residency (now known as the Guardian Angels program), noting that “they demonstrated a uniquely Canadian quality …in that they were looking out for others, and so that is why today is so special.”

Mendicino emphasized that the behaviour of these workers qualified them as Canadians; their important contribution in “caring for the other” was defined as a very special element in the national identity.

National unity bolstered by diversity

The Canadian patriotism that is emerging today in the face of Trump’s actions — and in the words of almost all Liberal, Conservative and NDP leaders — builds on solid ground.

Canadian nationalism has not just been about being polite, but rather builds on decades of positive confrontation with challenges.

A July 2024 Environics poll suggested Canadians do not feel they need to choose among their multiple identities or to exclude others in order to revitalize their sense of identity and belonging.

National unity is strengthened by internal diversity. The looming trade war and threats of annexation by Trump may be having a beneficial impact in reminding Canadians of the values that unite them and that Canada is indeed “a country by choice.”

Anna Triandafyllidou receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Tri-Agency Council of Canada.

– ref. How Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada are stoking a new Canadian nationalism – https://theconversation.com/how-donald-trumps-attacks-on-canada-are-stoking-a-new-canadian-nationalism-247958

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s ‘Memories’ can retraumatize survivors of abuse

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nicolette Little, Assistant lecturer, Media and Technology Studies, University of Alberta

While often considered harmless or fun, memory features on smartphones can have the opposite effect. (Shutterstock)

In contemporary digital society, remembering is automated. Social media platforms and smartphones often offer features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s “Memories” that resurface users’ past posts and photographs.

For many people, these reminders of the past are a source of joyful reminiscence. For others — like survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) — they can be harmful.

These nostalgia-driven Memories features enact what I call “platform violence:” unintended but harmful consequences, caused by automated features, designed to profit tech companies without adequately considering users’ well-being.

Algorithmic recall

Algorithms select and retrieve images from users’ digital archives, with the supposed goal of reminding users of happy moments. Introduced in 2018, Memories was promoted by Facebook’s product manager, Oren Hod, as a tool for improving mood and connection with others.

Yet these algorithms can get it wrong by bringing up painful, or even traumatic, memories instead. Writing about the feature in Forbes Magazine, Amit Chowdhry acknowledges that “memories … are not all positive.”

While Facebook’s algorithm attempts to filter out negative memories using keywords and feedback from users’ reactions, these safeguards are often inadequate. As my research has found, resurfaced photos of abusers can trigger emotional, psychological and even physiological distress for survivors of GBV.

When iPhone Memories draws images from a user’s Photos cache to create slideshows, smartphone users can be similarly triggered. The fact that these slideshows are set to cheerful music is something survivors find particularly “creepy,” as images of abusive exes scroll by.

Unexpectedly being presented with photographs from a phone archive can re-traumatize survivors.
(Shutterstock)

Familiar faces

GBV encompasses a spectrum of abusive behaviours, ranging from catcalling and rape jokes to sexual assault and femicide. In Canada, a woman dies every other day due to GBV, with intimate partner violence claiming a life every sixth day. One in four women reports GBV in their lifetime, although the actual number is higher due to fears of not being believed or stigmatization.

Particularly relevant to my research, in at least 80 per cent of cases, the perpetrator is someone the survivor knows, such as a partner, friend or family member. This makes it likely that survivors once shared social media connections or posted images with their abuser, increasing the risk these photos will resurface as a memory.

For survivors, encountering a photo of their abuser can be as traumatic as seeing them in person. In interviews with 15 survivors, all reported intense emotional reactions including panic, upset and physical symptoms like nausea and a racing heart. Those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were particularly vulnerable to being triggered.

For instance, one participant, Nyla (names have been changed), described experiencing “full panic mode” and emotional shutdown for days after seeing a photo of her abusive ex-partner. Kelly, another participant, felt her “heart race” and avoided her smartphone and social media altogether. Other participants’ responses included feelings of social disconnection, fearfulness when out in public and mistrust of their own judgment of others. This presented barriers to forming new, healthy relationships.

Nancy, a survivor of an abusive relationship, recalled photos from the period when she was planning her escape.

“I look into my eyes in those photos and know I was secretly planning on leaving my partner,” she said. The resurfaced images were a “surreal” reminder of the facade she maintained during the final years of her marriage.

Mobile phones and social media are essential to daily life, and limiting their use can have a negative impact.
(Angelo Moleele/Unsplash), CC BY

Inclusive, safe design

Survivors often lack the familiarity with platforms’ settings to pre-emptively block or delete potentially triggering content. Even when settings exist, they are often buried in menus, hard to navigate or require survivors to manually confront and delete painful memories or photographs.

Once the survivor has been triggered, they often no longer have the emotional capacity to take the steps needed to delete or remove the upsetting memory at the time.

Recommendations like telling survivors to leave their device at home or deactivate their social media accounts place responsibility for addressing abuse on survivors, rather than perpetrators. Mobile phones and social media are essential to daily life, including for work, social interaction and access to safety-related services. Advising survivors to simply log off or avoid their devices shifts responsibility onto survivors and distracts from the underlying issues: society’s high rates of GBV and the need for safer, more inclusive design.

And inclusive design is needed: nostalgia-producing algorithms, as they currently function, disproportionately harm communities exposed to higher rates of violence, including women and LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals.

Opt-in rather than out

Interview subjects suggested that platforms require users to opt in if they wish to have their past resurfaced, rather than being forced to opt out, often after being triggered.

Tech developers, often from privileged backgrounds, fail to account for marginalized users’ experiences when designing features.

Platforms must prioritize user safety by making it easier to control and customize the memories that resurface. Settings for managing features like Memories should be accessible, easy to use and sensitive to the needs of those who have experienced trauma.

By recognizing the unintended consequences of algorithmically driven nostalgia, tech companies can take steps toward creating platforms that empower all users.

Nicolette Little receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s ‘Memories’ can retraumatize survivors of abuse – https://theconversation.com/features-like-iphones-and-facebooks-memories-can-retraumatize-survivors-of-abuse-231897

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How food can be used to support people living with dementia

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Navjot Gill-Chawla, Doctoral Candidate, Aging, Health and Well-being, University of Waterloo

From the aroma of freshly ground spices to the rhythmic sounds of a mortar and pestle, food evokes strong sensory memories, making it a powerful tool in dementia care. (Shutterstock)

As dementia rates rise globally, families and care partners are seeking ways to maintain meaningful connections with loved ones experiencing memory loss. In many cultures, food is central to cultural identity and family life.

Cooking traditional recipes can also a unique way to evoke memories and foster social connections. Familiar flavours, scents and cooking techniques can provide support and comfort to those living with dementia.

In South Asian cultures, food is deeply intertwined with identity, memory and relationships. From the aroma of freshly ground spices to the rhythmic sounds of a mortar and pestle, food evokes strong sensory memories, making it a powerful tool in dementia care.

When it comes to supporting people with dementia, food and cooking can be culturally relevant ways to enhance well-being, strengthen inter-generational bonds and preserve identity — making them an increasingly important tools in dementia care.

My research focuses on understanding the experiences of people living with dementia and their care partners in South Asian communities, and the importance of culturally inclusive care for dementia.

Food and memory

The connection between food and memory is well-documented. For individuals living with dementia who often experience memory loss and disorientation, familiar foods can trigger memories of specific events, places or people. For example, the scent of ghee-laden parathas or the sight of turmeric-coloured curries may evoke memories of childhood kitchens, family celebrations or community gatherings.

In South Asian communities, food is a cornerstone of cultural identity. Dishes are often tied to regional traditions, religious practices, and family legacies. For individuals living with dementia, preparing or consuming familiar foods can provide a sense of stability and continuity.

A person with dementia may find comfort in the ritual of making chai, even if they forget other aspects of their daily routine. Similarly, they might find joy in tasting the traditional foods of their region.

Dementia care often involves strategies that engage the senses to improve quality of life. Food offers a multi-sensory experience — taste, smell, touch, sight and even sound. For South Asian older adults, the act of rolling dough for rotis, smelling fragrant basmati rice or hearing the crackle of mustard seeds in hot oil can stimulate the senses and provide therapeutic benefits.

Engaging individuals in food preparation can also help maintain fine motor skills and foster a sense of purpose. Even simple tasks like peeling garlic, mixing spices or stirring a pot can provide opportunities for engagement and connection. Importantly, these activities do not need to be perfect — the process itself is valuable.

In cultures around the world, meals are rarely solitary. Food is inherently social, often prepared and shared among family members. For individuals living with dementia, mealtime can be an opportunity to strengthen familial bonds and reduce feelings of isolation. Sharing a meal allows care partners and family members to engage in meaningful interactions, even if verbal communication is limited.

Inter-generational cooking can be particularly engaging. Grandparents living with dementia can pass on recipes to their grandchildren, creating moments of joy and preserving cultural heritage. These interactions help younger generations understand dementia while fostering empathy and appreciation for their elders.

Adapting for dementia care

While traditional South Asian dishes can be comforting, they may need to be adapted for individuals living with dementia. For example, finger foods like pakoras or stuffed parathas can be easier to handle than dishes requiring utensils. Similarly, simplifying recipes with fewer ingredients or steps can make the cooking process more manageable for individuals living with dementia.

Nutritional considerations are also crucial. Many South Asian dishes are rich in fats, carbohydrates and spices, which may not align with the dietary needs of older adults. Modifying recipes to include more vegetables, lean proteins and lower salt levels can ensure that meals are both nutritious and culturally familiar.

Despite its benefits, using food as a tool for dementia care is not without challenges. Care partners often face time constraints, lack of resources or their own emotional burdens, which may limit their ability to engage in food-based activities. Additionally, some families may struggle to adapt traditional recipes, especially if they lack culinary skills or are unfamiliar with healthy substitutions.

