NewzIntel.com

Category: Universities

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Doorstop – Jerrabombera

    Source: Australia Government Ministerial Statements

    SUBJECTS: Cheaper Child Care; Wage rise for early educators; Universal early education; Fully funding public schools; $7,200 worse off under Peter Dutton; National Bullying Action Plan; The Middle East; Antisemitism; University governance; Local government 

    KRISTY McBAIN, MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES: It’s a pleasure today to welcome Minister Jason Clare to Goodstart Jerrabomberra where 90 places a day are filled, and we have a wait list. Jerrabomberra is the heart of the Queanbeyan region, it’s fast growing, and this childcare centre is one of many that have benefitted from the Albanese Labor Government’s Cheaper Childcare plan.

    We know families right across our region have benefitted from this, and it’s so great to be able to introduce Minister Clare to the wonderful staff here, the wonderful centre manager and State manager and the wonderful kids that come here each and every day to enjoy this beautiful centre.

    JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks very much, Kristy. It’s absolutely fantastic to be with you here at Jerrabomberra at the Goodstart Centre here. You are an absolutely fantastic Member of Parliament, and we are so lucky to have as part of the Albanese Labor Government and this community is lucky to have you as their Labor Member.

    When we were elected two and a half years ago, childcare costs had sky rocketed, childcare costs under the Liberals went up by 49 per cent over just under a decade, and that was double the OECD average.

    We’ve cut the cost of childcare now for more than a million Australian families. In the first 15 months of our Cheaper Childcare laws this has meant that for an average family on about 120 grand a year combined income with one child in early education or care saved them about 2,700 bucks, and that’s real money that’s making a real difference for families right across the country.

    And when we were elected two and a half years ago childcare workers were leaving the sector in droves, that’s the truth of it, and we’re now starting to see that turn around. Data that’s been released today shows that vacancy rates in the childcare sector are down 22 per cent, and at Goodstart, where we are today, all of their centres across the country, we’re seeing job applications now jump by 35 per cent, and expressions of interest jump by 50 to 60 per cent. Vacancy rates at Goodstart Centres are down by a massive 28 per cent.

    So that’s fantastic news. It shows that when you pay people more, more people want to do the job, and there aren’t many jobs that are more important than the work that our early educators do, getting young people ready for school.

    If we win the next election, the next big thing that we need to do is build more centres where they don’t exist at the moment and help to make sure that more young people get the chance that the children we’ve met here today get, help young people who can’t get into early education and care now, either because there’s no centre in their town, or because they can’t get access to the subsidy through no fault of their own.

    And that’s why if we win the next election, we’ll set up a $1 billion fund to build more centres in the outer suburbs and in the regions where they don’t exist at the moment, and implement a three day guarantee, to guarantee that every child who needs it will get access to three days a week of government supported early education and care.

    Why? To make sure that more children are ready to start school, because the evidence is, that if children spend more time in early education and care in centres like this, they’re more likely to start school ready to learn.

    And just while talking about school, last week the Prime Minister announced that South Australia and Victoria have become the fifth and sixth States to sign up to our public school funding and reform agreement, the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, that’s along with WA, Tassie, ACT, the Northern Territory and of course now South Australia and Victoria.

    On the weekend, teachers backed this agreement, on the weekend principals backed this agreement, and now today the Business Council of Australia backed this agreement. This is real funding, to fix the funding of our public schools, and it’s not a blank cheque, it’s tied to real reform; things like phonics checks in Year 1 and numeracy checks in Year 1 to identify children who might already be falling behind, and then using that funding to make sure that children who do fall behind catch up early, because we know that children who catch up early are more likely to go on and finish high school.

    So, it’s backed by teachers, backed by principals, backed by the business community. The only people that are against it are Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party, they’re against cutting the cost of childcare for Australian parents, they’re against pay rises for childcare workers, they’re against building more childcare centres where they don’t exist, and they’re against fixing the funding of our public schools and tying that funding to evidence based teaching and real reform to help more young children to catch up, keep up and finish high school.

    Happy to take some questions.

    JOURNALIST: When do you expect that Queensland and New South Wales will sign on to that school agreement?

    CLARE: I won’t give you a date, but negotiations are going well.

    JOURNALIST: Fresh polling is showing that it’s really tight. Are your cost-of-living measures cutting through with the voters?

    CLARE: We know that Australians are doing it tough, a lot of Australians are doing it tough, that’s why creating a million jobs is really important, that’s why cutting inflation by more than half is really important, that’s why boosting real wages is really important as well.

    We’re making progress, there’s more work to do, but the evidence that came out on the weekend shows that if Peter Dutton had been the Prime Minister of Australia for the last 12 months, Australian families would be over $7,000 worse off.

    Why? Well, because he was against the tax cuts that delivered a lot of support for Australian families, he’s against cheaper childcare, he’s against cutting the cost of medicine, he’s against lifting real wages, he’s against cutting the cost of people’s energy bills through that $300 rebate, and when you add all that up, it means that Aussie families would be thousands and thousands of dollars, $7,200, worse off under Peter Dutton.

    JOURNALIST: On the School Agreement, so New South Wales and Queensland you would assume are trying to get more than 25 per cent. Are you open to that?

    CLARE: Don’t assume that. But I’m not going to negotiate through the media. What’s important here is that we fix the funding of our public schools, and we tie that to the sort of reforms that are going to help make sure that more kids that fall behind can catch up and keep up and finish high school.

    Private schools, non government schools are funded at the level that David Gonski said they should be at, public schools aren’t, and this agreement is about fixing that, but also tying that to real targets and real reforms.

    The current agreement doesn’t do that. There aren’t any real targets, there aren’t any real reforms. I want to make sure that we fix the funding of our schools and tie it to the sort of reforms that we know work. I want this money to get results.

    At the moment in public schools, over the course of say, you know, the last eight years or so, we’ve seen the percentage of kids finishing high school drop from 83 per cent to 73 per cent. Just think about that for a second. That’s happening at a time where it’s more important to finish school than it was when we were little.

    We’ve got to turn that around if we’re going to make sure that more people get a chance to go to TAFE and university and get the jobs that are being created today. That’s why this funding is important, but that’s why the reforms that it’s linked to are just as important.

    JOURNALIST: The States that signed on to it earlier, are they now pushing for 25 per cent as well, and will you grant that?

    CLARE: I’ve already spoken to those States, and we will offer to them the same deal, which is we’ll lift our offer from 20 to 25 if they get rid of that 4 per cent which is usually aligned to things like capital depreciation costs. So, we’re having great conversations with states like WA and Tassie.

    JOURNALIST: Is there a willingness though to go above 25 per cent for the two states that have paid off, and then does that open up the chance for increased funding for other states?

    CLARE: No. That’s why when I answered your previous question, I said don’t assume that the States are asking for more than 25 per cent. What the states have been asking for, for the last 12 months is that we increase our offer from 20 to 25 per cent, and we said, “Yeah, we’ll do that, but we need you to chip in as well”.

    It’s always been my view that the Commonwealth’s got to chip in and the states have to chip in as well. That’s why we’re saying to the states, if we can lift our funding from 20 to 25 per cent, let’s get rid of that other 4 per cent, which is used for things like capital depreciation that don’t actually go to real funding for schools at the moment.

    JOURNALIST: Is the absolute cap 25?

    CLARE: Well, again, I’m not going to go into the details of the conversation, but we’re not talking beyond 25.

    JOURNALIST: How exactly are you going to address high rates of absenteeism due to bullying or mental health issues, do you actually have a stepped plan in place for the next school year?

    CLARE: Yep. This is a complicated thing. There is absolutely no place for bullying in our schools. That’s why the work that we’re doing in putting together a National Bullying Action Plan with the states is so critical, so important; that’s why getting rid of mobile phones in schools is so important; that’s why the ban on access to social media for young people under the age of 16 is so important as well.

    We know fundamentally that children are less likely to be at school if they’re suffering from bullying or they’re suffering from mental health challenges. And young people with mental health challenges, by the time they’re in Year 9 are about a year and a half to two years behind the rest of the class, and less likely to finish school.

    And so the sort of things that we want to tie this funding to are early intervention when children are young at primary school to make sure that they keep up and catch up, but also more investment in things like mental health workers and paediatric nursing support in our schools.

    That investment in health is not just about health, it has real education outcomes as well.

    JOURNALIST: Donald Trump overnight said that   sorry, a couple of days ago said that he proposed “cleaning”   unquote   “cleaning out Gaza and resettling Palestinians”. What is the Government’s response to that?

    CLARE: The Government’s position for a very, very long time, I think since December of 2023, has been to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and we’re glad that that has finally happened. We want to see an end to the killing in the Middle East, we want to see trucks come in with food and with medicine and with aid. We want to see the hostages returned.

    JOURNALIST: And what about resettling Palestinians though? What is your response directly to that suggestion that they should be moved to Jordan or Egypt?

    CLARE: The position of the Australian Government, which I think is still the position of the Opposition as well is that we believe in a two-state solution, two countries living side by side, two peoples living side by side in two nations where people can live in safety and security without having to go through checkpoints or fear that their lives will be taken from them the next day.

    JOURNALIST: Just on that language though, you know, “cleaning out”, do you think that’s triggering language or insensitive language?

    CLARE: Repeating my previous answer, we want two peoples able to be live side by side in safety and security.

    JOURNALIST: Do you have a set price tag on the number of those professional healthcare workers you want in schools?

    CLARE: No, there’s no set number, but this investment in South Australia’s an extra billion dollars over the next 10 years, in Victoria it’s an extra two and a half billion dollars over the next 10 years.

    The agreements that we’re striking with the states are all going to be slightly different depending on the needs in those states, but it’s designed to invest in real practical reforms that we know are going to get the results that we need.

    Just to add to what we’re talking about here, we’re talking about fixing the funding of our public schools. Now one in 10 children at the moment, when they sit for their NAPLAN tests in third grade, are identified as being below the national average, so one in 10   sorry, below the national minimum standard, so one in 10. But amongst children from poor families, from really disadvantaged backgrounds, it’s one in three, and most of those children go to public schools.

    So our public schools are the places that do the real heavy lifting where the challenge is three times as big, and they’re the ones that were underfunded at the moment. We want to fix that funding and tie that funding to help those children to catch up and keep up and finish high school.

    JOURNALIST: On that pay rise for early educators, do you know how many centres have used that as an excuse to immediately increase their fees by 4.4 per cent?  

    CLARE: Here’s the thing, they can’t, because a condition of getting the funding for the pay rise is they can’t increase their fees by more than 4 per cent.

    JOURNALIST: Yeah. That’s why I’m asking how many have increased their fees to that 4.4?

    CLARE: I suspect that most centres will increase their fees somewhere between zero and up to that 4 per cent over the next 12 months. The key thing is they can’t go beyond that, and that’s a big part of this deal. Number one, we want to make sure that the money goes to the worker, not the centre, and number two, in order to get that funding, they cannot increase their fees by more than 4 per cent.

    JOURNALIST: Do you know how many though have hit that cap?

    CLARE: It’s too early to give you that number.

    JOURNALIST: This billion-dollar strategy for outer suburbs and regional areas, do you have any hotspots, any, you know, regional areas that you’re concerned about that don’t have enough facilities?

    CLARE: You can look at data that shows where there are what’s called sometimes “childcare deserts” right across the country. This fund is designed to help to make sure that we build centres where they’re needed most, and in particular, if you look at the Productivity Commission report released last year it talks to this, it’s the outer suburbs, and it’s in Regional Australia.

    Just talking to the team at Goodstart here is the only childcare centre in Jerra that provides full service from six week old children right through to four year olds.

    JOURNALIST: I did just want to ask you about – there was evidence at a Parliamentary Committee last week about an online meeting of ANU to delete the Nazi salute. The investigation to my understanding is that they found that that wasn’t the case. What else do you think was happening there?

    CLARE: I make the general point, whether it’s at ANU or whether it’s at QUT that there is absolutely no place for the poison of antisemitism in our universities or anywhere in this country or anywhere in the world.

    There is a commemoration that’s just happened of the 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust and Auschwitz. You know, in the lifetime of our grandparents we’ve all seen the true terror of what antisemitism can wreak and there is no place for it, and that’s why I’ve made it very clear to every university leader in the country that they must enforce their Codes of Conduct, and that includes saying that directly to the Vice Chancellor of QUT.

    JOURNALIST: Do you believe though that it was appropriate that an ANU student who went on radio said that terrorist designated organisation, Hamas [indistinct] unconditional support was able to overturn her expulsion on appeal. You’ve just spoken about the poison of antisemitism; we have a growing issue in Australia. Is that an appropriate thing to do?

    CLARE: No.

    JOURNALIST: Are we any closer to a governance review   what’s the latest with the university governance review?

    CLARE: Yeah, last week we announced the members of the panel that will be responsible for implementing that review.

    JOURNALIST: Are you confident with the members of that panel?

    CLARE: I am.

    JOURNALIST: And then I might just Ms McBain something if that’s okay.

    CLARE: Sure.

    JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] would like to see councils auctioning off properties. What do you think of this decision?

    McBAIN: Look, every Council has the opportunity to take action when someone doesn’t pay rates for a period of time. My understanding, and it was a unanimous decision of Queanbeyan-Palerang Council to take this route, is that these rates have been unpaid for more than five years. A lot of those properties that attempted to make contact by door knocking them, letter boxing them, serving them, there’s been no contact made with any of those individuals for a variety of reasons. It is an avenue open to them, but as I said, it’s a unanimous decision of Queanbeyan-Palerang Council to take this action, which I’m sure that hasn’t been done lightly either.

    JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about the financial stability of councils if they are having to resort to methods like this just to try and stay out of debt?

    McBAIN: Look, I think when you look at it, it’s about a million dollars in unpaid rates that they are going to attempt to recruit through auction. I don’t think this goes anywhere near dealing with some of the ongoing issues that councils have, but what we’ve done since we’ve been in government, you know, there’s been more collaboration with local councils than in any time before that.

    I’ve personally met with over 250 councils either in their communities or in Canberra or at a Local Government Association conference. We have doubled Roads to Recovery funding and that means regional councils across the country have now more money than ever before to deal with road issues.

    Across Eden Monaro that’s $26.3 million extra for our local councils resulting in over $65 million for roads alone. We’ve increased road black spot funding, we’ve created the new safer local road and infrastructure program, $200 million a year, you know, we’ve been really putting our shoulder to the wheel making a difference for local councils, and just last week I was able to announce $27.2 million for Marulan Sewer Treatment Plant, you know, which is something that Council had called from but hadn’t been supported in getting.

    So, the Albanese Government takes seriously the priorities of local councils and local communities and we’ve been delivering for all of them.

    JOURNALIST: Thank you.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia’s drama dilemma: how taxpayers foot the bill for content that ends up locked behind paywalls

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Potter, Professor in Digital Media and Cutural Studies, Queensland University of Technology

    Shutterstock

    Headlines about Screen Australia’s latest annual Drama Report have highlighted one particular figure: a 29% drop in total industry expenditure compared to the year before.

    But a closer look suggests this isn’t the most concerning finding. The report also reveals a significant chunk (42%) of the A$803 million spent on producing Australian TV drama in 2023–24 was funded by taxpayers.

    What’s more – watching half of the Australian TV drama hours broadcast in 2024 required a streaming subscription. Watching all of them required seven different subscriptions.

    With Australians’ funding of this commercial, for-profit sector on the rise, we can’t help but ask: what do Australian viewers get in return?

    Screen production challenged globally

    Screen sectors globally are experiencing significant downturns because of changes in audience behaviour and advertiser spending. Various analyses suggest between 14% and 25% of all viewing is now comprised of videos from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

    Advertising revenue that once helped fund local drama has followed viewers to social media apps, imperilling Australia’s commercial broadcasters.

    Traditionally, commissions from the three commercial broadcasters have supported Australia’s drama production sector. However, in 2021 the government significantly watered-down their quota obligations. As a result, networks Seven, Nine and Ten commissioned just nine hours of new, non-soap drama in 2024.

    The loss of commercial broadcasters from the production ecosystem has radically changed the sector’s dynamics. Streamers such as Netflix and Stan are now the largest investors in Australian drama, followed by the ABC.

    Government subsidies for the sector have also grown considerably, partly due to rising production costs. Over the ten years leading up to 2023–24, federal spending on local TV drama production more than tripled, increasing by an average of 16.9% each year.

    Yet, during that same period, the hours of TV drama produced fell by an average of 5.7% each year. In other words, we’re spending more on less. And as mentioned above, much of this declining TV drama slate – which is heavily subsidised by government money – is ending up behind streamer paywalls.

    The problem with current policy

    Too much of Australia’s current screen funding is going towards stories that can’t be watched without a paid subscription.

    Also, many of these stories have little to no connection to Australia. For instance NBC Universal’s Young Rock, which was produced in Australia, is about the childhood of American celebrity Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Similarly, Nautilus, which Disney originally commissioned and which was made in Australia, is loosely based on Jules Verne’s maritime adventure novel, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.



    Read more:
    At $300m, Jules Verne-inspired Nautilus is the most expensive Australian-made show. But Disney+ was right to dump it

    Since the 2000s, our screen industry has become far more global than national. Current policy largely funds television projects through tax rebates on production budget. And any scripted production made in Australia (and with a certain minimum budget) is eligible for this funding.

    These rebates, combined with a lack of local content quotas for broadcasters and streamers, mean our current policy risks generously funding titles made by global corporations for international viewers.

    The 2024 Drama Report highlights a need to carefully consider whether Australia’s policy for the sector is delivering for Australians.

    It’s time to update the conditions of support, which were designed back when commercial broadcasters reliably commissioned some 300 hours of Australian drama each year. This is no longer the case.

    Solutions for more Australians stories

    So what needs to change? For a start, policy must offer greater support for dramas that tell compelling Australian stories in all their diversity.

    Such dramas, which deliver significant cultural value to audiences, should receive higher levels of rebates than international stories filmed in Australia. The ABC and the SBS could lead the way in commissioning this content, as per their charter obligations.

    The 2021 changes to Australian content regulations left the ABC as the principal provider of free local drama and children’s programs – but the ABC has limited resources. Rather than supporting international productions, local audiences might be better served if the government increased the ABC’s funding to produce minimum amounts of drama and children’s programs.

    We also have to bring Australian drama out from behind streamer paywalls if they receive any kind of government support. They should be made available to local audiences for free within two years of their release.

    This could be done through free-to-air television services, like ABC iView or SBS On Demand, or on a free platform built specifically for local content.

    Policymakers will need to define production sector sustainability in a 21st century context. Australia has historically had many small production companies. However, the steep decline in local drama being produced suggests only a few companies will remain viable in the long term.

    The scale of disruption facing local broadcasters and production companies needs to be matched by policy that’s fit for purpose, and which returns value to Australian communities.

    Anna Potter receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Amanda Lotz receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Marion McCutcheon receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Australia’s drama dilemma: how taxpayers foot the bill for content that ends up locked behind paywalls – https://theconversation.com/australias-drama-dilemma-how-taxpayers-foot-the-bill-for-content-that-ends-up-locked-behind-paywalls-246237

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Women struggle in the boardroom to promote social responsibility initiatives

    Source: University of South Australia

    28 January 2025

    It’s well documented that despite increasing awareness of gender equality, women remain underrepresented when taking a seat at leadership tables in the corporate world. But what about the challenges women face once they make it to the boardroom?