Community support organizations can play a pivotal role in overcoming these barriers. Cooking workshops, memory cafés with food themes or culturally tailored resources can empower families to incorporate food into dementia care. For instance, community centres can organize events where older adults and care partners come together to prepare traditional meals, share recipes and build support networks.

Inter-generational cooking can be particularly engaging. Grandparents living with dementia can pass on recipes to their grandchildren, creating moments of joy and preserving cultural heritage.
(Shutterstock)

Culturally tailored dementia care

Integrating food into dementia care underscores the importance of culturally tailored approaches. Incorporating cultural elements like food acknowledges the holistic needs of individuals and their families. Health-care providers and community organizations must prioritize cultural humility, recognizing the unique role that food plays in the lives of South Asian families living with dementia.

In the journey of dementia care, food is more than a tool for nourishment. For South Asian communities, it is a source of connection, identity and healing. By integrating food into care practices, families and care partners can unlock its potential to evoke memories, strengthen relationships and improve the well-being of individuals living with dementia.

With culturally sensitive support and resources, food can become a powerful ally in navigating the complexities of dementia care, one bite, one memory and one story at a time.

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

– ref. How food can be used to support people living with dementia – https://theconversation.com/how-food-can-be-used-to-support-people-living-with-dementia-248731

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Psychology in democratic South Africa: new book explores a post-apartheid journey

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Liezille Jacobs, Associate Professor, Rhodes University

Dr Liezille Jacobs’ book explores the experiences of South Africa’s first generation of post-apartheid Black psychologists. Photo by Dirk Pieters/cover concept Antonio Erasmus, CC BY-NC-ND

When apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa underwent significant social and political transformation. A key aspect of this shift was the push for greater inclusion and representation of Black South Africans across all sectors – including psychology.

Dr Liezille Jacobs was part of a pioneering generation of Black psychologists who started their training in 1995. Now she has written a book, Rocklands: On becoming the first generation of Black psychologists in post-apartheid South Africa. In it she explores the barriers she and her colleagues faced and unpacks misconceptions around what psychology is and does. She also argues that critical (and African) psychology can both “address the legacies of apartheid and heal the relational traumas caused by systemic oppression”. The Conversation Africa asked her about the book and her work.

What is the book about?

I wrote Rocklands to address the widespread misconceptions that both first-year psychology students and the general public often hold about what it truly means to be a psychologist. It’s common for people to oversimplify the profession. They view it merely as talking to people or offering quick-fix solutions to problems. The reality is far more complex.

I wanted to challenge these superficial ideas and provide a more layered and accurate representation of the field. The process of becoming a psychologist is not just about acquiring theoretical knowledge. It’s also about developing emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and a strong ethical foundation. Psychologists must balance empathy with objectivity, personal insight with professional boundaries, all while navigating the vast complexities of human emotions, relationships, and societal influences.

The goal of the book is to make psychological knowledge and expertise more accessible to the public.

Rocklands is also an account of resilience and personal growth in the face of adversity. The first chapter reflects on my early experiences growing up in Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain. Rocklands was established during apartheid as part of a government plan to segregate communities. Non-white South Africans were moved to areas like Mitchell’s Plain under the Group Areas Act. Over time, Rocklands grew into a working-class neighborhood, shaped by its apartheid-era history.

The ensuing chapters provide a detailed account of my unique and often difficult journey. I’ve traversed a path less travelled but it’s ultimately led to personal and professional fulfilment.

Why did you decide to study psychology?

I initially dreamed of becoming a journalist. However, my parents encouraged me to explore other career options. The results of a career assessment suggested I should consider social work, occupational therapy or psychology.

Psychology truly caught my attention. As someone with an introverted personality I was drawn to the idea of understanding human behaviour and thought processes on a deeper level. At the time, I envisioned myself working as a clinical psychologist, helping individuals one-on-one.

Everything shifted when I began my formal studies in 1995. I quickly realised that the field of psychology in South Africa – especially in the context of its history – had much more work to do. I saw the gaps in the system and became acutely aware of how psychology had, in many ways, been complicit in perpetuating social injustices. In 1995, as a first year psychology student, I was made aware of the field’s struggle with its apartheid legacy and psychology’s unfinished business.

Hendrik Verwoerd was the architect of the racist policies and segregation system that became known worldwide as “grand apartheid”. He was also a psychologist by training.

Psychology in South Africa has made efforts to adapt to a diverse society. But there are still challenges. These include a disconnect between academic training and professional practice, and the lingering effects of apartheid-era inequalities.

Read more:
Being black in the world: a tribute to pioneering South African psychologist Chabani Manganyi

South Africa desperately needed (and still does today) Critical Psychologists. Critical psychology challenges traditional psychological theories by examining the social, political, and historical contexts that shape psychological issues. It critiques mainstream psychology for overlooking power structures. And it aims to use psychology as a tool for social change and addressing inequalities.

Critical psychologists challenge the dominant narratives of the past, address the legacies of apartheid, and have access to the tools to heal the relational traumas caused by systemic oppression. I knew I wanted to contribute to the transformation of the profession – to make it more inclusive, socially responsible, and oriented towards healing the wounds left by historical injustices. This shift in perspective has shaped my entire career. It’s guided my studies, research and teaching practice.

Have South Africa’s universities changed how they teach psychology?

The academic transformation project continues and universities are striving to adapt to a more diverse student body. But the pace and extent of this change can vary between institutions.

There has been a growing recognition globally that psychology, as a discipline, needs to move beyond its traditional western-centric, individualistic frameworks. It must engage more deeply with local contexts and diverse ways of knowing and experiencing the world.

I was the head of the Psychology Department at Rhodes University in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province from 2022 to 2024. The department has incorporated indigenous knowledge systems such as African philosophical perspectives and non-western psychological practices into our teaching.

For example, community-based service-learning strategies are emphasised in the undergraduate courses I teach. Community-based service-learning combines community service with academic learning. This gives students the opportunity to engage in real-world problems and contribute to the community while applying psychological theories, concepts and methods. Students learn how to become engaged citizens.

We also use a variety of teaching materials – case studies, texts by African scholars, multimedia – that resonate with students’ lived experiences.

Read more:
Decolonising psychology creates possibilities for social change

In a society as culturally and racially diverse as South Africa it is crucial for people to see themselves reflected in the professionals they turn to for help. This can play a role in lowering barriers to mental health services.

South Africa has a legacy of collective struggle and community resilience. Psychology stands to gain from a greater understanding of collective identities, community dynamics and social justice. Psychologists from diverse backgrounds can offer more nuanced, holistic interventions that address systemic issues rather than focusing solely on individual pathology.

Liezille Jacobs receives funding from the Future Professors Programme for the Book publication.

– ref. Psychology in democratic South Africa: new book explores a post-apartheid journey – https://theconversation.com/psychology-in-democratic-south-africa-new-book-explores-a-post-apartheid-journey-247699

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Psychology in democratic South Africa: new book explores a post-apartheid journey

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Liezille Jacobs, Associate Professor, Rhodes University

When apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa underwent significant social and political transformation. A key aspect of this shift was the push for greater inclusion and representation of Black South Africans across all sectors – including psychology.

Dr Liezille Jacobs was part of a pioneering generation of Black psychologists who started their training in 1995. Now she has written a book, Rocklands: On becoming the first generation of Black psychologists in post-apartheid South Africa. In it she explores the barriers she and her colleagues faced and unpacks misconceptions around what psychology is and does. She also argues that critical (and African) psychology can both “address the legacies of apartheid and heal the relational traumas caused by systemic oppression”. The Conversation Africa asked her about the book and her work.

What is the book about?

I wrote Rocklands to address the widespread misconceptions that both first-year psychology students and the general public often hold about what it truly means to be a psychologist. It’s common for people to oversimplify the profession. They view it merely as talking to people or offering quick-fix solutions to problems. The reality is far more complex.

I wanted to challenge these superficial ideas and provide a more layered and accurate representation of the field. The process of becoming a psychologist is not just about acquiring theoretical knowledge. It’s also about developing emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and a strong ethical foundation. Psychologists must balance empathy with objectivity, personal insight with professional boundaries, all while navigating the vast complexities of human emotions, relationships, and societal influences.

The goal of the book is to make psychological knowledge and expertise more accessible to the public.

Rocklands is also an account of resilience and personal growth in the face of adversity. The first chapter reflects on my early experiences growing up in Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain. Rocklands was established during apartheid as part of a government plan to segregate communities. Non-white South Africans were moved to areas like Mitchell’s Plain under the Group Areas Act. Over time, Rocklands grew into a working-class neighborhood, shaped by its apartheid-era history.

The ensuing chapters provide a detailed account of my unique and often difficult journey. I’ve traversed a path less travelled but it’s ultimately led to personal and professional fulfilment.

Why did you decide to study psychology?

I initially dreamed of becoming a journalist. However, my parents encouraged me to explore other career options. The results of a career assessment suggested I should consider social work, occupational therapy or psychology.

Psychology truly caught my attention. As someone with an introverted personality I was drawn to the idea of understanding human behaviour and thought processes on a deeper level. At the time, I envisioned myself working as a clinical psychologist, helping individuals one-on-one.

Everything shifted when I began my formal studies in 1995. I quickly realised that the field of psychology in South Africa – especially in the context of its history – had much more work to do. I saw the gaps in the system and became acutely aware of how psychology had, in many ways, been complicit in perpetuating social injustices. In 1995, as a first year psychology student, I was made aware of the field’s struggle with its apartheid legacy and psychology’s unfinished business.

Hendrik Verwoerd was the architect of the racist policies and segregation system that became known worldwide as “grand apartheid”. He was also a psychologist by training.

Psychology in South Africa has made efforts to adapt to a diverse society. But there are still challenges. These include a disconnect between academic training and professional practice, and the lingering effects of apartheid-era inequalities.

Read more: Being black in the world: a tribute to pioneering South African psychologist Chabani Manganyi

South Africa desperately needed (and still does today) Critical Psychologists. Critical psychology challenges traditional psychological theories by examining the social, political, and historical contexts that shape psychological issues. It critiques mainstream psychology for overlooking power structures. And it aims to use psychology as a tool for social change and addressing inequalities.

Critical psychologists challenge the dominant narratives of the past, address the legacies of apartheid, and have access to the tools to heal the relational traumas caused by systemic oppression. I knew I wanted to contribute to the transformation of the profession – to make it more inclusive, socially responsible, and oriented towards healing the wounds left by historical injustices. This shift in perspective has shaped my entire career. It’s guided my studies, research and teaching practice.

Have South Africa’s universities changed how they teach psychology?

The academic transformation project continues and universities are striving to adapt to a more diverse student body. But the pace and extent of this change can vary between institutions.

There has been a growing recognition globally that psychology, as a discipline, needs to move beyond its traditional western-centric, individualistic frameworks. It must engage more deeply with local contexts and diverse ways of knowing and experiencing the world.

I was the head of the Psychology Department at Rhodes University in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province from 2022 to 2024. The department has incorporated indigenous knowledge systems such as African philosophical perspectives and non-western psychological practices into our teaching.

For example, community-based service-learning strategies are emphasised in the undergraduate courses I teach. Community-based service-learning combines community service with academic learning. This gives students the opportunity to engage in real-world problems and contribute to the community while applying psychological theories, concepts and methods. Students learn how to become engaged citizens.

We also use a variety of teaching materials – case studies, texts by African scholars, multimedia – that resonate with students’ lived experiences.

Read more: Decolonising psychology creates possibilities for social change

In a society as culturally and racially diverse as South Africa it is crucial for people to see themselves reflected in the professionals they turn to for help. This can play a role in lowering barriers to mental health services.

South Africa has a legacy of collective struggle and community resilience. Psychology stands to gain from a greater understanding of collective identities, community dynamics and social justice. Psychologists from diverse backgrounds can offer more nuanced, holistic interventions that address systemic issues rather than focusing solely on individual pathology.

– Psychology in democratic South Africa: new book explores a post-apartheid journey
– https://theconversation.com/psychology-in-democratic-south-africa-new-book-explores-a-post-apartheid-journey-247699

MIL OSI Africa –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Smart brands rein in ad spending when a rival faces a setback − here’s why

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Vivek Astvansh, Associate Professor of Quantitative Marketing and Analytics, McGill University

When a rival business stumbles, it’s both a threat and an opportunity. Matt Molloy via Getty Images Plus

Imagine: You’re in charge of marketing for a major automaker, and your biggest competitor just recalled thousands of vehicles. Now customers are worried about the safety of cars like yours. Do you seize the moment and ramp up advertising to steal market share? Or do you pull back on ads, fearing that customers will connect your brand with the bad press?

For what marketing professors like me call “substitute brands,” this sort of dilemma pops up all the time. Whether it’s a product recall, a customer data breach or a scandal, bad news for one brand can shake customers’ confidence in an entire product category.

The big question: Should competitors respond by increasing or decreasing their advertising? And will these adjustments help or hurt sales?

At first glance, the answer might seem obvious. More ad spending should mean bigger market share, right? But the reality is more complex. In a recent study looking at how 62 car brands responded to a 2014 recall, my colleagues and I found that, on average, when a rival brand issues a recall, its competitors cut their ad spending in half. In other words, most brands treat a rival’s crisis as a threat rather than an opportunity.

And when we looked at the ads’ content, we saw something even more interesting. When a rival brand stumbled, we found substitutes boosted their price-focused advertising by 25% on average, likely in an attempt to attract deal seekers. At the same time, they cut quality-focused advertising by 71%, possibly to avoid drawing unwanted comparisons.

And here’s the kicker: This strategy works.

We found, on average, a rival’s recall raises a substitute’s monthly sales by 35.3% – and the more a brand pulls back on ad spending, the greater the effect. So, when a competitor falters, the best response isn’t necessarily to shout louder. Instead, the data suggests a smarter play: Spend strategically, focus on price messaging, and avoid drawing attention to quality comparisons.

How we did our work

To understand how brands respond when a competitor faces a crisis, we focused on a real-world case: Volkswagen’s recall of nearly half a million cars branded under the Sagitar model in October 2014. This provided the perfect opportunity to study how rival brands adjusted their advertising strategies.

We identified Sagitar’s substitute models – 62 other sedans in the A-class category, sold by more than 30 manufacturers – and collected data on sales and ad spending across 308 media markets in the months before and after the recall. We then did a statistical analysis, controlling for several other variables that could influence ad spending.

Why it matters

Prior research offers mixed guidance on how a substitute brand should adjust its ad spending after a rival’s marketing crisis. Anecdotal evidence from the automotive and consumer goods industries is also mixed. For example, after Samsung recalled its Galaxy Note 7 in 2016 due to faulty batteries, competing phonemakers aggressively ramped up their advertising in an attempt to increase their market share.

Similarly, in 2010, after a Toyota recall, General Motors offered incentives for Toyota owners to switch to a GM car. GM’s chief marketing officer positioned these incentives as GM’s way to meet car buyers’ desire for peace of mind, and reports suggest that GM’s and other rival carmakers’ sales increased following Toyota’s recall.

But my team’s research suggests that this sort of strategy might not be the best one. Sometimes, saying less actually says more.

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

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

– ref. Smart brands rein in ad spending when a rival faces a setback − here’s why – https://theconversation.com/smart-brands-rein-in-ad-spending-when-a-rival-faces-a-setback-heres-why-248842

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Hunger rises as food aid falls – and those living under autocratic systems bear the brunt

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jonas Gamso, Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of Knowledge Enterprise for the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University

Volunteers hand out USAID flour at the Zanzalima Camp in Ethiopia. J. Countess/Getty Images

“No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy,” observed Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in his 1999 book “Development as Freedom.”

My recent research doesn’t tackle Sen’s central argument – premised on the belief that democratic leaders prioritize food security because they cannot win reelection if the most basic needs of their constituents are not met – head on. Instead, I explored an auxiliary question: Do democratic governments cope better than their autocratic counterparts when their countries are confronted by sudden drops in food aid?

The answer is a resounding “yes.”

I came to that conclusion by analyzing food insecurity data from 110 countries from 2000 to 2020.

Food aid – a form of international assistance in which donors give food, or funds to buy food, to low- or middle-income countries – has recently fallen, reaching fewer people in 2024 than in 2023, according to estimates from the World Food Program, a United Nations agency. Major donors like Germany and the United States have reduced or suspended aid, citing budgetary constraints or concerns about theft, including to some of the neediest countries, such as Afghanistan, Haiti and Ethiopia. Adding to concerns, the Trump administration has signaled that it may move to “close down” the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the largest provider of global food assistance.

At the same time, the world has faced a significant hunger crisis since 2019 due to a combination of factors, including the impacts of civil conflict, climate change and stubbornly high prices.

I wanted to determine whether food aid cuts and rising hunger are connected, and if democracy matters. I started by cataloging instances when countries had experienced significant reductions in food aid inflows. I then looked at whether those “aid shocks” were followed by upticks in food insecurity, using data from the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Finally, I assessed whether the relationship between aid shocks and food insecurity varied across countries and political systems.

The results indicate that autocracies experience heightened food insecurity when sharp cuts to international food assistance occur, whereas democracies keep their people fed.

For example, autocratic Eswatini, an absolute monarchy in southern Africa that was formerly known as Swaziland, experienced a food aid shock in 2010 that was followed by a 2 percentage point uptick in the prevalence of undernourishment. In contrast, when Mongolia, a robust democracy, experienced an aid shock in 2007, undernourishment actually declined by about 3 percentage points.

On the one hand, this isn’t entirely surprising, as democratic leaders – unlike their autocratic counterparts – have to face the public in national elections, and winning is difficult when people are experiencing widespread hunger. Because leaders in a democracy are more accountable to their citizens, they make more of an effort to make up for the lost aid or cushion the adverse effects of food aid shocks on their populations.

On the other hand, democracies often struggle to move quickly, due to their complex policymaking processes and checks and balances. This may lead some to conclude that it is harder for them to move nimbly during a foreign aid crisis.

Why it matters

While many question the effectiveness of aid, including food aid, my findings suggest that cutting it – as some critics suggest – will have negative effects on the health and well-being of vulnerable people around the world. Already, food systems experts have expressed fears over the Trump administration’s proposed aid freezes and the potential breaking up of USAID.

For this reason, donor nations should be cautious about halting or rapidly shifting their foreign giving.

At the same time, donor governments, which are mostly Western democracies, have often used aid as a tool for promoting democratic institutions, at times cutting off aid to autocratic countries that abuse human rights. While this practice seems sensible to donors that wish to punish or discourage autocrats, my findings raise a significant concern: People living in autocratic countries may be left starving when aid is withdrawn.

And donor nations could take further steps to support democratization and democratic resilience, particularly in countries that are vulnerable to food insecurity. For example, donors can engage with civil society groups in aid-recipient nations, empowering them with tools and techniques to promote, protect and preserve democratic institutions. This way, countries will be more resilient and less likely to fall into crisis levels of hunger if and when aid cuts occur.

What’s next

While there is a tendency to treat governments as either “democratic” or “autocratic,” that approach obscures a good deal of nuance. Democracies vary in terms of their rules, procedures and governing structures. Likewise, autocracies can differ greatly from one another, with military regimes, personalist dictatorships and party-based autocracies each having unique characteristics.