    University of South Australia researchers have found that women encounter significant struggles when navigating power dynamics in leadership teams – specifically when it comes to driving corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This is despite many previous studies suggesting that having more women on boards will lead to stronger social outcomes.

    CSR is when a business makes a conscious effort to make the world a better place. It could be a small enterprise making a simple charity donation or large corporation giving a portion of its profits to a worthy cause.

    Researchers in UniSA’s Centre for Markets, Values and Inclusion, Associate Professor Wei Qian, Dr Kathy Rao and Dr Xin Deng conducted a study recently that revealed the power dynamics at play when CSR decisions are being considered by boards and companies.

    Twenty senior women directors and managers from both small and large companies were interviewed from a variety of industries including banking, metal and mining, health care, finance, telecommunication, real estate and insurance.

    Assoc Prof Qian says the women expressed biases and difficulties in promoting CSR to their boardroom colleagues.

    “When speaking with these women, we heard several examples of women finding it hard to navigate power imbalances when it comes to driving social initiatives. One participant said she was told she ‘wears her heart on her sleeve’ when she was expressing concerns about a social initiative and wanting the company to go in a certain direction,” Assoc Prof Qian says.

    “We found that when women leaders were assigned ‘soft’ tasks that are assumed to be less important, such as CSR projects, they were often either marginalised or completely silenced, making them less likely to challenge board decisions or have an impact on changing performance. This created discomfort and sometimes even an intimidating environment for women to raise CSR concerns or ideas.

    “Men predominantly hold the powerful positions, such as executive directors or chairs, and they dominate the ‘hard’ business issues.”

    Some women also explained how they had to take a gentler approach to advocacy, choose their words carefully and sometimes adjust their CSR ideas to make them more receptive to their male colleagues – often by reframing it as a business opportunity or a chance for the business to gain competitive advantage.

    One research participant explained, “The best example was talking about the climate change program. You have to build a good story, sort of start at the economic (s) … and work your way up to (it), and then (say) ‘by the way, this would be a good and responsible thing to do’.”

    Assoc Prof Qian says stereotypes play into the question of whether women are more receptive to CSR agendas, but overall, she believes women are more often associated with strong performance in environmental and social goals and community engagement.

    “Stereotypically, women are perceived as more emotional, sensitive, caring and empathetic towards others. In contrast men are viewed as more independent, masterful and assertive,” she says.

    “Women directors are keener to build connections that offer social support and foster a sense of belonging, which in turn can lead them to engage more in CSR activities,” she says. “This confirms that gender equality on boards matters.”

    The research involved participants from Australia and China, neither of which have gender quotas. The researchers say although the two countries are distinctive in terms of political, social and economic structures, female leaders experienced similar struggles in the boardroom when promoting CSR.

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    Contact for interview: Associate Professor Wei Qian, UniSA E: Wei.Qian@unisa.edu.au
    Media contact: Melissa Keogh, Communications Officer, UniSA M: +403 659 154 E: Melissa.Keogh@unisa.edu.au

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Here’s what ‘deep listening’ can tell us about the natural world and our place in it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monty Nixon, PhD Student in Education, University of Canberra

    Jakub Maculewicz, Shutterstock

    Have you ever taken the time to stop and listen to nature? Deeply, quietly and patiently?

    If not, don’t worry, there’s still time to learn. Deep listening is a skill that can be developed.

    There’s much more to it than simply recognising the call or song of a particular species. To listen deeply to nature is to become aware of behaviours, relationships and patterns of interaction between multiple species, and to learn from what we hear.

    This is what Indigenous people have been doing for many thousands of years, in Australia and overseas.

    Under the supervision and guidance of Indigenous knowledge holders of Karulkiyalu Country, my PhD research, explores ways to embed this Indigenous approach to deep listening in Australia’s education system.

    The project builds on previous work showing positive results for student and teacher wellbeing, as well as an increased understanding of and desire to care for the natural world.

    The Rufous whistler is an Australian virtuoso.
    Andrew Skeoch

    What is deep listening?

    If you’d like to try deep listening, take some time to visit a natural place and find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed. Turn off your electronic devices.

    Close your eyes, and extend your sense of hearing into the landscape around you. Try focusing your listening in each direction, then above and even below. How far you can hear?

    At first you will hear the voices of individual creatures, perhaps one then another. After a while, you may begin to notice interactions and patterns of communication between them. Be curious. Does one respond to another? How, and why?

    Hearing all the interconnected activity going on around you in that moment can help you comprehend the living system as a whole.

    Acoustic ecologist Andrew Skeoch recording the sounds of nature in the Australian bush.
    Andrew Skeoch

    What can we learn from nature by listening?

    People often simplify complex relationships down to perceptions of either cooperation or competition.

    But listening to nature affirms that cooperative partnerships play a far greater role than meets the eye. Relationships between species that accommodate each other’s needs are ubiquitous throughout the biosphere.

    For instance, multiple species of birds forage efficiently and safely in mixed flocks, by communicating and alerting each other to information about food and threats. This practice of foraging collectively is so worthwhile it’s encountered the world over.

    Listening to the animated twittering of these flocks – which continually communicates and affirms each bird’s location – reminds us how beneficial cooperation can be. More importantly, cooperation is most advantageous when it embraces diversity.

    Addressing the existential threats facing humanity will require cooperation and collaboration on a massive scale. Many of these threats are interlinked. They tend to resist independent solutions and need to be tackled together.

    So there is an urgent need to embrace and celebrate our differences. Listening to mixed-species flocks reminds us that diversity can be a source of great strength.

    Lessons about competition

    Listening can also tell us about competitive interactions, particularly between members of the same species.

    In the morning twilight of the breeding season, songbirds join the dawn chorus – singing with repertoire and behaviours not heard at other times of day or year. It’s also clear they are listening to each other.

    At dawn, songbirds use formal vocal interactions to negotiate their most essential relationships. These include defining home ranges, establishing and maintaining pair bonds, acknowledging neighbours and affirming community identities.

    In this way, the dawn chorus is a sonic expression of a widespread principle in nature: that while the potential for competition exists, life-threatening aggression is risky, inefficient and costly.

    Many animals have developed specialised behaviours to sort out their relationships and status while minimising the risks of serious harm. For instance “boxing” kangaroos engage in scrapping or sparring rather than injurious fighting.

    While these physical behaviours are found widely throughout the animal world, songbirds have evolved their own trick: they use song to negotiate their interactions. Listening to them singing at dawn reminds us that competitive behaviours and aggression are not advantageous. Negotiation, mutual acknowledgement and respect are more successful ways of living.

    Boxing kangaroos negotiate their status without causing injury.
    victoriam, Shutterstock

    Educational possibilities from listening

    Learning through deep listening was integral to the education system in Australia for thousands of years. It allowed First Nations peoples to understand the ecological community around them and how to live with these groups of species.

    In this education system, Country and Earth-Kin, (such as plants and animals) were both central knowledge holders and teachers. Humans (primarily grandparents) provided support for childrens’ learning from these knowledge holders. In this way children came to know, understand and care for land.

    People and Country flourished through this way of learning. Australia became home to the longest continuing cultures in human history.

    Research is demonstrating how this old teaching and learning method can work in modern schooling. More than 120 educators across the ACT are involved in the Country as Teacher project. Cultivating a practice of deep listening to Earth-Kin and Country helped teachers and students develop an improved sense of wellbeing, as well as knowledge and understanding of the places they live.

    The research argues that teachers first need to cultivate their own practice of listening. Then they can embed this process in their approach to education. By slowing down, developing nuanced awareness, following curiosity, listening empathically to other beings and opening to being affected emotionally, teachers can cultivate their own deeper sense of care, appreciation and understanding. From their personal listening journey, educators can then facilitate these experiences for their students.

    Deep listening to Earth-Kin or Country as Teacher offers an old and new pathway to return to a valuable and important way of being for our schools and society.

    This path offers us the chance to come to appreciate and care for the ecological communities of the Earth. Through listening we can learn the ways in which species across the Earth adapt, survive and thrive, providing guidance for our own cultures as we confront increasing social and environmental uncertainty.

    This article was written in collaboration with acoustic ecologist Andrew Skeoch.

    Monty Nixon receives funding from The ACT Affiliated Schools Network.

    – ref. Here’s what ‘deep listening’ can tell us about the natural world and our place in it – https://theconversation.com/heres-what-deep-listening-can-tell-us-about-the-natural-world-and-our-place-in-it-235868

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How the AFL and NRL have crept into cricket’s traditional summer timeslot

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania

    Most of Australia has four seasons each year.

    However, when it comes to sport, the Australian calendar has long been dominated by two seasons: cricket and football.

    Traditionally, cricket has been played from October to March when the weather is suitable, and Australian rules football and rugby league from April to September.

    But in recent years, a lack of international cricket in Australia after January – coupled with earlier start dates for the AFL and NRL seasons – has resulted in football receiving more local media coverage and attention from fans during the summer.

    For many Australian cricket fans, the season will be finished once the Big Bash League and women’s Ashes conclude in early February.

    In February and March, the Australian men’s and women’s cricket teams will play matches overseas and the Australian states will play each other in one-day and four-day games.

    However, the reduced media attention and free-to-air TV coverage of cricket in Australia means many sports fans turn their attention to other sports, usually football or rugby league.

    But has this always been the case?



    Read more:
    How is the Big Bash League faring after 14 years of ups and downs – and what’s next?

    Football seasons are getting longer

    Cricket has been played in Australia for more than 200 years. While Australian rules football was initially developed to keep cricketers fit through the winter, football competitions such as the AFL and NRL have now arguably become more dominant across the sporting calendar.

    The 2024 AFL season was the longest in the sport’s history. The 2025 season will be exactly the same length, stretching nearly seven months, from March 6 to September 27.

    The 2025 NRL season will be even longer. It starts in Las Vegas on March 2 and doesn’t finish until the Grand Final on October 5.

    The 2025 AFLW and NRLW seasons will also be the longest ever, finishing as late as November 30.

    Football seasons are starting earlier

    While an AFL Grand Final in late September and an NRL Grand Final leading into NSW’s Labour Day in early October are well established, the start of the season has been slowly creeping forward over the decades.

    Twenty years ago, the AFL season started in late March, 50 years ago it was early April, and 80 years ago it was late April. The first AFL (VFL) season in 1897 started on May 8.

    The start of the NRL season has also moved forward over time. The first NRL (NSWRL) season in 1908 started on April 20.

    While these historical season start dates did not overlap with the cricket season, that is no longer the case.

    This year, the AFL and NRL will have completed three premiership rounds before the Sheffield Shield final ends the Australian domestic cricket season in late March.

    And then there are the AFL and NRL pre-season competitions, with games starting as early as February 7.

    Why are football seasons getting longer?

    Some of the factors that have contributed to extensions of football seasons include:

    • the introduction of more teams that all need to play each other
    • revenue opportunities for broadcasters, venues and clubs, and
    • additional mid-season byes and rest periods.

    AFL and NRL players have cited fatigue because of the long seasons. Consequently, some players’ associations and coaches have advocated for shorter seasons.

    However, playing fewer games would likely mean less money for the AFL and NRL, and for players and clubs.

    Adding more teams to the AFL and NRL and extending the AFLW and NRLW seasons may allow for more flexibility with future season lengths, as football codes can be played any time of year.

    Unless your stadium has an expensive roof, cricket cannot because of the threat of rain.

    What does this mean for cricket?

    While Australians can still play both cricket and football at junior and community levels, this is no longer possible at representative levels because of the overlap between seasons.

    The encroachment of football into traditional cricket months means increased competition for players, often forcing talented young athletes to make a decision about which sport to pursue.

    Greater perceived opportunities to play at the elite level may convince some players to prioritise football.

    For example, the six Australian state cricket teams generally contract 20 to 25 players each season. In comparison, the 17 NRL teams each have 30 contracted players and the 18 AFL clubs can have 44 players in their squads.

    Current AFL players such as Stephen Coniglio, Caleb Serong and Brent Daniels all represented their state in underage cricket before choosing football. Manly lock Nathan Brown and retired star Braith Anasta are NRL examples.

    Luckily for cricket, current players such as Alex Carey (GWS under-18 captain 2010), Mitch Marsh (under-18 WA AFL team 2008) and Will Sutherland (under-18 Victorian Metro AFL team 2017) are examples of young players choosing cricket after successful underage football careers.

    Venue availability and scheduling conflicts

    The extended football seasons pose logistical challenges for venues. Iconic stadiums such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) traditionally host both cricket and football matches and now face increased scheduling pressure with the seasons overlapping.

    For instance, in 2024, the MCG only had a 22-day turnaround between hosting the AFL Grand Final and the Victoria vs NSW Sheffield Shield match.

    Hosting concerts at these venues increases revenue but also adds to scheduling difficulties.

    It all adds up to a difficult juggling act for venues, which will be made even trickier if the football codes creep even further into the traditional cricket season.

    Cricket, too, has a battle on its hands to stay relevant to fans, broadcasters, commercial partners and even participants as the AFL and NRL seasons continue to expand.

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

    – ref. How the AFL and NRL have crept into cricket’s traditional summer timeslot – https://theconversation.com/how-the-afl-and-nrl-have-crept-into-crickets-traditional-summer-timeslot-247330

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: David Seymour says Kiwis are too squeamish about privatisation – history shows why they lost the appetite

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

    Getty Images

    State asset sales have been a political dividing line in New Zealand for decades now, and it seems voters are again being asked to decide which side they’re on.

    In his state-of-the-nation speech last week, ACT Party leader David Seymour advised New Zealanders to “get past their squeamishness about privatisation” and ask themselves:

    If we want to be a first world country, then are we making the best use of the government’s half-a-trillion-dollars–plus worth of assets? If something isn’t getting a return, the government should sell it so we can afford to buy something that does.

    No doubt this appealed to ACT’s core constituency. But the available evidence suggests many New Zealanders view the privatisation of state assets with scepticism, not squeamishness.

    The most rigorous available data are from the New Zealand Election Study: just under 50% of those surveyed in 2020 either “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed with the proposition that “privatisation has gone too far”.

    Just over 9% either somewhat or strongly disagreed with that statement. In other words, those who oppose state asset sales comfortably outnumber those who support them.

    It seems reasonable to suggest this reflects the sizeable proportion of New Zealanders who remember the asset sales experience of the 1980s and 1990s under both Labour and National governments.

    Writing in 2000, during the heights of this bipartisan privatisation boom, economic analyst Brian Gaynor argued:

    By selling 100 per cent shareholdings in state assets, the New Zealand Government has allowed a small group of investors, mainly offshore, to make enormous profits. With just a little foresight these profits could have been kept for the benefit of domestic investors and taxpayers.

    At the same time, voters have watched levels of wealth inequality rise, and the transfer of public wealth into private hands. And while asset sales can improve efficiency, they can also reduce access to services for those on limited incomes or experiencing higher unemployment.

    Market failure

    Research has shown a clear majority of New Zealanders would prefer the government provides social services, especially in health and education.

    Just over 80% of New Zealanders trust the public service based on their own experiences. And levels of trust in the public service outstrip those in the private sector. All this suggests there is little appetite for a return to the days of peak privatisation.

    More broadly, some New Zealanders will also question Seymour’s assertion that state assets should provide a return on investment.

    Aside from it not being possible to turn a profit on many of the assets a government needs to serve the needs of its citizens, there are costs associated with putting a market value on certain social goods and services.

    As Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel has argued:

    [W]hen money comes increasingly to govern access to the essentials of the good life – decent health care, access to the best education, political voice and influence in campaigns – when money comes to govern all of those things, inequality matters a great deal.

    Furthermore, there is ample evidence of the ethical and operational shortcomings of applying the profit motive to public institutions such as prisons, hospitals and schools.

    Nor are markets themselves value-free, self-correcting mechanisms. In the material economy, they have a propensity to fail. When they do, the people who suffer most tend to be those least well positioned to defend themselves.

    That is why the state performs certain functions: to make sure those unable to pay for privately provided goods and services are not denied them.

    The nature and extent of what the state should provide is quite properly a matter for debate. But those decisions affect everyone and should be decided in the public domain, not left to the managers and owners of private companies.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: open to a conversation about priviatisation.
    Getty Images

    Public versus private debt

    Seymour also suggested a return to asset sales was justified by the country’s current levels of public debt. He referred to “the other tribe” who are

    building a majority for mediocrity – who would love nothing more than to go into lockdown again, make some more sourdough, and worry about the billions in debt another day.

    But as the right-leaning Maxim Institute points out,

    the real risk in New Zealand is our very high levels of private debt, which includes household debt like mortgages, student loans, credit card, hire purchases, to buying a car in instalments […] Compared to our relatively low levels of public debt our current household debt stands at 95% of GDP.

    According to the Treasury, current public debt levels are “prudent”, although “an ageing population, climate change and historical trends mean governments have important choices to make”.

    The risk of renewed asset sales and privatisation is that public debt might be reduced but at the expense of private debt increasing.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has responded by saying he was open to a conversation about selling state assets. While it was “not something on our agenda right now”, he said, he hinted National may campaign on it ahead of next year’s election.

    His other coalition partner, NZ First, has a long-held antipathy to selling local assets to offshore owners. And Luxon may also remember the result of the non-binding citizens-initiated referendum in 2013, when 67.3% opposed the potential sale of the state’s energy companies.

    A niche party such as ACT can safely take policy positions that have little appeal beyond its core supporters. But that’s not a luxury available to its major coalition partner, which started the year behind in the polls.

    On the other hand, National does not want to be outflanked any further by ACT. Asset sales, it seems, are destined to remain a perennial political fault line.

    Richard Shaw 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. David Seymour says Kiwis are too squeamish about privatisation – history shows why they lost the appetite – https://theconversation.com/david-seymour-says-kiwis-are-too-squeamish-about-privatisation-history-shows-why-they-lost-the-appetite-248308

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What’s the difference between a food allergy and an intolerance?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Koplin, Group Leader, Childhood Allergy & Epidemiology, The University of Queensland

    Feel good studio/Shutterstock

    At one time or another, you’ve probably come across someone who is lactose intolerant and might experience some unpleasant gut symptoms if they have dairy. Maybe it’s you – food intolerances are estimated to affect up to 25% of Australians.

    Meanwhile, cow’s milk allergy is one of the most common food allergies in infants and young children, affecting around one in 100 infants.

    But what’s the difference between food allergies and food intolerances? While they might seem alike, there are some fundamental differences between the two.

    What is an allergy?

    Australia has one of the highest rates of food allergies in the world. Food allergies can develop at any age but are more common in children, affecting more than 10% of one-year-olds and 6% of children at age ten.

    A food allergy happens when the body’s immune system mistakenly reacts to certain foods as if they were dangerous. The most common foods that trigger allergies include eggs, peanuts and other nuts, milk, shellfish, fish, soy and wheat.

    Mild to moderate signs of food allergy include a swollen face, lips or eyes; hives or welts on your skin; or vomiting. A severe allergic reaction (called anaphylaxis) can cause trouble breathing, persistent dizziness or collapse.

    What is an intolerance?

    Food intolerances (sometimes called non-allergic reactions) are also reactions to food, but they don’t involve your immune system.

    For example, lactose intolerance is a metabolic condition that happens when the body doesn’t produce enough lactase. This enzyme is needed to break down the lactose (a type of sugar) in dairy products.

    Food intolerances can also include reactions to natural chemicals in foods (such as salicylates, found in some fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices) and problems with artificial preservatives or flavour enhancers.

    Lactose intolerance is caused by a problem with breaking down lactose in milk.
    Pormezz/Shutterstock

    Symptoms of food intolerances can include an upset stomach, headaches and fatigue, among others.

    Food intolerances don’t cause life-threatening reactions (anaphylaxis) so are less dangerous than allergies in the short term, although they can cause problems in the longer term such as malnutrition.

    We don’t know a lot about how common food intolerances are, but they appear to be more commonly reported than allergies. They can develop at any age.

    It can be confusing

    Some foods, such as peanuts and tree nuts, are more often associated with allergy. Other foods or ingredients, such as caffeine, are more often associated with intolerance.

    Meanwhile, certain foods, such as cow’s milk and wheat or gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye and barley), can cause both allergic and non-allergic reactions in different people. But these reactions, even when they’re caused by the same foods, are quite different.

    For example, children with a cow’s milk allergy can react to very small amounts of milk, and serious reactions (such as throat swelling or difficulty breathing) can happen within minutes. Conversely, many people with lactose intolerance can tolerate small amounts of lactose without symptoms.

    There are other differences too. Cow’s milk allergy is more common in children, though many infants will grow out of this allergy during childhood.

    Lactose intolerance is more common in adults, but can also sometimes be temporary. One type of lactose intolerance, secondary lactase deficiency, can be caused by damage to the gut after infection or with medication use (such as antibiotics or cancer treatment). This can go away by itself when the underlying condition resolves or the person stops using the relevant medication.

    Whether an allergy or intolerance is likely to be lifelong depends on the food and the reason that the child or adult is reacting to it.

    Allergies to some foods, such as milk, egg, wheat and soy, often resolve during childhood, whereas allergies to nuts, fish or shellfish, often (but not always) persist into adulthood. We don’t know much about how likely children are to grow out of different types of food intolerances.

    How do you find out what’s wrong?

    If you think you may have a food allergy or intolerance, see a doctor.

    Allergy tests help doctors find out which foods might be causing your allergic reactions (but can’t diagnose food intolerances). There are two common types: skin prick tests and blood tests.

    In a skin prick test, doctors put tiny amounts of allergens (the things that can cause allergies) on your skin and make small pricks to see if your body reacts.

    A blood test checks for allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies in your blood that show if you might be allergic to a particular food.

    Blood tests can help diagnose allergies.
    RossHelen/Shutterstock

    Food intolerances can be tricky to figure out because the symptoms depend on what foods you eat and how much. To diagnose them, doctors look at your health history, and may do some tests (such as a breath test). They may ask you to keep a record of foods you eat and timing of symptoms.

    A temporary elimination diet, where you stop eating certain foods, can also help to work out which foods you might be intolerant to. But this should only be done with the help of a doctor or dietitian, because eliminating particular foods can lead to nutritional deficiencies, especially in children.

    Is there a cure?

    There’s currently no cure for food allergies or intolerances. For allergies in particular, it’s important to strictly avoid allergens. This means reading food labels carefully and being vigilant when eating out.

    However, researchers are studying a treatment called oral immunotherapy, which may help some people with food allergies become less sensitive to certain foods.

    Whether you have a food allergy or intolerance, your doctor or dietitian can help you to make sure you’re eating the right foods.

    Victoria Gibson, a Higher Degree by Research student and Research Officer at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Queensland, and Rani Scott-Farmer, a Senior Research Assistant at the University of Queensland, contributed to this article.

    Jennifer Koplin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE), which is supported by funding from the Australian government. She was a named investigator on a grant from Sanofi Regeneron for unrelated research and has received a research award from the Stallergenes Greer Foundation.

    Desalegn Markos Shifti is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship funded through the Centre for Food Allergy Research Centre of Research Excellence.

    – ref. What’s the difference between a food allergy and an intolerance? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-food-allergy-and-an-intolerance-243685

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Roadmap needed to navigate the edtech landscape

    Source: Australian Education Union

    28 January 2025

    The burgeoning national edtech market must be built around high-quality resources to establish a resilient baseline for the rapid infiltration of digital resources and learning applications, say Professor Leslie Loble AM and Dr Kelly Stephens, from University of Technology (UTS) Sydney Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion.

    Loble and Stephens are the authors of a new research paper, Towards high quality in Australian educational technology, which raises concerns about the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI), including data sovereignty and safety, equity and inclusion, inherent bias, and commercial interests.

    The paper addresses concerns about public school resourcing and teacher workloads, roles and relationships with students, and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which is capable of mimicking human content, ideas and data, adds a layer of complexity.

    Despite the rapid growth of the market and the proliferating number of publicly available edtech apps, which number around 500,000 on Apple and Google, with more still marketed directly to schools, there is “no independent, comprehensive source of information about the quality of digitally enabled education resources in Australia”, the paper says.

    “Schools, teachers, students and their parents can find themselves having to navigate a confusing market without the time, information, or technical expertise they need to answer critical questions like:

    • -Are these tools aligned to the Australian curriculum (or local variants) and to evidence-backed approaches to teaching and learning?
    • -Are they designed to benefit the full range of learners?
    • -Who owns the data and what does that mean for data sovereignty and safety?
    • -Is there evidence that they work, and for whom?

    “In worst-case scenarios, edtech is not only ineffectual, but dangerous,” the paper says.

    Stephens says robust quality assurance (QA) can alleviate burden from teachers and schools, who should not have responsibility for making detailed and sometimes technical judgements about
    a resource’s fitness for purpose.

    The need for GenAI literacy and training for leaders, teachers, support staff, students, parents, guardians and policymakers was among the 25 recommendations of a federal parliamentary committee report, Study buddy or influencer, released in September.

    GenAI “presents exciting opportunities and yet high-stakes risks for the Australian education system”, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training acknowledged following its inquiry into the use of GenAI.

    The recommendations included providing funding to set up virtual and physical hubs to provide expert and technical advice and support to institutions, regulating edtech companies and developers through a system-wide risks-based legal framework, and expediting the implementation of the Australian Framework for GenAI in Schools (released in January).

    Loble was an expert advisory panel member for the inquiry and is Chair of the Australian Network for Quality Digital Education (ANQDE), a cross-industry leadership group.

    “The good news is that the recommendations are substantively aligned with our QA report, and the committee has specifically called out the need to address the digital and educational divide, as well as safety and security,” she says.

    “They recognise the existing risks of these tools, which we need to mitigate, but also the risk of doing nothing – we need to be alert to both to avoid worsening Australia’s learning divide.”

    Quality assurance can support systems by providing a national process and avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort by states and territories. But states would still be able to “run their own ruler over a resource” if they wanted to assure themselves of alignment with any particular state-based criteria.

    “National quality standards mean this would be a less resource-intensive process if all the fundamentals have already been assessed,” she says.

    NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Amber Flohm agrees it would be “untenable to simply assume that school leaders, teachers and support staff possess the technical expertise, time, and resources to manage these risks on their own”.

    “Sufficient and effective regulation and scrutiny by education systems and government is the only way to ensure educational integrity, privacy and ethical concerns are balanced against commercial interests as the use of edtech and generative artificial intelligence becomes more widespread,” Flohm says.

    From trial to tool

    From Term 4, public teachers in NSW will have access to the department of education’s endorsed NSWEduChat GenAI tool, initially trialled for students in response to statewide bans on ChatGPT last year.

    The department says the trials, conducted in 50 schools, showed the tool could save time by producing student resources and automating administrative tasks, “giving teachers more time to focus on personalised learning and student interactions”.

    “NSWEduChat does not replace the valuable work of our teachers, it helps them to save time, tailor their resources, and focus on their critical work in the classroom,” says education minister Prue Car.

    Flohm says NSWEduChat was initially designed to assist with student tasks such as essay writing, and collect data on equity and data privacy, but cautions against the de-professionalisation of teachers.

    “When it comes to professional tools for teacher use, available technology should not determine what the solution is and then work back to the problem. Rather teachers should work out what they want AI to do to support their work,” she says.

    “The capacity of GenAI to create immediate lesson plans is obvious, and no doubt attractive to a time-poor profession. However, understanding how syllabus, curriculum and the associated pedagogies interact to benefit the growth of students’ knowledge and skills is the core of teachers’ intellectual labour, and this must never be reduced or outsourced to technology.”

    Testing the tools

    Though work is being done at all levels, national standards are needed, and teachers must be brought in to help with evaluation. They will need to ensure GenAI tools align with their schools’ needs, including student literacy and learning levels and backgrounds, and that teacher knowledge and skill is used to turn data into effective classroom practice.

    Dr Kelly Stephens says there is “currently nothing in the way of national standards, apart from ESA’s Safe Technology for Schools program, recently updated for GenAI”.

    She says evaluation is benefiting from reviews across diverse fields, including by teachers, edtech and learning media experts, child development scholars, instructional designers, K-12 subject matter experts, and school technology leaders.

    “Our consultations with teachers have suggested that rather than diminishing the importance of teacher professionalism, edtech highlights it.

    “This might include using an online curriculum application to help cater to a very broad range of learning levels in a classroom and rely on their breadth and depth of subject expertise to provide point-in-time support and monitoring of student progress,” says Stephens.

    “Or using generative image software to improve engagement with school and learning, build digital literacy and super-charge English language acquisition by recent migrants and refugees.”

    Equity and inclusion must remain a significant priority in the evaluation process, particularly as GenAI has the potential to increase disadvantage through cost, literacy and digital access.

    “If we drop our guard on this, there is every chance that better resourced students, families, schools and systems will be better equipped to assess, explore, and benefit from existing and emerging digital tools,” says Stephens.

    “This absolutely requires adequate and equitable resourcing at the school level. It also invites governments to consider how best to use other levers at their disposal, to bend the market toward equity, such as quality standards and procurement processes.”

    Statewide challenges

    AEU Victorian Branch vice president, secondary, Marino D’Ortenzio warns that despite the national framework for GenAI, there are different views on its use and implementation between jurisdictions in Australia. “For example, in NSW AI is permitted to be used to create newsletters, whereas in Victoria this is explicitly forbidden in the Victorian government school system policy.”

    D’Ortenzio says that as GenAI and machine learning systems become ubiquitous, system-wide training will be vital to prepare staff adequately and schools must be given the means to analyse impact on teacher workload.

    “We recognise that GenAI is here and, that students and teachers are using it. This means our approaches to learning tasks have already begun to alter. Teachers must be at the centre of decisions relating to AI and pedagogy in schools as it expands in its scope and use,” he says.

    “We know of schools that are changing the way they approach tasks to ensure that GenAI does not give students who use it an advantage. Some are returning to hand-written assessment pieces. Others are setting tasks that assume GenAI is going to be used, by getting students to identify how they might ask a GenAI model to produce a result, and then analysing the result to examine where they are flawed.

    “The department of education and training must be accountable for the implementation, use and decisions of GenAI in schools. This accountability should be set out in clear, publicly available guidelines for schools and their communities.”

    D’Ortenzio also says commercial businesses who see an opportunity for profit making must be deprioritised behind educational programs, pedagogical models, student development and student achievement.

    Ad-hoc regulation

    Use of AI technology in Queensland remains ad-hoc and regulation of platforms and guidelines for digital technology have not kept pace with change, says Queensland Teachers’ Union honorary vice president Josh Cleary.

    “There is an urgent need for the profession to adopt a decision-making framework and ensure there is industrial consultation that addresses the full suite of legal, professional and educational issues,” he says.

    When the Queensland Department of Education began consultation in 2020 it assumed teachers would familiarise themselves with new digital technologies outside of working hours.

    “The QTU successfully negotiated an allocation of additional funds for the purpose of releasing teachers to undertake training. The rollout of the professional training was not perfect, but the approach to consultation between the parties has significantly improved,” he says.

    Excessive data entry and unreasonable quantities of email are two common examples of work intensification that detract from teachers’ time to plan, implement, and evaluate effective teaching and learning practices, and the use of AI has so far added to teacher workloads rather than allow teachers to focus on what they do best: teaching students.

    “A future-focused pedagogy might use GenAI technology as a platform, but classrooms should not become subordinate to technology’s use. Teachers must be given training to help them ensure students learn to maintain a critical awareness of information and make discerning choices about the use of GenAI,” Cleary says.

    This article was originally published in the Australian Educator, Summer 2024

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ-Kiribati fallout: Maamau govt minister says ‘impacts to be felt by the people’

    By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Bulletin editor/presenter

    Kiribati President Taneti Maamau was unable to meet New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters because he had “a pre-planned and significant historical event”, a Cabinet minister in Kiribati says.

    Alexander Teabo, Education Minister in Maamau’s government, told RNZ Pacific that “it is important for the truth to be conveyed accurately” after the “diplomatic tiff” between the two nations was confirmed by Peters as reported.

    Maamau is currently in Fiji for his first state visit to the country.

    Peters said New Zealand could not commit to ongoing monetary aid in Kiribati after three cancelled or postponed visits in recent months.

    A spokesperson from Peters’ office said the Deputy Prime Minister’s visit to Tarawa was set to be the first in over five years and took a “month-long effort”. However, the NZ government was informed a week prior to the meeting that Maamau was no longer available.

    His office announced that, as a result of the “lack of political-level contact”, Aotearoa was reviewing its development programme in Kiribati. It is a move that has been described as “not the best approach” by Victoria University’s professor in comparative politics Dr Jon Fraenkel.

    Minister Teabo said that Peters’ visit to Kiribati was cancelled by the NZ government.

    “It is correct that the President was unavailable in Tarawa due to a pre-planned and significant historical event hosted on his home island,” he said.

    Date set ‘several months prior’
    “This important event’s date was established by the Head of the Catholic Church several months prior.”

    He said Maamau’s presence and support were required on his home island for this event, and it was not possible for him to be elsewhere.

    Teabo pointed out that Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister was happy to meet with Kiribati’s Vice-President in a recent visit.

    “The visit by NZ Foreign Minister was cancelled by NZ itself but now the blame is on the President of Kiribati as the reason for all the cuts and the impacts to be felt by the people.

    “This is unfair to someone who is doing his best for his people who needed him at any particular time.”

    ‘Tried several times’ – Luxon
     The New Zealand aid programme is worth over NZ$100 million, but increasingly, Kiribati has been receiving money from China after ditching its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2019.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the country was keen to meet and work with Kiribati, like other Pacific nations.

    Luxon said he did not know whether the lack of communication was due to Kiribati and China getting closer.

    “The Foreign Minister has tried several times to make sure that as a new government, we can have a conversation with Kiribati and have a relationship there.

    “He’s very keen to meet with them and help them and work with them in a very constructive way but that hasn’t happened.”

    New Zealand’s Minister of Defence Judith Collins agrees with Peters’ decision to review aid to Kiribati.

    Collins said she would talk to Peters about it today.

    “I think we need to be very careful about where our aid goes, how it’s being used and I agree with him. We can’t have a disrespectful relationship.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ernst Names Small Business of the Week, Myers Tree Farm

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)
    RED OAK, Iowa – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today announced her Small Business of the Week: Myers Tree Farm of Des Moines County. Throughout the 119th Congress, Chair Ernst plans to recognize a small business in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties.
    “For over 35 years, Myers Tree Farm has rooted itself in the Sperry community, sprucing things up with their variety of houseplants, succulents, and home decor,” said Chair Ernst. “Home to over 5,000 Christmas trees, this family-owned and operated small business continues to bring holiday joy to families across Iowa!”
    In 1987, Robert and Patti Myers planted a group of Christmas trees on an acre of land in hopes to sell them and pay for their kids college education. After Chad graduated from Iowa State University in 1993 with a degree in horticulture, he joined the business full-time and eventually took over with his wife. The couple expanded Myers Tree Farm to include full-service landscaping and a potting shed that houses flowers, garden and vegetable plants, and succulents. In 2019, the Myerses fully renovated their barn to host weddings ceremonies. The business hosts an annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration that attracts over 5,000 people to the family farm. This year, Myers Tree Farm will celebrate 38 years in Iowa. 
    Stay tuned as Chair Ernst recognizes more Iowa small businesses across the state with her Small Business of the Week award.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Centre of Excellence to shape the future of disability employment

    Source: Ministers for Social Services

    The Albanese Labor Government is committed to an inclusive Australia where everybody has the opportunity for secure, fairly paid work – including people with disability.

    The unemployment rate for people with disability has remained stubbornly high for the past three decades and Labor has been acting to implement a range of changes to help shift this.

    To further assist, our Government has awarded $22.1 million to the Swinburne University of Technology and its consortium partners to realise our election commitment for a Disability Employment Centre of Excellence.

    The consortium includes representatives from peak disability and capacity building organisations, including Inclusion Australia, Family Advocacy, Disability Employment Australia, National Disability Services and the University of Melbourne.

    The Centre of Excellence will improve job outcomes for people with disability seeking to find and keep a job, by strengthening the capacity of employment service providers to deliver quality employment services and supports to people with disability and employers.

    Service providers will have centralised access to evidence-based best-practice resources developed by the Centre of Excellence. The resources will be specialised, innovative and drive quality practice.

    Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, said the Centre will bring together lived experience and expertise from across the disability community and beyond, including researchers, advocates, peak bodies, employers and service providers.

    “In order to deliver real change to disability employment in Australia, we need evidence of effective service approaches and what works to reduce the barriers preventing the participation of people with disability in the workforce,” Minister Rishworth said.

    “The Centre will collect and translate this evidence into best-practice resources to help support all employment service providers improve the services they deliver to people with disability and employers.

    “The establishment of the Centre of Excellence is a cornerstone of the Government’s package of reforms to disability employment, and it will help support the beginning of the new specialist disability employment program which commences this year,” Minister Rishworth said.

    Professor Karen Hapgood, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research at Swinburne University said the partnership will help shape a fairer, more inclusive future for disability employment.

    “Swinburne University of Technology is excited to work with the Commonwealth Government, our partners and stakeholders across the sector to lead change and increase the employment of people with disability in Australia,” Professor Hapgood said.

    “Our vision for the Centre of Excellence is to provide best-practice, evidence-based information that can bring people and technology together for a better world.

    “By harnessing the collective expertise, knowledge and resources of those with lived experience, their families, researchers, service providers, employers and industry bodies, we can help providers improve employment outcomes for people with disability.”

    The Centre of Excellence will commence in March 2025 and be funded for a period of four years to 2027-28.