Moving forward, I hope to dig into these varieties of democracy and autocracy to see how countries representing each respond to aid shocks.

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

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

– ref. Hunger rises as food aid falls – and those living under autocratic systems bear the brunt – https://theconversation.com/hunger-rises-as-food-aid-falls-and-those-living-under-autocratic-systems-bear-the-brunt-247759

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why are rubies red and emeralds green? Their colors come from the same metal in their atomic structure

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daniel Freedman, Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Management, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Rubies get their bright color from some fascinating chemistry. Matthew Hill/Bloomberg Creative Photos via Getty Images

The colors of rubies and emeralds are so striking that they define shades of red and green – ruby red and emerald green. But have you ever wondered how they get those colors?

I am an inorganic chemist. Researchers in my field work to understand the chemistry of all the elements that make up the periodic table. Many inorganic chemists focus on the transition metals – the elements in the middle of the periodic table. The transition metals include most of the metals you are familiar with, like iron (Fe) and gold (Au).

One feature of compounds made with transition metals is their intense color. There are many examples in nature, including gemstones and paint pigments. Even the color of blood comes from the protein hemoglobin, which contains iron.

Investigating the colors of compounds containing transition metals leads you into some really amazing science – that’s part of what drew me to study this field.

Rubies and emeralds are great examples of how a small amount of a transition metal – in this case, chromium – can create a beautiful color in what would otherwise be a fairly boring-looking mineral.

Minerals and crystals

Rubies appear red because they absorb blue and green light.
benedek/E+ via Getty Images

Both rubies and emeralds are minerals, which is a type of rock with a consistent chemical composition and a highly ordered structure at the atomic level.

When this highly ordered structure extends in all three dimensions, the mineral becomes a crystal.

With a theory developed by physicists in the 1920s called crystal field theory, scientists can explain why rubies and emeralds have the colors they do. Crystal field theory makes predictions about how a transition metal ion’s structure is affected by the other atoms surrounding it.

Rubies are mainly made up of the mineral corundum, which is composed of the elements aluminum and oxygen in a regular, repeating array. Each aluminum ion is surrounded by six oxygen ions.

A crystal of corundum looks like this at the atomic level, with the aluminum ions shown as red balls and the oxygen ions shown as white balls. Each aluminum ion is surrounded by six oxygen ions, and each oxygen by four aluminums.
Eigenes Werk/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Emeralds are mainly made up of the mineral beryl, which is made from the elements beryllium, aluminum, silicon and oxygen. Beryl’s crystal structure is more complicated than corundum’s because of the additional elements in the formula, but each aluminum ion is again surrounded by six oxygen ions.

Emeralds appear green because they absorb red and blue light.
SunChan/E+ via Getty Images

Pure corundum and beryl are colorless. The brilliant colors of rubies and emeralds come from the presence of very small amounts of chromium. The chromium replaces about 1% of the aluminum in the corundum or beryl crystal when a ruby or emerald forms underground at a high temperature and pressure.

But how can one element – chromium – create the red color of a ruby and green color of an emerald?

Color science

Rubies and emeralds have the colors they do because, like many substances, they absorb some colors of light. Most visible light, like sunlight, is composed of all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These colors make up the visible light spectrum, which is easy to remember as ROY G BIV.

Objects absorb some visible light wavelengths and reflect others, which is why we see them as having a color.
Fulvio314/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

One of the main reasons why objects have a color is because they absorb one or more of these visible colors of light. If a substance absorbs, for instance, red light, it means that the red light gets trapped in the substance and the other colors reflect back to your eyes. The color you see is the sum of the remaining light, which will be in the green-to-blue range. If a substance absorbs blue, it will look red or orange to you.

Unlike the colorless aluminum ion, the chromium ion absorbs blue and green light when surrounded by the oxygen ions. The red light is reflected back, so that’s what you see in rubies.

In an emerald, even though the chromium is surrounded by six oxygen ions, there is a weaker interaction between the chromium and the surrounding oxygen ions. That’s due to the presence of silicon and beryllium in the beryl crystal. They cause the emerald to absorb blue and red light, leaving the green for you to see.

The ability to tune the properties of transition metals like chromium through changing what is surrounding it is a core strategy in my field of inorganic chemistry. Doing so can help scientists understand the basic science of metal-containing compounds and the design of chemical compounds for specific purposes.

You can take delight in the amazing colors of the gemstones, but through chemistry, you can also see how nature creates those colors using an endless variety of complex structures made with the elements in the periodic table.

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

– ref. Why are rubies red and emeralds green? Their colors come from the same metal in their atomic structure – https://theconversation.com/why-are-rubies-red-and-emeralds-green-their-colors-come-from-the-same-metal-in-their-atomic-structure-247978

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Some viruses prefer mosquitoes to humans, but people get sick anyway − a virologist and entomologist explain why

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Lee Rafuse Haines, Associate Research Professor of Molecular Parasitology and Medical Entomology, University of Notre Dame

The _Aedes_ mosquito is a vector of several viral diseases, including eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, and West Nile fever. Lee Haines, CC BY-ND

Humans have an exceptional ability to deal with viruses. In most cases, your immune system is able to fight an infection. On the other hand, your body provides a spa-like environment that is temperate and stable, optimal for viruses to replicate. Human behavior, including close contact with animals and frequent travel, also increases the likelihood of becoming infected.

From the perspective of viruses spread by insects, or arboviruses, making the evolutionary leap from insects to humans is a tough battle. Viruses cannot replicate very well in humans, which means transmission from mosquitoes is often very difficult.

One might think arboviruses continually evolve in ways that enable them to infect more species. But do they?

We are a virologist and an entomologist who study insect-borne and viral diseases and how human and insect immune systems respond to invading pathogens. Our work provides insights on the complex journey of an arbovirus as it cycles between insect and vertebrate hosts.

As an example, let’s use a Togavirus, the mosquito-transmitted arbovirus that causes eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE. This rare but serious disease can cause a potentially fatal neurological condition in humans and horses. Although EEE is primarily endemic to the eastern United States, its incidence in recent years has increased in regions farther north, with several reported cases in states such as Michigan, Massachusetts and New York.

While rare, a EEE infection in people can lead to severe complications or death.

From animals to mosquitoes

A female mosquito’s inner workings – particularly its guts and salivary glands – create the perfect environment for a virus to flourish.

When a mosquito bites an infected nonhuman host, such as a sick bird, the virus is transported with freshly ingested blood into the mosquito’s midgut – the equivalent to the human stomach and intestines where food is stored and digested. The virus quickly infects midgut cells to avoid a hostile digestive environment and quietly replicates without activating the mosquito’s immune pathways.

Within days, the virus will be released by damaged midgut cells to migrate to the mosquito’s salivary glands, where it will be positioned for transmission. Now, each time the mosquito feeds, it will pump virus-saturated saliva into its new animal host and continue the disease transmission cycle.

This image shows a tissue section of the salivary gland of a mosquito infected with EEE. The virus particles are colored red.
Fred Murphy and Sylvia Whitfield/CDC

It is easy for the virus to avoid detection by the mosquito’s relatively primitive immune system. Compared with humans, the immune system of mosquitoes can launch only a generalized and overall less effective attack on pathogens. This means an arbovirus can usually establish a persistent, lifelong, almost symbiotic infection without damaging the mosquito’s health, perfect for the virus to disseminate itself.

Mosquitoes have evolved over millions of years to become tolerant to arboviral infections. This relationship has allowed the mosquito to maintain viral populations without having to launch energy-expensive immune responses. However, this does not mean mosquitoes are just passive virus carriers. An arbovirus can change how infected mosquitoes behave or reproduce.

For example, viruses can manipulate mosquitoes in two ways: by making them feed more frequently, and by increasing their attraction to infected hosts. However, this behavior puts the mosquito at greater risk of being killed by irritated hosts who notice the repeated biting attempts. Arboviruses can also affect mosquito reproduction by sometimes reducing the number of eggs a female mosquito produces and increasing the length of time it takes for the eggs to mature. In some cases, these viruses can even sterilize female mosquitoes.

Arboviruses have evolved to expertly use mosquitoes as both transportation vehicles and breeding grounds. By spreading and multiplying without severely harming their insect hosts, these viruses ensure their own survival and continued transmission.

From mosquitoes to humans

The virus must overcome several barriers to successfully colonize a human host.

The initial step for successful disease transmission – the virus’s ultimate goal – is perhaps the easiest: The EEE virus infects humans when a virus-infected female mosquito has an unquenchable appetite for warm blood. From the moment the virus is deposited under the skin through the mosquito’s infected saliva, a tough battle ensues.

The first battle for the virus is to adapt to a typically much hotter setting than the ambient environment – the human body temperature of around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celcius) or higher.

Then, the virus must evade the host’s immediate defenses, which includes physical barriers, such as layers of skin and mucosa, as well as immune cells that detect and attack invading microbes. Once in the bloodstream, the virus faces the adaptive arm of the human immune system, which is capable of targeting specific viral components with exquisite precision, like a biological sniper.

Once the EEE virus reaches the central nervous system – the brain and spinal cord – the immune system can overreact to the infection and inadvertently cause inflammation and damage nerve cells. This can lead to serious long-term effects, such as cognitive impairment.

The human immune response is more robust than that of a mosquito.
Sashunita/Cavan Images via Getty Images

To persist in this hostile human environment, the virus uses various survival strategies. One technique is creating new mutations on its surface and shape-shifting to avoid immune detection. Another strategy is to hijack human cells to replicate itself, such as using the cell’s machinery to synthesize new viral components and altering how the cell regulates division.