    More information about the Centre of Excellence is available on the Department of Social Services website at www.dss.gov.au/disability-employment-reforms/disability-employment-centre-excellence

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Carrying the spirit and intent of Murray Sinclair’s vision forward in Treaty 7 territory

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tiffany Dionne Prete, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, University of Lethbridge

    For nearly three decades, I have immersed myself in archival work to uncover the histories of my People, the Kainai (Blood Tribe) in Treaty 7 territory, in Alberta. What began in childhood as a search for photographs of my ancestors has evolved into a lifelong pursuit of understanding through records and Tribal narratives.

    Unlike my peers who had photo albums of their ancestors, I had none. Cameras were rare in Indigenous communities during the 1800s and early 1900s, leaving few family photographs. Instead, I turned to online archives, hoping to find even a single image. This archival work became a means of reconnecting with my ancestors.

    During my graduate studies at the University of Alberta, this passion for archival research deepened.

    As a research assistant for the Aboriginal Healing through Language and Culture project, I was part of a project that partnered with Roman Catholic Oblate missionaries to view historical records of Indigenous Peoples in the North West, which included my People.

    ‘Indigenous Research: Walking the Path of my Ancestors’ video by Tiffany Prete.

    However, ongoing litigation related to the Residential School Settlement class-action suit limited my access. While I was granted permission to view specific materials, many documents remained restricted, and photocopying was often prohibited. This experience highlighted the persistent barriers Indigenous researchers face when reclaiming their histories and underscored the importance of equitable access to archival records.

    Documenting Survivor testimonies

    Growing up, conversations about residential schools were notably absent in my community. My family and fellow Tribal members rarely spoke of their experiences, and my public education glossed over their existence, perpetuating a widely held belief across Canada that residential schools were benevolent and necessary for Indigenous Peoples’ “advancement.”

    As the child of a residential school Survivor, I grew up with a profound sense of something unspoken yet deeply impactful in our collective history. Silence reflected the profound harm inflicted by the Canadian government and religious organizations operating these schools, leaving scars not just on individuals but across generations. Despite Survivors’ efforts to share their truths, the dominant Canadian narrative continued to portray residential schools as positive contributions to the nation’s development.

    The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was pivotal in challenging this false narrative. By documenting Survivor testimonies and exposing the systemic abuses within these institutions, the TRC dismantled the myth of their benevolence. This was more than a historical reckoning; it was a vital step toward acknowledging the truth of Canada’s colonial history and its lasting impact on Indigenous Peoples.

    TRC Calls: 15 years ago

    Fifteen years ago this June, on the day the 94 Calls to Action were released, Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, stated: “The Survivors need to know before they leave this Earth that people understand what happened and what the schools did to them.”

    Sinclair’s words, coupled with one call in particular, ignited within me a deep commitment to create a program of work that would reclaim and document my Blood People’s history — stories that had long been excluded from Canada’s historical consciousness in favour of a whitewashed, generalized narrative. This commitment responded to Call to Action No. 78 which called upon Canada to commit funding to assist communities to research and produce histories of their own residential school experience and their involvement in truth, healing and reconciliation.

    The work I have been engaged in focuses on using archival records and partnering with Blood Tribe Elders, who are residential school Survivors, to together reinterpret these records. Together, we sought to tell our history through our own lens, using our voices to articulate the policies and experiences of the Stolen Children Era — the era covering over a century and a half where the Canadian government used multiple colonial models of schooling to assimilate Indigenous children.

    ‘The Kinai Stolen Children Era’ talk with Tiffany Prete.

    While conducting research in recent years leading up to an exhibit focusing on experiences of the Stolen Children Era, I noticed some improvements in access to archival materials, but significant barriers remain.

    Processes for accessing restricted documents vary widely, with some archives lacking clear pathways. Policies around documentation also differ — some allow photography under strict guidelines, while others prohibit duplication, limiting researchers to handwritten notes. These challenges, and others, underscore the ongoing need for systemic efforts to ensure Indigenous communities can reclaim their histories and preserve cultural narratives.

    Enduring strength of our people

    Through my archival work, the intentions behind Canada’s residential school system became clear. The education system for Indigenous children sought to create passive, obedient individuals stripped of agency and identity as Indigenous Peoples.

    Yet, within these oppressive records, I have found powerful stories of courage, resistance and resilience.

    These acts, combined with the wisdom of Elders, reflect the enduring strength of our People. Among the greatest examples of collective resistance and resilience is the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

    I deeply admire the Survivors who broke the silence, initiating the class-action lawsuit that led to the TRC. Their bravery, along with the work of TRC leaders, resulted in powerful reports and the transformative Calls to Action. They remind us of the importance of reclaiming our power and affirm that we, as the Indigenous Peoples of this land, are deserving of dignity and justice.

    Sinclair’s clarity, strength, commitment

    Among those I hold in high regard is the late Sinclair, whose leadership during the TRC was defined by clarity, strength and commitment. He spoke candidly about Canada’s colonial policies and charted a clear path forward.

    In 1988, he became the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba. And he held those responsible for the operations of the schools accountable. His firm approach to justice and reconciliation inspires me, as an intergenerational Survivor, to confront challenges rooted in colonization with strength and resolve.

    As we move forward, let us band together with a shared commitment to treat all people with the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings.

    Reconciliation is not a solitary journey but a collective effort — a promise to do better and honour the truths of our shared history.

    Together, we must right the wrongs of the past, confronting injustice with courage and compassion. Let us carry the spirit and intent of Sinclair’s vision forward, ensuring that the path of reconciliation becomes not just a goal, but a way of living that defines us as a nation.

    Tiffany Dionne Prete 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. Carrying the spirit and intent of Murray Sinclair’s vision forward in Treaty 7 territory – https://theconversation.com/carrying-the-spirit-and-intent-of-murray-sinclairs-vision-forward-in-treaty-7-territory-247617

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Senator Reverend Warnock Pushes for Key Commitments from Agriculture Nominee to Support Georgia Farmers and Families

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock – Georgia

    WATCH: Senator Reverend Warnock Pushes for Key Commitments from Agriculture Nominee to Support Georgia Farmers and Families

    At today’s Senate Agriculture committee hearing, Senator Reverend Warnock questioned Brooke Rollins, President Trump’s nominee to run the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
    Senator Reverend Warnock pushed for key commitments to ensure disaster assistance is distributed both swiftly and equitably, Georgia farmers are protected from the high costs associated with trade wars, and more
    Following the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Helene in September 2024, Senator Reverend Warnock helped secure nearly $21 billion in disaster relief funding for farmers as well as $10 billion in economic assistance for row crops farmers, including cotton and peanut farmers in Georgia; if confirmed, Ms. Rollins will oversee the distribution of this funding
    Senator Reverend Warnock also pushed Rollins on how she would protect Georgia farmers from high costs associated with trade wars and expanding market access 
    Senator Reverend Warnock: “Farmers, as you know, do incredible work. It’s a tough business. There’s so much you don’t control. The margins are narrow, and so I do everything I can to protect my growers in Georgia. I cannot overstate how critical it is for USDA to distribute this assistance, this disaster assistance to Georgia farmers as quickly as possible–but also as equitably as possible. If confirmed, how will you work to ensure disaster assistance is distributed both swiftly and equitably?”
    Senator Reverend Warnock: “Farmers in Georgia are already concerned about potential retaliatory actions following President Trump’s promises to levy heavy tariffs. They are already dealing with slim margins due to high input costs, and the last thing they need is to be caught in the middle of a trade war that could drive-up food prices for all of us”

    Watch Senator Reverend Warnock at Thursday’s Agriculture nominee hearing  HERE and  HERE
    Washington, D.C. – Today, during a U.S. Senate Agriculture committee hearing on the nomination of Brooke Rollins to lead the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) pushed for key commitments from Rollins to ensure disaster assistance is distributed both swiftly and equitably, Georgia farmers are protected from the high costs associated with trade wars, and more. The Senator also pushed Rollins to commit to protecting Fort Valley State’s partnership with USDA and to removing red tape from low-income children and families receiving nutrition benefits.
    If confirmed, Rollins would oversee USDA’s rollout of disaster funding for farmers Senator Warnock secured in December. Following the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Helene in September 2024, Senator Warnock fought for the inclusion of agricultural disaster funding in any end-of-year government funding package, which included nearly $21 billion in disaster relief funding for farmers as well as $10 billion in economic assistance for row crops farmers, including cotton and peanut farmers in Georgia.
    “Farmers, as you know, do incredible work. It’s a tough business. There’s so much you don’t control. The margins are narrow, and so I do everything I can to protect my growers in Georgia. I cannot overstate how critical it is for USDA to distribute this assistance, this disaster assistance to Georgia farmers as quickly as possible–but also as equitably as possible. If confirmed, how will you work to ensure disaster assistance is distributed both swiftly and equitably?,” Senator Reverend Warnock asked. 
    As a veteran member of the Senate committee overseeing federal agriculture policies, and as a senator representing a state with a proud and prosperous history of agriculture excellence, Senator Warnock is vigilant in defending programs that help Georgia farmers keep more profits in their pockets and keep the industry at the frontlines of Georgia’s success.
    “Farmers in Georgia are already concerned about potential retaliatory actions following President Trump’s promises to levy heavy tariffs. They are already dealing with slim margins due to high input costs, and the last thing they need is to be caught in the middle of a trade war that could drive-up food prices for all of us. If confirmed, what will you do from your position at USDA to ensure that Georgia’s farmers and families aren’t caught up in a trade war? It’s something I have worked on with Republicans, helping to get our farmers’ goods to market, it’s something we think about a lot,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. 
    Watch the first part of the Senator’s remarks  HERE and the second part  HERE.
    See below a transcript of key exchanges between Senator Warnock and USDA nominee Brooke Rollins (remarks have been lightly edited for clarity):
    On federal disaster assistance for Georgia farmers 
    SRW: Last year I worked hard with my colleagues in a bipartisan manner to provide $21 billion to help farmers recover from natural disasters like Hurricane Helene. Farmers, as you know, do incredible work. It’s a tough business. There’s so much you don’t control. The margins are narrow, and so I do everything I can to protect my growers in Georgia. I cannot overstate how critical it is for USDA to distribute this assistance, this disaster assistance to Georgia farmers as quickly as possible–but also as equitably as possible. If confirmed, how will you work to ensure disaster assistance is distributed both swiftly and equitably?
    Brooke Rollins (BR): Yes sir, thank you, and I’ll try to answer quickly so we can go on. The day I got the call from President Trump, it was Saturday, November 23rd. We were in our motorhome traveling across the country to an Aggie football game. Within a few hours of accepting the nomination, I began to immediately pivot to how we distribute this disaster and so important economic aid working with a few of the senators on this committee. Clearly I am not confirmed yet, so this is going to await my arrival. But in the meantime, sir, we’ve already announced the undersecretary who worked on this in the last Trump administration who is already building the team who distributed these funds so they know what they’re doing. We’re not reinventing the wheel.
    SRW: Will you work with our state agriculture commissioner to ensure Georgia producers, including our foresters, have the support they need from USDA to get that assistance without having to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops?
    BR: Of course.
    SRW: And will you also commit to equitably getting that assistance to all eligible farmers, all eligible farmers, including those who’ve been historically left out of USDA assistance, often due to discrimination.
    BR: Sir, we will follow the law and ensure that that is the case.
    SRW: Is that a yes or a no?
    BR: Yes.
    On protecting Georgia farmers from costs of trade wars
    SRW: Farmers in Georgia are already concerned about potential retaliatory actions following President Trump’s promises to levy heavy tariffs. They are already dealing with slim margins due to high input costs, and the last thing they need is to be caught in the middle of a trade war that could drive-up food prices for all of us. If confirmed, what will you do from your position at USDA to ensure that Georgia’s farmers and families aren’t caught up in a trade war? It’s something I have worked on with Republicans, helping to get our farmers’ goods to market, it’s something we think about a lot.
    BR: When I was in your office last month we talked about your commitment to your farmers and what a priority this was to you. Georgia is a very important agricultural state. You’re obviously pastoring in a church and in the United States Senate, but I was impressed at your commitment to your ag community in your state and look forward to continuing to work with you. It’s very clear the coming tariffs, and I think there is no doubt President Trump has been very transparent that he believes this is an extremely important tool in his toolkit to put America first, to revive the economy, to get us back to a place where he believes we need to be, and I agree with him and hope to help him execute that vision. But it also should not be surprising that his heart and his commitment to our farmers and our agriculture community was certainly clear in the last administration. The number one answer from my perspective is working around the clock to expand market access and working on new trade deals and getting new partners from around the world. I already have an undersecretary named, hopefully get him confirmed, so we can begin to build those teams. The president is a consummate dealmaker, and I feel very confident we will be able to expand those markets, begin to peel back the trade deficit, and get back to trade surpluses. But immediately moving into the distribution of disaster relief, economic relief, the new farm bill that’s coming out, I’ve already announced the undersecretary and put the team in place to be able to deploy that.
    SRW: I agree with you that access to farm markets is critical and in Georgia we’ve got a lot of sectors that are relying on strong export markets: timber, poultry, pecans. Are you concerned that isolationist trade practices may harm our abilities, our farmers’ ability to access these foreign markets?
    BR: I have full confidence in President Trump’s ability to lead us on this, and, and hopefully he and many of you have confidence in my ability to help from the ag perspective.
    On supporting 1890 land grant institutions
    SRW: Ms. Rollins, good morning and welcome to you and to your family and all those who are here to support you and congratulations on your nomination. I enjoyed meeting with you last month to discuss your nomination and plans for USDA, and this morning I’d just like to follow up on some of the issues, many of which we’ve already discussed. But first, it has come to my attention that a recent executive order has led to the potential termination of USDA’s liaisons to our 1890 land grant institutions, institutions like Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia. There’s strong bipartisan support for these institutions. They’ve done an incredible job, often doing so much for so many with so very little for such a long time that it’s lost on people the work these institutions do every day. I’m deeply concerned about this and the actions to shut out their voices at USDA. Ms. Rollins, if you are confirmed, will you commit to supporting our 1890 institutions?
    BR: I am not familiar with exactly what you’re speaking of, but my commitment to you is to find out and to continue a really important discussion and to learn more about the issue.
    SRW: Well the executive order could lead to the potential termination of USDA’s liaisons to these 1890 institutions which helped them to navigate their relationship with the USDA. Can I have your commitment to protect those who serve these institutions at the USDA?
    BR: Again, sir, I would want to know more and understand more before I can make that commitment, but clearly, those institutions are important. They are bipartisan supported, and you have my commitment to have a very robust dialogue at any moment, any time of day or night, to ensure that we have all the data as we’re making any decisions.
    SRW: I appreciate that. I’ve had good relationships and good work, bipartisan work, supporting these institutions, and I hope you’ll keep your eye on that issue.
    BR: I will.
    On fighting hunger and protecting nutritional benefits
    SRW: Fighting hunger has long been a part of my life’s work long before I was elected to the Senate. As you know, I’m a pastor, and the one miracle story that’s in all the gospels, all four, is the feeding of the 5000. And so I constantly hear from Georgia families about how their dollar just doesn’t go as far at the grocery store as it used to. The average Georgian participating in SNAP, a food assistance program that provides critical nutrition, aid to our most vulnerable families, has about $6.15 a day to spend on food. In your view, is $6.15 a day adequate to avoid hunger for Georgia families.
    BR: Sir, this is a supplemental program. I am just getting my arms around it. There are few that will be in my role, if confirmed, that have a passion for this more than I do. Serving those who are most in need, as you and I discussed in your office, is a driving force of my entire life. It almost sent me to seminary, but I ended up in public policy instead, so you have my wholehearted commitment to look and ensure that the people who need this the most are receiving it in the best way possible, but at the same time ensuring that all of the tax dollars that are spent on it are also spent in the best way possible.
    SRW: One of the things as these families struggle, one of the things that I’m concerned about are proposals to slash this critical assistance and create additional work verification red tape for families participating in these programs. Do you think creating more bureaucratic red tape for families will help them purchase nutritious food?
    BR: I think it’s extremely important that we take a wholesale look at every one of these programs and ensure that they are serving the people that are needing the programs and that they are the safety net that they truly set out to be. Obviously I do not like the words bureaucracy or red tape, but ensuring that we have set up the appropriate lifelines and the appropriate structure so that we can get these resources to the families that need them the most.
    SRW: As we talk about work requirements, and I support work, I was raised by a father and a mother who had a serious work ethic, but we want to help these families have a basic safety net. Most poor people are children. I think it’s important to remember that most poor people are children. SNAP lifts children, seniors, veterans, and folks with disabilities out of poverty, and it’s proven to reduce health care costs and stimulate our local economies. If you’re confirmed, I hope we can find ways to work together to ensure our most vulnerable families and our neighbors can afford groceries. I think, as someone who preaches the miracle of the feeding of 5000, I think it’s the right thing to do, but I also think it’s a smart thing to do.
    BR: Yes sir, you have my commitment.
    On combating the history of racial discrimination in USDA
    SRW: USDA has a long documented and unfortunate history of racial discrimination, even recent history. I was proud to have secured funding in the Inflation Reduction Act to provide financial assistance to farmers who had previously experienced discrimination at the hands of their USDA farm lending programs. This was a meaningful step in rebuilding trust. However, USDA still has a lot of work to do and this will only be more difficult following the new administration’s executive order aimed at rolling back all of this progress. I was proud Congress passed my legislation in 2021 to require USDA to create an equity commission, and the commission’s final report provides an excellent road map for continuing this work. Chair Boozman, without objection, I would like to enter the USDA’s 2024 equity report into the record. Thank you so much. When we met last month, you promised to read the equity report. Have you gotten a chance to read it yet?
    BR: 90 pages and 66 recommendations. Yes, sir. Now that has been about a little over a month ago, so please don’t ask me to quote page 66, but yes.
    SRW: I’m glad you got a chance to read it. I understand it’s been removed from the website or there’s no access to it. I’m glad you got a chance to read it. Will you seriously consider the recommendations of the equity commission’s report if you’re confirmed?
    BR: Senator, let me answer this way. I was really appreciative of the conversation. For me, more knowledge is always best, understanding where everyone comes from, whether I agree or disagree, recognizing what’s in the past is important, but also realizing the path ahead and how we forge the path…
    SRW: Will you consider the recommendations?
    BR: Sir, I will consider anything that’s on the table. I think that’s only fair, but also, President Trump won on the concept of removing the diversity, equity and inclusion, making sure that we are basing our decisions on merit, and I obviously support that 100% as well, but I look forward, Senator, to continuing to talk about this. My friend Alveda has long talked to me about the plight of black farmers in Georgia and other places around the country, and I’m always open to discussions, always, and may I say there is no room for racism at the United States Department of Agriculture. 
    SRW: In that regard, will you commit to recruiting more diverse employees who understand these communities, have relationships with these communities, so that we build trust between these communities and the lending office?
    BR: Sir, my commitment is to recruit the best workforce in the history of the United States Department of Agriculture, period, full stop. I believe that will include many members of all different corners of our country.
    SRW: Do you think a diverse workforce and a high-quality workforce are somehow oppositional objectives?
    BR: I think always hiring based on who is the best person for the job, who is gonna do the most excellent service, who is best equipped to execute on all of the promises is the promise of America, but I also believe to your point and have long held that ensuring that we give all people a chance to succeed and to thrive and for equal opportunity is a bedrock foundational principle of America.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: UConn Hand Center Helps Bowler Strike Again

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    In this month’s WFSB Great Day CT segment we meet Stephanie Reitz who has been typing since she was 13 years old, once for fun and then as part of her job as a reporter and spokesperson for the University of Connecticut.  Pain in her finger and knuckle lead her to the UConn Health Hand Center where orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joel Ferreira, diagnosed arthritis in the tip of her finger joint, the most common location in the hand.