As viruses adapt to overcome immune defenses, both humans and mosquitoes evolve countermeasures to fight infection. The greater complexity of the human immune system makes it especially challenging for viruses to survive and spread between human hosts.

From human to human?

Like many other arboviruses, the EEE virus cannot be transmitted from person to person, which effectively limits its spread among human populations. Your body keeps the virus contained. Consequently, when the EEE virus infects people via the bite from an infected mosquito, it is considered a dead end, as it cannot escape its human host or infect another bloodthirsty mosquito.

So, what does the virus that causes EEE gain by infecting people? Not likely anything. A mosquito-borne virus like the Togavirus that causes EEE prefers its established transmission cycle between mosquitoes and birds. Human infections occur only when a mosquito deviates from its typical menu of birds.

EEE spreads more easily between mosquitoes and birds than it does in humans, which helps explain why human infections don’t happen very often. Thankfully, human bodies simply aren’t the virus’s currently preferred environment.

Pilar Pérez Romero is affiliated with the spin-off company Vaxdyn SL as a founding partner.

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

– ref. Some viruses prefer mosquitoes to humans, but people get sick anyway − a virologist and entomologist explain why – https://theconversation.com/some-viruses-prefer-mosquitoes-to-humans-but-people-get-sick-anyway-a-virologist-and-entomologist-explain-why-247076

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Profile: Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

BEIJING, Feb. 3 — At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov will pay a state visit to China from Tuesday to Friday.

Japarov, a Kyrgyz ethnic, born in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Oblast on Dec. 6, 1968, graduated from Kyrgyz State Academy of Physical Culture and Sports in 1991 and from Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in 2006.

During 1986-1987 and 1989-1995, he served as head of the collective farm “Santash” in the Tup district of the Issyk-Kul Oblast. He served in the army from 1987 to 1989.

From 1996 to 2000, Japarov held the post of deputy chairman of the farm “Soltonkul” in the Tup district of Issyk-Kul Oblast. Between 2000 and 2005, he successively served as the general director of the “Guzel” fuel company and the “Nur” oil and gas company.

From 2005 to 2007, he acted as a deputy of the third convocation of the Kyrgyz Parliament. Between 2007 and 2009, he was an advisor to the president. From 2008 to 2009, he was a member of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. From 2009 to 2010, he worked as head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. From 2010 to 2013, he served as a deputy of the fifth convocation of the Kyrgyz Parliament.

In October 2020, Japarov became the Kyrgyz prime minister and acting president. In January 2021, he was elected as the Kyrgyz president for a six-year term.

MIL OSI China News –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Gov. Kemp Announces New Executive Counsel and Legal Staff

Source: US State of Georgia

ATLANTA – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced changes to his legal staff, following the announcement that current Executive Counsel Kristyn Long will depart the Governor’s Office to serve as General Counsel for the Georgia Hospital Association, effective February 14. Sam Hatcher will then serve as Executive Counsel, as Christine Hayes and Rachel Byers continue to serve as Deputy Executive Counsel and Associate Executive Counsel, respectively. Additionally, Governor Kemp announced Evan Meyers departed at the end of January following over three years of dedicated service as Deputy Executive Counsel.

“Marty, the girls, and I are excited to welcome Sam to this leadership role as Executive Counsel and for the continued service of the entire legal team, which remains indispensable to my office and the success of this administration,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “We are confident their commitment and hard work will help us keep Georgia the best state in which to live, work, and raise a family.”

“We also want to thank Kristyn for her years of service and leadership at a time when our state faced unprecedented challenges,” Gov. Kemp continued. “Her intellect, skill, and countless hours of relentless work through multiple roles — some of which she filled simultaneously — helped our state weather many storms, both literal and figurative. We are happy to congratulate her on this new chapter and wish her and her family all the best in the coming years. We also want to thank Evan for his years of service and sacrifice, improving legislation and helping us streamline agency regulations and cut red tape so hardworking Georgians don’t have to worry about government negatively impacting their lives or businesses. As his family moves to be closer to their loved ones, we wish them well in their next steps.”

Sam Hatcher currently serves as Deputy Executive Counsel in the Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp and will become Executive Counsel. Prior to joining the Governor’s staff, he worked in private practice with a focus on securities litigation, commercial litigation, antitrust law, state government, and government procurement. Hatcher holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Dartmouth College and a law degree from the University of Georgia. He and his wife, Allison, reside in Brookhaven.

Christine Hayes is Deputy Executive Counsel in the Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp. Prior to joining the Governor’s staff, she was Director of Governmental Affairs for the State Bar of Georgia. She also held roles at the Judicial Council/Administrative Office of the Courts, Georgia General Assembly, and Fields Howell. Hayes holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Florida and a law degree from Emory University. She and her husband, Jonathan, live in Atlanta with their 2 kids.

Rachel Byers is an Associate Executive Counsel in the Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp. She previously clerked for Georgia Supreme Court Justice Verda M. Colvin. Byers holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree from the University of Georgia. She lives in Atlanta and attends Christ Covenant Church.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: AMERICA/PARAGUAY – Appointment of new director of the Pontifical Mission Societies

Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On January 2, 2025, Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), appointed Sister Justina Santander, SSPS, as national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of Paraguay for the period 2025-2030.Sister Justina Santander, 66, and of Paraguayan nationality, has more than 40 years of religious and missionary life in the Missionary Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit. For 33 years, she worked as a missionary abroad, mainly in Botswana. She has a diploma in spirituality and pastoral care from The Milltown Institute in Ireland, where she also studied English. She obtained a degree in religious education and another in educational management from the University of South Africa, and has participated in numerous specialization courses, including one on sign language and inclusive education.Last year, she took part in leadership and spiritual development at the Mater Dei Pastoral Center in South Africa. Her pastoral duties include her work as director of the St. Arnold Primary School in Tonota (Botswana), coordinator of the HIV/AIDS program at St. Joseph School, superior in the community of Gaborone, and teacher of religious and Christian education at St. Joseph Kale School, where she developed a pastoral program for orphanage students with specific needs, among other tasks. In addition, she worked at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Desert in Francistown and is a member of missionary animation at the Society of the Divine Word, in Paraguay. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 4/2/2025)
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MIL OSI Europe News –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Secretary of State: “One year on from restoration – the challenge ahead”
Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

Transcript of the Secretary of State’s keynote address at Ulster University on 4 February 2025
I am delighted to be speaking here today, in these wonderful surroundings. My thanks to Ulster University; indeed The Times’ UK University of the Year 2024, no less.

This institution does so much fantastic work and is truly “a force for good in fostering peace, prosperity and cohesion”, as the judges of that illustrious award so eloquently described you. And it has been a privilege for me to meet some of your remarkable students this morning.

This week, of course, we are marking the one year anniversary of the return of devolved government in Northern Ireland.

But before I come to that, I just want to say this about Storm Eowyn.

At its peak, over 280,000 properties were without electricity including acute hospitals and other essential services. But since the winds abated, there has been an extraordinary effort to deal with the damage, to clear fallen trees and to get electricity supplies up and running again.

And I know that lots of people have worked really hard over long hours to restore services and I’m glad to say that NIE Networks is now very nearly there with the last electricity reconnections, and it has been a long time for some people to wait.

It’s been a team effort which shows the strength of the United Kingdom in offering practical support. When trouble strikes, we come to the aid of each other.

The restoration of power-sharing a year ago was a significant moment. It followed yet another unacceptably long time without a functioning government.

When I was first appointed as shadow Secretary of State in September 2023, I said to Chris Heaton-Harris that my priority was to see the Executive restored.

I want to pay tribute to Chris for the pivotal role he played in bringing back the institutions, to the leadership of the DUP for deciding to go back into powersharing, and to them and the leadership of Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the UUP for the great start tht the Executive has made. We all hope that its restoration is for good – the good of the people of Northern Ireland.

By its very nature, power-sharing is difficult – very difficult – but just over a quarter of a century ago we saw extraordinary political leadership make it possible.

Courage and compromise triumphed over bitter stalemate, as political leaders agreed the principles of power-sharing that endure to this day.

I have great faith in Northern Ireland’s system of government. Indeed, there were long periods of relative Executive stability prior to 2017 in which we saw the devolution of policing and justice, and the establishment of the PSNI – which today enjoys significant cross-community support. Who could have imagined that 26 years ago? It’s a tribute to the work that Naomi Long and her predecessors have done in the role of Justice Minister.

There was also significant economic growth, helped by Northern Ireland’s success in attracting inward investment. All examples of what can be achieved by sharing power.

The people of Northern Ireland need and deserve an Executive that works for them all the time, along of course with an Opposition that holds the Executive to account, an important role being undertaken by Matthew O’Toole and the SDLP. And it is vital that all of us do all we can to ensure that the stability of devolved government endures.

We have to put the days of collapse behind us and move forward.

Now I say that not because I am worried about a return to instability. On the contrary, I have been so impressed by the leadership shown by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly as First and deputy First Minister.

The Executive has worked constructively together to negotiate an Interim Fiscal Framework, publish a Fiscal Sustainability Plan, bring forward a strategy to end violence against women and girls and a childcare and early learning plan, and agree a draft Programme for Government.

It’s been a successful start, and I believe the conditions are now in place for the Executive to grasp the opportunities that beckon for Northern Ireland.

The largest budget settlement since devolution with a funding formula that now reflects Northern Ireland’s level of need.

Certainty, after the uncertainty that immediately followed the EU referendum in 2016, about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.

Advantageous trading arrangements through the Windsor Framework, which can help draw in foreign direct investment.

And finally – after too many years in which Northern Ireland was too often treated by the previous government as an afterthought – this Executive has a partner in this UK Government that is committed to working together to generate investment and economic growth and to help improve the delivery of public services.