    She had surgery shortly after for that finger and the pain was gone. Reitz began bowling competitively and when she began having issues with other fingers that was not only affecting her work but her important past time, she reached back out to Ferreira who worked around her bowling season and with two more surgeries fixed the three affected fingers.

    At the UConn Health Center, Ferreira and his colleagues specialize in hands, wrists and elbows and offer a variety of solutions for problems and many can be treated without surgery.

    “I think you can get used to anything, but you shouldn’t get used to pain and that’s what I have learned through this process,” says Reitz.

    [embedded content]

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Financial Institutions, Inc. Appoints Angela J. Panzarella to Board of Directors

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WARSAW, N.Y., Jan. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISI) (the “Company”), the parent company of Five Star Bank (the “Bank”) and Courier Capital, LLC, today announced the appointment of Angela J. Panzarella as a new independent member of the Boards of Directors of both the Company and the Bank, on January 22, 2025.

    Ms. Panzarella brings extensive business and nonprofit leadership experience, including as CEO of the YWCA of Rochester and Monroe County from 2018 to 2020 and through her 20-year tenure with Bausch + Lomb, as well as prior public company board experience. During her eight years of board service to publicly-traded Transcat, Inc., a Rochester-based calibration services and equipment provider, she served as Chair of the Compensation Committee and as a member of the Technology and Governance Committees. Ms. Panzarella’s appointment increases the size of the Company’s Board to twelve members, eleven of whom are independent and three of whom were appointed within the last four years. She will serve on the Audit and Management Development & Compensation Committees.

    “We are incredibly pleased to welcome Angela Panzarella to the Boards of Directors of both Financial Institutions, Inc. and Five Star Bank,” said Susan R. Holliday, Chair of the Boards of Directors of the Company and the Bank. “Having spent the majority of her career in the highly regulated health care industry, we expect that her experience overseeing corporate strategy, financial and business operations, business development, and more, will prove to be a tremendous asset as our Company continues to execute on its long-term strategy.”

    “Angela is not only a seasoned executive with a proven ability to develop and execute successful business strategies that drive strong financial outcomes, often on a global scale, but a respected leader in the Greater Rochester community, a key growth market for us,” said Martin K. Birmingham, President, CEO and Director of the Company and the Bank. “As we continue to grow and evolve as a company, we look forward to benefitting from her perspective and counsel.”

    Prior to joining the YWCA, Ms. Panzarella served as President of ACM Medical Laboratory, Inc., a leader in clinical and global central laboratory services. From 1988 to 2008, she held a variety of executive and legal roles at Bausch + Lomb, most recently as President of the Canada and Latin American Division and Corporate Vice President of Global Vision Care. She began her career as an attorney with Harris Beach PLLC.

    Active in the community, Ms. Panzarella previously served on the boards of directors for UR Medicine Home Care and the United Way of Greater Rochester. She earned her B.A. from St. John Fisher College and J.D. from the Albany Law School of Union University.

    About Financial Institutions, Inc.
    Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISI) is a financial holding company with approximately $6.2 billion in assets offering banking and wealth management products and services. Its Five Star Bank subsidiary provides consumer and commercial banking and lending services to individuals, municipalities and businesses through banking locations spanning Western and Central New York and a commercial loan production office serving the Mid-Atlantic region. Courier Capital, LLC offers customized investment management, financial planning and consulting services to individuals and families, businesses, institutions, non-profits and retirement plans. Learn more at Five-StarBank.com and FISI-Investors.com.

    Safe Harbor Statement
    This press release may contain forward-looking statements as defined by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve significant risks and uncertainties. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “focus,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “preliminary,” “should,” “target” or “will.” Statements herein are based on certain assumptions and analyses by the Company and factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in or implied by such statements for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: additional information regarding the deposit fraudulent activity; changes in interest rates; inflation; changes in deposit flows and the cost and availability of funds; the Company’s ability to implement its strategic plan, including by expanding its commercial lending footprint and integrating its acquisitions; whether the Company experiences greater credit losses than expected; whether the Company experiences breaches of its, or third party, information systems; the attitudes and preferences of the Company’s customers; legal and regulatory proceedings and related matters, including any action described in our reports filed with the SEC, could adversely affect us and the banking industry in general; the competitive environment; fluctuations in the fair value of securities in its investment portfolio; changes in the regulatory environment and the Company’s compliance with regulatory requirements; and general economic and credit market conditions nationally and regionally; and the macroeconomic volatility related to the impact of a pandemic or global political unrest. Consequently, all forward-looking statements made herein are qualified by these cautionary statements and the cautionary language and risk factors included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed with the SEC. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to revise these statements following the date of this press release.

    For additional information contact:
    Kate Croft
    Director of Investor and External Relations
    (716) 817-5159
    klcroft@five-starbank.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fd49cdb2-c77b-4d34-9745-23f9029a6398

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: New Permanent Representative of Malta Presents Credentials to the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva

    Source: United Nations – Geneva

    Randolph De Battista, the new Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Tatiana Valovaya, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

    Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. De Battista had been serving as a member of Parliament in Malta’s House of Representatives since 2022.  He was Chief Executive Officer of Malta’s Labour Party Partit Laburista for two separate terms, from 2022 to 2024 and from 2017 to 2020.  He worked as Chef de Cabinet in the office of Malta’s Permanent Representative to the European Union in Brussels from 2014 to 2017 and as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Union Affairs in Malta from 2013 to 2014.

    Mr. De Battista began his career as a reporter.  He worked as editor of an online media portal from April 2021 to April 2022. He has a Doctor of Laws (2012), a Diploma of Notary Public (2010), and a Bachelor of Laws (2009), all from the University of Malta. 

    _________

    CR.25.047E

    Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the information media; not an official record.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Black Holes Can Cook for Themselves, Chandra Study Shows

    Source: NASA

    Astronomers have taken a crucial step in showing that the most massive black holes in the universe can create their own meals. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) provide new evidence that outbursts from black holes can help cool down gas to feed themselves.
    This study was based on observations of seven clusters of galaxies. The centers of galaxy clusters contain the universe’s most massive galaxies, which harbor huge black holes with masses ranging from millions to tens of billions of times that of the Sun. Jets from these black holes are driven by the black holes feasting on gas.
    These images show two of the galaxy clusters in the study, the Perseus Cluster and the Centaurus Cluster. Chandra data represented in blue reveals X-rays from filaments of hot gas, and data from the VLT, an optical telescope in Chile, shows cooler filaments in red.
    The results support a model where outbursts from the black holes trigger hot gas to cool and form narrow filaments of warm gas. Turbulence in the gas also plays an important role in this triggering process.
    According to this model, some of the warm gas in these filaments should then flow into the centers of the galaxies to feed the black holes, causing an outburst. The outburst causes more gas to cool and feed the black holes, leading to further outbursts.
    This model predicts there will be a relationship between the brightness of filaments of hot and warm gas in the centers of galaxy clusters. More specifically, in regions where the hot gas is brighter, the warm gas should also be brighter. The team of astronomers has, for the first time, discovered such a relationship, giving critical support for the model.
    This result also provides new understanding of these gas-filled filaments, which are important not just for feeding black holes but also for causing new stars to form. This advance was made possible by an innovative technique that isolates the hot filaments in the Chandra X-ray data from other structures, including large cavities in the hot gas created by the black hole’s jets.
    The newly found relationship for these filaments shows remarkable similarity to the one found in the tails of jellyfish galaxies, which have had gas stripped away from them as they travel through surrounding gas, forming long tails. This similarity reveals an unexpected cosmic connection between the two objects and implies a similar process is occurring in these objects.
    This work was led by Valeria Olivares from the University of Santiago de Chile, and was published Monday in Nature Astronomy. The study brought together international experts in optical and X-ray observations and simulations from the United States, Chile, Australia, Canada, and Italy. The work relied on the capabilities of the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on the VLT, which generates 3D views of the universe.
    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
    Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
    Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:

    chandra

    https://chandra.si.edu

    This release features composite images shown side-by-side of two different galaxy clusters, each with a central black hole surrounded by patches and filaments of gas. The galaxy clusters, known as Perseus and Centaurus, are two of seven galaxy clusters observed as part of an international study led by the University of Santiago de Chile.
    In each image, a patch of purple with neon pink veins floats in the blackness of space, surrounded by flecks of light. At the center of each patch is a glowing, bright white dot. The bright white dots are black holes. The purple patches represent hot X-ray gas, and the neon pink veins represent filaments of warm gas. According to the model published in the study, jets from the black holes impact the hot X-ray gas. This gas cools into warm filaments, with some warm gas flowing back into the black hole. The return flow of warm gas causes jets to again cool the hot gas, triggering the cycle once again.
    While the images of the two galaxy clusters are broadly similar, there are significant visual differences. In the image of the Perseus Cluster on the left, the surrounding flecks of light are larger and brighter, making the individual galaxies they represent easier to discern. Here, the purple gas has a blue tint, and the hot pink filaments appear solid, as if rendered with quivering strokes of a paintbrush. In the image of the Centaurus Cluster on the right, the purple gas appears softer, with a more diffuse quality. The filaments are rendered in more detail, with feathery edges, and gradation in color ranging from pale pink to neon red.

    Megan WatzkeChandra X-ray CenterCambridge, Mass.617-496-7998mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
    Lane FigueroaMarshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama256-544-0034lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Research and Innovation are Essential for Progressing in the World: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya

    Source: Government of India

    Research and Innovation are Essential for Progressing in the World: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya

    PM Modi has said that we will host Olympics in 2036, which will symbolize India’s growing strength: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya

    India’s Pathway to the 2036 Olympics; Rashtriya Raksha University Hosts First International Olympic Research Conference

    Over 60 research papers to be presented by experts from around the world during this four-day conference

    Posted On: 27 JAN 2025 6:34PM by PIB Delhi

    The first International Olympic Research Conference was inaugurated today by the Union Minister of Labour & Employment and Youth Affairs & Sports, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, at Rashtriya Raksha University. The four-day conference aims to establish India as a significant player in the global Olympic ecosystem, focusing on financial sustainability, strategic planning and collaborative networks to bolster India’s bid for the 2036 Olympics.

    In his inaugural address, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya emphasized that the research and innovation at Rashtriya Raksha University reflect the transformation and progress of the nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He stated, “The university represents the changing face of India. I would call the B-CORE initiative of the university the ‘core of India’ because the nation is prioritizing research and innovation in this era of transformation. We must advance, progress, and strive to achieve our goals, for which research and innovation play a crucial role. Without research or the implementation of new ideas, one cannot stay ahead in the world. If we want to lead, we must prioritize research and innovation.” He highlighted that Rashtriya Raksha University has taken a significant step by focusing on research in sports and the Olympics.

    Dr. Mandaviya remarked that the Olympics are not just competitions but a symbol of sports and their integral role in our lifestyle. He said sports can provide solutions to numerous challenges, which is why Prime Minister Modi initiated major campaigns like Khelo India and Fit India to keep the nation fit. He further added, “PM Modi has envisioned hosting the Olympics in 2036, which symbolizes India’s growing strength. As we move toward a developed India, the nation will celebrate its centenary of independence in 2047. By then, India will be among the developed nations. The role of Fit India is crucial in ensuring not just physical fitness but also mental fitness among citizens. A mentally and physically fit person contributes to building an ideal society, which paves the way for a prosperous nation. Hence, sports are a symbol of our rising strength. By 2036, Modi Ji has set the goal for India to rank among the top 10 nations in sports, and by the centenary year of independence, we aim to rank among the top 5. To achieve this, we must step onto the field, compete, and win. Those who win leave their mark and convert their victories into medals. Sports science plays a vital role in enhancing our medal tally. Therefore, when we talk about Olympic research, it involves studying its social, youth, exposure, and international perception impacts, which together create comprehensive Olympic research.”

    He further stated, “This conference is not a small event; over 60 research papers will be presented here. Researchers from many countries conducting research on the Olympics are participating in this conference. This is the first such conference in South Asia, and it will have a significant impact not only on our nation but globally. This will take sports one step further.”

    Dr. Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), conveyed a powerful message emphasizing the integration of sports and education to create a holistic approach to youth development and nation-building.

    The Vice Chancellor of RRU, Prof. (Dr.) Bimal N. Patel, expressed pride in hosting this landmark event, highlighting the anticipated publication of over 60 research papers post-conference. He emphasized the significance of sports in shaping the youth and transformative impact on the country’s development.

    A high-level panel discussion featured prominent personalities, including Dr. Utsav Chaware, Director of BCORE, Shri (Dr.) Mansukh Mandaviya, Prof. (Dr.) Bimal N. Patel VC Rru,Prof. (Dr.) Kalpesh H. Wandra, Pro Vice-Chancellor Rru,Prasanth Shanthakumaran Partner KPMG in India and Mr. Lambis Konstantinidis, Executive Director of Planning and Coordination for Paris 2024 Olympics. The panel deliberated on India’s bid for the 2036 Olympics, potential challenges from other bidders, sustainable infrastructure planning, and the importance of avoiding mistakes on the global stage. Mr. Konstantinidis highlighted critical aspects India must address, including sustainability, technical planning, and creating a compelling narrative that showcases India’s uniqueness and readiness to host the Games.

    Shri Harsh Sanghavi, Hon’ble State Minister of Sports, Gujarat, highlighted the state’s grassroots sports initiatives, particularly the record-breaking participation in the Khel Mahakumbh. He emphasized aligning sports with youth education and underscored the critical role of a strong sports culture in preparing India’s youth for international platforms.

    The day concluded with a keynote presentation by Mr. Lambis Konstantinidis, offering an insightful roadmap for India’s Olympic preparations. He stressed the importance of sustainable development, strong leadership, and technical expertise to ensure the success of the sports. He posed five thought-provoking questions for India’s strategic planning, including what the Games can offer India, what India can contribute to the Olympics, and the long-term legacy of hosting the event.

    The conference, set to run until January 30, 2025, is poised to leave a lasting impact on India’s Olympic ambitions, bringing together policymakers, academicians, and global experts to create a sustainable, innovative, and collaborative pathway to the 2036 Olympics.

    *****

    Himanshu Pathak

    (Release ID: 2096767) Visitor Counter : 84

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Fermented clothing? Here’s how the biofilm on kombucha can be turned into green textiles

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rajkishore Nayak, Associate Professor , RMIT University Vietnam

    A SCOBY biofilm atop kombucha l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock

    If you’ve ever made kombucha, you will be familiar with the term SCOBY – a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s impossible to miss – it’s the floating biofilm on top of your delicious drink.

    While a SCOBY looks gross, it is remarkably versatile. If you feed it on sugar and tea or coffee in large vats, it grows rapidly. The reason you need tea or coffee is because caffeine contains nitrogen, which stimulates microorganism growth. Species of bacteria in the SCOBY such as komagataeibacter xylinus have the curious ability to eat sugars and produce bacterial cellulose.

    The reason we and other researchers are focused on this unusual substance is because cellulose is extremely useful. Cotton is largely cellulose, as is flax, which we use to produce linen. Cellulose from bacteria has the advantage of being about ten times stronger than cotton.

    Traditional methods of making the world’s clothes comes at a large environmental cost. If we can scale up production of bacterial cellulose using common materials such as sugar and tea, we might produce a new kind of versatile, sustainable textile. In our new research, we use this cellulose to make wallets and canvases for painting.

    What’s so good about bacterial cellulose?

    Deriving cellulose from bacteria isn’t new. It was first discovered back in 1886. Since then, the main use we’ve found for it has been in food and drink.

    Kombucha – sometimes known as tea-mushroom – is thought to have been invented in China. In the Philippines, people have long fermented pineapple juice or coconut water to produce enough SCOBY to make chewy, gelatinous desserts. But this source of cellulose could be used for much more.

    In recent years, researchers have looked into using food waste to make this cellulose.

    Bacterial cellulose is made by cultivating a SCOBY in sugared tea, just like kombucha. But instead of the drink, what we are after is the SCOBY itself. As the microbes feed on the sugar, they spin out cellulose fibre and form a dense mat able to be harvested and processed.

    Despite not being from plants, the bacterial cellulose is remarkably similar to cellulose from cotton. In some ways, it might be better – it is incredibly pure, highly absorbent and boasts impressive tensile strength. It’s natural, nontoxic, has a low environmental footprint and is biodegradable.

    These traits make it potentially suitable for a range of uses, from clothing through to biomedical use in gauze bandages due to natural antibacterial properties. It can be dyed, sewed and treated to make different textures. It can be used to replace leather in clothing, footwear and accessories.

    Bacterial cellulose can be used to make gauze bandages.
    Kallayanee Naloka/Shutterstock

    But clothing is the main game. Researchers have found ways of growing this cellulose in moulds shaped like pieces of clothing to avoid the 15-20% of material wasted by cutting fabric.

    Bacterial cellulose might offer a way to reduce our reliance on the fibres we use to make clothes, which come with substantial environmental costs regardless of whether they are natural or synthetic.

    Farming cotton requires huge volumes of water and plentiful pesticides and insecticides. To make one kilo of cotton fibre requires between 8,000 and 22,000 litres of fresh water. Synthetic fabrics such as polyester and nylon are made from oil, a fossil fuel.

    The textile industry is highly polluting, consuming vast amounts of water and energy. As fashion gets ever faster, many of these clothes have a short lifespan before becoming waste. Synthetic fibres shed huge volumes of microplastics at every step of their lifespans.

    The challenge of fermentation

    In recent years, there’s been great interest in precision fermentation – using the rapid growth rate of microbes to produce foods and materials we want, such as milk grown without cows.

    One of the big challenges with these approaches is scale. Bacterial cellulose is a similar form of fermentation. As a result, it faces similar challenges around scalability and efficiency. While the material has promise, the question is whether it can be produced cheaply and at scale.

    To date, we haven’t yet found how to scale bacterial cellulose up to the level needed to meet the demand of large clothing manufacturers. And at present, the fermentation process is water intensive. Fermentation makes the water acidic, meaning it can’t be easily reused.

    This fibre could readily replace cotton, but doesn’t have the same extreme durability and elasticity as some synthetic fibres.

    Which way forward?

    The way we currently make clothes comes at a huge environmental cost. Bacterial cellulose could offer one way to make clothes at vastly lower cost to the planet.

    While there are still questions over whether it’s possible to make it competitive, researchers in several countries – including our research group – are coming at the problem from different angles. If they succeed, we might one day see a future where clothes and shoes come from sugar and tea.

    Rajkishore Nayak works for RMIT University Vietnam. We received Tier II funding from the the office of Research & Innovation at RMIT University Vietnam & CSIRO Australia.