We all understand the scale of the challenge and the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland, where poverty, paramilitarism and the past are entwined. And where the pain and trauma wrought by the terrible violence that shook this place continue – for many – to be deeply felt.

And all our thoughts this week, and in the weeks to come, are with those family members taking part in the commemorative hearings in the Inquiry into the Omagh Bombing – a monstrous and despicable act of terrorist violence.

We now must all play our part in building a more inclusive society which is at peace with itself as it looks to the future.

And this is the moment for Northern Ireland’s devolved government to address the concerns that citizens have about their lives and their wish to see public services improve.

My first six months or so in office as Secretary of State has reminded me about what Mo Mowlam once said:

“People working together can overcome many obstacles, often within themselves, and by doing so can make the world a better place.”

We are all aware of the acute challenges which we are grappling with right across the United Kingdom.

Today I want to talk about three of these.

First, reform and delivery of public services.

Second, how to ensure the smooth flow of goods across the UK, while seeking to deepen our trade ties with Europe.

And third, the need for sustained and sustainable economic growth, which is essential if we are to see raised living standards, and more money in people’s pockets on which subject, today the UK Government has announced a 6.7% increase in the National Living Wage from 1 April, which will benefit millions of people across the UK, including in Northern Ireland.

The challenge for public services is particularly acute in Northern Ireland, and nowhere is this more urgent or obvious than in health.

The facts are frankly shocking.

Waiting time performance against cancer care targets continues to deteriorate, corridor care is becoming more frequent and it is striking how many people in Northern Ireland are now going private.

More than a quarter of people in Northern Ireland are on a waiting list. That is more than double the figure in England.

53% of people waiting for a first appointment with a consultant are waiting for more than a year in Northern Ireland.

In England, that figure is 4%. That’s right, 53% compared to just 4%.

That’s why the First Minister recently described the state of the health service as “dire and diabolical”.

I agree. And this is despite UK Treasury data showing that spending per head on health is nearly £300 a year higher in Northern Ireland than it is in England.

It is absolutely not that health and social care staff are somehow not doing all they can. On the contrary, they are working really, really hard to treat patients, but they are doing so in a system that clearly isn’t working.

And why isn’t it working? Because – over many years – the decisions necessary for systemic and not piecemeal reform to the health and social care system in Northern Ireland simply haven’t been taken.

Now the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt is developing a long term plan to stabilise, reconfigure and reform the health service. This is really encouraging and I sincerely wish him well.

And the challenge now for the Executive is to take the difficult collective decisions that are required to enable this change to succeed.

Doing so is now unavoidable.

The task of transforming public services won’t be without cost. I get that. And I know that talk of transformation of public services inevitably leads to the issue of funding.

So, allow me to say this.

The Autumn Budget provided £18.2 billion for the Executive in 2025/2026 – the largest settlement in real terms in the history of devolution.

This includes a £1.5 billion increase through the Barnett formula, with £1.2 billion for day-to-day spending and £270 million for capital investment.

The independent Northern Ireland Fiscal Council has calculated that the relative need in Northern Ireland is 24% more per head than in England for equivalent spending. This rightly reflects the greater needs that there are in Northern Ireland.

That is why, as part of the restoration agreement last year, a structural change was made to funding by adding a 24% needs-based factor to the Barnett formula, so as to ensure the Executive gets the level of funding it needs, now and in the future.

This financial year and next financial year, funding for Northern Ireland will actually exceed this level.

I frequently hear it said, however, that more funding is required from the UK Government and that that is the reason why public services are in such a state. But given the needs-based formula that is now in place, and given the increase in funding that the government has given, a lack of funding is not the impediment to public service transformation.

The real impediment has been the failure to reform the system. The many missed opportunities to take decisions, or to apply lessons, from other parts of the UK where reform has happened.

Of course, this has at times been down to there being no Executive in place to take those decisions, which is why it’s essential that the institutions do their job every day of the year.

At other times, there has simply been a lack of agreement among Executive Ministers on the steps that need to be taken, or on the allocation of resources, or on the revenue that needs to be raised.

I believe strongly in devolution in Northern Ireland – where decisions are made as close to the people they affect as possible, by the representatives the people have chosen.

It is only right that the Executive makes decisions about its own spending and revenue raising priorities.

However, it must take responsibility for balancing its budget and living within its means. Just as all other governments must.

Now, the Executive has nine priorities set out in its draft Programme for Government, and the work of this UK Government is guided by our five Missions and our Plan for Change. These objectives are in many ways complementary, and I firmly believe the two need to work together.

Since Fleur Anderson and I took office, we’ve been clear that we want to help ensure that the Executive has the support it needs.

We want the UK Government to be an active partner and to encourage greater collaboration and sharing of expertise, so helping Northern Ireland to make progress for itself.

And it is in this spirit that the Public Sector Transformation Board was conceived of, as part of the restoration deal, to bring together experts from across different sectors, and to enable the sharing of best practice from across the UK to support change.

We have also made available £235m of funding for projects proposed by the Executive departments to transform the delivery of public services.

I look forward to seeing the first tranche of this funding being allocated soon, followed, I hope, by the Executive -and I want to say that Caoimhe Archibald has done a great job as Finance Minister – bringing forward plans in the Budget for how the Executive will deploy its resources to deliver the wider transformation that is so urgently required in the health service.

Let me now turn to the second matter I want to address.

This UK Government will always uphold – in good faith – the Good Friday Agreement and the principle of consent on which it rests. And for as long as the people of Northern Ireland wish it to be so, Northern Ireland’s place in the Union is secure.

The task now for us as politicians is to ensure that the Union continues to improve the lives of all communities, regardless of their constitutional ambition.

Now, of course, I couldn’t come here today and speak about the restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions without recognising the issues that led to them not functioning in the first place, and the arrangements that enabled them to get back up and running.

The concerns that people in Northern Ireland – particularly but not exclusively those from a Unionist background – had about the old Northern Ireland protocol were genuine. I shared many of them. It proved to be unworkable and damaging, and I supported the Windsor Framework that replaced it.

The Framework brought significant improvements in the arrangements in Northern Ireland, thanks to the pragmatic approach the EU took in the negotiations.

It recognised that goods staying within the UK’s internal market should not be subject to the full panoply of EU rules and checks.

It ensured that medicines continue to be available on a UK-wide basis, and it enshrined an important new democratic safeguard in the form of the Stormont Brake.

The Brake has received quite a bit of attention of late. There are some who have said that because the outcome recently was not as they wished, it doesn’t have any value.

That isn’t true.

The main criterion for use of the Brake – namely, that the proposed new EU rule would have a significant and lasting impact on communities in Northern Ireland – and that is quite a high bar – is clearly set out in law. The fact that this bar was not met on this occasion, does not have any bearing on whether it might be met on any future occasion. Why? Because each case must be considered on its merits. That’s the responsibility on me in law.

But the Brake notification by MLAs – which reflected genuine concerns – did lead to a clear commitment by the UK Government to take the steps necessary to avoid new regulatory barriers in respect of chemicals. Which was the issue that had given rise to the application.

I think this was a positive outcome, and precisely what the Brake was designed to do.

More generally, I am not going to rehash old debates about Brexit. My views during the referendum and subsequently are fairly well known.

But I hope that the experience of what has happened since the referendum taught us all something important. And that is that we should beware those offering simplistic soundbites rather than grappling with difficult and complex questions, like the one which lies at the heart of this debate. How do you deal with trade between two countries with different rules but an open border between them?

Serious leadership and the questions it has to deal with – such as that provided by those sitting around the Executive table, or operating in constructive opposition in the Assembly, or by the UK Government – requires serious answers.

And when it became clear that the Windsor Framework was not the final word, through painstaking months, the Democratic Unionist Party worked through the remaining issues to secure some important new commitments in the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper.

They engaged in the detail and achieved changes for their constituents when it might have been politically safer or easier to demand the impossible from the sidelines.

Some others did take that latter path – I would say with absolutely no benefit to anyone that they represented.

So, I commend the role that the leader of the DUP, Gavin Robinson, and the now deputy First Minister, played in that process – and for the courage and commitment to Northern Ireland that they demonstrated in leading their party back into the Executive.

And for my part, let me say that I am committed to continuing to work in good faith to implement the basis on which devolution was restored.

We have clearly made good progress:

an Independent Monitoring Panel is in place to report on how it’s going on meeting the new Internal Market Guarantee

every public authority implementing the Windsor Framework must now look to statutory guidance on the importance of Northern Ireland’s place in the Union in discharging their duties

every Government department must set out the impact of major regulatory changes on the functioning of the UK’s internal market, including Northern Ireland.

an Independent Review has been established recognising that the democratic vote to continue the Framework’s application was not supported by Unionist MLAs

we have new working groups on Veterinary Medicines and horticulture up and running – acknowledging that there is still important work to be done

we will shortly establish Intertrade UK.

But most important of all, goods are flowing back and forth between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

This is a process, it is not a destination.

And my commitment, as we continue to take forward Safeguarding the Union, is to continue working with all parts of the community and with all the political parties, to address concerns and problems.

It certainly won’t always be smooth, but I am really grateful to all those who are willing to engage in the hard slog each day to improve things further for the people of Northern Ireland.

And as we honour the commitments we have made in the Windsor Framework, as we must, this Government is also working to secure a stronger and better relationship with the European Union.

An SPS and veterinary agreement just to take that example would produce tangible benefits for businesses and traders in Northern Ireland and indeed across the UK by helping animal and plant products to flow freely across the Irish Sea. So there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Beyond strengthening Northern Ireland’s place in the Internal Market, investments being made by this UK Government will help to strengthen Northern Ireland’s economy.