    Donna Cleveland works for RMIT University Vietnam. She received funding from a Tier II grant from the the office of Research & Innovation at RMIT University Vietnam & CSIRO Australia..

    – ref. Fermented clothing? Here’s how the biofilm on kombucha can be turned into green textiles – https://theconversation.com/fermented-clothing-heres-how-the-biofilm-on-kombucha-can-be-turned-into-green-textiles-228904

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Voluntary assisted dying is legal in Australia – but many of us don’t know

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben White, Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology

    imtmphoto/Shutterstock

    Voluntary assisted dying is lawful in all Australian states. This allows terminally ill adults who are suffering and have decision-making capacity to choose to receive help to die.

    Victoria’s law was the first, coming into effect in 2019. New South Wales was the last state, with its voluntary assisted dying law beginning in late 2023.

    Voluntary assisted dying will be allowed in the Australian Capital Territory in November, and a Northern Territory report has recommended it pass a voluntary assisted dying law too.

    While the vast majority of Australians now live in jurisdictions where voluntary assisted dying is permitted, accessing voluntary assisted dying depends on knowing it’s a legal option. But our new research suggests many Australians don’t know this.

    A study in Queensland

    Voluntary assisted dying became legal in Queensland on January 1, 2023. We conducted an online survey of 1,000 Queensland adults in mid-2024 to find out if the community knew about this new end-of-life choice.

    We set quotas for age, gender and geographical location to ensure the people we surveyed represented the overall Queensland population.

    First, we asked whether people thought voluntary assisted dying was legal in Queensland. Only one-third (33%) correctly identified it was. Of the 67% who didn’t, 41% thought voluntary assisted dying was illegal and 26% said they didn’t know.

    People who did know voluntary assisted dying was legal had generally found out in one of three ways:

    • from the media

    • from professional experience (for example, working in health care)

    • from personal experience (for example, knowing someone who had asked about, requested or accessed voluntary assisted dying).

    We then told our survey participants voluntary assisted dying was legal in Queensland and asked if they would know how to go about accessing it if they wished to. Only one-quarter (26%) answered yes.

    The survey also asked people where they might look for information about voluntary assisted dying. Most people said they would seek this information online, but asking health practitioners, especially doctors, was also important.

    We found two-thirds of people didn’t know voluntary assisted dying was legal.
    Ground Picture/Shutterstock

    Legal and cultural barriers

    Perhaps it’s not surprising so few members of the surveyed public know voluntary assisted dying is a legal choice. It’s still a relatively new law. But there are specific barriers in Australia that can prevent people finding out about it.

    One major barrier is health practitioners are often not able to freely discuss voluntary assisted dying with their patients. The laws in all states control how conversations about voluntary assisted dying can occur.

    For example, in Queensland, only doctors and nurse practitioners can raise voluntary assisted dying and only if they also discuss available treatment and palliative care options and their likely outcomes.

    But the most problematic are Victorian and South Australian laws which prohibit health practitioners from raising the topic with patients altogether. Many people rely on their doctor to tell them about treatment options, so it’s a problem if the onus is on the patient to bring it up first.

    Conscientious objection is another significant barrier. Some doctors are opposed to voluntary assisted dying and even if they practise in a state where they can legally raise it, may choose not to tell their patients about it. This is another reason patients may not know voluntary assisted dying could be a choice for them.

    It’s important to note our study was only done in Queensland, so we can’t be confident the findings represent the wider Australian population. But given these barriers to knowing about voluntary assisted dying, it’s reasonable to anticipate similar trends in other states.

    A national challenge

    Raising community awareness of voluntary assisted dying is a challenge around the country. Voluntary assisted dying oversight boards from five states (Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia) have all discussed this issue in their most recent annual reports.

    In addition, Western Australia recently reviewed its voluntary assisted dying laws, identifying lack of community knowledge as a problem. The review called for a strategy to fix this.

    We see this challenge as one of “voluntary assisted dying literacy”. Greater voluntary assisted dying literacy will enable members of the public to know the options available to them, and how to make the choices they want.

    Raising community awareness about voluntary assisted dying is a challenge nationally.
    Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

    What can we do about this?

    We need community awareness initiatives to increase knowledge that voluntary assisted dying is legal and ensure people know where to find information about this option. Information about voluntary assisted dying is already available from all state government health departments, but more action is needed to ensure it reaches more people.

    Respondents in our survey suggested using social media campaigns, advertising, and sharing information through Centrelink, health clinics and other trusted community channels.

    We also propose targeted information for particular patient groups who may be eligible for voluntary assisted dying, such as people with cancer or neurodegenerative diseases. This means they will know voluntary assisted dying may be one of the treatment options available to them, and how to navigate the process should they wish to.

    These initiatives would need to be designed sensitively with a focus on providing information to avoid any perception that people could feel induced or directed to access voluntary assisted dying.

    Training for health practitioners is also important. This is particularly needed for GPs and specialists working in end-of-life care. Training will support health practitioners to facilitate informed discussions with patients and families.

    Strong community support was a key argument in legalising voluntary assisted dying in Australia. The public wanted this as an end-of-life choice. But that choice is only a real one if people know it exists.

    Our online resource End of Life Law in Australia has more information about voluntary assisted dying and contact points for accessing it in each state.

    Ben White has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, Commonwealth and state governments, and philanthropic organisations for research and training about the law, policy and practice relating to end-of-life care. In relation to voluntary assisted dying, he (with colleagues) has been engaged by the Victorian, Western Australian and Queensland governments to design and provide the legislatively mandated training for health practitioners involved in voluntary assisted dying in those states. He (with Lindy Willmott) has also developed a model bill for voluntary assisted dying for parliaments to consider. Ben is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project number FT190100410: Enhancing End-of-Life Decision-Making: Optimal Regulation of Voluntary Assisted Dying) funded by the Australian government. He is also a Chief Investigator on a current Australian Research Council Linkage Project on voluntary assisted dying (partnering with Voluntary Assisted Dying (Review) Boards and/or Departments of Health in five Australian States. The research this article discusses was funded by Queensland Health.

    Lindy Willmott receives or has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and Commonwealth and state governments for research and training about the law, policy and practice relating to end-of-life care. She is a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage Project on voluntary assisted dying (partnering with Voluntary Assisted Dying (Review) Boards and/or Departments of Health in five Australian States. She (with colleagues) has been engaged by the Victorian, Western Australian and Queensland governments to design and provide the legislatively mandated training for health practitioners involved in voluntary assisted dying in those states. She (with Ben White) has also developed a model bill for voluntary assisted dying for parliaments to consider. Lindy Willmott is also a member of the Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, but writes this piece in her capacity as an academic researcher. She is a former board member of Palliative Care Australia.

    Rachel Feeney receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research about voluntary assisted dying. Rachel has been employed on multiple research projects as a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. She is also employed on End of Life Law for Clinicians, a training program for clinicians about end of life law, funded by the Commonwealth government. Rachel was previously engaged as a clinical consultant for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Training Education Module for Healthcare Workers in Queensland.

    – ref. Voluntary assisted dying is legal in Australia – but many of us don’t know – https://theconversation.com/voluntary-assisted-dying-is-legal-in-australia-but-many-of-us-dont-know-248114

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: 1975 was declared International Women’s Year. 50 years on, the ‘revolution in our heads’ is still being fought

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marian Sawer, Emeritus Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University

    National Archives of Australia

    In December 1972, the same month the Whitlam government was first elected, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1975 as International Women’s Year (IWY). This set in train a series of world-changing events, in which Australia was to play a significant part.

    The aim of IWY was to end discrimination against women and enable them to participate fully in economic, social and political life. Fifty years later, such participation has become an indicator of development and good governance. But the full promise of International Women’s year has yet to be fulfilled, hampered by pushback and the scourge of gender-based violence.

    ‘The greatest consciousness-raising event in history’

    Dubbed “the greatest consciousness-raising event in history”, the UN’s first World Conference on Women took place in Mexico City in June 1975. Consciousness-raising had been part of the repertoire of women’s liberation. Now it was taken up by government and intergovernmental bodies.

    The Mexico City conference was agenda-setting in many ways. The Australian government delegation, led by Elizabeth Reid, helped introduce the world of multilateral diplomacy to the language of the women’s movement. As Reid said:

    We argued that, whenever the words “racism”, “colonialism” and “neo-colonialism” occurred in documents of the conference, so too should “sexism”, a term that had not to that date appeared in United Nations documents or debates.

    Reid held the position of women’s adviser to the prime minister. In this pioneering role, she had been able to obtain government commitment and funding for Australia’s own national consciousness-raising exercise during IWY.

    A wide range of small grants promoted attitudinal change – “the revolution in our heads” – whether in traditional women’s organisations, churches and unions, or through providing help such as Gestetner machines to the new women’s centres.

    IWY grants explicitly did not include the new women’s services, including refuges, women’s health centres and rape crisis centres. Their funding was now regarded as an ongoing responsibility for government, rather than suitable for one-off grants.

    IWY began in Australia with a televised conversation on New Year’s Day between Reid and Governor-General John Kerr on hopes and aspirations for the year. On International Women’s Day (March 8), Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s speech emphasised the need for attitudinal change:

    Both men and women must be made aware of our habitual patterns of prejudice which we often do not see as such but whose existence manifests itself in our language and our behaviour.

    The Australian postal service celebrated the day by releasing a stamp featuring the IWY symbol, showing the spirit of women breaking free of their traditional bonds. At Reid’s suggestion, IWY materials, including the symbol, were printed in the purple, green and white first adopted by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1908 and now known as the suffragette colours.


    Author supplied

    Policy power

    Inside government, Reid had introduced the idea that all Cabinet submissions needed to be analysed for gender impact. After the Mexico City conference, this idea became part of new international norms of governance.

    Following the adoption at the conference of the World Plan of Action, the idea that governments needed specialised policy machinery to promote gender equality was disseminated around the world.

    Given the amount of ground to be covered, IWY was expanded to a UN Decade for Women (1976–85). By the end of it, 127 countries had established some form of government machinery to advance the status of women. Each of the successive UN world conferences (Copenhagen 1980, Nairobi 1985, Beijing 1995) generated new plans of action and strengthened systems of reporting by governments.

    The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a high point. Its “platform for action” provided further impetus for what was now called “gender mainstreaming”. By 2018, every country recognised by the UN except North Korea had established government machinery for this purpose.

    The global diffusion of this policy innovation was unprecedented in its rapidity. At the same time, Australia took the lead in another best-practice innovation. In 1984, the Commonwealth government pioneered what became known as “gender budgeting”. This required departments to disaggregate the ways particular budgetary decisions affected men and women.

    As feminist economists pointed out, when the economic and social division of labour was taken into account, no budgetary decision could be assumed to be gender-neutral. Governments had emphasised special programs for women, a relatively small part of annual budgets, rather than the more substantial impact on women of macro-economic policy.

    Standard-setting bodies such as the OECD helped promote gender budgeting as the best way to ensure such decisions did not inadvertently increase rather than reduce gender gaps.

    By 2022, gender budgeting had been taken up around the world, including in 61% of OECD countries. Now that it had become an international marker of good governance, Australian governments were also reintroducing it after a period of abeyance.

    Momentum builds

    In addition to such policy transfer, new frameworks were being adopted internationally. Following IWY, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in 1979. CEDAW became known as the international bill of rights for women, and has been ratified by 189 countries. This is more than any other UN Convention except that on the rights of the child.

    All state parties to CEDAW were required to submit periodic reports to the UN on its implementation. Non-government organisations were encouraged to provide shadow reports to inform the questioning of government representatives. This oversight and dialogue relating to gender equality became part of the norm-building work of the UN.

    However, this very success at international and regional levels helped fuel “anti-gender movements” that gathered strength after 1995. No more world conferences on women were held, for fear there would be slippage from the standards achieved in Beijing.

    In Australia, the leveraging of international standards to promote gender equality has been muted in deference to populist politics. It became common to present the business case rather than the social justice case for gender-equality policy, even the cost to the economy of gender-based violence (estimated by KPMG to be $26 billion in 2015–16).

    The battle continues

    Fifty years after IWY, Australia is making up some lost ground in areas such as paid parental leave, work value in the care economy, and recognition of the ways economic policy affects women differently from men.

    However, all of this remains precarious, with issues of gender equality too readily rejected as part of a “woke agenda”.

    The world has become a different place from when the Australian government delegation set out to introduce the UN to the concept of sexism. In Western democracies, women have surged into male domains such as parliaments. Australia now has an almost equal number of women and men in its Cabinet (11 out of 23 members).

    But along with very different expectations has come the resentment too often being mobilised by the kind of populist politics we will likely see more of in this election year.

    Marian Sawer 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. 1975 was declared International Women’s Year. 50 years on, the ‘revolution in our heads’ is still being fought – https://theconversation.com/1975-was-declared-international-womens-year-50-years-on-the-revolution-in-our-heads-is-still-being-fought-241791

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What’s the difference between Hass and Shepard avocados? It’s not just the colour

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yasmine Probst, Professor, School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences, University of Wollongong

    Stepanenco Valeria/Unsplash

    Whether with crumbled feta or poached eggs, you’d be challenged to find a cafe in Australia or farther afield that doesn’t have avocado somewhere on the menu.

    This fruit (yep, it’s a fruit from a tree, not a vegetable) is widely associated with brunch culture and other trendy eating habits.

    The Australian avocado industry developed in the 1960s, 30 years after the start of the first large-scale production in California. Orchards producing avocados now span all parts of Australia, except Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

    Avocados are considered a monoculture crop: they’re grown on the same land each year, making them more susceptible to pests and creating a need for increased fertiliser use. The carbon footprint of avos is almost twice as high as that of apples, but much lower than many animal food sources.

    There are now over 50 different avocado types globally, but only a few are grown commercially.

    Not all avos are the same

    You may not notice a difference when you get your avocado toast at a cafe. But at the shops or the market, a striking difference occurs each year in Australia.

    In autumn, the familiar dark purple Hass avocado disappears and is replaced with the lighter green Shepard variety. In Australia, this typically happens between February and May.

    If you don’t know the difference between the two, you may expect Shepard avos to perform the same way as Hass – and be left disappointed. There are some important differences.

    Hass avocados

    Hass avocado skin is very dark when ripe.
    Nungning20/Shutterstock

    Hass avocados are known for their dark, pebbly-looking skin that appears almost black when ripe. They have an ovoid shape with a slight pear-like appearance. The thick skin can be a challenge to peel, often requiring a sharp knife or avocado slicer.

    Hass avocado flavour is rich, creamy and buttery, with nutty undertones. Their texture is ideal for mashing, blending and spreading, creating a creamy texture in dips, guacamole and smoothies.

    Hass avocados ripen – and darken in colour – slowly over several days. They remain firm to the touch when ripe, and will feel squishy when overripe. A slight give when pressed confirms Hass avos are ready to eat.

    Available in Australia from May to January, Hass are the dominant variety of commercially grown avocado worldwide. They were cultivated by horticulturalist Rudolph Hass in California in the 1920s.

    Shepard avocados

    Shepard avocados have smooth, green skin that remains green even when they are fully ripe. They are round to slightly oblong in shape and have a slightly milder and sweeter taste, with less pronounced nutty undertones.

    Shepard avocados ripen more quickly than Hass, but you won’t be able to tell that by the colour. Instead, check for softness – Shepard avocados are very soft when ripe. What might feel overripe when handling a Hass will likely be ideal ripeness if it’s a Shepard. The thin, smooth skin makes them easy to peel by hand or with a gentle squeeze.

    Their buttery soft texture is firm and creamy, and they hold their shape well when cut, making them ideal for slicing, dicing and spreading despite being structurally firm.

    Interestingly, Shepard avocados brown much more slowly than Hass, making them perfect for garnishes. Their milder flavour also makes Shepard avos well suited to sweet dishes, such as chocolate mousse.

    Shepard avos account for approximately 10–15% of Australian avocados and are in season from February to April each year while there is a gap in the Hass season.

    Australia is the only country in the world that grows Shepard avocados commercially. (They are grown in Queensland.)

    Avocados and our health

    As avocados contain 59% fat, people wishing to lose weight were previously advised to avoid or limit eating them.

    We now know that a majority of this fat is oleic acid, a monounsaturated (healthy) fat that helps to reduce cholesterol and improve heart health.

    Additionally, only 1% of an avocado is made up of carbohydrates, making the fruit popular with people following a ketogenic (keto) diet of low carbs and high fat.

    People who consume avos also tend to follow a better pattern of eating in general. They eat more whole grains, fruit and vegetables and fewer discretionary or takeaway foods.

    As an energy-dense food, consuming a whole avocado is about the same as eating 2.5 whole apples. Per 100 grams, avocado actually gives you less energy than an equivalent amount of cooked white rice.

    As avocado dishes are visually appealing and often featured in food photography, they have become a symbol of modern eating habits.

    Yasmine Probst receives funding from Multiple Sclerosis Australia and has previously received funding from various industry groups including the Hass Avocado Board. She is presently affiliated with the National Health and Medical Research Council, Multiple Sclerosis Plus and Multiple Sclerosis Limited.

    Karen Zoszak receives funding from MS Australia.

    – ref. What’s the difference between Hass and Shepard avocados? It’s not just the colour – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-hass-and-shepard-avocados-its-not-just-the-colour-233243

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Staffing shortages risk Ontario’s $10-a-day child care

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emis Akbari, Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE) and Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto

    Ontario’s agreement under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program is set to expire in March 2026, and troubling signs suggest the province is far from meeting its commitments.

    Despite receiving $13.2 billion — almost half of the total $27.2 billion federal investment — Ontario has fallen short on critical benchmarks.

    Unlike most families across Canada, Ontario parents have yet to see significant growth in available spaces or $10-a-day child care.

    This provincial inaction is particularly troubling in a federal election year. While federal maintenance funding is to continue post-2026, without the benefits of the child care plan widely realized and apparent to voters, future governments could easily scale back any gains.

    Our recent study, conducted in collaboration with regional governments tasked with implementing Ontario’s early learning and child-care agreement, shows how staffing shortages have created long wait-lists for care. Children are ageing out of child care before a space becomes available. The unmet demand, regional officials told us, is eroding public confidence in the program as parents become frustrated in their search for affordable care.

    While other provinces have enacted comprehensive compensation reforms — including pensions, benefits and wage increases of up to 50 per cent — to attract and retain qualified educators, Ontario’s support for trained early childhood educators tops out at $24.86 per hour, well below the federal poverty line for a family of four.

    Low wages, staffing shortfalls

    Low wages deter new graduates from entering the child-care field and drive away those already employed. Of the 4,200 early childhood educators that Ontario colleges graduate annually, fewer than 60 per cent enter licensed child care, and only 40 per cent remain after five years.

    Small wonder for the exodus. One in five child-care staff responding to our survey told us they hold a second job to make ends meet. Over 55 per cent of couple families, and 83 per cent of lone parent families, are concerned about their housing.

    The province acknowledges a shortfall of 8,500 educators needed to meet its expansion goal of 86,000 new spaces. Yet the issue runs deeper. Staff shortages mean existing child-care rooms are empty. A single absence can force centre directors to abruptly close rooms, leaving parents scrambling for alternatives.