We all know the particular challenges facing the economy in Northern Ireland, not least on productivity, but Northern Ireland’s economic output is now 9.7% above its pre-pandemic level, which is significantly higher than the rest of the UK.

In the last decade the total number of employee jobs is up 15%. And as we know Northern Ireland now has the lowest level of unemployment in the UK.

I am determined to ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from UK Government initiatives designed to generate economic growth and power the green transition.

Central to this will be our new modern industrial strategy – Invest 2035 – and our commitment to make the whole of the UK a clean energy superpower with GB Energy, a publicly owned company, at its heart.

We will work closely with the Executive and the other devolved governments on our 10-year Infrastructure Strategy and the National Wealth Fund to ensure the benefits are felt UK-wide.

Alongside the Industrial Strategy, we will mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading industries, including Northern Ireland’s strengths in areas like fin-tech and the creative industries.

I was delighted that last month, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, announced that Belfast is one of this Government’s priority regions for the Creative Industries, and this Spring will see the full opening of Studio Ulster – a truly unique facility that will not just support the growing creative industry in Northern Ireland, but will also take it into the next era of screen innovation, making it a global player in performance technology. Fleur and I had a sneak preview before we came into this hall today, and I’m looking forward to visiting the new Studio Ulster itself.

And of course, the Belfast City Deal has helped to fund Studio Ulster.

And as we move full steam ahead with the City and Growth Deals right across Northern Ireland, these will demonstrate the significant impact of a partnership that has been developed between the Executive, the UK Government, local councils and businesses to make things happen.

It is also fantastic that shipbuilding is returning to Belfast. As announced in December, a commercial deal has been reached that will see Navantia UK – a specialist in shipbuilding – purchase Harland and Wolff, thus ensuring the delivery of the Ministry of Defence’s three Fleet Solid Support Ships.

This deal, which will protect around 500 jobs in Belfast, demonstrates the Government’s unwavering commitment to UK shipbuilding, and to Harland and Wolff.

Throughout the process, the Government worked with devolved governments, local MPs and the relevant trade unions, on the commitments on jobs that are part of the deal.

And let’s not forget all of the other strengths of Northern Ireland. Farming, its fantastic universities, including this wonderful institution we’re meeting in today, the voluntary and community sector, advanced manufacturing, thriving life sciences, and a world-leading cybersecurity industry which, with UK Government investment here in Northern Ireland, is so important for UK-wide national resilience.

Investment is vital for Northern Ireland, but to maximise potential it needs to get its infrastructure right. To take just one example, last year NI Water confirmed that there are 19,000 applications for development that cannot go ahead due to the outdated and at capacity sewage network.

And, of course, political stability is crucial to encourage investors to put their money into Northern Ireland.

As I look at all of this, what strikes me most forcefully about Northern Ireland is the energy, the enterprise, the imagination and the innovation of the people and businesses and the local authorities and the politicians that I have met.

To take just one example of a firm I visited in October – I could tell you of many others – Edge Innovate designs, manufactures and exports its material handling and recycling equipment – and you have to see the size of it, some of those bits of kit are enormous- from their factory in Dungannon all over the world.

It was so impressive, so let us all tell their and other stories of Northern Ireland’s success.

Because measured by what went before, the last 26 years really have been a success. Your success. Northern Ireland has been transformed.

So, as we look towards the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2028, I am so encouraged that a majority of people here continue to view power-sharing as the best form of government.

Of course, there is a debate about reform of the institutions – it would be surprising if there were not – but my view is this.

Just as it took agreement between the parties to establish power-sharing in the first place, so it will require agreement between the parties to reform the current arrangements. And the task for now for today is to make them work for the people of Northern Ireland.

So in doing so, let us take inspiration from the words of the great George Mitchell, I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of months ago, who – on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Agreement – said:

“The answer is not perfection, or permanence. It is now, as it was then, for the current and future leaders of Northern Ireland to act with courage and vision, as their predecessors did 25 years ago. To find workable answers to the daily problems of the present.”

That is the responsibility that each of us takes on when we stand for elected office, whoever we are, and when the people say they want us to get on with the task.

Let me assure you. The Executive will be in the lead but it will not be alone.

And at this moment in history and at this time, I believe that Northern Ireland has all it needs to be a success and to be a beacon of hope to the world by showing that peace is truly the foundation on which progress is built.

Updates to this page

Published 4 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI: Payscale Elevates Compensation Management with AI-powered Data Innovations

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

SEATTLE, Feb. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Payscale Inc., the leading provider of compensation data, software and services, unveiled groundbreaking advancements designed to transform how organizations approach pay decisions. These market-leading capabilities underscore the company’s commitment to empowering compensation professionals with smarter, faster, and more effective solutions.

“These aren’t just everyday product enhancements. This is a transformative leap in how our customers make confident and timely pay decisions,” Payscale CEO Chris Hays said. “These releases extend our history of data innovation and our mission to equip our customers with the tools and insights necessary to attract, retain, and reward talent. Payscale has even more transformative solutions on the horizon to help organizations make data-driven, equitable pay decisions with confidence.”

Payscale Pulse

In 2025, Payscale’s journey of ingenuity begins by delivering AI-powered compensation data to make smart pay decisions. This dataset includes Payscale’s Peer data—a trusted, HR-reported network of industry peers. Payscale Pulse provides MarketPay customers over 4,900 job roles covered across 3,800 organizations and data from 9 million employees boasting an average age of less than five months, delivering fresh, reliable insights for compensation decisions.

Payscale Pulse uses HR-reported U.S. data and select AI-powered Calculated Cuts, providing compensation professionals another trusted source to confidently make compensation decisions. AI-enhanced Calculated Cuts deliver modeled answers that fill gaps where traditional survey data may not exist and offer insights tailored to meet the complex challenges of today’s workforce.

“Our MarketPay customers are compensation data experts and understand data deeply. We wanted to deliver innovation they find tremendously valuable — data,” Payscale Vice President of Data Expansion Gerard Smith said. “This isn’t years-old data aged to today. This is the freshest data available for compensation professionals with AI-modeled insights to fill critical information gaps and help our customers complete those difficult to price jobs.”

HRIS integrations

With customer experience and data innovation at the forefront of Payscale’s latest innovations, Payfactors customers also benefit. They now have seamless access to both employee and pay data in one platform with 10 new HRIS integrations for informed, real-time pay decisions, allowing streamlined access to up-to-date salary data directly in Payfactors.

“Compensation professionals no longer need to jump through hoops to integrate their compensation data with their employee data,” Chief Product Officer Peh Keong Teh said. “We’ve made it easy to integrate relevant information quickly, equipping our customers to make well-informed decisions directly in Payscale products without system hopping and compromising security.”

The 14 total integrations with leading HRIS vendors eliminate the tedious, repetitive process of importing and updating employee data, boosting efficiency and effectiveness for compensation professionals. Direct data access in Payfactors eliminates file shuffling and protects against risks associated with having sensitive employee information in disparate spreadsheets.

Advanced compensation analytics

Payscale’s drive towards data innovation extends to data insights. With market-leading advancements in analytics dashboards, Payfactors customers can transform their job and employee data into actionable insights instantly. These enhancements create powerful reports to monitor an organization’s vital signs without complexity or manual spreadsheets, and help HR lead strategic conversations with stakeholders using impactful data visualizations.

“During pay planning cycles, when talking with leaders, we can show them real-time data—like where compression is happening and what trends we’re seeing. I think it could be a lightbulb moment for them, helping them think differently just by seeing the visuals you provide,” a Payscale customer said.

AI-powered job matching

Finally, building on the foundation of ingenuity, both Payfactors and MarketPay customers can streamline their processes and confidently price jobs with AI Match Suggestions. This new tool transforms market pricing by leveraging advanced AI to do the heavy lifting, boosting pricing efficiency and accuracy.

AI Match Suggestions ensures a seamless market pricing experience by automatically revealing strong survey matches with unparalleled speed and accuracy, dramatically reducing the time spent on an often-manual process. Users simply review and accept the AI-generated suggestions.

“Payscale’s strong start to 2025 highlights our reputation of delivering innovative data and tech solutions so compensation professionals can have greater confidence in their compensation practices,” Chief Customer Officer Kate Peter said. “With best-in-class, validated datasets on par with leading paid databases, and innovative technology to improve the speed from insights to action, customers can ensure employee compensation is fair and transparently calculated.”

About Payscale
As the industry leader in compensation management, Payscale is on a mission to help job seekers, employees, and businesses get pay right and to make sustainable fair pay a reality. Empowering 65% of the Fortune 500, Payscale provides a combination of diverse and dynamic data sources, experienced compensation services, and scalable software to enable organizations such as Panasonic, ZoomInfo, Chipotle, AccentCare, University of Washington, American Airlines, and PetSmart to make fair and appropriate pay decisions.

Pay is powerful.

To learn more, visit www.payscale.com.

Contact: press@payscale.com

The MIL Network –

February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s trade war is forcing Canada to revive a decades-old plan to reduce U.S. dependence
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Blayne Haggart, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock University

After threatening Canada and Mexico with illegal tariffs, and Canada with annexation, United States President Donald Trump has agreed to hold off on imposing tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days. This decision came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Trump and committed to strengthening border security.

While this temporary reprieve provides some breathing room, the long-run question of how Canada should handle Trump and the American descent into authoritarianism remains.

Early responses seem to have coalesced around two policies: for Canada to trade less with the U.S. and more with other countries and to strengthen the internal Canadian economy.

Reducing Canada’s dependence on the U.S. economy is necessary in our current moment, as I’ve previously argued. But it will impose significant costs on Canadians and require a fundamental readjustment in how we think about our economy and society.