    The human costs

    The consequences extend beyond empty classrooms. Staff shortages compromise the quality and inclusivity of early childhood programs. Our report found that children with disabilities are often sent home or denied admission altogether due to insufficient staffing.

    This is despite Jordan’s Principle, which the federal government says ensures all First Nations children access the products, services and supports they need, when they need them.

    Ontario’s requirement for qualified staff is among the lowest in Canada, mandating that only half of a centre’s staff hold a college diploma in early education. The use of ministry “approvals,” a stop-gap measure allowing untrained staff to fill roles until qualified educators are found, has become standard practice.

    Our research found entire programs, particularly those in northern regions and those serving francophone and Indigenous families, operating without a single qualified early childhood educator.

    Educator shortages not only exclude children from child care, but degrade the quality of care. While less than one per cent of the province’s almost 28,000 early childhood educators working in licensed child care are reported to authorities, incidents involving the improper handling of children have seen an uptick.

    This may partly reflect the COVID-19 pandemic’s aftermath, but it also may signal staff burnout and the prevalence of untrained workers.

    Equally alarming, 14 per cent of respondents in our study indicated they would be reluctant to recommend their own centre to a family member or friend seeking child care.

    Quality and staffing challenges vary significantly across Ontario’s child-care network of over 5,700 centres. Publicly operated centres and established community providers, where wages and benefits are higher, report fewer staffing shortages or quality problems.

    In contrast, for-profit centres, where wages are significantly lower, experience the highest staff turnover and lowest levels of job dissatisfaction.

    These disparities are particularly concerning given Ontario’s pressure on regional governments to divest their public centres, and its push to lift the cap on the percentage of new for-profit spaces allowed under its agreement with Ottawa.

    A blueprint for change

    Ontario’s challenges are not insurmountable. Other provinces and territories are showing that fair compensation tied to qualifications and responsibilities can help to stabilize the child-care workforce.

    Publicly funded pensions, benefits, and additional incentives for educators in remote, Indigenous and francophone communities have proven effective in attracting and retaining staff.

    Ontario must urgently follow suit. The CWELCC program isn’t just about child care; it’s a highly effective economic strategy. The province’s Financial Accountability Office estimates that the national plan could enable 98,000 more Ontario mothers to join the workforce.

    However, this potential can only be realized if sufficient child-care spaces are created. Without early childhood educators new spaces are wasted infrastructure. This represents squandered economic development, children denied quality early education and families left to struggle financially.

    The time to act is now. Ontario must seize the promise of CWELCC before it becomes another missed opportunity.

    Emis Akbari receives funding from the Atkinson Foundation, the Lawson Foundation, and the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation.

    Kerry McCuaig receives funding from the Atkinson Foundation, the Lawson Foundation and the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation.

    – ref. Staffing shortages risk Ontario’s $10-a-day child care – https://theconversation.com/staffing-shortages-risk-ontarios-10-a-day-child-care-247273

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is the story of hongbao, the red envelopes given out at celebrations like Lunar New Year?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ming Gao, Research Scholar of East Asia Studies, Gender and Women’s History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University

    Remi Chow/Unsplash

    Red envelopes, known as hongbao in Mandarin, are a cherished cultural tradition in China and many other parts of Asia.

    In China, the vibrant red colour symbolises good fortune and joy. Hongbao can be given during many various festive and joyful occasions, and they are a prominent feature of Lunar New Year.

    Receiving a hongbao is something most Chinese people, particularly children, eagerly anticipate every Lunar New Year. It was also one of my fondest childhood memories. But what’s the history behind this tradition?

    A historical tradition

    The origins of hongbao can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) when amulet-like items in the shapes of coins were worn.

    Early practices resembling money giving took place in the Tang dynasty court (618–907 CE), where coins were scattered in springtime as part of celebrations.

    Giving children money during celebrations became an established custom during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960–1368). In the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911/12), this tradition evolved further with money being given to children threaded on red string.

    In the Ming and Qing dynasties money was given to children threaded on red string.
    Nataliia K/Shutterstock

    The modern concept of hongbao emerged in early 20th-century China. Elders would give money wrapped in red paper to children during the Lunar New Year as a talisman against evil spirits, known as sui (祟).

    The red envelopes given to children, or in some cases unmarried adults, during Lunar New Year are also called ya sui qian.

    Colloquially, ya sui qian translates to “suppressing age money”, as sui (岁) also means age. Ya sui qian reflects the belief this money could ward off misfortune and slow ageing.

    In traditional contexts, the amount of money inside the envelope carries symbolic meaning.

    Even numbers, except for the number four (considered unlucky due to its phonetic similarity to the word for “death” in Chinese), are regarded as lucky. Six (symbolising smooth progress) and eight (symbolising prosperity) are particularly favoured.

    Beyond monetary value, the act of giving and receiving hongbao represents a gesture of goodwill, reinforcing social bonds and conveying respect and care.

    The digital revolution

    Today, hongbao straddle the worlds of tradition and modernity, adapting to societal changes while preserving their cultural essence.

    Super-apps like WeChat and AliPay have transformed this age-old practice from a physical tradition into a digital, virtual experience.

    Red packet designs available on WeChat.
    Screenshot/Ming Gao

    WeChat popularised the concept of “digital red envelopes” in 2014, incorporating gamified elements such as randomised monetary amounts and group exchanges.

    In 2017, WeChat recorded a staggering 14.2 billion hongbao transactions on the eve of Lunar New Year alone. While the initial excitement around the digital hongbao has waned over time, the practice remains popular. On Lunar New Year’s Eve in 2024, WeChat users recorded approximately 5.08 billion digital hongbao transactions.

    The shift to digital formats aligns with our increasingly cashless society, making it easier for people to participate in the custom, even across great distances. Families separated by migration can partake in this tradition in real time, maintaining connections that might otherwise weaken over long distances.

    My child doesn’t get to see my parents very often, but my mother promised to send a “large” hongbao to her grandchild on the eve of the Lunar New Year this year. Despite the geographical distance spanning the ocean between Australia and China, the tradition of giving hongbao transcends borders, connecting our family members across continents every Lunar New Year.

    Societal significance

    The enduring popularity of hongbao highlights its importance in Chinese culture. It serves not only as a means of giving but also as a way to uphold tradition amid rapid modernisation.

    The act of giving hongbao, whether physical or digital, reinforces intergenerational ties and preserves cultural heritage. Parents and grandparents giving hongbao to children during Lunar New Year continue to embody the traditional values of family and unity.

    The act of giving hongbao reinforces intergenerational ties and preserves cultural heritage.
    SeventyFour/Shutterstock

    But the digitisation of hongbao has sparked debates about its impact on traditional values. Some argue the ease of sending digital hongbao reduces the personal touch and thoughtfulness inherent in the physical exchange.

    Others view it as an evolution that keeps the practice relevant and accessible in a fast-paced world.

    Regional variations

    While hongbao is most closely associated with Chinese culture, similar traditions exist across Asia, each with notable regional variations.

    In Korea, during the Lunar New Year (Seollal), elders give money to young or unmarried adults after receiving their New Year’s bow (sebae). One legend suggests the Korean tradition originates from China. However, unlike the red envelopes used in Chinese culture, the money in Korea can be presented in white envelopes, as whiteness in Korean culture symbolises purity and new beginnings.

    Similar traditions exist across Asia. These red envelopes are hanging in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
    Marie Shark/Shutterstock

    In Singapore, where a diverse population blends Chinese, Malay and Indian traditions, the giving of hongbao (also known as ang bao or ang pow in Hokkien) is a common practice. This tradition has extended beyond the Chinese population, reflecting the cultural influence of Chinese diasporic communities.

    While red envelopes are traditional, envelopes in other colours, such as pink or gold, are also considered acceptable.

    The Future of hongbao

    As technology continues to shape societal norms, the practice of giving hongbao is likely to further evolve.

    The advancement of E-CNY (China’s digital currency), regardless of its ultimate success, could introduce new dimensions to traditional practices, enabling more innovative and secure forms of exchange.

    The enduring appeal of hongbao lies in its core values: the celebration of relationships, the sharing of blessings, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

    As the Lunar New Year of the Snake approaches, it’s wise to have some hongbao ready, whether digital or physical, to avoid being caught off guard by a playful youngster cheerfully exclaiming, “May you be prosperous, now hand over the red envelope!” (“gong xi fa cai, hong bao na lai”). This light-hearted and catchy greeting cleverly combines good wishes with a cheeky request for a hongbao.

    Ming Gao 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. What is the story of hongbao, the red envelopes given out at celebrations like Lunar New Year? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-story-of-hongbao-the-red-envelopes-given-out-at-celebrations-like-lunar-new-year-247687

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Changing jobs is a big move but it’s worth considering if your workplace is toxic

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology

    Rauschan_films/Shutterstock

    Returning to work after a summer break can be jarring, especially for the many workers dissatisfied with their jobs. Almost half report high levels of job-related stress.

    Dissatisfaction can be tied to an unhealthy, even toxic workplace where negative behaviour and poor leadership harm employee wellbeing and productivity.

    Key indicators include bullying, harassment, lack of trust, poor communication and high job strain.

    The impact of toxic workplaces

    If you think your workplace is toxic, it is worth considering the impact it is having on your mental health. You might also consider how committed your organisation is to supporting its employees’ mental health.

    Toxicity can develop gradually through subtle patterns of micromanagement, exclusion, or eroding morale. These dynamics create a draining environment that undermines individual wellbeing and business success.

    As well as affecting employees’ mental health, there is growing evidence workplace stress may lead to serious physical health problems, such as cardiovascular disease.

    According to Safe Work Australia, mental health-related workers’ compensation claims have increased by over a third since 2017-2018.

    In 2021-2022, there were 11,700 accepted claims relating to mental health conditions. These cases proved highly costly for employers, with the median compensation paid being A$58,615.

    The International Standards Organisation released a global standard in 2021 to help manage psychological health and safety risks in workplaces.

    A number of countries, including Canada and Australia, have introduced laws and standards making employers responsible for preventing and managing work-related stress.

    To support a safe workplace, some researchers (including one of the authors) have recommended an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to ensure companies respond appropriately to mental health risks.

    What your employer is doing in the following three areas can show how committed they are to protecting mental health.

    1. Preventing, minimising or managing the negatives

    Most work, health and safety legislation and standards in Australia relates to protecting employees from physical hazards, including slips, trips and falls.

    More recently, attention has turned to psychosocial hazards.

    Safe Work Australia and Comcare, as well as state and territory regulators, keep a list of common hazards.

    These include bullying, excessive workloads, low job control, lack of role clarity and exposure to traumatising events, for example, witnessing an accident.

    These lists are not exhaustive and there are some problems unique to specific jobs. For instance, teachers are often isolated from their colleagues, face big administrative loads and sometimes have to deal with abusive students and/or parents.

    Most employers can make necessary improvements including creating fairer workloads, redefining job roles and providing more support to individual employees.

    2. Responding to employee mental health issues

    Despite efforts to minimise the impact of psychosocial hazards, some employees will nonetheless experience mental health issues.

    Employers should not try to treat an employee’s mental health problems. They should support them and direct them to appropriate mental health care.

    Managers can also help by identifying signs of distress, having sensitive conversations with workers about the impact of mental illness and making reasonable changes to their roles.

    Giving employees access to support services through employee assistance programs, which can offer confidential short-term counselling, can also help.

    Making counselling available to employees can help staff mental health and workplace morale.
    kmpzzz/Shutterstock

    Establishing a critical incident investigation procedure for events that have compromised employee mental health can help identify the cause of incidents and shape responses.

    3. Promoting the positive

    As well as managing the negative aspects of work, organisations can create conditions that promote employee mental health and wellbeing.

    One approach for doing this is to provide flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid work, which can offer employees greater choice in work location and scheduling.

    Another approach involves fostering social connectedness and inclusion among employees. This could involve team-building, social events and opportunities for employees to build relationships.

    Leaders can also promote a culture of psychological safety – where employees feel able to bring their authentic selves to work and speak their minds freely. This has been linked to greater employee wellbeing.

    The SMART model suggests employees will be most satisfied in jobs that provide stimulation (for example, solving meaningful problems), mastery (receiving mentoring or constructive feedback), autonomy (creative freedom), social relationships (supportive colleagues) and tolerable demands (lack of psychosocial hazards).

    Should I stay or should I go?

    Making the decision to leave a workplace requires careful consideration.

    In addition to your own wellbeing, you should consider whether your organisation prioritises mental health and how comfortable you would feel initiating a discussion about mental health.

    Remember while changing jobs is a big step, staying in a toxic workplace can have serious long-term consequences for both mental and physical health.

    Consider seeking advice through your employee assistance program or an independent career counsellor.

    Whatever you decide, prioritising your mental health and wellbeing should be central to your decision making.

    Timothy Colin Bednall holds a part-time appointment as Head of Data Science with FlourishDx, a consultancy focused on workplace mental health. He receives funding from the National Mental Health Commission.

    Kathryn Page has previously received research funding from WorkSafe Victoria, SuperFriend, VicHealth, and the NHMRC in the areas of workplace mental health. In addition to her Adjunct Professor role at Swinburne University she works full time as a Leadership Partner with ByMany. ByMany is a leadership consultancy. It does not do psychosocial risk assessments.

    – ref. Changing jobs is a big move but it’s worth considering if your workplace is toxic – https://theconversation.com/changing-jobs-is-a-big-move-but-its-worth-considering-if-your-workplace-is-toxic-246885

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is it school reluctance or refusal? How to tell the difference and help your child

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Leslie, Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy with a focus on Educational Psychology, University of Southern Queensland

    It’s back-to-school season around Australia. While many students will be excited to reunite with friends, or have some nerves about the first day, others may feel an overwhelming sense of dread about school.

    This can be confusing and worrying for parents.

    We are researching child and parent perspectives about what is making school too stressful to attend. We have found it is useful to think about school attendance as a spectrum that may look like reluctance at one end and emotional distress at the other.

    Understanding the difference can help you to know which supports to seek for your child.

    School attendance in Australia

    Last week, new national figures showed school attendance continues to be an issue in Australian schools post-COVID.

    In 2024, school attendance rates (the number of days students attend) for Years 1–10 was 88.3%. This is down slightly from 88.6% in 2023. Student attendance levels (the percentage of students who go for more than 90% of the time) was 59.8% in 2024, down from 61.6% in 2023.

    In 2019, national attendance rates were 91.4% and attendance levels were 73.1%.

    While these reports don’t tell us why the figures are dropping, we know school refusal is a common and growing issue. A 2023 Senate inquiry heard how family requests for support to groups such as School Can’t Australia have almost doubled every year since 2014.

    A 2023 Greens-commissioned survey of 1,000 families found 39% said their child had been unable to attend school in the past year because of anxiety or stress.

    What is school reluctance?

    Sometimes children and young people will not want to go to school but it is not school refusal.

    When this is temporary and tied to a specific stressor, such as a test, social conflict, sports lesson or event like a camp or swimming carnival, it can be described as “school reluctance”.

    Signs can include clinginess in younger children or teenagers, as well as complaints of seemingly minor ailments such as a tummy ache, headache or “feeling sick”.

    In these cases, it is important for parents to validate a child’s feelings. Using phrases such as “I can see you’re nervous about starting a new class” can make children feel seen and heard.

    Families should also set up predictable morning routines to help children build self-regulation skills. If you celebrate small wins, such as completing the day, or getting to school on time, you can help boost motivation and confidence.

    These early interventions can help avoid escalation into more significant school-related distress.



    Read more:
    Is your child nervous about going back to school? Try asking them what they are looking forward to

    When it’s more than reluctance

    But at other times, a child’s issues with school are more serious and a child feels overwhelmed by stressors that make attending school feel threatening, unsafe and impossible. This is what is seen as “school refusal”, although some families and researchers are now using the term “school can’t” to reframe the issue and avoid blaming children in these situations.

    Some signs this could be happening to your child include:

    • spending significant portions of the school day in the office or sick bay

    • extreme difficulty in getting ready in the morning, even with basic tasks such as dressing or making breakfast

    • physical symptoms such as nausea or dizziness that worsen on school days, but may also be evident on weekends

    • persistent absences from school, even with encouragement and support

    • extreme emotional reactions – crying, anger or complete withdrawal – when school is mentioned.

    Who can be impacted?

    Reports show school refusal is more common in some groups, for example neurodiverse students, gender-diverse students, and students born with innate variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex variations / traits).

    School refusal is closely associated with social anxiety, separation anxiety and school anxiety. This anxiety can become overwhelming and trigger a student’s need to avoid the environment that is causing them emotional distress. For these students, not going to school might be a survival mechanism or a way to respond to burnout.

    Whatever the reason, we know this can lead to stress and conflict for families. For students, it can have long-term effects on academic success, social skills and mental health, as well as poorer outcomes after they leave school.

    Supporting your child

    If your child is refusing or can’t go to school, they need your empathy and support. Listen to them and be their advocate. Remember, you know them best. You can also:

    • seek professional help. A psychologist may help uncover and address the root causes of their distress

    • work with the school. Talk to teachers and staff about accommodations such as flexible schedules or sensory breaks, and how else they may offer inclusive, affirming and supportive learning environments

    • think outside the box. This can include prioritising wellbeing over attendance. Consider a break from schooling or alternative forms of education, which may suit your family better

    • seek support from other families. You are not alone – there are many other families who share this experience.

    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.

    Rachel Leslie is affiliated with the Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association of Queensland and the Australian Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools association. She is working with family support and advocacy organisation School Can’t Australia as part of her research.

    Annette Brömdal receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund; Queensland Mental Health Commission; Queensland Sexual Health Research Fund; the Department of Education, Queensland; and the Australian Association of Gerontology. Annette is affiliated with Lifeline Darling Down and South West QLD Ltd as a volunteer Board Director. She is working with family support and advocacy organisation School Can’t Australia as part of her research.

    Cris Townley is working with family support and advocacy organisation School Can’t Australia as part of their research. They are also a member of the the School Can’t Australia support network, and of the advocacy network Parents for Trans Youth Equity (P-TYE).

    Glenys Oberg is working with family support and advocacy organisation School Can’t Australia as part of her research.

    – ref. Is it school reluctance or refusal? How to tell the difference and help your child – https://theconversation.com/is-it-school-reluctance-or-refusal-how-to-tell-the-difference-and-help-your-child-247805

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Might Xenon gas be useful for treating Alzheimer’s, as a new study suggests?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ritchie Williamson, Director of Research, Associate Professor in Therapeutics, University of Bradford

    An inert and unreactive gas may not seem like an obvious candidate for treating Alzheimer’s disease, yet a new study in mice suggests that xenon might just be the breakthrough we need.

    Xenon is one of the six noble gases. Its name derives from the Greek word for “strange”. In medicine, it has been used as an anaesthetic since the early 1950s and, more recently, to treat brain injuries. It is also being tested in clinical trials for several conditions including depression and panic disorder.

    The new study from Washington University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School) in the US, has investigated the potential of xenon to treat the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s.