The Third Option, revived

This current crisis isn’t taking place in a historical vacuum. More than 50 years ago, similar concerns about Canada’s dependence on the U.S. led to a policy discussion centred on what became known as the “Third Option.”

In 1972, then-Secretary of State for External Affairs Mitchell Sharp wrote a paper called “Canada-US Relations: Options for the Future.” At the time, international politics were in a moment of transition, and the U.S. was recalibrating its understanding of its national interest.

Sharp proposed reconsidering the Canada-U.S. relationship. He observed that while Canadians recognized the benefits of ties with the U.S., they were increasingly wary of the direction of the relationship and in support of measures to “assure greater Canadian independence.”

Echoing today’s concerns, Sharp argued that the central question for Canada was whether its interdependence with the U.S. would “impose an unmanageable strain on the concept of a separate Canadian identity, if not on the elements of Canadian independence.”

The options that Sharp proposed are the same ones on offer today:
1. The First Option: Maintain Canada’s current relationship with the U.S. with minimal policy adjustments
2. The Second Option: Move toward closer integration with the U.S.
3. The Third Option: Pursue a long-term strategy to strengthen the Canadian economy and reduce vulnerability
From three options to one

Sharp’s analysis is clear on the costs and benefits of free trade. In terms of benefits, economic prosperity would be easier to attain. In fact, this proved decisive in 1988, when Canada embraced the Second Option — closer integration through the 1988 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

But, as Sharp warned presciently, a free-trade agreement would be a “well-nigh irreversible option for Canada” because it would tie the country so closely to the U.S., raising the cost of disentanglement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. would always be free to redefine the relationship for any reason. This is what happened in 2001 when the U.S. prioritized security over prosperity in response to the 9/11 attacks. It’s what’s happening now.

As in 2001, deeper integration remains a tempting response to the U.S. But the risks from integration are even greater now, given that Trump is dismantling U.S. democracy at home and trying to bully its neighbours in unprecedented ways.

Read more:
How constitutional guardrails have always contained presidential ambitions

Already, Canada is struggling to recruit American allies to fight against the tariffs because U.S. businesses and politicians are afraid to stand up to Trump. Choosing to more deeply integrate would only worsen Canada’s position, making it a part of the U.S. economy while losing even more political influence.

And that’s without addressing the morality of collaborating with a country that is currently setting up a concentration camp for migrants in Guantanamo Bay.

Autocratic governments, as Trump’s administration is demonstrating with his ultimatums against Canada and Mexico, are bullies who will always push the advantage. Taking their demands at face value is a surefire way to surrender Canadian autonomy one piece at a time. So, the First Option — maintaining the status quo — is also off the table.

Which leaves the Third Option.

The mortal peril facing Canada

The Third Option has become more appealing across the political spectrum mainly because the U.S. is forcing Canada’s hand. The uncertainty Trump has injected into the relationship, even in the presence of a trade agreement, has made it more costly for businesses to engage in cross-border trade.

If Trump’s tariff threat remains, and his attack on the rule of law continues, the U.S. market will become even more unattractive, not least because of the toxic uncertainty Trump has injected into the relationship.

But his actions also underscore the new, extreme danger Canada now faces.

As Sharp recognized in 1972, shared social values were the bedrock of successful Canada-U.S. relations. He understood that, for the Third Option to work, the relationship needed to be “harmonious.” Even as he considered ways to reduce Canada’s dependence, he never doubted Canada and the U.S. were “broadly compatible societies.”

That shared foundation — “based on a broad array of shared interests, perceptions and goals” — made it possible for Canada to chart its own path while maintaining a productive relationship with the U.S.

Today, that assumption no longer holds. The U.S., under Trump, is acting as an expansionist imperial power with little regard for international law.

This is the needle Canadian politicians have to thread. By geography alone, Canada must continue to have a relationship with the U.S. But the absence of shared values makes it incredibly difficult to have any kind of healthy, productive relationship.

The cost of democracy

As Sharp recognized, there is a cost to following the Third Option. It will require a “deliberate, comprehensive and long-term strategy” on a scale not seen since the 1960s — meaning higher taxes, more government intervention and a level of global engagement Canada hasn’t undertaken in quite a while.

This must all be done in a landscape where Canada and the U.S. no longer share values — a shift even ardent Canadian nationalists recognized was necessary for Canadian independence — while pursuing policies that do not antagonize the U.S.

For the Third Option to be viable today, Canadians must embrace an independent Canadian identity based on respect for democracy, pluralism, the rule of law and human rights. It likely requires consensus that U.S. authoritarianism is wholly unacceptable to Canada.

Canada is being pushed toward the Third Option as the least worst approach. But, as was true in Sharp’s time, the Third Option come at a cost. Independence and democracy don’t come for free.

Blayne Haggart 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. Trump’s trade war is forcing Canada to revive a decades-old plan to reduce U.S. dependence – https://theconversation.com/trumps-trade-war-is-forcing-canada-to-revive-a-decades-old-plan-to-reduce-u-s-dependence-248433
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
February 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The impact of Donald Trump’s anti-climate measures on our heating planet

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Bruce Campbell, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Canada

Before assessing the impact of United States President Donald Trump’s climate and energy policies, some context about the current state of the planet is in order. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently called the world’s fossil fuel addiction “a Frankenstein’s monster sparing nothing and no one.”

The year 2024 was the first in which the average temperature exceeded the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5°C. Under a status quo scenario, Earth is on track to reach an approximate 2.7°C increase in planetary warming by 2100.

The 2024 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report found that climate-related global health threats are reaching new records, including heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases.

Despite six reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 29 COP conferences and thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only minor headway on climate action.

Main carbon polluters and their victims

The 10 largest oil-producing and consuming countries account for 73 per cent of total oil production and consumption globally.

The U.S. is the largest oil producer and oil consumer, accounting for almost one-quarter of global production and more than 20 per cent of consumption in 2022. Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer and the ninth-largest consumer, and also has the highest per-capita CO2 emission levels of any country.

The world’s 60 largest banks, meanwhile, earmarked US$6.9 trillion over the last eight years to enable the fossil fuel industry.

According to an Oxfam International report, the richest one per cent of the world’s population, most of whom live in developed countries, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution each year as the poorest 50 per cent of humanity. Low-income countries that make up nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population, on the other hand, account for less than 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

At COP 29 in Azerbaijan last year, developed countries, including Canada, pledged to triple their financial support for poor climate-vulnerable countries to $300 billion a year by 2035 to help them mitigate emissions, adapt to climate threats and help pay for loss and damage.

But this is far from the $1.3 trillion demanded by Global South countries. Their pledges bear little resemblance to global fossil fuel subsidies that totalled an estimated $7 trillion in 2022.

Trump’s climate-related actions

Ahead of Trump’s recent inauguration, and under sustained pressure by Republicans, major American and Canadian banks withdrew from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) originally led by Canada’s Mark Carney as the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Climate Action.

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The oil and gas industry donated more than $75 million to Trump’s campaign, though donations provided by those with links to fossil fuels were estimated to be five times greater than that.

Trump’s more than 200 executive orders included a so-called National Energy Emergency Declaration, in which he:

· Withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, which he called one-sided, joining only three other petro-states — Iran, Libya and Yemen — that are not signatories to the Agreement.

· Signed an order aimed at “unleashing American energy.”

· Signed a declaration that would allow his administration to fast-track permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure.

· Blocked all new offshore wind power development.

· Revoked former president Joe Biden’s order that half of vehicles sold by 2030 be electric

· Enabled new oil and gas development on federal lands, including reversing restrictions on petroleum extraction in Alaska and the Arctic Wildlife Reserve.

Elon Musk, among Trump’s closest billionaire allies, has been silent on the president’s 2025 exit from the Paris Climate Accord.

This is noteworthy because after Trump’s first withdrawal from the accord in 2017, Musk announced he was leaving presidential advisory councils, stating: “Climate change is real, leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”

What’s ahead

Notwithstanding the Trump fossil fuels embrace, there are some silver linings.

Although the Trump snub of the COP climate conferences is generally seen as a setback, stronger climate action may now be possible without the U.S. at the table. Furthermore, many American states and municipalities will continue to push forward with aggressive emissions reduction measures. And thousands of climate lawsuits against U.S. governments and corporations are underway.

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Trump’s actions may also spur the migration of the U.S. renewables industry to Canada. Regardless, renewables will continue to replace fossil fuels worldwide.

A global movement of governments, elected officials, organizations and individuals has endorsed the Canadian-founded Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation treaty initiative. Modelled on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it sets clear deadlines for the global phaseout of fossil fuels.

At the 2025 World Economic Forum, Fortescue, a global metal mining giant, endorsed the treaty, the first major industrial company to do so.

In his famous 2015 Lloyd’s of London speech, Carney, now the Liberal leadership frontrunner, called climate change “the tragedy of the horizon.”

He warned that climate change will lead to financial crises and falling living standards unless the world’s biggest economies do more to ensure their companies come clean about their current and future carbon emissions.

Payam Akhavan, an Iranian-born Canadian human rights lawyer, served as legal counsel to the Commission of Small Island States at the recent International Court of Justice climate hearings where these nations presented evidence about the devastating impact of climate change on their citizens.

In an interview with CBC Ideas, Akhavan said: “What’s happening to the small island states today is going to happen to all of us tomorrow.”

Ultimately, the writing is on the wall for fossil fuels. It’s not a matter of if the world moves away from them dramatically, but when.

Bruce Campbell was awarded a Community Leadership in Justice fellowship from the Ontario Law Foundation in 2016. He is a voluntary member of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Rideau Institute for International Affairs, and the Group of 78.

– ref. The impact of Donald Trump’s anti-climate measures on our heating planet – https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-donald-trumps-anti-climate-measures-on-our-heating-planet-247887

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 5, 2025