    These changes, which can be found in all brains of people with dementia, include clumps of the proteins amyloid and tau. The connections between neurons, called synapses, are also lost in Alzheimer’s disease and it is these connections between neurons that allow us to think, feel, move and remember.

    A final common feature found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s is inflammation. This is the body’s response to injury or disease and triggers the immune response to heal the damaged tissue.

    Usually, inflammation disappears once the tissue is healed. In Alzheimer’s, the inflammation does not go away and the immune responses triggered can then damage healthy brain cells.

    All of the above changes give rise to the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, such as memory loss, confusion and mood swings.

    We don’t know what causes Alzheimer’s disease, but a leading theory suggests that a build up of amyloid triggers the process that then gives rise to the subsequent changes. So targeting amyloid seems like an obvious approach to treating the disease.

    Just over two years ago, we learned of the success of one of these treatments called lecanemab in slowing the rate of decline.



    Read more:
    Experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise – but there are many hurdles still to overcome

    The increase in clumps of proteins and the loss of synapses occur over decades, and it remains to be seen if directly targeting a single protein (either amyloid or tau) would be able to halt disease progression or have a measurable effect on all the characteristic harms.

    The brain has several types of cell that work together to support brain function. Neurons are the cells responsible for everything – walking, talking, thinking and breathing. Astrocytes provide energy to the neurons as well as structural support and protective functions.

    Other important cells found in the brain are microglia. They are immune cells that help remove pathogens and dead cells, among other activities. However, if they are overactive, they can cause chronic inflammation in the brain.

    Microglia explained.

    Microglia have different states depending on the environment they find themselves in, from an inactive state through to an active state. The difference in these states can be determined both by their appearance and importantly by the functions they perform. For example, active microglia can help clear the accumulated debris, such as unwanted proteins, cells and infections.

    The scientists in this latest study used mice that have the same brain changes seen in Alzheimer’s to investigate the role of microglia. A specific active state of microglia that was associated with inflammation was identified. The scientists gave the mice xenon gas to inhale, which changed the state of their microglia.

    This altered state allowed the microglia to surround, engulf and destroy amyloid deposits. It also changed the function of these microglia so that they didn’t drive further inflammation.

    The researchers also found a reduction in the number and size of amyloid deposits found. All these changes were associated with the altered microglial state.

    But what of the other changes seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s? The study also suggested Xenon inhalation could reduce brain shrinkage (a common feature of Alzheimer’s disease) and lead to an increase in support of the connections between neurons. And in all the mice studied, markers of the excessive inflammatory response were reduced.

    So, overall, the research suggests that inhaling xenon triggers the active microglia to change from an Alzheimer’s disease-type active state to a pre-Alzheimer’s state. This pre-Alzheimer’s disease state promotes the clearance of amyloid deposits and reduces the cell messengers that cause excessive inflammation.

    New hope

    There are no drugs that target microglia in Alzheimer’s and inroads have been made in addressing amyloid accumulation. Current drugs aimed at reducing amyloid in the brain offer a modest reduction in amyloid deposits and rate of decline.

    Amyloid treatment will improve over time, but what of the other changes that occur in the brain, such as the deposits of tau, brain shrinkage and loss of synapses?

    The new research opens up the possibility of targeting a cell type that has the innate potential to affect all of these characteristic harms.

    Clinical trials in healthy volunteers are expected to begin this year. If these findings hold up, xenon could offer a completely new approach to this mind-robbing disease. It would be a treatment that doesn’t directly target amyloid, but rather aims to reset the brain’s immune response to counteract all of the disease’s destructive changes. Stranger things have happened.

    Ritchie Williamson 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. Might Xenon gas be useful for treating Alzheimer’s, as a new study suggests? – https://theconversation.com/might-xenon-gas-be-useful-for-treating-alzheimers-as-a-new-study-suggests-247615

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Atonement by Ian McEwan is a meditation on creativity in later life

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Amigoni, Professor of Victorian Literature, Editorial Board Chair, Keele University

    In Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001), aspiring writer 13-year-old Briony Tallis glimpses a world of opaque “adult emotion”. Holding a pen and blank paper before her, she feels a powerful impulse to write in order to impose order and meaning on adulthood’s slippery uncertainties.

    Earlier on that hot summer’s day in 1935, she had witnessed a perplexing scene of seeming “ugly threat”. Her older sister, Cecilia, undressed in front of their cleaning lady’s son (and fellow Cambridge graduate) Robbie Turner. She then plunged, in her underwear, into an ornamental fountain.

    Briony’s urge to write is triggered when she reads the private note she had been tasked with delivering from Robbie to Cecilia. Within, she is shocked to discover Robbie’s desire for Cecilia, expressed through use of the unutterable “c” word. Later, looking through the door of their darkened library, Briony mistakenly believes she sees Robbie committing a violent assault on her sister.

    This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books, films and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

    McEwan’s novel presents a privileged English country house setting that descends into a chaos of mistakes, class resentment, educational ambition and sex, expressed both as desire and power. The latter is evident in the rape of Briony’s cousin Lola.

    Convinced that she has seen, and now read, the truth about “evil” Robbie’s “disgusting” obsession with her sister, Briony believes he is the culprit. She is confident that her writing will expose a “maniac’s” guilt. However, her urge to write upon the blank page is stronger than her sense of what precisely to say.

    In fact, what she writes at this crucial moment – “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” – feels entirely strange. But just as the old lady of the nursery rhyme fatally bites off ever more that she can chew in swallowing a fly, a spider, a bird, a cat, so Briony’s tragically mistaken ideas about Robbie ends in his incrimination and incarceration.

    Robbie is free only when released to fight for the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. He strives to return to Cecilia via the horrors and heroism of that most resonant of British stories, Dunkirk.

    Life stages, ageing and creativity are important themes in Atonement. It is as an older lady writer herself that Briony atones for the incriminating stories that her juvenile writer self swallowed and multiplied.



    Read more:
    Dunkirk survivors’ terror didn’t end when they were rescued

    Creativity in later life

    Putting age and later life front and centre urges the reader to reassess McEwan’s renowned “twist”. That is, the moment readers discover that key scenes in the novel – meetings between Briony, Cecilia and Robbie following the latter’s evacuation from Dunkirk – never happened.

    As we are told on the penultimate page, the truth is that Robbie died of septicaemia in the dunes of Dunkirk and Cecilia was killed in the direct hit of a bomb on the Balham tube station in 1940.

    At this moment, we realise that what we have been reading is the final draft of the atoning conclusion to a work by now 77-year-old Briony. Like so many late stylists (a writer who, in later life, returns to earlier preoccupations and themes), Briony, an established author with a reputation for “amorality”, revisits her early work on her 77th birthday party. It’s an event that brings her back to the estate of her childhood, now converted into a hotel.

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

    Briony’s later life shapes the closure of the story, but McEwan’s imaginative engagement with ageing affects every aspect of the novel. He presents readers with story-shaped anticipations of mid- and later life, even when the character will not live to see that age.

    Robbie, working-class protégé of Mr Tallis’s educational philanthropy, with a first in English literature from Cambridge, consciously awakens into his unacknowledged love for Cecilia while thinking about his age and future.

    The feelings coincide with his developing aspiration to train in medicine, and his imaginary anticipations of his life course.

    He thought of himself in 1962, at 50, when he would be old, but not quite old enough to be useless, and of the weathered, knowing doctor he would be by then, with the secret stories, the tragedies and successes stacked behind him”

    These will be embodied in books – more writings – “possessed in the thousands”. Briony and Cecilia’s migraine-suffering mother Emily, meanwhile, sees her ageing self grow “stiffer in the limbs and more irrelevant by the day”.

    Through the character of Briony, McEwan contests the ageism and invisibility that can be the fate of older women. McEwan may take her to the brink of a terminal neurological decline in 1999 – she is diagnosed with vascular dementia – but Briony resists the othering that ageism imposes on older people: “we may look truly reptilian, but we’re not a separate tribe”.

    The end of the novel presents readers with a view of active, meaningful later life as a creative time of collaborative, curatorial story telling.

    The older Briony was played by Vanessa Redgrave in the 2007 adaptation of Atonement.

    Readers become aware of the “sources” of the dramatic story of Robbie’s trek across northern France in the company of Corporals Mace and Nettle. Seventy-seven-year-old Briony donates the “dozen long letters from old Mr Nettle” to the archives of the Imperial War Museum, where she has been researching.

    This act of memory preservation returns readers to the meaning of the horrors, carnage and heroism of the Dunkirk evacuation which McEwan presents through that powerful central episode in the novel. The evacuation of more than 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, including a small proportion of volunteer boats, makes Dunkirk a nationally resonant story.

    Briony’s collaborative, later-life storytelling captures the heroism and sacrifice inherent in the perspectives of the wounded evacuee combatants. But so, too, their more sceptical, critical accents.

    They “were bitter about the newspaper celebrations of the miracle evacuation and the heroism of the little boats. ‘A fucking shambles,’ she heard one of them mutter.” Or more precisely, the older lady recalled hearing, and then wrote.

    Beyond the canon

    As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is David Amigoni’s suggestion:

    Paul Bailey, who died in October 2024, was an excellent but under-acknowledged writer who deserves to be more widely read.

    His writing went against the grain is subtle ways. He was experimenting with ways of writing about later life at the beginning of his career in 1967, with the publication of At the Jerusalem, set in a home for older women. He was then in his early 30s.

    The Prince’s Boy (2014) was written when he was 77 – the same age as McEwan’s fictional Briony Tallis when she completes Atonement. It revisits key themes in Bailey’s earlier work: sexuality (he was a gay man), love, Proust, Romania and Europe.

    David Amigoni received funding from RCUK (now UKRI) for his work on ageing and late-life creativity. He is affiliated with The Conversation UK as Chair of its Editorial Board.

    – ref. Atonement by Ian McEwan is a meditation on creativity in later life – https://theconversation.com/atonement-by-ian-mcewan-is-a-meditation-on-creativity-in-later-life-244801

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Donald Trump’s suggestion of ‘clearing out’ Gaza adds another risk to an already fragile ceasefire

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Karin Aggestam, Professor of Political Science, CMES Director, Lund University

    Donald Trump’s recent statement describing Gaza as a “demolition site” – and his suggestion to “evacuate” Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt and Jordan to “clean out that whole thing” – has sent shockwaves across the region.

    Trump reportedly told journalists travelling with him on Air Force One at the weekend that he had spoken with King Abdullah of Jordan and planned to talk with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” he said.

    He added that relocating Palestinian civilians to “some of the Arab nations, and build[ing] housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change” could be “done temporarily or could be long term”.

    Israel’s extreme ultra-nationalist parties, both in and outside of the Israeli government, are thrilled by the idea. It’s one they have long advocated.

    But it has been widely criticised across the region as a potential “second Nakba” – referring to the violence and displacement of Palestinians after Israel’s unilateral declaration of statehood in 1948. The proposal has also been outright rejected by Egypt and Jordan. It has also been strongly condemned by the Palestinians.

    It remains unclear to what extent this aligns with US policy and diplomacy, but such rhetoric risks undermining the pivotal regional diplomatic efforts. These efforts, led by Qatar and Egypt in close coordination with Washington, are focused on continuing the negotiations on the ceasefire, monitoring progress, and verifying compliance.

    So it’s far from certain if this is an official US policy position or another example of the US president simply airing his thoughts. But what is clear is that his latest pronouncement will further complicate the ceasefire deal agreed on January 17.

    The deal already faces significant challenges and uncertainties, not least the mutual distrust between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. History tells us that this lack of trust has developed, in part, because of the numerous times ceasefires have been used for purposes other than pursuing long-term settlement, such as opportunities to regroup, rearm or reposition strategically.

    So the staged nature of the current deal carries considerable risks, as it creates opportunities for “spoilers” on both sides to derail the process. The recent violence of Jewish settlers on the West Bank and Hamas’s active encouragement of confrontation there are other examples of things that could derail the ceasefire.

    The negotiation process is further complicated by dynamics tied to the political survival of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. One party (Jewish Power) has already left his coalition government in protest against the ceasefire. Meanwhile the leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to do the same if the military operation against Hamas is not resumed.

    Hamas, in turn, has attempted to reassert its control in Gaza. We’ve seen examples of that during the hostage exchange process when Hamas fighters conspicuously present at the handovers. Hamas may have been severely weakened, but it still controls significant parts of Gaza’s bureaucracy and policing and wants the world to know it.

    Challenges ahead

    If any part of the agreement falters there is a substantial risk that each side will blame the other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire. Two of the most contentious issues in the second phase are determining who will govern Gaza and how to implement a full Israeli withdrawal.

    While Israel continues its security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, it vehemently opposes any PA role in Gaza. There is also considerable doubt as to whether Israel will agree to any long-term solution which involves complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Gaza.

    The recent resignation of the IDF’s chief of staff Herzl Halevi, as he took responsibility for the IDF’s failures on October 7, has further destabilised the political and military dynamics in Israel. A lot will depend on his successor.



    Read more:
    Donald Trump’s presidency presents Benjamin Netanyahu with a crisis that could be existential – here’s why

    Transactional diplomacy

    Recent geopolitical shifts have reshaped regional dynamics. This presents challenges and opportunities for any diplomatic initiatives surrounding Israel and Palestine. The weakening of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance”, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon – and the now-collapsed Assad regime in Syria – may provide an opportunity for the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

    This in turn will offer an opportunity to reshape the Middle East’s geopolitical landscape. This potential breakthrough builds on the Abraham accords, which was one of Trump’s foreign policy initiatives. It’s a transactional approach to diplomacy, which prioritises pragmatic and results-oriented negotiations.

    The new US Middle East envoy, former real estate developer Steve Witkoff, has emphasised “courageous diplomacy”, as well as strong leadership and what he called “reciprocal actions” from the parties to the peace deal. Whether the new US administration will revive the 2020 Trump plan for a Palestinian state remains uncertain.

    That plan proposed granting 70% of the West Bank and Gaza to Palestinians while allowing Israel to retain sovereignty over Jerusalem. It also included US approval for Israeli annexation of territories with Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

    For Israel, normalisation with Saudi Arabia would be a major diplomatic victory. Washington is playing a crucial role here, offering incentives such as sale of advanced American weapons systems to Riyadh. But Saudi Arabia has reportedly demanded concrete steps toward establishing a Palestinian state as part of the deal. Trump’s latest gambit, if it becomes official US policy, would make that a non-starter.

    Karin Aggestam has received research funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Australian Reseach Council, Wallenberg Foundation and others.

    – ref. Donald Trump’s suggestion of ‘clearing out’ Gaza adds another risk to an already fragile ceasefire – https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-suggestion-of-clearing-out-gaza-adds-another-risk-to-an-already-fragile-ceasefire-248334

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What Davos delegates missed when they discussed green finance for business

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Harrison, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance, University of East London

    Addressing the climate crisis was one of the key themes at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Rustam Zagidullin/Shutterstock

    Every year, leaders from politics and business come together with economists, investors and even celebrities at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. One of the five key themes of this year’s event was safeguarding the planet. The forum’s own figures suggest that human-caused climate change has cost the planet US$3.6 trillion (£2.9 trillion) in damage since 2000 alone.

    Many of the sessions at Davos focused on climate change, which was especially pertinent after US president Donald Trump’s decision to abandon for a second time the Paris Agreement – a framework to keep the warming of the planet to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

    In an online address to Davos delegates, Trump even argued that the oil-producers’ group Opec should reduce the price of oil. This is in stark contrast to the views of many other governments – exemplified by UK energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband’s assertion that net zero is “unstoppable”.

    But one of the less discussed elements of the path to net-zero by the year 2050 (a key target to keep the Paris Agreement on track) is the role of the financial sector.

    As economists, we believe that banks and financial institutions should play a key role in making the green transition happen. Companies that produce goods and services will need to invest in equipment and technology – either to make new greener products or to ensure that they pollute less.

    But this will cost money – likely money that firms do not actually have on their balance sheet or under their mattress. When banks assist in providing funding for this type of investment, it is known as green finance.

    Green finance from banks can take two forms. Either the banks underwrite corporate bonds, which means they sell bonds to investors in exchange for a fee. Or they become involved in the provision of a syndicated loan, which is when they collaborate with other banks to lend money.

    But both options are constrained by the rule that a bank will only provide finance out of self-interest. This means they act only when the profit they earn is proportional to the credit risk they take on. But this was in contrast to the message from Davos that businesses should take the lead, with the aid of finance from banks, in mitigating the risks of climate change.

    With easier access to finance, more firms could invest in innovative ways to go green like this car park with inbuilt solar panels in Leeds.
    Clare Louise Jackson/Shutterstock

    Sources of credit for businesses to make green investments include philanthropists, public finance and the private sector (that is, commercial banks). However, it is arguable that charity and public money are best used in partnership with private banks, to finance projects that are perceived high risk and low return. Banks alone would not support these because of their promotion of self-interest.

    However, philanthropy can be limited and inconsistent in providing funds for green projects. And the public sector has so many demands on its purse that its ability to support is also limited. This is where the private sector plays a key role in mitigating climate change and where partnerships between these three sectors could offer a way forward.

    This pathway was discussed at Davos but the speakers were not clear on what effective partnerships would look like. As academics who have researched the factors that influence green finance provision across multiple European countries, we would suggest a partnership structure between the public sector and the private sector, based on risk-sharing.

    In these cases where banks perceive the risk to be unbearable (and therefore not in their self-interest), governments could partner with banks in offering finance and so share the consequences of a bad project outcome. In other words, they would form a partnership with the bank to share the downside risk.

    A bank may consider an investment to be higher risk where a project has less certain outcomes, or requires funding for a longer period of time. Both of these factors are comparatively common in green financing deals. This could be because a firm is investing in new or untested tech or production methods – for example car manufacturers exploring new electric vehicle battery technologies.

    The struggle for smaller businesses

    This partnership approach could especially benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 99% of Europe’s companies. But these businesses can struggle to access finance from banks due to their lack of capital, which can make banks see them as a high risk. And this of course is challenging for SMEs, which mostly have no other sources of external finance.

    Research shows that medium-sized firms often rely on loans for finance. Our work focuses on how companies in Europe and the UK source green financing. It has highlighted that larger companies, as well as more liquid and more profitable firms, tend to raise finance via bonds (issued by banks and bought by investors) rather than loans (from a bank or other financial institution).

    In fact, our research shows that in some European countries (including Latvia, Malta and Romania), domestic banks have no record whatsoever of providing green finance to companies.

    This means it is much easier for larger businesses to get green finance compared to their smaller peers. And smaller companies tend to obtain relatively lower amounts of green financing, creating a real risk that SMEs may not get what they need in order to play their part in reducing their emissions.

    Without a significant shift in allowing SMEs to get the finance they need to become greener, governments will struggle to get close to their net-zero goals. But, along with financial regulators, governments could lead the way to create partnerships with banks and other financial institutions to overcome the barriers that SMEs face.

    Sharing the risk would ensure banks continue their green lending activities and accelerate progress toward meeting government climate targets.

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

    – ref. What Davos delegates missed when they discussed green finance for business – https://theconversation.com/what-davos-delegates-missed-when-they-discussed-green-finance-for-business-248208

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –