Why Israel’s assassination of Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif and crew threatens all journalists

By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch

I never knew Anas al-Sharif personally. But somehow he seemed to be part of our whānau.

We watched so many of his reports from Gaza that it just appeared he would be always around keeping us up-to-date on the horrifying events in the besieged enclave.

Although he actually worked for Al Jazeera Arabic, the 28-year-old was probably the best known Palestinian journalist in the Strip and many of his stories were translated into English.

It is yet another despicable act by the Israeli military to assassinate him and four of his colleagues on the eve of launching their new mass crime to seize and demolish Gaza City with a population of about one million as part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to occupy the whole of Gaza.

In many ways the bravery of al-Sharif — he had warned several times that he was being targeted — was the embodiment of the Palestinian courage under fire when UNESCO awarded the 2024 World Press Freedom Award collectively to the Gazan journalists.

But it wasn’t enough just to “murder” him and his colleagues — as the Al Jazeera channel proclaimed in red banner television headlines — Israel attempted unsuccessfully to try to smear him in death as a “Hamas platoon leader” without a shred of evidence.

The drone attack late on Sunday night hit a journalists’ work tent near the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, killing seven people. Among those killed beside al-Sharif were fellow Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal.

Call for UNSC emergency session
Al Jazeera later said a sixth journalist, freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi, was also killed in the strike. Reporters Without Borders said three more journalists had been wounded and called for a UN Security Council emergency session to discuss journalist safety.

In a statement, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network condemned in “the strongest terms” the killing of its media staff in “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”, noting that the Israeli occupation force had “admitted to their crimes”.

“This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities,” Al Jazeera said.

“Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people.”

Five Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza by Israel’s “psychopathic liar” — Marwan Bishara Video: Al Jazeera

Ironically, the killings came hours after Netanyahu told media he had decided to “allow” some foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip.

“In fact, we have decided, and I’ve ordered, directed the military, to bring in foreign journalists, more foreign journalists,” Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities have in the past barred any foreign media from entering the Gaza Strip, while it has been deliberately targeting and killing local Palestinian journalists.

Other attacks on Al Jazeera
The deadly strike on Anas al-Sharif and his four colleagues is not the first attack on Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza since the start of Israel’s current war on the Palestinian territory in October 2023

Israeli forces have previously killed five Al Jazeera journalists: Samer Abudaqa, Ismael al-Ghoul, Ahmed al-Louh, Hossam Shabat and Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, as well as many of the family members of Al Jazeera journalists.

The Israeli military has been systematically killing journalists, photographers and local media workers in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in an attempt to silence their reports.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has verified the killing of at least 186 journalists since October 7, 2023. At least 90 journalists have been imprisoned by Israel.

But some media freedom groups put the casualty figure even higher. The Government Media Office in Gaza, for example, reports that 242 journalists have been killed.

The Israeli military have frequently accused journalists of being “terrorists” without evidence.

According to Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza, Anas al-Sharif was a “loved by everyone, by his entire community”.

‘Enormous influence’
“He’s held enormous influence there, and that’s precisely why Israel murdered him.

Shehada told Al Jazeera he had “looked into the allegations” that Israel produced, trying to smear him as a Hamas militant, adding that “the allegations were completely contradictory.” He added:

“There’s zero evidence that al-Sharif took part in any hostilities, in any armed actions, aided or abetted any kind of these hostilities. None at all. His entire daily routine was standing in front of a camera from morning to evening.”

An early Instagram report of the killing of the Gazan journalists . . . later updated to five Al Jazeera staff and a sixth journalist. Image: AJ

Reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Israel banned Al Jazeera from reporting from inside Israeli territory and the occupied West Bank, Hoda Abdel-Hamid said: “When you read the statement issued by the Israeli army, which was well prepared before all this happened, it’s almost as if it is bragging about it.”

It had been alleged by Israel that Anas al-Sharif was a member of the military wing of Hamas, and the army claimed that it had found documents in Gaza that proved their point.

“It includes some links to content that anyone could have printed,” she said. “This has been going on for a few weeks, ever since Anas started reporting on the starvation in Gaza, and he had such a huge impact on the Arab world.

“Immediately after, a spokesman for the Israeli army in Arabic… posted a video on social media, accusing al-Sharif of being a Hamas member and threatening him.”

‘Knew he was at serious risk’
Abdel-Hamid said she had been going through his X feed.

“He knew his life was at serious risk, and he repeatedly wrote that he was just a journalist, and he wanted his message to be spread widely, because he thought that was a way to protect him.”

Posted on his X account in case he was killed was his “last will” and final message. He wrote in part:

“I entrust you with Palestine — the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace.

“Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.

“I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland . . . “

Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said that last October Israel had accused al-Sharif and “a number of other journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof”.

“We warned back then that this felt to us like a precursor to justify assassination, and, of course, last month… we saw again, a repeated smear campaign”, she told Al Jazeera.

“This is not solely about Anas al-Sharif, this is part of a pattern that we have seen from Israel… going back decades, in which it kills journalists.”

Accusations repeated
Al-Sharif had warned last month about the starvation facing journalists — “and we saw then the accusations repeated.

“Of course, now we are seeing a new offensive, plans for a new offensive, in Gaza, the kind of thing that Anas has been reporting on for the best part of three years.”

The medical director of al-Shifa Hospital said that Israel had killed the journalists to prevent coverage of atrocities it intended to carry out in its Gaza City seizure.

“The [Israeli] occupation is preparing for a major massacre in Gaza, but this time without sound or image,” Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.

“It wants to kill and displace the largest number of Palestinians in Gaza City but this time in the absence of the voice of Anas, Mohamed, Al Jazeera and all satellite channels.”

Assassinated Gazan journalist Anas al-Sharif . . . “killed to prevent coverage of atrocities” Israel intends to carry out in its Gaza City seizure. Image: AJ screenshot APR

‘Fabrications don’t wash’
Al Jazeera’s senior analyst Marwan Bishara warned that “Israel’s lies” about al-Sharif endangered journalists everywhere, saying that the “best response to the killing of our colleagues is by continuing to do what we do”.

“I want to correct one thing [about Western media reports], and I need our viewers and readers around the world to pay attention:

“It doesn’t matter whether what Israel said about al-Sharif is correct or not.

“It’s an absolute fabrication. It’s wrong. But it doesn’t matter.

“Because if every American journalist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been killed because there’s a suspicion that they worked for the CIA; if every French and British journalist would be killed because they work for the MI5 or something like that, then I think there will be no Western journalists working in the Middle East.

“It’s not OK to kill a journalist in a tent of journalists because you accuse him of something.

“If you accuse him of something, you take him to court, you make a complaint, you follow certain procedures, with the network, with the [International Federation of Journalists], and so on and so forth.

“You don’t kill a journalist who has been doing their job for months on, day in, day out, night and day, and claim later that they work for Hamas.

“That doesn’t wash.

“It’s wrong, it’s a lie, it’s a fabrication as usual, but this psychopathic liar should not get away with killing a journalist and simply attaching an accusation to it.

“It doesn’t wash, because otherwise, every single Western journalist covering a war that a Western government is involved in is going to be a target.

“Why?

“Because Israel has done it.”

In January 2024, three months into the war, I wrote an article for Declassified Australia about “Silencing the messenger” when I made the point that while “Israel killed journalists, the West merely censored them”.

I wrote that it was time for journalists to take a moral stand for truth and justice, and although I expected a strong response, the feedback was merely tepid. It was as if Western journalists did not comprehend the enormity of the Gaza crisis facing the world.

It is shameful that New Zealand journalists and media groups have not come out in the past 22 months with strong denunciations of Israel’s war on both journalists and truth – and the genocide against Palestinians.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Inside an urban heat island, one street can be much hotter than its neighbor – new tech makes it easier to target cooling projects

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan O’Brien, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director of the Boston Area Research Initiative, Northeastern University

A tree canopy can make a big difference in temperature for people on the street below. The challenge is getting trees where they’re needed most. Andrey Denisyuk/Moment via Getty Images

It’s summer, and it’s been hot, even in northern cities such as Boston. But not everyone is hit with the heat in the same way, even within the same neighborhood.

Take two streets in Boston at 4:30 p.m. on a recent day, as an example. Standing in the sun on Lewis Place, the temperature was 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.6 degrees Celsius). On Dudley Common, it was 103 F (39.2 C). Both streets were hot, but the temperature on one was much more dangerous for people’s health and well-being.

The kicker is that those two streets are only a few blocks apart. The difference epitomizes the urban heat island effect, created as pavement and buildings absorb and trap heat, making some parts of the city hotter.

A clement-and-brick open space with a few trees to one side, but mostly open to the sun and surrounded by dark, paved streets.
The shade of a few nearby trees doesn’t keep Dudley Common from heating up several degrees more than neighboring streets.
Dan O’Brien

A closer look at the two streets shows some key differences:

  • Dudley Common is public open space sandwiched between two thoroughfares that create a wide expanse of pavement lined with storefronts. There aren’t many trees to be found.

  • Lewis Place is a residential cul-de-sac with two-story homes accompanied by lots of trees.

This comparison of two places within a few minutes’ walk of each other puts the urban heat island effect under a microscope. It also shows the limits of today’s strategies for managing and responding to heat and its effects on public health, which are generally attuned to neighborhood or citywide conditions.

A map showing part of Roxbury, Mass., with circles around two blocks
The top circle is Dudley Common. The bottom is Lewis Place, where trees keep the cul-de-sac several degrees cooler.
Imagery ©2025 Airbus Maxar Technologies, map data Google ©2025

Even within the same neighborhood, some places are much hotter than others owing to their design and infrastructure. You could think of these as urban heat islets in the broader landscape of a community.

Sensing urban heat islets

Emerging technologies are making it easier to find urban heat islets, opening the door to new strategies for improving health in our communities.

While the idea of reducing heat across an entire city or neighborhood is daunting, targeting specific blocks that need assistance the most can be faster and a much more efficient use of resources.

Doing that starts with making urban heat islets visible.

In Boston, I’m part of a team that has installed more than three dozen sensors across the Roxbury neighborhood to measure temperature every minute for a better picture of the community’s heat risks, and we’re in the process of installing 25 more. The Common SENSES project is a collaboration of community-based organizations, including the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Project Right Inc.; university researchers like me who are affiliated with Northeastern University’s Boston Area Research Initiative; and Boston city officials. It was created to pursue data-driven, community-led solutions for improving the local environment.

Data from those sensors generate a real-time map of the conditions in the neighborhood, from urban heat islets like Dudley Common to cooler urban oases, such as Lewis Place.

A map showing temperatures in different neighborhoods
Temperature varied substantially in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood at 4:30 p.m. on July 25, 2025. These are some of the readings captured by the Common SENSES heat sensors.
Common SENSES

These technologies are becoming increasingly affordable and are being deployed in communities around the world to pinpoint heat risks, including Miami, Baltimore, Singapore and Barcelona. There are also alternatives when long-term installations prove too expensive, such as the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration volunteer science campaign, which has used mobile sensors to generate one-time heat maps for more than 50 cities.

Making cooler communities, block by block

Although detailed knowledge of urban heat islets is becoming more available, we have barely scratched the surface of how they can be used to enhance people’s health and well-being.

The sources of urban heat islets are rooted in development – more buildings, more pavement and fewer trees result in hotter spaces. Many projects using community-based sensors aspire to use the data to counteract these effects by identifying places where it would be most helpful to plant trees for shade or install cool roofs or cool pavement that reflect the heat.

Two men in reflective construction vests paint a stretch of road a light color. The difference between the dark and light is evident.
Workers in Los Angeles apply a cool pavement coating to reflect heat rather than absorbing it.
John McCoy/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Image

However, these current efforts do not fully capitalize on the precision of sensors. For example, Los Angeles’ massive investment in cool pavement has focused on the city broadly rather than overheated neighborhoods. New York City’s tree planting efforts in some areas failed to anticipate where trees could be successfully planted.

Most other efforts compare neighborhood to neighborhood, as if every street within a neighborhood experiences the same temperature. London, for example, uses satellite data to locate heat islands, but the resolution isn’t precise enough to see differences block by block.

In contrast, data pinpointing the highest-risk areas enables urban planners to strategically place small pocket parks, cool roofs and street trees to help cool the hottest spaces. Cities could incentivize or require developers to incorporate greenery into their plans to mitigate existing urban heat islets or prevent new ones. These targeted interventions are cost-effective and have the greatest potential to help the most people.

Two maps of New York City show how vegetation matches cooler areas by temperature.
Comparing maps of New York’s vegetation and temperature shows the cooling effect of parks and neighborhoods with more trees. In the map on the left, lighter colors are areas with fewer trees. Light areas in the map on the right are hotter.
NASA/USGS Landsat

But this could go further by using the data to create more sophisticated alert systems. For example, the National Weather Service’s Boston office released a heat advisory for July 25, the day I measured the heat in Dudley Common and Lewis Place, but the advisory showed nearly the entirety of the state of Massachusetts at the same warning level.

What if warnings were more locally precise?

On certain days, some streets cross a crucial threshold – say, 90 F (32.2 C) – whereas others do not. Sensor data capturing these hyperlocal variations could be communicated directly to residents or through local organizations. Advisories could share maps of the hottest streets or suggest cool paths through neighborhoods.

A street with trees.
Trees in the yards of homes on Lewis Place in Roxbury help keep the street several degrees cooler than nearby paved open spaces such as Dudley Common.
Dan O’Brien

There is increasing evidence of urban heat islets in many urban communities and even suburban ones. With data showing these hyperlocal risks, policymakers and project coordinators can collaborate with communities to help address areas that many community members know from experience tend to be much hotter than surrounding areas in summer.

As one of my colleagues, Nicole Flynt of Project Right Inc., likes to say, “Data + Stories = Truth.” If communities act upon both the temperature data and the stories their residents share, they can help their residents keep cool — because it’s hot out there.

The Conversation

Dan O’Brien has received funding from the National Science Foundation’s Smart & Connected Communities program for work associated with this article (award #2230036).

ref. Inside an urban heat island, one street can be much hotter than its neighbor – new tech makes it easier to target cooling projects – https://theconversation.com/inside-an-urban-heat-island-one-street-can-be-much-hotter-than-its-neighbor-new-tech-makes-it-easier-to-target-cooling-projects-261917

What should I eat (and avoid) while breastfeeding? How does my diet affect baby’s milk?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese O’Sullivan, Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, Edith Cowan University

Natalia Lebedinskaia/Getty Images

Many people are familiar with the saying that a woman is “eating for two” during pregnancy. Although this is an exaggeration, nutritional needs do certainly increase during pregnancy to support the growing baby.

But what’s perhaps less known is that energy needs are actually even slightly higher during breastfeeding than during pregnancy.

Human breastmilk is a dynamic liquid and its composition (including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals) varies over the entire breastfeeding period, and even between feeds.

It can change depending on what mum is eating, environmental factors, and what the baby needs, through a biofeedback system (sometimes called “baby backwash”). For example, if a baby is starting to get sick, breastmilk will adjust to include more leukocytes, immune cells that fight infection.

So what should breastfeeding women be eating? And how does a mother’s diet influence the nutritional makeup of her milk?

Nutritional needs increase during breastfeeding

Fully breastfeeding mums can produce around 800 millilitres of milk a day in the first six months after birth, which has an energy content of roughly 3 kilojoules per gram.

Even factoring in using up excess fat stored during pregnancy, mums still need on average an extra 2,000 kilojoules to support milk production. This is roughly equivalent to adding a cheese sandwich, a handful of nuts and a banana on top of normal dietary intake.

Interestingly, requirements don’t drop off after the baby starts solids. In the second six months, milk production is thought to drop to an average of 600ml per day, as babies start to eat solid foods. But because maternal fat stores deplete by this stage, additional energy requirements remain similar.

Some nutrients are particularly important during breastfeeding, including protein, calcium, iron, iodine and vitamins.

For example, compared with a non-pregnant, non-breastfeeding woman, protein requirements increase by almost half when breastfeeding (from 0.75 grams to 1.1 grams per kg of body weight per day).

Meanwhile, iodine requirements almost double (from 150 micrograms per day to 270 micrograms per day). Iodine is important for thyroid function, and can impact baby’s growth and brain development.

It’s important women who are breastfeeding eat a variety of foods, including:

  • high-protein foods (meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, soy-based protein such as tofu and tempeh, legumes such as chickpeas, baked beans and lentils)
  • dairy foods or alternatives (for dairy alternatives, check calcium is included)
  • whole grains
  • fruits and vegetables.

While making all that milk, drinking more water also becomes extremely important. Thirst is a good guide, but around 2.5 litres per day is generally recommended, or more if it’s hot or with exercise.

Is there anything I shouldn’t be eating?

What a mum consumes can pass into her breastmilk. For example, in one study, babies whose mothers drank small amounts of carrot juice while breastfeeding were more accepting of cereal flavoured with carrot juice compared with a control group of babies whose mothers drank water.

It’s therefore important to limit alcohol and caffeine, which can also pass though to the baby. No alcohol is the safest choice, but if you’re planning to have a drink, tools such as the Feed Safe app can be used to estimate when your breastmilk should be free of alcohol.

Up to 200mg of caffeine per day (equivalent to roughly a cup of brewed coffee, an energy or cola drink, or four cups of tea) is considered safe for breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding mums don’t need to take any particular foods out of their diet to prevent allergies in their baby. In fact, experts believe babies exposed to common allergens via breast milk could be less likely to develop allergies to these foods, however we need more research into this question.

Although relatively uncommon, babies can be allergic or intolerant to certain aspects of their mothers’ diet when breastfeeding. They may react in the form of colic or wind, reflux, mucus or blood in their poo, eczema or rash, or appear to be in pain.

In these cases, mum’s diet may need adjustment. The most common culprits include cows’ milk (the protein, not the lactose component), soy and egg.

It’s recommended to remove suspected foods from the diet for a minimum of three weeks. This should ideally be done with supervision from an Accredited Practising Dietitian who specialises in allergy, to ensure the mother’s nutritional needs continue to be met.

4 tips for breastfeeding mums

  1. it’s a good idea to get a blood test to check your vitamin D and iron levels – these can be depleted over pregnancy and are important for breastfeeding. If your levels are low, you can discuss options with your doctor

  2. iodine requirements are so much higher in breastfeeding that an iodine supplement of 150 micrograms a day is recommended to support infant growth and neurodevelopment

  3. have a variety of nutritious snacks that can be eaten with one hand for those late-night feeds, such as peeled boiled eggs, a peanut butter sandwich on wholegrain bread, or avocado and cheese on a rice cake. My personal favourite is homemade rocky road with dark chocolate, nuts, seeds and dried fruit

  4. keep a drink bottle with water nearby when breastfeeding.

Rocky road.
The author’s home-made rocky road, which she gives as a gift to friends with new babies.
Therese O’Sullivan/Author provided

If you’re considering a gift for a family with a new baby, remember new parents’ personal needs often take a back seat when bub arrives, including eating well. Consider a hearty frozen meal, muffins with oats and nuts, a nice stainless steel water bottle, gourmet trail mix or even some homemade rocky road.

The Conversation

Therese O’Sullivan has previously received funding from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation and the Department of Health Western Australia for a project on antenatal colostrum expressing.

ref. What should I eat (and avoid) while breastfeeding? How does my diet affect baby’s milk? – https://theconversation.com/what-should-i-eat-and-avoid-while-breastfeeding-how-does-my-diet-affect-babys-milk-260423

PSNA calls on Luxon to end ‘support’ for Israel as Australia plans backing for Palestine state

Asia Pacific Report

A leading advocacy group supporting Palerstine has called on the government to follow Germany’s lead and suspend New Zealand military support for Israel to continue its mass killing and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Germany and New Zealand were two of the countries to sign a letter yesterday condemning Israel’s plans to extend its war to Gaza City, displacing another million Palestinians.

However, one of the other signatories, Australia, announced that it would go a step further by moving to recognise a state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly next month.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would work with the international community to make recognition a reality.

“I have said it publicly and I said it directly to Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: the situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world’s worst fears,” he said.

“Far too many innocent lives have been lost. The Israeli government continues to defy international law and deny sufficient aid, food and water to desperate people, including children.”

The decision rides on a condition that the Palestinian resistance group Hamas plays no role in its future governance.

Letter condemns Israel
New Zealand joined Australia, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy in signing a letter that said:

“The plans that the government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law. Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.

It will aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians.”

PSNA co-chair John Minto said in a statement that Israel had a long history of ignoring outside opinion because they never included accountabilities.

“However, Germany has followed its condemnation with action. New Zealand needs to do the same,” he said.

Minto says New Zealand should:

• End approval for Rakon to export crystal oscillators to the US which are used in guided bombs sent to Israel for bombing Gaza;
• Ban all Rocket Lab launches from Mahia which are used for Israel reconnaissance in Gaza; and
• Launch an investigation by the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence into the sharing of intelligence with the US and Israel which can be used for targeting Palestinians.

“New Zealanders expect our government to end its empty condemnations of Israel and act to sanction this rogue, genocidal state,” Minto said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Beyond recognition: the challenges of creating a new Palestinian state are so formidable, is it even possible?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Kear, Sessional Lecturer, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting in September, joining the United Kingdom, Canada and France in taking the historic step.

Recognising a Palestinian state is at one level symbolic – it signals a growing global consensus behind the rights of Palestinians to have their own state. In the short term, it won’t impact the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Practically speaking, the formation of a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is far more difficult to achieve.

The Israeli government has ruled out a two-state solution and reacted with fury to the moves by the four G20 members to recognise Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the decision “shameful”.

So, what are the political issues that need to be resolved before a Palestinian state becomes a reality? And what is the point of recognition if it doesn’t overcome these seemingly intractable obstacles?

Settlements have exploded

The first problem is what to do about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the International Court of Justice has declared are illegal.

Since 1967, Israel has constructed these settlements with two goals in mind: prevent any future division of Jerusalem, and expropriate sufficient territory to make a Palestinian state impossible. There are now more than 500,000 settlers in the West Bank and 233,000 in East Jerusalem.

Palestinians see East Jerusalem as an indispensable part of any future state. They will never countenance a state without it as their capital.

In May, the Israeli government announced it would also build 22 new settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the largest settler expansion in decades. Defence Minister Israel Katz described this as a “strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.

The Israeli government has also moved closer to fully annexing the West Bank in recent months.

Geographical complexities of a future state

Second is the issue of a future border between a Palestinian state and Israel.

The demarcations of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem are not internationally recognised borders. Rather, they are the ceasefire lines, known as the “Green Line”, from the 1948 War that saw the creation of Israel.

However, in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula (since returned), and Syria’s Golan Heights. And successive Israeli governments have used the construction of settlements in the occupied territories, alongside expansive infrastructure, to create new “facts on the ground”.

Israel solidifies its hold on this territory by designating it as “state land”, meaning it no longer recognises Palestinian ownership, further inhibiting the possibility of a future Palestinian state.

For example, according to research by Israeli professor Neve Gordon, Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries covered approximately seven square kilometres before 1967. Since then, Israeli settlement construction has expanded its eastern boundaries, so it now now covers about 70 square km.

Israel also uses its Separation Wall or Barrier, which runs for around 700km through the West Bank and East Jerusalem, to further expropriate Palestinian territory.

According to a 2013 book by researchers Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir, the wall is part of the Israeli government’s policy of cleansing Israeli space of any Palestinian presence. It breaks up contiguous Palestinian urban and rural spaces, cutting off some 150 Palestinian communities from their farmland and pastureland.

The barrier is reinforced by other methods of separation, such as checkpoints, earth mounds, roadblocks, trenches, road gates and barriers, and earth walls.




Read more:
Explainer: what is the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?


Then there is the complex geography of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank.

Under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, the West Bank was divided into three areas, labelled Area A, Area B and Area C.

In Area A, which consists of 18% of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority exercises majority control. Area B is under joint Israeli-Palestinian authority. Area C, which comprises 60% of the West Bank, is under full Israeli control.

Administrative control was meant to be gradually transferred to Palestinian control under the Oslo Accords, but this never happened.

Areas A and B are today separated into many small divisions that remain isolated from one another due to Israeli control over Area C. This deliberate ghettoisation creates separate rules, laws and norms in the West Bank that are intended to prevent freedom of movement between the Palestinian zones and inhibit the realisation of a Palestinian state.

Who will govern a future state?

Finally, there are the conditions that Western governments have placed on recognition of a Palestinian state, which rob Palestinians of their agency.

Chief among these is the stipulation that Hamas will not play a role in the governance of a future Palestinian state. This has been backed by the Arab League, which has also called for Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in Gaza.

Fatah and Hamas are currently the only two movements in Palestinian politics capable of forming a government. In a May poll, 32% of respondents in both Gaza and the West Bank said they preferred Hamas, compared with 21% support for Fatah. One-third did not support either or had no opinion.

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, is deeply unpopular, with 80% of Palestinians wanting him to resign.




Read more:
The politics of recognition: Australia and the question of Palestinian statehood


A “reformed” Palestinian Authority is the West’s preferred option to govern a future Palestinian state. But if Western powers deny Palestinians the opportunity to elect a government of their choosing by dictating who can participate, the new government would likely be seen as illegitimate.

This risks repeating the mistakes of Western attempts to install governments of their choosing in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also plays into the hands of Hamas hardliners, who mistrust democracy and see it as a tool to impose puppet governments in Palestine, as well as Israel’s narrative that Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves.

Redressing these issues and the myriad others will take time, money and considerable effort. The question is, how much political capital are the leaders of France, the UK, Canada and Australia (and others) willing to expend to ensure their recognition of Palestine results in an actual state?

What if Israel refuses to dismantle its settlements and Separation Wall, and moves ahead with annexing the West Bank? What are these Western leaders willing or able to do? In the past, they have been unwilling to do more than issue strongly worded statements in the face of Israeli refusals to advance the two-state solution.

Given these doubts around the political will and actual power of Western states to compel Israel to agree to the two-state solution, it begs the question: what and who is recognition for?

The Conversation

Martin Kear 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. Beyond recognition: the challenges of creating a new Palestinian state are so formidable, is it even possible? – https://theconversation.com/beyond-recognition-the-challenges-of-creating-a-new-palestinian-state-are-so-formidable-is-it-even-possible-262493

Australia to recognise Palestine state next month at the United Nations

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced Australia will recognise Palestine as a state at the United Nations leaders’ week in late September.

Unlike some other countries, the government has put no conditions on the recognition, relying on assurances received from the Palestinian Authority, the current Palestinian governing body in the West Bank.

Announcing the decision on Monday, Albanese said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Thursday. In what Albanese said was a long call, Netanyahu argued the case against the proposed Australian action.

“I put the argument to him that we need a political solution, not a military one, because a military response alone has seen the devastation in Gaza, and that has contributed to the massive concern that we see from the international community,” Albanese said.

Albanese told a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Penny Wong “a two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza”.

Asked whether this was a symbolic gesture, Albanese said, “This is a practical contribution towards building momentum. This is not Australia acting alone. What we are seeing is a range of countries engaging in detailed dialogue.”

Albanese said that over the past fortnight, he had discussed the issue with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

He also had a call last week with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Albanese said the Palestinian Authority had committed to there being no role for Hamas in a Palestinian state and reaffirmed it recognised Israel’s right to exist, as well as making other pledges.

Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor said there is a risk the decision would be rewarding Hamas for its attacks on Israel on October 7 2023.

When asked about this criticism, Albanese said “Hamas don’t support two states”.

“This is an opportunity to isolate Hamas, that has been forged by the very clear statements of the Palestinian Authority on June 10, and the very clear statements of the Arab League,” he said.

Before the announcement, Netanyahu strongly condemned the move.

He said it was “shameful” and “disappointing” that European countries and Australia would “march into that rabbit hole” and buy “this canard”. He made it clear Israel would not be deterred.

Asked about Australia and other countries moving to recognition, he said, “Well, first of all, those who say that Israel has a right to defend itself are also saying, ‘but don’t exercise that right’.”

He said Israel was applying force judiciously and “they know it”.

“They know what they would do if right next to Melbourne or right next to Sydney you had this horrific attack. I think you would do, at least what we’re doing – probably maybe not as efficiently and as precisely as we’re doing it.”

The Albanese government’s decision, which was reported to a cabinet meeting early Monday, followed years of pressure within the Labor party which has ramped up dramatically in recent months.

Wong spoke at the weekend to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Australia’s proposed course.

Michelle Grattan 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. Australia to recognise Palestine state next month at the United Nations – https://theconversation.com/australia-to-recognise-palestine-state-next-month-at-the-united-nations-262602

When a beach walk feels like grief: disasters like SA’s algal bloom cut us off from nature when we need it most

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brianna Le Busque, Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of South Australia

John White Photos/Getty

In March 2025, surfers and swimmers were the first to notice the harmful algal bloom taking hold in South Australian waters. People catching waves at a popular break on the Fleurieu Peninsula later reported feeling sick with flu-like symptoms.

Over the five months since, an “unprecedented” environmental disaster has unfolded, devastating marine ecosystems and the South Australian economy. It has also fundamentally changed the way people connect to the ocean.

This particular bloom – caused by Karenia mikimotoi – is deadly to various marine species, while in humans it can cause milder illness and irritation.

But the impact on mental health and wellbeing is profound.

When people can no longer use “blue spaces” such as the ocean to surf, swim, fish and walk on the beach, they are losing activities that calm and relax them – exactly when they’re most sick with worry about their beloved coastline.

A perfect storm

South Australia’s algal bloom is the result of a “perfect storm” – a marine heatwave, nutrient rich water from previous flooding, and a rare cold-water upwelling.

Current public health advice tells surfers and swimmers to stay out of water if it looks “discoloured, foamy, or where there’s dead marine life”.

Given that dead marine life is washing up across many South Australian beaches, this means it’s hard to find any place to surf or swim.

Recreational fishers are advised that catching fish (and other marine species) is safe if it’s cleaned thoroughly before eating. But many are not throwing their lines in due to concerns about depleting the surviving marine life.

Blue spaces and health

Activities such as swimming, surfing and fishing are not only enjoyable, they have a range of health benefits.

There is mounting empirical evidence about the range of benefits from spending time in “green spaces”, such as parks and bushland.

In 2020, a review of evidence about “blue spaces” – meaning oceans, rivers and lakes – found similar benefits.

For example, swimming outdoors in nature – sometimes known as “wild swimming” – can reduce fatigue and improve mental health. There is also early evidence that it can promote immune functioning.

Surfing also has physical and mental health benefits, and increases community connections. One study of recreational fishers found three in four (75.5%) fish for stress relief.

But these are benefits people in areas affected by the algal bloom are no longer getting.

Grief and anxiety

The algal bloom means people can’t access blue spaces and their health benefits. In fact, the devastation can mean engaging with blue spaces actually makes people’s mental health worse, through worry and grief about the environment.

Eco-anxiety describes the extreme fear, worry, sadness or a generally heightened emotional state we may feel in response to changes in the climate or environment. When people experience grief and other negative emotions about changes to a place they love, this is sometimes called “solastalgia”.

Both eco-anxiety and solastalgia can be responses to global changes, such as warming temperatures and rising sea levels. But they are felt most acutely among those affected directly by a disaster.

Research after Australia’s 2019–20 bushfires found high levels of eco-anxiety and solastalgia among those who survived, with the environment becoming a source of pain and grief.

Given this harmful algal bloom is being referred to as an “underwater bushfire”, it is unsurprising we are seeing people describe similar concern, worry, sadness and loss.

I am part of a team from the University of South Australia currently researching this impact, by surveying people who live near and use the beach to better understand their experience.

Are there any silver linings?

Grief about the destruction of a place we love is the sign of how much we care about it – and this can be galvanising.

Research shows eco-anxiety can be a form of practical anxiety. This means unlike other forms of worry it is more likely to also drive behaviour change.

We are already seeing this in South Australia. Over 12,000 recordings on iNaturalist – a website where members of the community upload photos and help identify species – provide shocking visual evidence of the loss and devastation.

Distressed beachgoers who are participating in citizen science programs such as these help keep the spotlight on the disaster, as well as rescuing stranded sea animals and protesting for action from government and industry.

Amid the grief, it’s important to try and still maintain our connection to our environment. When we can’t spend time in our usual natural spots, we can still benefit from connecting with nature beyond blue spaces – even if it’s simply visiting a park or planting something new.

Brianna Le Busque 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. When a beach walk feels like grief: disasters like SA’s algal bloom cut us off from nature when we need it most – https://theconversation.com/when-a-beach-walk-feels-like-grief-disasters-like-sas-algal-bloom-cut-us-off-from-nature-when-we-need-it-most-262705

Want to know how far your new EV can actually go? Take 10–20% off its claimed range

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hussein Dia, Professor of Transport Technology and Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology

Alexwise/Getty

Many electric vehicles (EVs) now come with range estimates of 400–500 kilometres, while some premium models claim ranges of more than 600km.

Drivers new to EVs may look at the range figures given by the manufacturer and think that’s how far their new car will go on a single battery charge.

But this isn’t quite accurate. In reality, an EV’s actual range is usually less. Recent real-world testing of five popular EV models by the Australian Automobile Association showed the real range was an average of 11.6% less than the official figures. There was wide variation: BYD’s Atto 3 had 23% less range, while the Smart #3 had just 5% less.

This is because official figures come from a standardised laboratory test done in idealised conditions different to the way people actually drive.

The problem is not confined to EVs. When the same testing was done on popular petrol cars, some were found to use up to 35% more fuel than official figures claim.

Real-world testing is an important public service. Drivers looking for a new EV could knock off 10–20% from official ranges as a rule of thumb. But it’s worth looking for testing of the exact model to see what the true difference is.

How are official range figures produced?

To produce official range estimates, new EVs are run through a standardised test.

This test, the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, is used to estimate the distance an EV can drive on a full battery as well as a combustion engine car’s fuel consumption.

Vehicles are tested on a dynamometer – a treadmill for cars – in a controlled laboratory environment on a 30-minute driving cycle. During the cycle, the cars are driven at four levels of intensity: low (up to 60km per hour), medium (up to 80km/h), high (up to 100km/h) and extra high (above 130km/h), with a set sequence of accelerations, steady speeds and decelerations.

Testing is done at an ambient temperature of 23°C, with no passengers, accessories, or use of heating or air conditioning. The EV is driven by computer through repeats of the 30‑minute cycle until the battery is fully depleted. The total distance covered becomes the official range used by the manufacturer.

This testing regime is very useful, as it offers a single consistent way to compare cars worldwide. But the test doesn’t take conditions such as congestion, driving style and weather variations into account.

That means drivers should take the official range figures as a benchmark, not a guarantee.

How EVs perform in real-world driving

Testing the realistic range of EVs requires real-world testing. To get these figures, testers drove the EVs on a 93km circuit in and around Geelong, including a mix of urban, rural and highway driving conditions.

Their findings are similar to international results. European testing suggests everyday use cuts between 10% and 30% off the official range. If an EV is driven hard during winter, the range can drop as much as 40%.

Under Australian conditions, drivers can reasonably expect the real range to be 10–20% less.

What real world conditions affect range?

Real-world ranges can be less for several reasons, such as driving style, weather and extra weight.

Driving style is important. High speeds increase wind resistance and energy use. Driving in hilly terrain uses more energy, though some of this is returned to the battery through regenerative braking, where EVs convert the kinetic energy of braking back into electricity.

Temperature and weather can also have an impact. Very cold conditions can temporarily reduce range, while very hot conditions force the car to use some power to keep battery packs cool. Using air conditioning and heating can also reduce range, particularly in extreme temperatures.

How temperature and weather impact electric vehicle range.

Adding weight (passengers, cargo) can reduce range, as can roof racks or roof boxes.

Trip planning is key

The average Australian commute is around 35km per day – well within the capabilities of even the shortest-range EVs.

But range becomes important when doing longer trips.

Most EVs display real-time consumption and estimated remaining range, which adjusts as you drive. This makes it easier to plan ahead, especially on longer trips.

Some EV owners use route planning tools such as A Better Route. These tools estimate how much energy you’ll use on a given journey, taking into account elevation, speed and temperature.

Setting EVs to eco-driving mode and reducing the use of energy hungry air-conditioning will help get more range. Keeping tyres properly inflated and avoiding unnecessary weight or roof racks where possible will also help.

Cooling or heating your EV before departure — known as preconditioning — can be done while plugged in or running off the battery. Doing it while plugged in is preferable, as it uses grid power rather than draining the battery, helping preserve range.

EV preconditioning explained.

Petrol and diesel cars use more fuel in the real world

There’s nothing new about the gap between lab-testing and real-world performance.

Combustion engine cars are sold with official figures for their fuel consumption. But they can use significantly more fuel in the real world.

Real-world tests in Europe found fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions from diesel and petrol vehicles were around 20% higher than under lab testing.

Range doesn’t have to be a guessing game

While countries such as Norway and China have streaked ahead in taking up EVs, Australia is still at the early stages. Clear, independent information is essential to help people make informed choices and encourage EV uptake.

Real-world testing helps bridge the gap between marketing promises and the reality on the road, giving drivers the confidence to plan their trips.

Lower real world ranges aren’t a deal breaker. Savvy drivers can use this data together with trip planning and an understanding of conditions to travel with confidence.

Hussein Dia receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre, Transport for New South Wales, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, and Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.

ref. Want to know how far your new EV can actually go? Take 10–20% off its claimed range – https://theconversation.com/want-to-know-how-far-your-new-ev-can-actually-go-take-10-20-off-its-claimed-range-262805

France’s betrayal of Kanak hopes for independence, Rainbow Warrior, climate crisis and other issues

Pacific Media Watch

Pacific affairs and media commentator Dr David Robie reflected on the 1985 Rainbow Warrior mission to Rongelap atoll to help US nuclear refugees and the bombing of the Greenpeace campaign ship by French secret agents in a kōrero hosted by the NZ Fabian Society.

His analysis is that far from the sabotage being an isolated incident, it was part of a cynical and sordid colonial policy that impacts on the Pacific until today.

He also spoke on wide-ranging issues ranging from decolonisation in Kanaky New Zealand and Palestine to climate crisis and media upheavals in the livestreamed event on Friday evening.


The Fabian Society and Just Defence spokeperson Mike Smith introducing journalist and author David Robie at the kōrero on Friday.

Former professor David Robie has a passion for the Asia-Pacific region and he founded the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology in 2007 that ran until 2020 when he retired from academic life.

A journalist for more than 60 years, David has reported on postcolonial coups, indigenous struggles for independence and environmental and developmental issues in the Asia-Pacific.

He was a journalist on board the Rainbow Warrior mission and his book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior has recently been republished with an introduction by former NZ prime minister Helen Clark.

On Saturday, he participated in the Nagasaki Day / Aro Valley Peace Talks where he and former RNZ journalist Jeremy Rose were in conversation analysing Pacific geopolitics and media coverage and challenges of the future.

Journalist and author Dr David Robie speaking to the Fabian Society about environmental activism, decolonisation and Pacific geopolitics. Image: Del Abcede.APR

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

‘I end up buying less food’: Indigenous people should not have to go hungry to use the internet

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Azadeh Dastyari, Director, Centre for Western Sydney, Western Sydney University

Access to the internet is not a luxury. It’s an essential part of life. It shapes how people study, find and do work, access healthcare, stay connected with community and interact with government services.

For Indigenous peoples, the internet also plays a vital role in maintaining cultural connection, sharing knowledge, and keeping links to kin and Country strong.

Despite it being essential, a new study has found many Indigenous people are denied internet access because of poor infrastructure, high costs, lack of culturally appropriate training and inadequate services that don’t meet community and individual needs.

This digital exclusion compounds existing disadvantage and makes daily living, such as paying bills, working, or getting an education, prohibitively difficult.

Our research

Digital inclusion refers to having sufficient access to appropriate devices and the internet, affordable connectivity, and the necessary skills and ability to use digital technologies safely.

Digital connection is not just a challenge in rural and remote areas. It is also a major issue in urban areas such as Western Sydney, which is home to one-tenth of Australia’s population and the largest urban population of Indigenous peoples in the country.

Better digital inclusion is a key priority area under the Closing the Gap plan, but progress has been consistently hard to measure and the 2026 target is unlikely to be met.

A new report, First Nations Digital Inclusion in Western Sydney, chronicles the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Western Sydney through story telling, yarning circles and a survey of 105 Indigenous people.

While the study was concentrated to Western Sydney, the findings are consistent with other research nationwide.

We found some areas of Western Sydney simply don’t have reliable internet. Even where coverage exists, many people cannot afford the high costs of data, devices and ongoing connection they need.

No one should have to choose between internet access and essential medicine, but this is the reality for many Indigenous people surveyed, with 27% of people cutting back on medicine to stay connected.

One participant shared:

you have to have a mobile these days and internet. I end up buying less food but I need to feed my kid. I often skip meals to afford my bills.

But access isn’t the only problem. The digital divide is not just about having a device, it is also about feeling confident using it.

We found 66% of Indigenous participants in the study said they had never received any digital skills training. Elders and those who have not had the chance to build these skills are often left behind.

Online safety is also a serious concern. Of the Indigenous people surveyed, 74% reported experiencing racism or other forms of racial discrimination online. This creates further barriers to participation and trust.




Read more:
The government has a target for Indigenous digital inclusion. It’s got little hope of meeting it


What can be done?

The good news is there’s lots that can be done to help.

Currently, Indigenous community-led organisations are stepping up to fill the digital gap, often on shoestring budgets. They’re setting up free wifi hubs, distributing SIM cards and devices and offering digital support.

One participant shared:

since I was given a second hand laptop […] I completed six or more courses at TAFE. This is what is holding back our mob, give them access to an iPad or laptop and also a basic course how to use them.

But Indigenous community-led organisations and the community sector can’t do it alone. What’s needed is government support and long-term investment to make digital inclusion a reality. This means tackling affordability head-on.

Solutions must include cheaper internet plans, low-cost devices and flexible payment options that are designed with Indigenous communities.

Governments and telecommunications companies should work in partnership to deliver programs such as free data in local areas or device lending schemes that enable people to stay connected without financial strain.

On the education front, we need culturally safe, community-led training programs for people of all ages. These could be embedded in schools, workplaces, and local services, particularly through Indigenous-led organisations that already have the trust of the community.

Tech companies must be held accountable for harmful content, and there must be stronger rules to protect users. At the same time, more investment is needed in Indigenous-led platforms and online safety programs that create welcoming spaces.

Public services such as Centrelink need to be more accessible and better designed for people without digital access. In-person services must not only remain available, but be strengthened, to ensure everyone can access the support they need in a way that works for them.

As documented in the report, Indigenous community organisations and peoples have the knowledge and experience and are leading the work to close the digital gap. Their leadership must be respected and supported through genuine partnerships, sustained funding and real decision-making power.

This is not just about technology. Digital inclusion for First Nations peoples is about fairness, dignity and justice.

The answers are already here. Indigenous peoples have shared what works. It is time for government and industry to listen and act.

The Conversation

The First Nations Digital Inclusion in Western Sydney project was supported by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). The operation of ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.

Corrinne Sullivan receives funding from Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). She is affiliated with, and is a Director of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation.

ref. ‘I end up buying less food’: Indigenous people should not have to go hungry to use the internet – https://theconversation.com/i-end-up-buying-less-food-indigenous-people-should-not-have-to-go-hungry-to-use-the-internet-262203

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 11, 2025

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 11, 2025.

CPJ condemns Israeli killing of Gaza journalist Anas al-Sharif and video crew of four
Pacific Media Watch The Committee to Protect Journalists has made a statement today that it is appalled to learn of the killing of an Al Jazeera media crew of five, including journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa by Israeli forces in Gaza. The journalists were killed

ABC’s new suburban mystery The Family Next Door is understated and addictive
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexa Scarlata, Lecturer, Digital Communication, RMIT University ABC At first glance, the ABC’s new flagship drama looks like a soapy cross between Neighbours and Home and Away. Sweeping shots of rugged coastline and holiday homes roll into a tree-lined cul-de-sac near identical to Ramsay Street. The sun

56 million years ago, Earth underwent rapid global warming. Here’s what it did to pollinators
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vera Korasidis, Lecturer in Environmental Geoscience, The University of Melbourne Pollinators play a vital role in fertilising flowers, which grow into seeds and fruits and underpin our agriculture. But climate change can cause a mismatch between plants and their pollinators, affecting where they live and what time

Where have all the coaches gone? The volunteer crisis hitting grassroots sport in NZ
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blake Bennett, Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Pedagogy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau As the international rugby season kicks off in earnest, and other sporting codes compete for TV airtime and fans’ disposable income, something worrying is happening down at the grassroots. Sports clubs across

Another Gaza injustice. Israel targets Anas in Al Jazeera media crew of 5
COMMENTARY: By Saige England Another truth-teller targeted and killed in Gaza. I wish the journalists — some of whom I taught to master the skills of journalism, would look at this travesty and call it what it is: a genocide. I wish they would remember that journalists have a code of ethics, I wish they

Wikipedia’s ‘neutrality’ has always been complicated. New rules will make questioning it harder
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heather Ford, Professor, Communications, University of Technology Sydney Franckreporter / Getty Images Last month, the American non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia issued draft guidelines for researchers studying how neutral Wikipedia really is. But instead of supporting open inquiry, the guidelines reveal just how unaware the Wikimedia Foundation is

Pharmacists could one day work in GP clinics. Here’s what’s in it for you
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nissen, HERA Program Director – Health Workforce Optimisation Centre for the Business & Economics of Health, The University of Queensland sturti/Getty You’re discharged from hospital with some painkillers but aren’t sure if they’re safe to take with the heart medication you’ve been prescribed for years or

Triple whammy: how 3 types of drought crippled southern Australia this year
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Cowan, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland Soaking mid-winter rains have brought some relief to drought-stricken farms and rural towns across southern Australia, but the crisis is not over yet. And there’s more to this challenging episode than you might

Often parents and schools disagree about whether something is ‘bullying’: what happens next?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karyn Healy, Honorary Principal Research Fellow in Psychology, The University of Queensland Monkey Business Images/ Shutterstock Bullying in schools can can have a devastating impact on victims. Research shows it can lead to reduced academic performance depression, anxiety and even suicidal behaviour. So, preventing and reducing bullying

No one holds the government to account on spending. We need a budget watchdog that can bite
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Pearce, Adjunct Lecturer in public finance, Griffith University Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made budget sustainability one of the key pillars of the reform roundtable to be held next week. Concern that budget spending is on an unsustainable trend has been caused by rising government spending as

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 10, 2025
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 10, 2025.

CPJ condemns Israeli killing of Gaza journalist Anas al-Sharif and video crew of four

Pacific Media Watch

The Committee to Protect Journalists has made a statement today that it is appalled to learn of the killing of an Al Jazeera media crew of five, including journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The journalists were killed in an attack on a tent used by media near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City during a targeted Israeli bombardment, according to Al Jazeera which has described the killings as “murders”.

In a statement announcing the killing of Al-Sharif, Israel’s military accused the journalist of heading a Hamas cell and of “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops”.

Israel has a longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof.

“Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah.

“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”

Al-Sharif had been one of Al Jazeera’s best-known reporters in Gaza since the start of the war and one of several journalists whom Israel had previously alleged were members of Hamas without providing evidence.

Reported on starvation
Most recently, Al-Sharif had reported on the starvation that he and his colleagues were experiencing because of Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient food aid into Gaza.

In a July 24 video, Avichay Adraee, an Israel Defence Forces spokesperson, accused Al-Sharif of having been a member of Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam, since 2013 and working during the war “for the most criminal and offensive channel”, apparently referring to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Al-Sharif told CPJ in July: “Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction — it is a real-life threat.”

He said: “All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world.

“They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Irene Khan, said she was “deeply alarmed by repeated threats and accusations of the Israeli army” against al-Sharif.

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023, CPJ has documented 186 journalists having been killed. At least 178 of those journalists are Palestinians killed by Israel.

However, other sources and media freedom groups put the death toll even higher. Al Jazeera reports the death toll as “more than 200” and the Gaza Media Office has documented 142 journalists.

UNESCO awarded its 2024 World Press Freedom Prize to the Palestinian journalists of Gaza.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

ABC’s new suburban mystery The Family Next Door is understated and addictive

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexa Scarlata, Lecturer, Digital Communication, RMIT University

ABC

At first glance, the ABC’s new flagship drama looks like a soapy cross between Neighbours and Home and Away. Sweeping shots of rugged coastline and holiday homes roll into a tree-lined cul-de-sac near identical to Ramsay Street. The sun is shining. It’s bin day.

But The Family Next Door’s powerfully restrained performances, stellar local cast and twisty tale elevates this suburban mystery. It will quickly have you hooked.

Trouble in paradise

The six-part series, based on Sally Hepworth’s 2018 novel, is set in the fictional seaside town of Osprey Point, on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Isabelle (Teresa Palmer) rents a house on Pleasant Court. She is ostensibly in town to write an article about “the new Byron Bay”.

However, we quickly learn she has been suspended from her job at Child Protective Services, and has actually moved in to start obsessively investigating the four neighbouring families. With each episode, Isabelle becomes more frantic and reckless in her search for someone or something, and less willing (or able) to face her own increasingly evident demons.

Palmer – who is in a rich vein of form this year, having starred in two of Binge’s latest series, Mix Tape and The Last Anniversary – brings a magnetism and disconcerting sense of foreboding to the ABC’s drama slate.

Mum’s the word

For me, the greatest appeal of The Family Next Door is its focus on the women in each of the families on the street. The series explores the universal challenges of motherhood, marriage and friendship, as well as the complexities of managing identity and responsibility across these roles.

Resident busy-body realtor Ange (Bella Heathcote) is manically trying to lock in a local property development that she is problematically invested in, while micromanaging everyone around her. She is palpably irritating.

Bella Heathcote, Jane Harber and Philippa Northeast are some of the stars that make the series feel hefty with talent.
ABC

Essie (depicted brilliantly by Philippa Northeast) is struggling to physically and emotionally connect with her young children. The social and personal implications of a frightful incident at the playground reverberate across the series. All the while, Essie’s mother and husband loiter helplessly.

Each episode centres on a different matriarch, so the ensemble cast gets time to shine, as Isabelle chips away at their relationships, stories and secrets.

Familiar faces and accents

It is terrific to spend some time with such a strong local cast.

It’s not uncommon now for Australian dramas to (often clumsily) shoehorn in a big international name to secure development funding and ensure foreign distribution.

The Family Next Door doesn’t do this, and it’s better for it. There are many familiar and reliable faces, including Catherine McClements, Jane Harber, Maria Angelico and Bob Morley. The show feels hefty with talent.

Two women look over a cliff edge.
At first glance, the ABC’s new flagship drama looks like a soapy cross between Neighbours and Home and Away.
ABC

It also makes for an engaging and genuine experience: a funny and authentic portrayal of suburban life, without a random American accent that needs explaining. It’s relatable in an understated way – not in an “I can’t believe how much happens in Summer Bay!” kind of way.

No mystery in adaptations

This series likely got across the line without a big international name due to its limited six-episode run.

But this is also the kind of Australian storytelling that has the potential to resonate with local audiences and also travel well as part of the popular “mystery drama based on a book” genre.

In the past few years we’ve seen Netflix commission several similar examples, such as Boy Swallows Universe based on Trent Dalton’s novel and The Survivors, based on the novel by Jane Harper.

The value of this type of content lies in its existing audience of readers, as well as the ability to hook viewers in and keep them glued.

The Family Next Door is also reminiscent of Netflix’s The Perfect Couple. It even reminded me, bizarrely, of HBO’s The White Lotus – mostly because of the music parallels.

The series is directed by Emma Freeman, who also directed ABC’s The Newsreader (2021–25). With an experienced creative team, and adapted by a handful of award-winning screenwriters, Freeman has ensured the ABC’s latest foray into this genre sits comfortably alongside more expensive mysteries from the big streamers.

The Family Next Door is now on ABC and iView.

The Conversation

Alexa Scarlata 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. ABC’s new suburban mystery The Family Next Door is understated and addictive – https://theconversation.com/abcs-new-suburban-mystery-the-family-next-door-is-understated-and-addictive-261171

56 million years ago, Earth underwent rapid global warming. Here’s what it did to pollinators

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vera Korasidis, Lecturer in Environmental Geoscience, The University of Melbourne

Pollinators play a vital role in fertilising flowers, which grow into seeds and fruits and underpin our agriculture. But climate change can cause a mismatch between plants and their pollinators, affecting where they live and what time of year they’re active. This has happened before.

When Earth went through rapid global warming 56 million years ago, plants from dry tropical areas expanded to new areas – and so did their animal pollinators. Our new study, published in Paleobiology today, shows this major change happened in a remarkably short timespan of just thousands of years.

Can we turn to the past to learn more about how interactions between plants and pollinators changed during climate change? That’s what we set out to learn.

A major warming event 56 million years ago

In the last 150 years, humans have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by more than 40%. This increase in carbon dioxide has already warmed the planet by more than 1.3°C.

Current greenhouse gas concentrations and global temperature are not only unprecedented in human history but exceed anything known in the last 2.5 million years.

To understand how giant carbon emission events like ours could affect climate and life on Earth, we’ve had to go deeper into our planet’s history.

Fifty-six million years ago there was a major, sudden warming event caused by the release of a gigantic amount of carbon into the atmosphere and ocean. This event is known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

For about 5,000 years, huge amounts of carbon entered the atmosphere, likely from a combination of volcanic activity and methane release from ocean sediments. This caused Earth’s global temperature to rise by about 6°C and it stayed elevated for more than 100,000 years.

Although the initial carbon release and climate change were perhaps ten times slower than what’s happening today, they had enormous effects on Earth.

Earlier studies have shown plants and animals changed a lot during this time, especially through major shifts in where they lived. We wanted to know if pollination might also have changed during this rapid climate change.

Paleobotanist Scott Wing, palynologist Vera Korasidis and colleagues searching for new pollen samples in Wyoming from 56 million-year-old rocks.
Richard Barclay

Hunting for pollen fossils in the badlands

We looked at fossil pollen from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming – a deep and wide valley in the northern Rocky Mountains in the United States, full of sedimentary rocks deposited 50 to 60 million years ago.

The widespread badlands of the modern Bighorn Basin expose remarkably fossil-rich sediments. These were laid down by ancient rivers eroding the surrounding mountains.

We studied fossil pollen because we wanted to understand changes in pollination. Pollen is invaluable for this because it is abundant, widely dispersed in air and water, and resistant to decay – easily preserved in ancient rocks.

We used three lines of evidence to investigate pollination in the fossil record:

  • fossil pollen preserved in clumps
  • how living plants related to the fossils are pollinated today, and
  • the total variety of pollen shapes.
56 million-year-old fossil pollen clumps collected from Wyoming and photographed on the National Museum of Natural History’s scanning electron microscope.
Vera Korasidis

What did we discover?

Our findings show pollination by animals became more common during this interval of elevated temperature and carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, pollination by wind decreased.

The wind-pollinated plants included many related to deciduous broad-leaved trees still common in moist northern hemisphere temperate regions today.

By contrast, the plants pollinated by animals were related to subtropical palms, silk-cotton trees and other plants that typically grow in dry tropical climates.

The decline in wind pollination was likely due to the local extinction of populations of wind-pollinated plants that grew in the Bighorn Basin.

Distant photo of a tall tree with a symmetrical canopy and amber trunk.
A silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) relies on the wind for pollination.
Klaus Schönitzer/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

The increase in animal-pollinated plants means that plants from regions with warmer, drier climates had spread poleward and moved into the Bighorn Basin.

Earlier studies have shown these changes in the plants of the Bighorn Basin were related to the climate being hotter and more seasonally dry than before – or after – this interval of rapid climate change.

Pollinating insects and other animals likely moved 56 million years ago along with the plants they pollinated. Their presence in the landscape helped new plant communities establish in the hot, dry climate. It may have provided invaluable resources to animals such as the earliest primates, small marsupials, and other small mammals.

A lesson for our future

What lessons does this ancient climate change event have to offer when we think about our own future?

The large carbon release at the beginning of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum clearly resulted in major global warming. It dramatically altered ecosystems on land and in the sea.

In spite of these dramatic changes, most land species and ecological interactions seem to have survived. This is likely because the event occurred at about one-tenth the rate of current anthropogenic climate change.

The forests that returned to the region after more than 100,000 years of hot, dry climate were very similar to those that existed before. This suggests that in the absence of major extinction, forest ecosystems and their pollinators could reestablish into very similar communities even after a very long period of altered climate.

The key for the future may be keeping rates of environmental change slow enough to avoid extinctions.

The Conversation

Vera Korasidis received funding from the University of Melbourne Elizabeth and Vernon Puzey Fellowship Award.

Scott Wing’s fieldwork was supported by the Roland W. Brown fund of the Department of Paleobiology, and by the MacMillan Fund of the National Museum of Natural History.

ref. 56 million years ago, Earth underwent rapid global warming. Here’s what it did to pollinators – https://theconversation.com/56-million-years-ago-earth-underwent-rapid-global-warming-heres-what-it-did-to-pollinators-260297

Where have all the coaches gone? The volunteer crisis hitting grassroots sport in NZ

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blake Bennett, Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Pedagogy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

As the international rugby season kicks off in earnest, and other sporting codes compete for TV airtime and fans’ disposable income, something worrying is happening down at the grassroots.

Sports clubs across many codes are running with drastically fewer volunteer coaches and administrators, and the pressure is rising.

According to the NZ Amateur Sport Association, the average number of volunteers has fallen more than 40% since the onset of the COVID pandemic, and those who remain are close to burnout.

Volunteering has long been the lifeblood of community sport. But the average number of active volunteers in sport clubs has dropped from 31 to just 18 per club over the past five years. Coaching roles, so often filled by volunteers, are increasingly vacant or stretched.

Sport New Zealand estimates young New Zealanders spend millions of hours each year participating in sport and recreation. These experiences rely on the goodwill of those volunteers – unpaid, untrained and often unacknowledged.

But while participation numbers remain healthy, fewer volunteers are having to do more of the work in many clubs. We may be witnessing a slow erosion of capacity that will stretch clubs thinner each season – until something gives.

Admin and risk

The pressure is especially visible in the area of health and safety – specifically, the measures and policies put in place to safeguard children from harm, abuse and exploitation.

My research, conducted with volunteer coaches across New Zealand, has looked at how administering safeguarding policies affects coaching. The picture that emerged was one of confusion and caution rather than clarity.

Coaches were unsure how to get it right, and wary of getting it wrong. Just 33% found their sport’s safeguarding policy helpful. Others described defensive behaviours such as avoiding physical contact with players entirely, or hesitating to coach across gender lines.

These weren’t formal requirements, they were improvised responses, driven by uncertainty and fear of consequences. Some of the strain is caused by the system. Clubs are now expected to meet an expanding list of compliance and governance requirements.

The Incorporated Societies Act, for example, requires every registered club to review its constitution, a task that usually falls to the same handful of volunteers already juggling coaching, managing uniforms or running sausage sizzles.

A report from the Amateur Sport Association suggests only a third of clubs knew by 2024 what the re-registration process required, underscoring the challenges of implementing large-scale compliance changes in a volunteer-led system.

3 big pressures

It might be tempting to think volunteering would recover with better support – more toolkits, training and recognition. But early findings from my current research suggest something deeper is required.

Volunteers aren’t stepping back because they lack information, but because the experience of volunteering has become increasingly complex, isolating and hard to sustain.

Three types of pressure are emerging most clearly:

  1. “Role bleed” is when volunteers end up doing far more than they signed up for – agreeing to coach a junior team but finding themselves managing finances, sorting uniforms or leading the AGM.

  2. “Interpretive risk” is the stress of not knowing what the rules mean in practice (especially around sensitive areas such as child safety), and the potentially serious consequences of getting this wrong.

  3. “Compliance fatigue” involves the energy-sapping obligations around paperwork, reporting and other bureaucratic requirements. While often necessary, this work is rarely energising.

As any volunteer will tell you, one thing that cuts across all three of these pressures is relationships. Where they are strong and volunteers feel supported, trusted and respected, they tend to endure, even when the demands are high.

But when they’re strained or absent, even modest pressure can take a toll – not just on retention, but also on personal wellbeing.

Shared responsibility

There’s another striking aspect of my research findings: it’s not just about why people walk away, but why some don’t.

Even when relationships fracture, support disappears and the joy is gone, many volunteers stay out of a sense of loyalty and obligation, and a mixture of identity and habit. There’s also a fear that if they step back, everything they’ve contributed will collapse.

This is the quiet cost that is rarely named: not just fewer volunteers, but lonelier, wearier ones. Still turning up, still carrying the weight, but without the sense of reward and fulfilment.

Stress, strained relationships and emotional fatigue are well established contributors to mental health decline. It’s a quiet contradiction: on one hand, we position sport and recreation as a path to personal and community wellbeing; on the other, we overlook the toll it takes on the volunteers who hold it all together.

There’s no silver bullet. But the first step is recognising volunteer wellbeing isn’t just a personal challenge, it’s a shared responsibility. We need club systems geared to ease the burden, expectations that don’t overreach, and cultures where kindness isn’t an afterthought.

Ultimately, recruiting more volunteers has to be a priority for all sporting codes – while ensuring the “lifers” who’ve kept the lights on are looked after in the process.

The Conversation

Blake Bennett 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. Where have all the coaches gone? The volunteer crisis hitting grassroots sport in NZ – https://theconversation.com/where-have-all-the-coaches-gone-the-volunteer-crisis-hitting-grassroots-sport-in-nz-262607

Another Gaza injustice. Israel targets Anas in Al Jazeera media crew of 5

COMMENTARY: By Saige England

Another truth-teller targeted and killed in Gaza. I wish the journalists — some of whom I taught to master the skills of journalism, would look at this travesty and call it what it is: a genocide.

I wish they would remember that journalists have a code of ethics, I wish they would remember to serve the people and not despotic governments.

Good journalists are truth seekers and truth tellers.

Like this man, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, targeted, murdered for revealing the truth that tens of thousands of children, women, and men are regarded as the enemy by a country that wants to take their land and expand.

His Al Jazeera crew of five were wiped out yesterday.

In 1982, I asked an Israeli what he thought of the (then) invasion into Lebanon. He replled that if the government in Tel Aviv had its way and some Israelis were not against invasion, the army would have invaded Turkey. Look at what has happened now.

Massacre after massacre
Far more Palestinians were killed in the year leading up to October 7, 2023, than Israelis killed on that day. Palestinians have faced massacre after massacre ever since the Nakba in 1948.

They experience apartheid, they experience exile, they are not allowed to call Palestine their homeland, but it is their homeland.

Britain swooped into that country and appropriated a religious myth that dated back thousands of years, but being anti anti semitism means ensuring that people are comfortable in their own land, it does not mean booting one people out to make a home for yourself.

Settler colonisation continues to perpetuate the worst injustice. It just dealt another blow. Starving children and a good man, a truth teller, killed in cold blood.

Saige England is an Aotearoa New Zealand journalist, author, and poet, member of the Palestinian Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA), and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. This commentary was first published on England’s social media.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Wikipedia’s ‘neutrality’ has always been complicated. New rules will make questioning it harder

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heather Ford, Professor, Communications, University of Technology Sydney

Franckreporter / Getty Images

Last month, the American non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia issued draft guidelines for researchers studying how neutral Wikipedia really is. But instead of supporting open inquiry, the guidelines reveal just how unaware the Wikimedia Foundation is of its own influence.

These new rules tell researchers – some based in universities, some at non-profit organisations or elsewhere – not just how to study Wikipedia’s neutrality, but what they should study and how to interpret their results. That’s a worrying move.

As someone who has researched Wikipedia for more than 15 years – and served on the Wikimedia Foundation’s own Advisory Board before that – I’m concerned these guidelines could discourage truly independent research into one of the world’s most powerful repositories of knowledge.

Telling researchers what to do

The new guidelines come at a time when Wikipedia is under pressure.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was until recently also a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly accused Wikipedia of being biased against American conservatives. On X (formerly Twitter), he told users to “stop donating to Wokepedia”.

In another case, a conservative think tank in the United States was caught planning to “target” Wikipedia volunteers it claimed were pushing antisemitic content.

Until now, the Wikimedia Foundation has mostly avoided interfering in how people research or write about the platform. It has limited its guidance to issues such as privacy and ethics, and has stayed out of the editorial decisions made by Wikipedia’s global community of volunteers.

But that’s changing.

In March this year, the foundation established a working group to standardise Wikipedia’s famous “neutral point of view” policies across all 342 versions in different languages. And now the foundation has chosen to involve itself directly in research.

Its “guidance” directly instructs researchers on both how to carry out neutrality research and how to interpret it. It also defines what it believes are open and closed research questions for people studying Wikipedia.

In universities, researchers are already guided by rules set by their institutions and fields. So why do the new guidelines matter?

Because the Wikimedia Foundation has lots of control over research on Wikipedia. It decides who it will work with, who gets funding, whose work to promote, and who gets access to internal data. That means it can quietly influence which research gets done – and which doesn’t.

Now the foundation is setting the terms for how neutrality should be studied.

What’s not neutral about the new guidelines

The guidelines fall short in at least three ways.

1. They assume Wikipedia’s definition of neutrality is the only valid one. The rules of English Wikipedia say neutrality can be achieved when an article fairly and proportionally represents all significant viewpoints published by reliable sources.

But researchers such as Nathaniel Tkacz have shown this idea isn’t perfect or universal. There are always different ways to represent a topic. What constitutes a “reliable source”, for example, is often up for debate. So too is what constitutes consensus in those sources.

2. They treat ongoing debates about neutrality as settled. The guidelines say some factors – such as which language Wikipedia is written in, or the type of article – are the main things shaping neutrality. They even claim Wikipedia gets more neutral over time.

But this view of steady improvement doesn’t hold up. Articles can become less neutral, especially when they become the focus of political fights or coordinated attacks. For example, the Gamergate controversy and nationalist editing have both created serious problems with neutrality.

The guidelines also leave out important factors such as politics, culture, and state influence.

3. They restrict where researchers should direct their research. The guidelines say researchers must share results with the Wikipedia community and “communicate in ways that strengthen Wikipedia”. Any criticism should come with suggestions for improvement.

That’s a narrow view of what research should be. In our wikihistories project, for example, we focus on educating the public about bias in the Australian context. We support editors who want to improve the site, but we believe researchers should be free to share their findings with the public, even if they are uncomfortable.

Neutrality is in the spotlight

Most of Wikipedia’s critics aren’t pushing for better neutrality. They just don’t like what Wikipedia says.

The reason Wikipedia has become a target is because it is so powerful. Its content shapes search engines, AI chatbot answers, and educational materials.

The Wikimedia Foundation may see independent and critical research as a threat. But in fact, this research is an important part of keeping Wikipedia honest and effective.

Critical research can show where Wikipedians strive to be neutral but don’t quite succeed. It doesn’t require de-funding Wikipedia or hunting down its editors. It doesn’t mean there aren’t better and worse ways of representing reality.

Nor does it mean we should discard objectivity or neutrality as ideals. Instead, it means understanding that neutrality isn’t automatic or perfect.

Neutrality is something to be worked towards. That work should involve more transparency and self-awareness, not less – and it must leave space for independent voices.

Heather Ford receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She was previously a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board.

ref. Wikipedia’s ‘neutrality’ has always been complicated. New rules will make questioning it harder – https://theconversation.com/wikipedias-neutrality-has-always-been-complicated-new-rules-will-make-questioning-it-harder-262706

Pharmacists could one day work in GP clinics. Here’s what’s in it for you

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nissen, HERA Program Director – Health Workforce Optimisation Centre for the Business & Economics of Health, The University of Queensland

sturti/Getty

You’re discharged from hospital with some painkillers but aren’t sure if they’re safe to take with the heart medication you’ve been prescribed for years or the vitamins you take now and again. So you ask your GP. They recommend you see the pharmacist in the next consulting room for advice on how to safely manage all your medicines.

This is the future the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) wants to see. It wants the government to fund pharmacists to be a more permanent fixture in GP clinics – to be physically in the same building, as part of a multidisciplinary team.

The RACGP has made its case to the Productivity Commission inquiry into delivering quality care more efficiently. The commission’s interim report is due to be released this week.

But would this proposal really deliver more efficient health care? And how would it actually work?

We’ve just completed a large trial of pharmacists working in GP clinics in Queensland. Here’s what we think might work, and some of what we need to fix before this becomes reality.

Why would we want pharmacists in GP clinics?

Pharmacists are routinely co-located in GP clinics in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, Brazil, New Zealand and Malaysia.

Their aim is to improve how patients manage their medicines. They can help clarify why a medicine is needed and how to take it. They can advise on more affordable medicine options. They can liaise between health professionals on issues related to medicines, say when a patient is discharged from hospital and needs care at home. They can also advise GPs on medicine issues, such as a recommendation to stop a particular medication or to prescribe one with more manageable side effects.

Under the Australian proposal these pharmacists would not dispense medicines while working in a GP clinic. The pharmacists would have a professional clinical role related to medicine management (which might also include activities such as giving vaccinations). However, a patient would still need to obtain their medicines in the usual way from a community pharmacy.

The RACGP proposes there would be cost savings from integrating pharmacists into general practice – a potential A$545 million in net savings over four years.

How would this be possible? Presumably by making it more likely patients take their medicines as directed (therefore staying healthier and using fewer health resources), reducing the level and severity of medicine problems (such as side effects that need to be managed), and potentially reducing the number of medicines people take.

While these benefits are broadly plausible, the magnitude of benefit is highly uncertain. This estimate is based on a report from ten years ago, which includes only small studies now almost 20 years old. Patient complexity and treatment options have changed over this time period, so more recent data and models should be considered.

Don’t pharmacists already do medication reviews?

Australian community pharmacists have been conducting medication reviews for more than 20 years. They can review a person’s medications in their home, in aged care, or in a community pharmacy.

But there are some clear advantages to pharmacists using their professional skills in GP clinics.

Having an on-site pharmacist may be convenient for patients who would like extra advice or to have their medicine reviewed outside their home or community pharmacy.

Having pharmacists and GPs work together in the same location also allows trusted relationships to form. This increases the likelihood of a GP responding to a pharmacist’s suggestion to change a patient’s medication compared to those made by pharmacists outside the practice.

But there are potential road blocks

While this sounds promising, it’s not clear if we have enough pharmacists to fill these roles. We need to maintain medication review services including those onsite in aged care and in community pharmacies, while supporting the expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice (such as their ability to prescribe certain medicines).

Another issue relates to digital health records. Currently, a community pharmacist cannot easily add relevant information about medications purchased over the counter to a patient’s My Health record. It would often be impossible for a pharmacist working in a GP clinic to know what a patient has bought over the counter in a community pharmacy (such as aspirin as a blood thinner).

This means a pharmacist (or other health professional, including the GP) working in a GP clinic doesn’t necessarily have a complete picture of the patient’s medications. For the RACGP’s proposal to work well, the different digital systems used in the health sector need to be better integrated.

So, while the idea of general practice-based pharmacists is good in principle, details still need to be ironed out.

Could this work?

A recent Australian study has shown that when pharmacists worked with GPs to support patients discharged from hospital, this was cost effective. Patients were less likely to be re-admitted to hospital or go to the emergency department the following year.

However, other aspects of the implementation and benefits of this role require more specific evidence.

For example, our team has just completed a trial in Queensland to see if pharmacists in GP clinics can reduce the number of preventable medicine problems for key at-risk patient groups (for example, people with diabetes).

Through this unpublished research, we have already learnt that relationships and workflows between pharmacists and GPs must be negotiated on a practice-by-practice basis. This process takes time, support and additional funding.

Both GPs and pharmacists need to agree on their role, and pharmacists need to be trained and supported to work in this general practice setting.

Patients should also have a say in the type of services delivered in this model and the way they are offered.

Finally, while we can learn many lessons on how this works in other countries, we need more extensive implementation trials in Australia. They need to be appropriately supported to gather good evidence for evaluation. Then if successful, we could move to a staged roll-out to ensure value for money and better health outcomes.

The Conversation

Lisa Nissen received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund for the ACTMed trial in Queensland mentioned in this article. She is a member and Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.

Jean Spinks received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund for the ACTMed trial in Queensland mentioned in this article.

ref. Pharmacists could one day work in GP clinics. Here’s what’s in it for you – https://theconversation.com/pharmacists-could-one-day-work-in-gp-clinics-heres-whats-in-it-for-you-262321

Triple whammy: how 3 types of drought crippled southern Australia this year

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Cowan, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland

Soaking mid-winter rains have brought some relief to drought-stricken farms and rural towns across southern Australia, but the crisis is not over yet.

And there’s more to this challenging episode than you might think. As climate scientists, we see more than a single drought. Rather, it’s a trilogy of droughts.

Across southern Australia over the past six months, three interconnected phases have unfolded in rapid succession: flash drought, green drought and fodder drought.

Each phase brings its own challenges. Together, they reveal the complex and cascading nature of climate stress in southern Australia.

A photo showing green pasture in the foreground, with dry fields and sunset in the background.
Green pastures near Corryong in northeast Victoria mask dry soils.
Jessica Bhardwaj/Bureau of Meteorology

Flash drought: the sudden onset

To state the obvious, drought in Australia happens when there’s a severe lack of rain.

Unlike traditional droughts that develop over months, flash droughts intensify within weeks. They can come out of nowhere and hit hard.

In early 2025, flash droughts struck Australia in waves:

  • January in parts of South Australia

  • February along the SA-Victoria border and western Tasmania

  • March in the Otway Ranges in southern Victoria

  • April in northern Tasmania and southern Mallee in Victoria

  • May in central Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The May event was the most intense — short-lived but severe — catching many people by surprise.

A map of southeastern Australia showing the various onset of flash drought in the first half of 2025
Flash drought hit various parts of southeastern Australia month throughout early 2025.
Hanh Nguyen/Bureau of Meteorology

Flash droughts are marked by a rapid increase in the “thirstiness” of the atmosphere, as measured by the “Evaporative Stress Index”. When the index drops quickly, farmers often have little time to respond — whether through destocking, securing feed or adjusting plans for sowing crops.

Within four to eight weeks of flash drought onset, the health of pasture in open grasslands declines.

Pasture recovery is slow, often taking more than 12 weeks depending on the amount of sunlight, temperature and soil moisture. The impact on growth can linger for months. This delayed response sets the stage for the next phase: green drought.

Two maps, side by side, compare flash drought length (in days) to intensity
The duration and intensity of the 2025 flash drought episodes varied. The Evaporative Stress Index provides a measure of intensity (values less than -1 indicate intense events).
Hanh Nguyen/Bureau of Meteorology

Green drought: a deceptive recovery

Many southern regions received winter rain, but not enough to break the drought.

Fields turned green, but these plants lacked the nutritional value needed to support livestock. This phenomenon – known as “green drought” – gives the appearance of drought recovery, but the deeper soils remain stubbornly dry and plants stressed.

Satellite data tracking the greenness of vegetation shows that even after soil moisture briefly improved in June, plant health continued to decline. This is due to ongoing dry soils and high evaporation rates (think thirsty atmosphere), which limit plant growth.

Green droughts are particularly challenging because they mask the true extent of agricultural stress. People see green fields but farmers continue to face shortages of feed for livestock, leading to the next phase: fodder drought.

A map of vegetation health in southeastern Australia, averaged from January to July, based on satellite data.
Satellite data shows much of the vegetation is stressed. (Vegetation is considered stressed when the vegetation health index is less than 30%. Dots indicate regions where the modelled pasture growth is less than 50% of the long-term average.)
NOAA, AussieGRASS

Fodder drought: the hidden crisis

Fodder drought is the third phase of the drought trilogy — a less visible but deeply distressing condition. It’s about whether there’s sufficient feed to keep livestock alive.

Pasture growth across southern Australia has remained well below average since late January, even though this period typically coincides with the off-peak season. With the late autumn break and soils remaining dry, the winter growing season is faring poorly.

Fodder droughts often go unnoticed by city people, but they have serious implications for rural communities. Farmers become increasingly reliant on imported feed, driving up costs and straining supply chains.

What lies ahead?

As we approach the end of winter, the outlook for rainfall in the drought-stricken communities of SA and Victoria’s Mallee is looking more promising.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range forecast for spring shows a high chance of unusually wetter conditions for much of the southeast. In turn, soil moisture is likely to improve in these regions.

Climate and water long-range forecast, issued 31 July 2025 (Bureau of Meteorology)

The changing climate

This trilogy of droughts — flash, green and fodder — highlights the complexity of climate extremes. These events are occurring against the backdrop of declining cool season rainfall, which is projected to continue.

It’s not just about rainfall totals; it’s about timing, temperature, soil health and vegetation response. Understanding how these drought types evolve and interact is crucial for building resilience in agriculture.

There’s still much to learn. What triggers the transition from one phase of drought to the next? How long do the impacts last? And what strategies can help farmers adapt?

The current drought emerged as a prolonged dry spell coincided with unusually high temperatures. This placed immense pressure on farms.

A call to action

The trilogy of droughts in 2025 is a wake-up call. As climate variability increases, so does the need for better forecasting, adaptive farming strategies, and policy support. Agricultural drought definitions may need to be updated to reflect the new realities of drought.

Farmers are on the frontline of climate change, so the experiences of those in southern Australia this year offer valuable insights into how communities can prepare for future extremes. By investing in research, improving early warning systems, and supporting rural communities, we can build a more resilient agricultural sector — one that’s ready for whatever the climate throws at us next.




Read more:
Why is southern Australia in drought – and when will it end?


This article includes scientific contributions from Hanh Nguyen and Jessica Bhardwaj from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The Conversation

Tim Cowan receives funding from Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) through the MLA Donor Company, and Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries through The Drought and Climate Adaptation Program.

Thong Nguyen-Huy is a Senior Research Fellow (Agricultural Climate Risk Management) at the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ).

ref. Triple whammy: how 3 types of drought crippled southern Australia this year – https://theconversation.com/triple-whammy-how-3-types-of-drought-crippled-southern-australia-this-year-262320

Often parents and schools disagree about whether something is ‘bullying’: what happens next?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karyn Healy, Honorary Principal Research Fellow in Psychology, The University of Queensland

Monkey Business Images/ Shutterstock

Bullying in schools can can have a devastating impact on victims. Research shows it can lead to reduced academic performance depression, anxiety and even suicidal behaviour. So, preventing and reducing bullying is an urgent priority for governments as well as families and schools.

However, a common obstacle to addressing bullying is that parents and schools often disagree about whether a particular situation constitutes bullying.

A study in Norwegian schools found that when parents think their child is being bullied, around two-thirds of the time, the school does not agree. There are also cases in which the school says a child is bullying others, but the child’s parents don’t agree.

Why is it so complicated? How can parents approach this situation?

What does ‘bullying’ mean?

When we look at the definition of bullying, it is not surprising disagreements occur. Identifying bullying is not clear-cut.

The definition used in Australian schools captures the key elements defined by international research. Bullying is a form of aggression that:

  • is hurtful for the victim

  • happens repeatedly over time

  • involves an intent to harm

  • involves a power imbalance, with victims feeling unable to stop the problem.




Read more:
With a government review underway, we have to ask why children bully other kids


After a report of bullying, what does the school do?

When a student or parent reports bullying, usually the first thing a school does is talk with students, teachers and parents, and observe interactions between students.

However, there are many challenges in working out whether behaviour is bullying.

First, bullying often occurs when adults are not around and students often don’t tell teachers, so direct observation is not always possible.

Second, even if a teacher is present, social forms of bullying can be very subtle, such as turning away to exclude someone, or using a mocking facial expression, so it can be easily overlooked.

Third, determining whether there is “intent to harm” can be difficult as students accused of bullying may claim (rightly or wrongly) they were “only joking” or not intending to hurt or upset.

Fourth, the issue of power is not easy to determine. If the student is older or physically bigger, or if multiple students are involved in bullying, a power difference may seem apparent. But when power is based on popularity, a power difference may not be clear. There are also cases in which students may deliberately accuse others of bullying to get them into trouble (which may in itself constitute bullying).

Finally, not all aggressive behaviour is bullying. For example, conflict that involves arguments or fights between equals is not bullying, as there is no power imbalance. However, this situation can still be upsetting.

A more difficult situation occurs when the victim of bullying reacts aggressively – such as when they lash out angrily to taunts. The aggressive response of the victim may be more visible to teachers than the bullying that provoked the outburst, and this can make the direction of bullying difficult for schools to ascertain.

What if the school and parents disagree?

A school may not prioritise limited resources to resolve cases they do not see as bullying. This can leave the student languishing and can be very distressing for families.

However, research shows parents’ reports that their child has been bullied predict an increased risk of later child anxiety and depression, regardless of whether school staff concur or were even asked if the child was bullied.

So whether or not the school initially agrees a child is being bullied, it is important to improve the situation.

What can be done?

Sometimes, by taking steps to address the situation, the school can find out if bullying is occurring.

For example, sometimes children are upset by behaviours that may seem innocuous – such as humming, tapping or standing close. If this behaviour is not intended to hurt, we would expect children to reduce this when made aware it is upsetting. However, if the behaviour increases or continues, even with reminders, there would be more reason to believe it is deliberately intended to provoke (and is bullying).

One helpful strategy for parents is to keep a careful record of the child’s experiences – exactly what the child experiences and how it impacts them. This can help establish a pattern of hurtful behaviours over time.

It’s important for parents to maintain a good relationship and ongoing communication with the school (however difficult). As bullying can be a complex and evolving issue, good communication can help ensure issues are promptly managed.

The parent can coach the child to manage the situation – for example, to ask in a friendly and confident way for other students to stop when they are doing things they don’t like. The parent can also help the child plan when they would ask a teacher for help.

By working together, and understanding the problem better over time, schools and families can address behaviour that is hurtful – whether or not there is initial agreement it is “bullying”.


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.

The Conversation

Karyn Healy has received funding from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, the Australian Research Council and Australian government Emerging Priorities Program and is an honorary Principal Research Fellow with The University of Queensland. Karyn is a co-author of the Resilience Triple P parenting program. Resilience Triple P and all Triple P programs are owned by the University of Queensland. The university has licensed Triple P International Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate Triple P programs worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed to the Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences and contributory authors. No author has any share or ownership in Triple P International Pty Ltd.

ref. Often parents and schools disagree about whether something is ‘bullying’: what happens next? – https://theconversation.com/often-parents-and-schools-disagree-about-whether-something-is-bullying-what-happens-next-261474

No one holds the government to account on spending. We need a budget watchdog that can bite

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Pearce, Adjunct Lecturer in public finance, Griffith University

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made budget sustainability one of the key pillars of the reform roundtable to be held next week.

Concern that budget spending is on an unsustainable trend has been caused by rising government spending as a share of the economy. The spending has not been matched by an increase in tax revenue.

Government spending is forecast to increase further due to very high growth in National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) spending, health and aged care, and a need for higher defence spending over time.

Budget, or fiscal, sustainability means that government debt as a share of the economy does not consistently increase. This is measured by the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio.

Budget discipline improves the wellbeing of Australians by giving the government room to respond to economic shocks and ensures sustained provision of government services.

To keep government spending in check, stronger budget rules with numerical targets are needed. The treasurer’s roundtable is a good opportunity to consider such rules.

Why targets matter

Fiscal rules usually specify targets for ratios of government spending to GDP, and debt and deficits to GDP. All advanced economies have fiscal rules, as do 105 countries globally.

They were first used in Australia by then Treasurer Paul Keating in the 1985 “trilogy” commitments: that tax revenue to GDP would not increase; government expenditure to GDP would fall; and the size of the deficit would fall.

A legislative requirement for the government to specify fiscal targets was introduced by then treasurer Peter Costello in 1998 in the Charter of Budget Honesty.

Both Liberal and Labor governments since then have committed to several rules with numerical targets, such as spending to GDP, debt to GDP, or a commitment to balance the budget “over the (economic) cycle”.

The four budgets since October 2022 delivered by Chalmers have contained many general statements with good intentions, such as building fiscal buffers. But these are not targets that can be numerically tested and used to ensure the government keeps its promises.

The two numerically testable commitments in these four budgets are:

  1. “directing the majority of improvements in tax receipts to budget repair” (which has been met)
  2. “limiting growth in spending until gross debt as a share of GDP is on a downwards trajectory, while growth prospects are sound and unemployment is low” (which has not been met).

It’s time to test the treasurer’s claims

As the treasurer renews his focus on budget sustainability, now is the time to commit to precise rules that require the government to meet measurable targets and clear time frames (such as within the next three years) for:

  • spending to GDP
  • deficit and debt to GDP
  • and, desirably, a cap on tax revenue to GDP.

These rules can play an important role in helping Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher to argue against new spending proposals from their cabinet colleagues.

Having fiscal rules in place can also help show a government’s resolve and credibility in the event of a crisis in financial markets. This happened following the bond market crisis in the United Kingdom in 2022.

For the opposition, committing to these rules can show its capacity as an economic manager. They may be required by independents as one of the conditions to work with a minority government.

The role of the Parliamentary Budget Office

As it currently stands, there is no organisation that systematically holds the government to account against any fiscal targets.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) provides independent and nonpartisan analysis of fiscal policy. But it does not assess compliance.

Its remit should be expanded to include assessing the government’s compliance with fiscal rules. This occurs for many similar organisations internationally. Overseas research suggests that well-designed PBOs and similar bodies improve compliance with fiscal rules, and thus improve budget outcomes.

A stronger PBO could also make policy recommendations. There are many other examples of Australian independent government entities that make recommendations or decide on economic policy – notably the Productivity Commission, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Net Zero Economy Authority.

A policy remit for the PBO therefore has several precedents and would allow the office to become an advocate for sound fiscal policy, just as the Productivity Commission advocates for microeconomic efficiency.

Put simply, a fiscal watchdog with real teeth would assist the treasurer in meeting the goal of fiscal sustainability.

The Conversation

Julian Pearce is a former Treasury official. He 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 his academic appointment.

Ross Guest 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. No one holds the government to account on spending. We need a budget watchdog that can bite – https://theconversation.com/no-one-holds-the-government-to-account-on-spending-we-need-a-budget-watchdog-that-can-bite-261764

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 10, 2025

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 10, 2025.

Israel is deepening its war in Gaza – here are 5 big questions about Netanyahu’s ill-advised next phase
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Middle East Studies, Australian National University Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving forward with his plan to take full control of Gaza, expanding his war efforts amid a deepening starvation crisis in the strip and intensifying international condemnation. In the plan, Netanyahu’s

Israel is deepening its war in Gaza – here are 5 big questions about Netanyahu’s ill-advised next phase

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Middle East Studies, Australian National University

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving forward with his plan to take full control of Gaza, expanding his war efforts amid a deepening starvation crisis in the strip and intensifying international condemnation.

In the plan, Netanyahu’s government also announced it would only end the war once five “principles” were met. These included the demilitarisation of the strip, the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and the disarmament of the group.

This new phase of the war follows a familiar pattern of poorly devised strategy-making on Netanyahu’s part, without sufficient reasoning or apparent forward planning. Given his new stated goal of taking full control of Gaza City, an end to the war does not feel likely, or imminent.

Here are five questions about whether the plan makes sense.

1. Is it necessary, or wise, militarily?

Significantly, the chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has opposed the decision to expand operations in Gaza. He has warned that any plan to occupy the Gaza Strip would “drag Israel into a black hole”.

For one, Zamir believes expanding the military campaign is not necessary – he says the IDF has “met and even exceeded the operation’s objectives” in Gaza.

Hamas has been substantially degraded as a military force and its senior leadership has been killed. It is no longer an organised force in Gaza – it is now embracing guerrilla-style tactics.

This makes an expanded campaign in an urban environment such as Gaza City risky. Hamas will be able to use its vast tunnel network to mount surprise attacks on Israeli soldiers and place booby-traps in buildings.

As such, Netanyahu’s plan will inevitably lead to more IDF casualties. Nearly 900 IDF personnel have been killed so far in the war.

Moreover, taking full control of the strip would take months to complete and lead to countless more Palestinian civilian deaths.

Zamir has also warned it could endanger the lives of the remaining living Israeli hostages, which are believed to number around 20.

The freeing of Israeli hostages has only occurred during ceasefires – not as the result of military action. Hamas murdered six hostages in late 2024 when Israeli forces seemed to be getting close. Why wouldn’t it do so again if it was cornered?

2. Does Israel have enough military personnel for such an operation?

Israel has a relatively small army totalling about 169,000. It relies on more than 400,000 reservists, who have completed their military service, to augment the IDF during emergencies.

But taking reservists from their normal jobs for lengthy periods has adverse effects on the economy and harms Israel in the long term.

Netanyahu’s goal of degrading Hamas’ control of Gaza follows a basic strategy of
“clear, hold and build”. First, the IDF clears an area of Hamas fighters, then it holds the area with sufficient military personnel to prevent their return, and finally it builds an environment in which Hamas cannot function, for example, by destroying their tunnels and encouraging the return of civilian governance.

Israel does not have sufficient IDF personnel and reservists to deploy this strategy for the entire strip. It also needs soldiers in the West Bank, where clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinian residents have become increasingly violent in recent years.

Netanyahu says he doesn’t want to permanently occupy Gaza, yet the far-right members of his cabinet do. They have made clear they want Israeli settlements re-established in Gaza and also to annex most, if not all, of the West Bank.

The mixed messages out of Netanyahu’s government make it very difficult to know what his actual long-term plan is for Gaza, if he even has one.

3. What kind of ‘Arab force’ would eventually come in?

In an interview this week, Netanyahu said he envisions the future security control of the strip would eventually pass to “Arab forces”. But which Arab states would contribute military personnel to such a force?

Arab states have long held the position that they will not solve Israel’s Palestinian problem for it, nor will they agree to any outcome in Gaza or the West Bank that Palestinians oppose. In short, while they oppose Hamas, they refuse to do Israel’s dirty work on its behalf.

A Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, also warned this week that his group would treat any force formed to govern Gaza as an “occupying” force linked to Israel. Any personnel policing Gaza on Israel’s behalf would have targets on their back.

4. What is the plan for Gaza’s civilian population?

In July, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a plan to force Gaza’s entire population of two million people into a “humanitarian city” in the southern part of the strip. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert likened it to a “concentration camp”.

Little has been said about the plan in recent weeks, but implementing it would no doubt exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the strip even further and draw even more international condemnation of Israel.

Earlier this year, Israel’s security cabinet also approved a plan to facilitate the “voluntary transfer” of Gazans from the strip to third countries. This plan, too, was decried as an attempt to ethnically cleanse the enclave.

Certainly, no states in the Arab League would have any willingness to receive more than two million Palestinian refugees.

5. Is Netanyahu willing to deepen Israel’s isolation?

In a piece for The Conversation on Friday, Middle East expert Amin Saikal pointed out just how much of a hit Israel’s international credibility has taken since the start of the war – even among Americans.

Israelis are becoming aware that travel outside their country could involve risks. Two Israelis were recently detained and questioned in Belgium after attending a music festival and allegedly waving the flag of their army brigade. A human rights group accused the pair of being complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

In addition, the international community has immediately responded to Netanyahu’s decision to expand the war. Germany, in a major step, announced it would halt all arms exports to Israel. The country is the second-largest supplier of arms to the Jewish state.

Netanyahu has responded to international criticism and moves by Israel’s allies to recognise a Palestinian state by accusing them of stoking antisemitism and rewarding Hamas.

However, the Israeli leader seems to be varying his strategy to deal with developments as they occur. He and others in his government probably feel they can continue weathering the international storm over their actions in Gaza until after the war and then work on rehabilitating relationships.

The final and biggest question, however, is: when will be the war be over?

The Conversation

Ian Parmeter 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. Israel is deepening its war in Gaza – here are 5 big questions about Netanyahu’s ill-advised next phase – https://theconversation.com/israel-is-deepening-its-war-in-gaza-here-are-5-big-questions-about-netanyahus-ill-advised-next-phase-262918

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 9, 2025

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 9, 2025.

Foreign interference can be hidden in plain sight. Here’s how countries use ‘sharp power’ in Australia
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ihsan Yilmaz, Deputy Directory (Research Development), Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation & Research Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Deakin University Padini Carine/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Last week, Australian authorities arrested a woman for foreign interference. The Chinese citizen and Canberra resident is just the

As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University; Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia For all its claims of being a democracy that adheres to international law and the rules of war, Israel’s global

Why Gareth Ward’s challenge to the power to expel him from the NSW parliament failed
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor Emerita in Constitutional Law, University of Sydney Gareth Ward, who was recently found guilty of four sexual offences, has resigned as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In itself, this is unremarkable. Politicians accused of serious crimes or facing the threat

What to say and how to help if someone close to you has attempted suicide
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milena Heinsch, Professor and Head of Social Work, University of Tasmania Adam Pretty/Getty If someone close to you has attempted suicide, you may be feeling scared, confused or overwhelmed. You’re not alone – the most recent data shows more than one in three Australians have been close

From ‘reef-friendly’ sunscreens to ‘sustainable’ super, greenwashing allegations are rife. Here’s how the claims stack up
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Riona Moodley, Lecturer in Law, UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney Belle Co/Pexels Going “green” is not just good for the environment and climate, it can also be great for business. Consumers increasingly demand eco-friendly goods and services, and are willing to pay more

Cambodia is vowing to ‘rid’ the country of scam compounds. But we’ve seen several still operating in the open
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ivan Franceschini, Lecturer, Chinese Studies, The University of Melbourne Last month, the Cambodian government launched the largest crackdown to date on the online scam industry that has taken root in the country and operated largely in the open. On July 16, a directive from Prime Minister Hun

‘What ‘are’ we going to do about the orchard?‘ Pony Cam takes on Chekhov classic for Malthouse debut
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara, PhD Candidate in Theatre, Monash University Pia Johnson/Malthouse Theatre Pony Cam makes its mainstage debut at Malthouse Theatre with The Orchard, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic. The company has recently produced a string of successes by launching new works at the Melbourne Fringe Festival

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 8, 2025
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 8, 2025.

Foreign interference can be hidden in plain sight. Here’s how countries use ‘sharp power’ in Australia

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ihsan Yilmaz, Deputy Directory (Research Development), Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation & Research Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Deakin University

Padini Carine/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Last week, Australian authorities arrested a woman for foreign interference. The Chinese citizen and Canberra resident is just the third person ever charged under our foreign interference laws.

According to the Australian Federal Police, she was allegedly gathering information on, and may be involved in efforts to infiltrate, the Guan Yin Citta Buddhist association. The group is banned in China, where the government regards it as a dangerous cult.




Read more:
Chinese national accused under foreign interference law of spying on Buddhists


The story might seem unimportant. After all, it doesn’t involve defence secrets or political leaders, but a small, relatively obscure community.

But this is exactly why it matters. The case shows the Chinese Communist Party is deeply interested in Australia’s Chinese diaspora communities. It’s willing to disregard Australian law to police and manipulate them in ways that serve Beijing’s interests.

It also shows how authoritarian regimes use “sharp power”, or covert, manipulative influence, to do more than just spy. They also surveil, intimidate and control communities far beyond their borders.

From elections to TV dramas

Foreign interference in Australian affairs is no longer a hypothetical concern. Earlier this year, Australia’s spy chief warned that foreign agents were targeting the AUKUS submarine program, critical infrastructure and even political debate.

Beyond Australia, Russia has tried to sway US elections through disinformation campaigns.

Diaspora communities are a new front in wars for influence. For example, India’s government has attempted to mobilise its supporters in Canada against people demanding a separate homeland for Sikhs in India.

In Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party uses TV dramas. These glorify the Ottoman Empire to export Islamism, authoritarianism and pro-violence attitudes to other Muslim majority countries, in an effort expand Turkish influence across the world.

This is how sharp power works. It’s about shaping public narratives, creating division and undermining a country’s capacity to make independent, confident decisions.

What is sharp power?

The best way to understand sharp power is to compare it against “hard power” and “soft power”.

We are used to measuring power in economic and military terms, such as how many soldiers or warships a country has. This is “hard power”: the ability of a nation to coerce others to act according to its wishes through military prowess and economic dominance.

This kind of power is used by US President Donald Trump to bully other nations into accepting unequal trade deals. It can also be seen in Russia when it threatens nuclear war on Europe.

Many countries also use “soft power” to win the admiration of people in foreign countries. For example, despite its history of imperial domination, postwar Japan has enjoyed enormous soft power in Asia and beyond thanks to its popular culture.

Sharp power is different. It manipulates and distorts the information people receive, quietly shaping how they see the world and the choices they think they have. It’s the use of covert, manipulative and often emotional tactics to shape how other countries think, decide and act, often without them realising it’s happening.

The troubling thing about sharp power is that it sometimes wears a benign mask, such as TV dramas.

Scholar Joseph Nye argues the line between soft power and sharp power comes down to truth and openness.

When China’s state news agency, Xinhua, operates openly in other countries, it is playing the soft power game. But when China Radio International secretly funds 33 radio stations in 14 countries, or when Turkey spreads anti-Western conspiracy theories and disinformation, it crosses into sharp power.

Sharp power in Australia

The Canberra spy case shows how Beijing can shape opinions by infiltrating local Chinese organisations. It can also control information and mobilise people in ways that serve its own political interests. It reveals how some authoritarian governments regard co-ethnic, co-religious, or culturally linked diasporas in the West as part of their national community and seek to influence them accordingly.

Australia’s universities have also been targets of China’s sharp power. Scholars critical of Beijing’s oppression of Tibetans, Uighur Muslims, and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have faced pressure from student groups aligned with Chinese state interests.

The Chinese language media in Australia has also become deeply influenced by Beijing’s narratives. Many once independent outlets now republish state controlled content, narrowing the diversity of views available to Chinese-speaking Australians. This also encourages them to remain loyal and connected to China.

Given these other examples, it’s clear the Canberra spy case is far from an isolated incident. It’s part of a deliberate and evolving strategy used by a variety of authoritarian powers. These powers manipulate information environments and public opinion, and interfere in elections. They repress diaspora communities and influence nations.

For a multicultural society such as Australia, the challenge is to respond firmly to authoritarian sharp power attacks without undermining the openness and diversity that are among our greatest democratic strengths.

Indeed, if Australia responds to Chinese sharp power with blunt measures, it risks alienating Chinese Australians. Ultimately, that would do Beijing’s sharp power work for it.

Ihsan Yilmaz receives funding from Australian Research Council Grant Number DP230100257 and DP220100829 and from Gerda Henkel Foundation Grant Number AZ 01/TG/21.

Ana-Maria Bliuc receives funding from Australian Research Council Grant Number DP230100257 and DP220100829.

John Betts receives funding from the Australian Federal Police.

Nicholas Morieson receives funding from Deakin University and Australian Research Council Grant Number DP230100257 and DP220100829

ref. Foreign interference can be hidden in plain sight. Here’s how countries use ‘sharp power’ in Australia – https://theconversation.com/foreign-interference-can-be-hidden-in-plain-sight-heres-how-countries-use-sharp-power-in-australia-262709

As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University; Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia

For all its claims of being a democracy that adheres to international law and the rules of war, Israel’s global reputation is in tatters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, along with the expanding starvation crisis in the strip and Israel’s repressive measures in the West Bank, underline the country’s predicament.

Notwithstanding US support, the Jewish state faces a crisis of international credibility, from which it may not be able to recover for a long time.

According to a recent Pew poll, the international view of Israel is now more negative than positive. The majority of those polled in early 2025 in countries such as the Netherlands (78%), Japan (79%), Spain (75%), Australia (74%), Turkey (93%) and Sweden (75%) said they have an unfavourable view of Israel.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many international law experts, genocide scholars and human rights groups have also accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel’s traditional supporters have also harshly criticised the Netanyahu government’s actions, from both inside and outside the country. These include
former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, the Israeli literary giant David Grossman, and Masorti Judaism Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur.

In addition, hundreds of retired Israeli security officials have appealed to US President Donald Trump to push Netanyahu to end the war.

Israel’s global partners distancing themselves

With images of starving children in Gaza dominating the news in recent weeks, many of Israel’s friends in the Western alliance have similarly reached the point at which they can no longer tolerate its policy actions.

In a major shift in global opinion, France announced it would recognise Palestinian statehood in September. The United Kingdom and Canada vowed to follow suit. Even Germany has now begun the process for recognition. And Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has indicated his country’s recognition of Palestine was only a matter of time.

Spain and Sweden have called for the suspension of the European Union’s trade agreement with Israel, while the Netherlands has officially labelled Israel a “security threat”, citing attempts to influence Dutch public opinion.

Israel and the US have rejected all these accusations and moves. The momentum against Israel in the international community, however, has left it with the US as its only major global supporter.

Israel’s sovereignty, security and prosperity now ride on the back of America’s continued support. Without US assistance, in particular its billions of dollars worth of arms exports, Israel would have struggled to maintain its devastating Gaza campaign or repressive occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Yet, despite Trump’s deep commitment to Israel, many in the US electorate are seriously questioning the depth of Netanyahu’s influence in Washington and the value of US aid to Israel.

According to a Gallup poll in March, fewer than half of Americans are sympathetic toward Israel.

This discontent has also been voiced by some of Trump’s MAGA ideologues and devotees, such as political strategist Steve Bannon and congressional hardliner Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even Trump publicly questioned Netanyahu on his claim there was no starvation in Gaza.

Israelis have dim view of two-state solution

Many Israelis would like to see the back of Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing ruling cohort, especially given his failure to secure the release of all the hostages from Hamas.

Many want the war to end, too. Recent polling by Israel’s Channel 12 found that 74% of Israelis back a deal to end the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

However, a majority of Israelis maintain a dim view of a future Palestinian state.

One poll commissioned by a US academic showed 82% of Jewish Israeli respondents backed the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. And a Pew poll in early 2025 showed that just 16% of Jewish Israelis believe peaceful coexistence with a Palestinian state is possible, the lowest percentage since the pollsters began asking the question in 2013.

This indicates that not only the Israeli state, but also its electorate, has moved to the extreme of the political spectrum in relation to acknowledging the right of the Palestinians to an independent state of their own.




Read more:
In Israel, calls for genocide have migrated from the margins to the mainstream


Under international pressure, Netanyahu has expediently allowed a little more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. However, his new plan for a full military takeover of Gaza indicates he is not prepared to change course in the war, as long as US support remains steady.

His government is bent on eliminating Hamas and potentially depopulating and annexing Gaza, followed possibly by the West Bank. Such a move would render the idea of a two-state solution totally defunct.

To stop this happening, Washington needs to align with the rest of the global community. Otherwise, an unrestrained and isolated Israel will only widen the rift between the US and its traditional allies in a highly polarised world.

Amin Saikal 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. As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility – https://theconversation.com/as-netanyahu-moves-toward-full-takeover-of-gaza-israel-faces-a-crisis-of-international-credibility-262864

Why Gareth Ward’s challenge to the power to expel him from the NSW parliament failed

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor Emerita in Constitutional Law, University of Sydney

Gareth Ward, who was recently found guilty of four sexual offences, has resigned as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

In itself, this is unremarkable. Politicians accused of serious crimes or facing the threat of expulsion typically resign first, before they are disqualified or expelled. No one wants their name in the history books for such matters.

But what is remarkable is the tortured process that occurred to get to this point.

Why wasn’t conviction enough to remove him?

Ward, the state member for Kiama, was found guilty by a jury in the District Court on July 25 of one count of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of indecent assault.

Section 13A of the NSW Constitution says members of parliament are disqualified if they are convicted of serious offences that are punishable by imprisonment for five years or more. The offences of which Ward was found guilty fall into that category.

In the past, this would have resulted in Ward immediately and automatically losing his seat in parliament upon conviction, as is the case in the federal parliament. But section 13A was amended in 2000 so disqualification takes effect at the end of the appeal process, if the conviction still stands. This prevents a member from losing their seat if they were wrongly convicted and their conviction was later overturned.

But what if the offence is so serious it would undermine the public’s trust in the House if the convicted person remained a member during the considerable time it might take for an appeal to be determined? Could a member really serve their constituency while sitting in prison?

Parliament recognised this problem and inserted section 13A(3), which states these changes do not affect the power to expel a member.

The court challenge to expulsion

As Ward initially refused to resign and indicated he intended to appeal his convictions, he was notified by the government that an expulsion motion would be moved against him on August 5. Late on August 4, Ward’s legal team rushed to court to get an injunction to stop the expulsion motion, pending the resolution of his legal challenge to the power to expel him.

The NSW Court of Appeal held an urgent hearing on the morning of August 7, and issued its 25-page judgment later that day. It unanimously rejected Ward’s arguments, allowing the House to proceed to expulsion.

Ward had argued there was no power to expel while his criminal appeal process was underway. The court rejected this, finding the appeal process does not prevent an earlier expulsion, as clearly indicated by section 13A(3).

Next, Ward argued the expulsion was beyond the power of the House, because it was being done to punish him. The Houses of the NSW parliament do not have any punitive power to expel. They can only expel a member to protect the House and its capacity to discharge its great responsibilities with public confidence. But the court held that Ward had failed to establish that the proposed expulsion would be punitive and outside the House’s powers.

Because Ward was being held in prison, in Cessnock, he would not be available to respond in the House to the expulsion motion. He claimed this meant there was no procedural fairness. The court pointed out that Ward had been asked to submit any statement or material to the House for its consideration before the vote on expulsion. The House had not prevented Ward from attending – it was the decision of a judge to refuse him bail, sending him into custody, pending sentencing. The court concluded there is no general rule that procedural fairness requires a person to have an oral hearing before a decision-maker, and that there was no procedural unfairness in this case.

Finally, Ward argued his expulsion was inconsistent with the system of representative democracy, as it overrides the choice made by the electors. The court rejected this argument, noting that the outcome of expulsion is that voters get a fresh chance to choose their representative in a by-election. The electors of the electorate of Kiama were not disenfranchised but were instead “re-enfranchised in an orderly and expeditious way”.

The controversy over the injunction

Most controversial of all was the question of whether a judge could or should have issued an injunction restraining the House from deliberating on or passing a motion of expulsion. The courts and the Houses have long applied a principle of “comity”, under which neither interferes with the internal proceedings of the other.

Leader of the Government in the Legislative Assembly Ron Hoenig disputed the validity of the injunction, while nonetheless respecting the court’s order and voluntarily complying with it, pending an urgent hearing.

The Court of Appeal was critical of the conduct of the legal representatives for Ward, which led to the issuing of the injunction without the other side being properly notified or represented. At paragraph 88 of its judgment, it described the lack of notification as “unacceptable and inappropriate”. The deficiencies in the process of obtaining the injunction were such that no further consideration was given to the deeper issues concerning the constitutional relationship between the House and the courts.

Democracy lives on

The upshot of Ward’s resignation is that it will end the prospect of further litigation about his place in parliament. The people of the electorate of Kiama will now be able to exercise their democratic mandate in a by-election, to choose a representative who can serve them in the NSW parliament, rather than a prison cell.

The Conversation

Anne Twomey has received funding from the ARC and occasionally does consultancy works for Parliaments, governments and inter-governmental bodies. She has provided advice to parliamentary committees and clerks on the expulsion and suspension of MPs. She also has a YouTube channel, Constitutional Clarion, which has published videos on this issue.

ref. Why Gareth Ward’s challenge to the power to expel him from the NSW parliament failed – https://theconversation.com/why-gareth-wards-challenge-to-the-power-to-expel-him-from-the-nsw-parliament-failed-262610

What to say and how to help if someone close to you has attempted suicide

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milena Heinsch, Professor and Head of Social Work, University of Tasmania

Adam Pretty/Getty

If someone close to you has attempted suicide, you may be feeling scared, confused or overwhelmed.

You’re not alone – the most recent data shows more than one in three Australians have been close to someone who has died by or attempted suicide.

Talking about suicide can be really hard. But your support can make a big difference. Here’s what you can do to support someone after a suicide attempt.

It’s OK not to have all the answers

The days and weeks after a suicide attempt are often full of intense emotion — for the person who attempted and those who care about them.

Your loved one might feel guilt, shame, anger, confusion or relief. They might also be tired, both physically and emotionally. Meanwhile, you might feel worried, shocked, helpless, or unsure about what to say.

All of these feelings are normal. There’s no “right” way to feel in this situation. But staying connected and offering care (even in small ways) is one of the most powerful things you can do.

How you can help: emotional support

It’s OK to acknowledge the suicide attempt – avoiding it can add to feelings of stigma or isolation. But you don’t need to ask for details, and if you feel overwhelmed it’s also OK to set gentle boundaries.

If you’re unsure what to say, you can be honest about that.

Just be there. Let your loved one know you’re there to listen, without pressure or judgement.

Don’t rush the conversation. If they’re not ready to talk, that’s OK. Let them set the pace.

Avoid guilt or blame. Saying things like “how could you do this to us?” can make someone feel worse. Instead, say something like: “I’m really glad you’re still here. I care about you.”

Reassure them. Tell them they’re not alone and that it’s OK to ask for help.

How you can help: practical support

Offer help with everyday tasks, such as going to appointments, making meals or tidying up.

Encourage (but don’t force) activities they enjoy – maybe a walk, a movie, or just hanging out quietly.

If you’re not sure what would help, ask. Try: “What would make today a bit easier for you?”

Try not to take it personally if they seem withdrawn or say “nothing will help”. They may be feeling overwhelmed.

Stay with them, if they’re open to it, or check in later with a text message. Small acts that don’t require a response, such as dropping off a meal, can go a long way.

You don’t have to do this alone

Supporting someone after a suicide attempt can be both physically and emotionally draining. You might find yourself constantly alert, watching for signs they might be struggling again. This “hypervigilance” is normal, but remember – you don’t have to do this alone.

One person is not a support network. While your care and support make a real difference, professional help is essential too, whether from a psychologist, doctor or counsellor.

It can also help to bring in other trusted people, such as siblings, parents, friends or teachers. Ask your loved one who they’d like to involve, and how.

Support works best when shared.

If you’re worried it might happen again

Mental health professionals often help create a safety plan after a suicide attempt.

This is a step-by-step guide for what to do if suicidal thoughts come back. It usually includes information such as warning signs, how to reduce immediate risks, and strategies to use in the moment.

A plan can also involve personal motivations to keep going and a list of resources, trusted people and emergency contacts.

Lifeline has a free app called Beyond Now, where a plan can be written, saved, and shared with trusted people.

If you want to – and your loved one is open to it – ask if you can be part of the plan or at least know what to do if they’re in crisis again.

Don’t forget: your wellbeing matters too

This situation can take a toll on your own wellbeing. You might feel anxious, tired, sad, or even guilty, and struggle with sleep or appetite.

It’s OK to not be OK.

Make time to look after yourself – eat well, rest, move your body and talk to people you trust. You don’t need to share private details about your loved one to get the support you need.

If it feels overwhelming, speak to a doctor or therapist. Your GP can help set up a mental health treatment plan, which helps you access subsidised counselling.

And if you ever have thoughts of suicide yourself, or you’re deeply worried about someone, reach out – help is available 24/7.

Recovery is different for everyone

Recovery after a suicide attempt doesn’t follow a set path – it’s different for everyone. It may involve professional support, medication, changes in routine, or time off from work or school. Rebuilding takes time and often comes with ups and downs.

Patience and compassion – for your loved one and yourself – can make all the difference.

Remember, you’re not alone, and there is help available.

Lifeline Australia:

Beyond Blue:

  • call: 1300 22 4636
  • visit their website.

Suicide Call Back Service is a free nationwide service providing 24/7 phone and online counselling to people affected by suicide:

  • call: 1300 659 467
  • visit their website.

13YARN is a free and confidential 24/7 national crisis support line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty coping. Call 13 92 76. WellMob also has a list of culturally safe mental health organisations for First Nations people.

The Conversation

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 to say and how to help if someone close to you has attempted suicide – https://theconversation.com/what-to-say-and-how-to-help-if-someone-close-to-you-has-attempted-suicide-262699

From ‘reef-friendly’ sunscreens to ‘sustainable’ super, greenwashing allegations are rife. Here’s how the claims stack up

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Riona Moodley, Lecturer in Law, UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney

Belle Co/Pexels

Going “green” is not just good for the environment and climate, it can also be great for business. Consumers increasingly demand eco-friendly goods and services, and are willing to pay more for them.

But consumers aren’t always getting what they paid for – as evidenced by a number of high-profile “greenwashing” legal cases in Australia.

Greenwashing occurs when a business falsely markets its products and services as sustainable or good for the environment or climate. It is a form of misleading and deceptive conduct, and considered illegal under various Australian laws.

So, let’s take a look at the array of products and services involved in recent greenwashing claims, and how to avoid getting duped.

1. Garbage bags

In April this year, the Federal Court fined Clorox Australia A$8.25 million after finding the company falsely claimed its GLAD-branded kitchen and garbage bags contained “50% ocean plastic”.

The court found the bags were partly made from plastic collected from communities in Indonesia up to 50 kilometres from a shoreline, and not from the ocean or sea.

2. Superannuation

The Federal Court fined superannuation trustee, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, $11.3 million in August last year after it admitted to making misleading statements about its “Sustainable Plus” investment options.

The products were promoted as excluding investments in companies involved in the fossil fuel, gambling and alcohol industries. These representations were found to be false and misleading since the products did, in fact, include investments in each of those industries.

In March this year, the Federal Court found Active Super trustee LGSS made false and misleading statements about its ESG (environmental, social and governance) credentials. It imposed a $10.5 million penalty.

LGSS claimed the Active Super fund had eliminated investments risky to the environment and the community, including coal mining and oil tar sands. The claims were found to be untrue. In fact, LGSS held investments in various coal and oil companies, including Whitehaven Coal.

3. Ethical investment

In March last year, the Federal Court found investment giant Vanguard misled investors by claiming its $1 billion ethical bond fund would exclude certain fossil fuel investments.

The fund had, in fact, invested in activities associated with oil and gas exploration, including oil pipelines in the United States and Abu Dhabi and a petroleum company in Chile. Vanguard was fined $12.9 million.

4. Sunscreen

The ACCC has launched legal action against Edgewell Personal Care Australia (and its US-based parent company) over their Hawaiian Tropic and Banana Boat sunscreens.

Edgewell has claimed the sunscreens are “reef friendly” because they do not contain oxybenzone or octinoxate – chemicals banned in some countries due to the damage they cause to coral reefs.

But the ACCC claims the sunscreens contain other ingredients which either cause, or risk causing, harm to reefs. It says Edgewell has no reasonable or scientific basis to promote the environmental benefits of Hawaiian Tropic and Banana Boat sunscreens.

The manufacturer is contesting the ACCC’s allegations. An Edgewell spokesperson, quoted in The Guardian, said the company firmly stood by the products’ claims.

5. Carbon offsets

In May this year, EnergyAustralia reached a settlement with non-profit group Parents for Climate, which accused the energy giant of greenwashing its “Go Neutral” carbon offset product.

Under the scheme, EnergyAustralia sold energy sourced primarily from fossil fuels, while promising to “offset” related emissions by buying carbon credits.

Parents for Climate claimed customers were falsely led to believe their energy use under the scheme would not contribute to climate change.

As part of the settlement, EnergyAustralia apologised to customers for not being clear and acknowledged that “offsets do not prevent or undo the harms caused by burning fossil fuels for a customer’s energy use”.

How to spot greenwashing

While greenwashing litigation is helping to reshape corporate behaviour, consumers have an important role, too.

ASIC and the ACCC have issued guidelines to help businesses avoid greenwashing. Those resources are also useful for consumers.

First, beware vague, unsubstantiated labels such as eco-friendly, green or sustainable. As the ACCC’s guidelines observe, “without further qualification or clarification, consumers can easily be misled that the product, service or business is better for the environment than is actually the case”.

If vague words are used without explanation, concerned consumers should ask the company for clarification and evidence.

Watch out for businesses making selective claims about a product’s benefits while hiding its negative attributes.

For example, a clothing manufacturer might claim its new product line is “eco-friendly” because it uses recycled polyesters. But it might fail to acknowledge the negative environmental impact of water use when dyeing the products or emissions involved in transporting them to consumers.

To avoid this trap, investigate the brand’s history. Has it found to have been greenwashing in the past? Is it transparent about where it sources its materials or how the products are made?

And what about financial products? If a firm hasn’t provided adequate information about its sustainability claims, ask for verification.

You can also compare the environmental performance of a product with industry peers.

By learning how to make more informed choices, consumers can drive change through their purchasing power.

The Conversation

Riona Moodley 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. From ‘reef-friendly’ sunscreens to ‘sustainable’ super, greenwashing allegations are rife. Here’s how the claims stack up – https://theconversation.com/from-reef-friendly-sunscreens-to-sustainable-super-greenwashing-allegations-are-rife-heres-how-the-claims-stack-up-261377

Cambodia is vowing to ‘rid’ the country of scam compounds. But we’ve seen several still operating in the open

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ivan Franceschini, Lecturer, Chinese Studies, The University of Melbourne

Last month, the Cambodian government launched the largest crackdown to date on the online scam industry that has taken root in the country and operated largely in the open.

On July 16, a directive from Prime Minister Hun Manet acknowledged the growing threat posed by the industry and instructed provincial officials, law enforcement agencies, the courts and the national gambling commission to take action.

As police began raiding scam sites across the country, Telegram channels used by cyber criminals went into a frenzy, warning others of the seriousness of the crackdown.

Some posts claimed the police were setting up roadblocks across the country, detaining people without passports and demanding bribes for their release. Videos also circulated showing mass evacuations from compounds.

The government was soon trumpeting its success. In late July, it announced that raids had been conducted at nearly 140 locations, leading to the arrests of more than 3,000 suspects from at least 19 countries, more than half of them from China and Vietnam.

Significantly, the authorities said very few of these “suspects” had been held against their will. However, we know from our research, previously published in The Conversation, that thousands of people have been trafficked or duped into these compounds and forced to work in conditions akin to modern slavery.

The crackdown was met with praise from China and other countries. Many of these governments have been struggling with the consequences of the scam industry, whether through the trafficking of their citizens to Cambodia or scammers targeting victims in their countries.

However, despite the scale of the operation – and the government’s pledge to “get rid” of scam syndicates in Cambodia – there is widespread scepticism these efforts will be enough to dismantle the industry.




Read more:
Scam Factories: the inside story of Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds


Simmering border tensions

The crackdown last month coincided with a brief conflict between Thailand and Cambodia that displaced more than 300,000 people.

Analysts have pointed to long-simmering tensions over the countries’ border and rising tensions over the death of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish in May as the reason for the hostilities.

However, Thailand has attributed the conflict to its own crackdown on Cambodian scam operations.

Earlier this year, Thailand cut power and internet service to the border scam hotspot of Poipet City.

Then, in early July, Thailand took the unprecedented step of going after a powerful Cambodian senator and tycoon known to own large properties in Poipet that Thai authorities allege are connected to online scam operations.

Thailand’s criminal court issued an arrest warrant for the senator and raided his properties in Thailand. The authorities also targeted his children and their Thai assets.

In response, a Cambodian official accused Thailand of long being a “central hub for transnational crimes” in Southeast Asia and “shifting blame” for the problem to Cambodia.

A spokesperson for Cambodia’s Senate also said the case against the senator was exaggerated and false, calling it an act of “revenge”. The senator himself did not respond to attempts by Cambodian media to reach him.

Although Thailand has ramped up efforts to tackle the scam industry in recent years, its leaders are likely using the issue to bolster public support at home, while bloodying the noses of Cambodian elites they allege are profiting from the industry.

Large operations continue to operate

Amid this war of words, Cambodian authorities insist the crackdown on the industry will continue.

To Cambodia’s credit, this latest campaign was national in scope, unlike previous crackdowns that were mostly confined to the coastal city of Sihanoukville, a major scamming hub.

Still, familiar patterns quickly began to surface. As in the past, the authorities have focused on small to mid-sized operations, while the largest operators seem to have been left untouched.

In many cases, these major compounds were reportedly tipped off in advance and evacuated. A significant number of scammers have since relocated to large compounds close to the Vietnam border, which seem to be operating without interference.

Indeed, one of us (Ling) joined a rescue team in early August trying to reach a Chinese man who claimed to have been trafficked into a compound hidden deep in the hills of Mondulkiri Province near the border.

The man couldn’t pinpoint his exact location, but through messages with the rescue organisation over several months, the team was able to gradually determine where he was being held – and the scale of the scamming enterprise.

Weeks after the crackdown, Ling joined the team on a field visit to assess the situation. From the hilltops at night, they saw lights flickering across the slopes coming from what appeared to be several buildings surrounded by sparse jungle.

With only one exposed access road to the site, the team couldn’t get close without being detected. But there was no doubt the compound was active and bustling, as were several others in the area that Ling observed on her trip.

The Chinese man was still inside at that time, but since then, there has been no word from him.

What needs to be done

Crackdowns on scam compounds have failed in the past because they don’t address the two fundamental pillars that allow the industry to flourish. One is the powerful local networks that protect scam operators. The other is the sophisticated physical infrastructure of the compounds.

As long as the elites who provide scam operators with cover remain untouched and the compounds remain intact, scammers can quickly get back to work when the pressure subsides.

Periodic crackdowns may shake things up temporarily, but the people being arrested tend to be low-level workers, not those at the top.

Once these campaigns are over, scamming activities simply restart. Operators may go quiet until the storm passes or move to safer locations. Confiscated equipment can be replaced, as can the workers.

The cycle can only be broken by longer-term measures to tackle the structural and systemic issues that prop up the industry in these countries, such as corruption and weak law enforcement.

Given the transnational nature of the industry and complicity of the authorities and elites in host countries, it also requires a more determined effort from global governments, law enforcement, and the finance and tech companies whose products and services are exploited by scam operators.


Independent researcher Mark Bo contributed to this report.

The Conversation

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. Cambodia is vowing to ‘rid’ the country of scam compounds. But we’ve seen several still operating in the open – https://theconversation.com/cambodia-is-vowing-to-rid-the-country-of-scam-compounds-but-weve-seen-several-still-operating-in-the-open-262792

‘What ‘are’ we going to do about the orchard?‘ Pony Cam takes on Chekhov classic for Malthouse debut

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara, PhD Candidate in Theatre, Monash University

Pia Johnson/Malthouse Theatre

Pony Cam makes its mainstage debut at Malthouse Theatre with The Orchard, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic.

The company has recently produced a string of successes by launching new works at the Melbourne Fringe Festival that have then gone on to be programmed in prestigious mainstream arts festivals. The production Grand Theft Theatre was later programmed in Adelaide Festival; Burnout Paradise featured in RISING Festival. Pony Cam includes performer-devisors Claire Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams.

The team has forged a reputation for bold experimentation, blending spectacle and community with hybrid theatrical forms and legacies.

On the choice to adapt Chekhov’s final play, originally composed in 1903, the team reflects:

Our practice has always been built around making new work – creating our own worlds while borrowing shamelessly and stealing lovingly from the shows and artists that came before us. But adaptation – the act of reshaping an existing body, innovating within the scaffold of tradition – was unfamiliar terrain.

Actors don Russian fur coats and sunglasses while standing on a stage.
The Pony Cam team has forged a reputation for bold experimentation.
Pia Johnson/Malthouse Theatre

Boldness and whimsy

At the outset of The Orchard, Strom greets the audience, microphone in hand, for an introduction to proceedings. He tells us the team is presenting Chekhov’s play “without the dialogue”. Gone too is its four-act structure.

Some audience members have been poached from the foyer 15 minutes before show time to act as co-performers; we’re told most scenes will be improvised.

For those unfamiliar with Chekhov’s play, Strom distils key narrative features that made The Cherry Orchard innovative for its time.

The family that owns the cherry orchard no longer has the money or resources to maintain the estate. The return to this place at the start of the play marks a coming together from various regions of Russia in what seems an attempt to save it.

There is no hero’s journey in this play; the tension – its drama – is in characters not taking action or necessarily speaking truth to feeling when it matters.

The result is that the family loses the orchard; the final moment features the heartbreaking sounds of axes on wood. It is this non-action that Pony Cam explores with signature boldness and whimsy in The Orchard.

On Strom’s cue, the remaining cast – including participating audience-performers – emerge in a cloud of haze from a garage door at the back of the theatre.

High-energy physicality

Sophie Woodward’s set design centres a large raised platform on which the main action takes place. The platform is surrounded by antique furniture pieces with kitschy adornments.

Woodward dresses the Pony Cam team in matching burgundy tones with red vests, complemented by an assortment of stereotype-laden Russian-inspired furs.

Participating audience members are also given furs but otherwise remain in the clothes they wore to the theatre. These guest performers spend the show unpacking and organising more antique items or completing assigned tasks from the cast.

In various iterations and groupings, Bird, Campbell, Strom, Weintraub and Williams climb on and off the central platform, taking turns to ask:

What are we going to do about the orchard?

Improvised responses sometimes address the problem, but mostly the conversations devolve into personal histories, feelings, family relationships, or the increasing toxicity of modern work life and the unaffordability of rest time.

The same question is asked again and again: “What are we going to do about the orchard?”

The performers at times grab a microphone at the front of the stage to embody character archetypes from Chekhov’s play.

Actors hold up large blocks of wood or tree stumps.
At the heart of The Orchard is a rumination on cultural inaction and atrophy.
Pia Johnson/Malthouse Theatre

In these monologues, the orchard is rendered synonymous to local artistic landscapes (possibly the Malthouse itself).

There’s little to no funding relief, no government intervention, no philanthropy; the performers list soaring annual shortfall figures, and even take pains to explain how cost disease continues to drive up the cost of making new work.

Campbell poignantly remarks into the microphone:

It’s not that our work has failed; it’s that the world changed around us.

It hits like a punch to the gut.

The show is infused with signature Pony Cam high-energy physicality. As the heat of the performance rises – accompanied by increasing climate temperature figures projected overhead – so too does the (in)action of the figures in this play.

In an extended dance sequence set to Russian electronic dance music, the team showcase their extraordinary performance prowess. Such sequences are supported by a bold and flamboyant lighting design by Harrie Hogan.

Inaction and atrophy

At the heart of The Orchard is a rumination on cultural inaction and atrophy. While it speaks to local creative landscapes, climate inaction and other current political conditions are necessarily evoked.

For a company rooted in fringe and independent theatre, Pony Cam uses its mainstage debut to explore how inaction makes the temptation of selling out to corporate interests – land, venues, business, art, merchandise, ideas, creativity, people – seem like the only escape from this plight.

This is how Pony Cam mines the rich veins of Chekhov’s original.

What are we going to do about the orchard?

The Orchard is at Malthouse Theatre until August 16.

The Conversation

Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara 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 ‘are’ we going to do about the orchard?‘ Pony Cam takes on Chekhov classic for Malthouse debut – https://theconversation.com/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-the-orchard-pony-cam-takes-on-chekhov-classic-for-malthouse-debut-261769

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for August 8, 2025

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 8, 2025.

The ASX’s rookie error is just the latest of many blunders. Investors are losing confidence
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Angel Zhong, Professor of Finance, RMIT University It was the latest blow to the credibility of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). This time, the nation’s stock exchange mixed up two company names in an error that briefly wiped A$400 million off the market value of our third

Keith Rankin Analysis – Stimulate or Suffocate, in the light of Older Women’s Spending?
Analysis by Keith Rankin. In the wake of the recent release of labour force data (Household Labour Force Survey, HLFS, Nicola Willis bemoans ‘glass half empty’ view of unemployment figures, RNZ 6 August 2025), 1918-1920 National Party Leader Simon Bridges, has called for economic “stimulus” to rescue in particular the dire Auckland economy. (See Call

The Cambridge factor: how influential NZ schools hastened the demise of NCEA
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuart Deerness, Senior Lecturer in Education, Auckland University of Technology As New Zealanders digest the news about government plans to scrap NCEA from 2028, we should also consider the role influential and prestigious schools had on its demise. Since NCEA was introduced between 2002 and 2004, these

Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Employment growth in New Zealand for retirement-age women
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The above chart shows – in red – the annual percentage increase (since 1988) in numbers employed of women aged 65-69, based on Household Labour Force Survey employment data. (And it shows, for comparison, males aged 30-34; in blue, their percentages are shown on the right-hand side of the chart. I

Are you in a mid-career to senior job? Don’t fear AI – you could have this important advantage
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kai Riemer, Professor of Information Technology and Organisation, University of Sydney Have you ever sat in a meeting where someone half your age casually mentions “prompting ChatGPT” or “running this through AI”, and felt a familiar knot in your stomach? You’re not alone. There’s a growing narrative

Move over Mercury – Chiron is in retrograde. What even is Chiron?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral Researcher in Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney An artist’s impression of Chiron and its coma of gas. William Gonzalez Sierra / UCF You might have seen an interesting phrase popping up in your social media feeds lately: “Chiron is in retrograde.” If you’re

The ANU is moving to kill the Australian National Dictionary – this is why it matters
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University Bonzer. Dinkum. Troppo. We love our distinctive words and phrases. We revel in the confusion they cause outsiders. We celebrate the stories behind them. We even make up a few furphies about them. What many Australians might not know,

17 older Australians die from falls every day. Here are 5 things you can do to reduce your risk
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Tiedemann, Professor of Physical Activity and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney ipuwadol/Getty Images Every day in Australia, more than 400 people aged over 65 are admitted to hospital due to a fall. That’s around one person every four minutes. Although anyone can

Australia can hit an 85% emissions cut by 2035 – if government and business seize the moment
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Malos, Climateworks Centre Country Lead, Australia, Monash University Ian Waldie/Getty Images Discussions are hotting up over Australia’s 2035 emission reduction target, which the federal government is due to reveal by September this year. It will be a crucial announcement, for several reasons. The target signals to

Rewatching Picnic at Hanging Rock at 50: an unsettling portrayal of place, silence and disappearance
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Coghlan, Associate Professor, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, released 50 years ago, is remembered for its eerie atmosphere and mysterious story. But beneath its haunting beauty, the film challenges the idea

Grattan on Friday: Anthony Albanese marches cautiously towards Palestinian recognition
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been putting it succinctly, declaring it’s a question of when, not if, Australia recognises Palestine as a state. It’s a line Foreign Minister Penny Wong used more than a year ago. This week Wong was sounding

Politics with Michelle Grattan: ‘talking about blokes’ issues’ with ex-Olympian and Labor MP Dan Repacholi
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Men’s physical and mental health can be a prickly subject, both for men and those looking to help. With the rise of social media and AI, there are new challenges emerging – especially for younger men. The re-elected Albanese government

Changes are brewing in the Indian Ocean. Does this mean Australia should get ready for a soggy spring?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne As spring in Australia nears and the days get longer, you might be wondering what the rest of the year holds for our weather. There are signs that

Keith Rankin Chart Analysis: Employment in New Zealand – especially of women – at the Age Margins
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Quarterly Labour market data in Aotearoa New Zealand was released today. Much of the data is functionally useless, because of definitions which disguise rather than reveal important trends and turning points. I have focussed on employment data (although the definition of ’employment’ is too generous to be optimally useful) relative to

Banning contactless and credit card surcharges won’t help – open banking reform is what’s needed
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Andhov, Chair in Law and Technology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Jorge Mata We’ve all been there – absentmindedly tapping a credit or debit card to pay for something at a shop, only to remember moments later there is a 2.99% surcharge. These surcharges are

How do scientists estimate crowd sizes at public events – and why are they often disputed?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Urban Risk and Resilience, The University of Melbourne Last Sunday, tens of thousands marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Gaza. But exactly how many people were there depends on whom you ask. Police put it at

Can I eat instant noodles every day? What does it do to my health?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Photo by Rahul Pandit/Pexels Instant noodles are cheap, quick and comforting – often a go-to snack or meal for students, busy workers, families and anyone trying to stretch their grocery budget. In Australia, the instant

I entered an exhibition about North Terrace on North Terrace, and saw the precinct anew
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grbich, Undertaking a PhD in Art History, Flinders University North Terrace: worlds in relief, installation view, Samstag Museum of Art, 2025. Photography by Sia Duff courtesy Samstag Museum of Art North Terrace: worlds in relief, currently showing at the Samstag Museum of Art, offers visitors the

‘Slutty little glasses’: men’s eyewear fashion is the history of seeing – and being seen
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorinda Cramer, Lecturer, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University If you’ve been on the internet lately, chances are you’ve heard an intriguing – and perhaps even startling – descriptor applied to men’s eyewear: “slutty little glasses”. Coined by online creator and culture critic Blakely Thornton, the

The ASX’s rookie error is just the latest of many blunders. Investors are losing confidence

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Angel Zhong, Professor of Finance, RMIT University

It was the latest blow to the credibility of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). This time, the nation’s stock exchange mixed up two company names in an error that briefly wiped A$400 million off the market value of our third biggest telco, TPG Telecom.

On Wednesday morning, the ASX mistakenly linked TPG Telecom Limited to a market announcement involving a completely different company — TPG Capital Asia. This US-owned, private equity giant just revealed a A$651 million takeover of the software firm Infomedia.

The ASX’s error led investors to believe TPG Telecom was making an acquisition outside its sector. Automatic trading algorithms also kicked in. Within minutes, TPG Telecom’s stock plunged nearly 5% before the ASX halted trading. The damage was done.

The ASX later described the mistake as “an inadvertent human error”.

The exchange moved quickly to cancel trades executed during the 15-minute error window. But the incident has reignited longstanding concerns about the ASX’s operational resilience and governance, and the fragility of investor confidence.

In a market where milliseconds matter, even a minor error can have major consequences.

A pattern of failure

This latest blunder is far from an isolated incident. It’s the culmination of years of operational failures that would be unacceptable in any other critical infrastructure sector.

An outage related to the ASX’s ageing platform for clearing and settling trades in December 2024 stands as perhaps the most serious breach of market confidence. The system couldn’t complete basic settlement processes.

This prompted unprecedented intervention from the regulator and the Reserve Bank of Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Reserve Bank expressed “deep concerns” about these “repeated and serious failures” in the exchange’s trading infrastructure.

This came on top of the botched replacement project for the ASX’s platform known as CHESS. The upgrade remains years behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget. These events expose fundamental weaknesses in technical capabilities.

TPG Telecom: collateral damage in a system failure

For TPG Telecom, this was an uninvited PR disaster. The company didn’t seek the spotlight, but the ASX error has placed it under the microscope. While its fundamentals haven’t changed, the incident has heightened scrutiny of its strategy, debt levels and market positioning.

Academic research in finance shows exogenous shocks (unexpected external events) beyond a firm’s control can lead to disproportionate attention from investors and analysts. Once a stock becomes the focus of media and market chatter, questions that might have remained on the margins become front and centre.

This kind of exposure can be both a risk and an opportunity.

If the company is seen as opaque or unprepared, it risks reputational damage. But it also has a chance to build investor trust through strong, transparent communication. In today’s markets, how a company responds under pressure matters as much as the trigger itself.

Competition for the ASX

What’s becoming increasingly clear is that Australia needs more than a reliable exchange. It needs competition, accountability and innovation. The ASX’s dominance in trading and post-trade services has long frustrated market participants.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s announcement this week about boosting competition to the ASX couldn’t be more timely.

ASIC said it is considering plans to strengthen the alternative trading exchange Cboe Australia in a bid to improve resilience and innovation. Launched in 2011 as Chi-X, Cboe now claims around 20% of daily share trading volume.

News of increased competition helped to send ASX’s own shares down 11% in early trade on Thursday before ending at 8.6% down.

Australia has a persistent problem with concentrated markets, from banking to telecommunications to supermarkets. The ASX monopoly follows the same pattern: limited competition can breed complacency.




Read more:
Embattled ASX set to face beefed-up competition, in bid to boost investment


The message is clear: trust in infrastructure must be earned, not assumed. The ASX must now prove it deserves its dominant role in Australia’s financial system, or risk losing it.

Trust is the real currency of markets

The TPG trading error is more than a technical mishap. It is a warning. Financial markets depend on trust in price accuracy, infrastructure reliability, and timely, transparent responses when things go wrong.

Repeated failures undermine this trust. If investors begin to question the accuracy of what they see on the trading screen, or the ability of the system to recover from mistakes, the risk isn’t just reputational. It’s systemic.

In academic terms, this is a textbook case of what’s known as “market microstructure friction” in the trading of stocks or bonds. This means the plumbing of the financial system breaks down and distorts outcomes. But for the average investor, it’s simpler: if the exchange can’t get the basics right, how can we trust the prices or the market?

The ASX now faces a crisis of credibility. If trust is the currency of markets, it’s one the exchange can no longer afford to spend lightly. For regulators, investors and listed firms, this could be a turning point towards a more competitive, resilient and accountable trading environment.

The Conversation

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

ref. The ASX’s rookie error is just the latest of many blunders. Investors are losing confidence – https://theconversation.com/the-asxs-rookie-error-is-just-the-latest-of-many-blunders-investors-are-losing-confidence-262790

The Cambridge factor: how influential NZ schools hastened the demise of NCEA

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuart Deerness, Senior Lecturer in Education, Auckland University of Technology

As New Zealanders digest the news about government plans to scrap NCEA from 2028, we should also consider the role influential and prestigious schools had on its demise.

Since NCEA was introduced between 2002 and 2004, these prominent schools have increasingly opted for alternative assessment systems. This effectively undermined trust in the official assessment system.

In 2011, Auckland Grammar School became the first state school to decide NCEA wasn’t suitable for its students. It began offering assessments from Cambridge International Education, a suite of imported qualifications where students sit externally assessed exams alongside NCEA.

The headmaster at the time, John Morris, publicly criticised NCEA, saying it was poorly designed and only suitable for less academic students.

Other schools catering to wealthy or high performing students quickly followed. Macleans College copied Auckland Grammar’s approach. Many private schools also began offering Cambridge examinations instead of (or alongside) NCEA, indicating their implicit criticism of the system by choosing alternative qualifications.

Recently, Epsom Girls’ Grammar principal Brenda McNaughton said there was “overwhelming community demand” for alternatives to NCEA.

By heavily investing in alternative qualification systems these schools demonstrated a belief that NCEA, on its own, did not meet the academic needs and aspirations of their entire student body.

The schools weren’t trying to undermine NCEA on purpose. They were simply responding to pressure from parents who wanted what they saw as more rigorous qualifications for their children. But their language mattered.

The way these schools talked about Cambridge exams is revealing. They used terms such as “rigour”, “international standards” and “university recognition”. This language appealed to parents who were familiar with traditional exam systems.

The numbers tell a compelling story. A 2023 NZQA survey revealed that 25% of schools were not planning to offer a full NCEA Level 1 programme, with many high-performing schools abandoning it altogether.

Between 2023 and 2024, Cambridge International Education reported a 20% increase in students taking its exams, with 8,000 pupils across a quarter of New Zealand’s high schools now doing Cambridge qualifications.

Losing faith

But did New Zealanders lose confidence because NCEA genuinely had problems, or because influential schools had already signalled their lack of trust by offering alternatives?

The answer is probably both. Educational theory suggests that when schools with serious influence opt out of national systems, they don’t just seek alternatives – they inevitably change how people perceive the systems they leave behind.

By 2025, NCEA was under attack from multiple directions. Some schools offered alternatives, employers were confused, and influential parents found it difficult to understand.

Education Minister Erica Stanford’s admission that she never understood the system perfectly illustrates the problem.

NCEA’s flexible system, designed to recognise different types of achievements, was simply unfamiliar to many parents who were used to traditional exams.

The replacement system proposes scrapping NCEA Levels 2 and 3 and replacing them with the New Zealand Certificate of Education at Year 12, and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education at Year 13. Students will need to take five subjects and pass at least four.

The new qualifications focus on “international comparability”, “subject mastery” and external assessment, according to the government. While these aren’t necessarily bad things, they reflect particular ideas about what education should prioritise.

Importantly, the government admits that fewer students may pass initially, particularly those who struggle with traditional academic approaches.

How change can happen

The end of NCEA teaches us something important about how educational change actually happens. Systems can be undermined not through dramatic opposition, but through the gradual effect of individual choices made by those with enough power to influence public opinion.

New Zealand’s prominent schools didn’t set out to destroy NCEA. They were responding to genuine pressure from their communities for alternatives they believed would better serve their students.

But their collective actions created a situation that ultimately made the national system politically difficult to maintain.

Any new qualification system faces the same fundamental challenge. How do you address legitimate concerns about consistency and clarity while also serving all students fairly?

The Cambridge phenomenon suggests communities with educational advantages will always look for ways to distinguish themselves, regardless of what qualification system is in place.

As New Zealand introduces new qualifications, it’s worth remembering the loudest voices calling for educational change don’t always represent what all students need.

The real test of any system isn’t whether it satisfies the most articulate parents or prestigious schools. It’s whether it serves the educational hopes of all New Zealand families without accidentally creating new forms of inequality.

The story of NCEA shows how powerful the actions of elite institutions can be, even when they don’t intend to cause system-wide change.

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

ref. The Cambridge factor: how influential NZ schools hastened the demise of NCEA – https://theconversation.com/the-cambridge-factor-how-influential-nz-schools-hastened-the-demise-of-ncea-262617

Are you in a mid-career to senior job? Don’t fear AI – you could have this important advantage

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kai Riemer, Professor of Information Technology and Organisation, University of Sydney

Have you ever sat in a meeting where someone half your age casually mentions “prompting ChatGPT” or “running this through AI”, and felt a familiar knot in your stomach? You’re not alone.

There’s a growing narrative that artificial intelligence (AI) is inherently ageist, that older workers will be disproportionately hit by job displacement and are more reluctant to adopt AI tools.

But such assumptions – especially that youth is a built-in advantage when it comes to AI – might not actually hold.

While ageism in hiring is a real concern, if you have decades of work experience, your skills, knowledge and judgement could be exactly what’s needed to harness AI’s power – without falling into its traps.

What does the research say?

The research on who benefits most from AI at work is surprisingly murky, partly because it’s still early days for systematic studies on AI and work.

Some research suggests lower-skilled workers might have more to gain than high-skilled workers on certain straightforward tasks. The picture becomes much less clear under real-world conditions, especially for complex work that relies heavily on judgement and experience.

Through our Skills Horizon research project, where we’ve been talking to Australian and global senior leaders across different industries, we’re hearing a more nuanced story.

Many older workers do experience AI as deeply unsettling. As one US-based CEO of a large multinational corporation told us:

AI can be a form of existential challenge, not only to what you’re doing, but how you view yourself.

But leaders are also observing an important and unexpected distinction: experienced workers are often much better at judging the quality of AI outputs. This might become one of the most important skills, given that AI occasionally hallucinates or gets things wrong.

The CEO of a South American creative agency put it bluntly:

Senior colleagues are using multiple AIs. If they don’t have the right solution, they re-prompt, iterate, but the juniors are satisfied with the first answer, they copy, paste and think they’re finished. They don’t yet know what they are looking for, and the danger is that they will not learn what to look for if they keep working that way.

Experience as an AI advantage

Experienced workers have a crucial advantage when it comes to prompting AI: they understand context and usually know how to express it clearly.

While a junior advertising creative might ask an AI to “Write copy for a sustainability campaign”, a seasoned account director knows to specify “Write conversational social media copy for a sustainable fashion brand targeting eco-conscious millennials, emphasising our client’s zero-waste manufacturing process and keeping the tone authentic but not preachy”.

This skill mirrors what experienced professionals do when briefing junior colleagues or freelancers: providing detailed instructions, accounting for audience, objectives, and constraints. It’s a competency developed through years of managing teams and projects.

Younger workers, despite their comfort with technology, may actually be at a disadvantage here. There’s a crucial difference between using technology frequently and using it well.

Many young people may become too accustomed to AI assistance. A survey of US teens this year found 72% had used an AI companion app. Some children and teens are turning to chatbots for everyday decisions.

Without the professional experience to recognise when something doesn’t quite fit, younger workers risk accepting AI responses that feel right – effectively “vibing” their work – rather than developing the analytical skills to evaluate AI usefulness.

So what can you do?

First, everyone benefits from learning more about AI. In our time educating everyone from students to senior leaders and CEOs, we find that misunderstandings about how AI works have little to do with age.

A good place to start is reading up on what AI is and what it can do for you:

If you’re not even sure which AI platform to try, we would recommend testing the most prominent ones, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini.




Read more:
The biggest barrier to AI adoption in the business world isn’t tech – it’s user confidence


If you’re an experienced worker feeling threatened by AI, lean into your strengths. Your decades of experience with delegation, context-setting, and critical evaluation are exactly what AI tools need.

Start small. Pick one regular work task and experiment with AI assistance, using your judgement to evaluate and refine outputs. Practice prompting like you’re briefing a junior colleague: be specific about context, constraints, and desired outcomes, and repeat the process as needed.

Most importantly, don’t feel threatened. In a workplace increasingly filled with AI-generated content, your ability to spot what doesn’t quite fit, and to know what questions to ask, has never been more valuable.

The Conversation

Kai Riemer is co-author of the annual “Skills Horizon” research project, which identifies key leadership skills (including in AI), based on interviews with global and Australian leaders and executives across various fields. He also educates leaders in AI fluency through Sydney Executive Plus at the University of Sydney.

Sandra Peter is co-author of the annual “Skills Horizon” research project, which identifies key leadership skills (including in AI), based on interviews with global and Australian leaders and executives across various fields. She also educates leaders in AI fluency through Sydney Executive Plus at the University of Sydney.

ref. Are you in a mid-career to senior job? Don’t fear AI – you could have this important advantage – https://theconversation.com/are-you-in-a-mid-career-to-senior-job-dont-fear-ai-you-could-have-this-important-advantage-262347

Move over Mercury – Chiron is in retrograde. What even is Chiron?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral Researcher in Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney

An artist’s impression of Chiron and its coma of gas. William Gonzalez Sierra / UCF

You might have seen an interesting phrase popping up in your social media feeds lately: “Chiron is in retrograde.” If you’re anything like me, you’ve never heard of Chiron before – and I’m a professional astronomer.

So what is Chiron, and what does it mean to be in retrograde? The short answer is that Chiron is an asteroid-slash-comet orbiting somewhere past Jupiter and Saturn. And until January 2026, it’s going to look like it’s going backwards in the sky. If you can spot it.

But there’s a bit more to the story.

What is Chiron?

Chiron’s official name is (2060) Chiron. First things first: it’s pronounced “kai-ruhn”, with a hard K sound.

It was discovered by astronomer Charles Kowal in 1977. This was long after the system of Western astrology was developed, which probably explains why people who check their daily horoscopes are also blissfully unaware of its existence.

It was initially classified as an asteroid, or a rock in space. In 1989 astronomers discovered Chiron sometimes has a tail or “coma”, which tells us that it’s actually a comet or a “dirty snowball”. Since then, Chiron has been classified as both an asteroid and a comet.

A black background with a fuzzy, white blob in the centre.
Hubble Space Telescope image of Chiron showing its fuzzy coma.
Hubble Space Telescope/Karen Meech, CC BY-SA

In 2023, more than 45 years after it was first discovered, astronomers confirmed Chiron has rings. This makes it the fourth non-planet in the Solar System to have rings. (The planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have rings, as do the asteroid Chariklo and the dwarf planets Haumea and Quaoar.)

A rocky asteroid is in the foreground and a bright fuzzy dot representing the Sun is in the background. The asteroid has two narrow rings around it. The background is black and full of stars.
Artist’s impression of the Centaur asteroid 10199 Chariklo. Chariklo was the first asteroid and fifth object in our Solar System, after Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, found to have a ring around it.
NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), CC BY-SA

Chiron orbits the Sun in an oval-shaped orbit. The closest it gets to the Sun is about 1.3 billion kilometres (about eight times the distance between Earth and the Sun) and the furthest it gets from the Sun is a whopping 2.7 billion km (about 19 times the distance between Earth and the Sun).

This puts it between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus, cutting through the orbit of Saturn.

Centaurs in space

Chiron is a member of the Centaurs. This is a group of small Solar System bodies that orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune. Their orbits are highly unstable: they change over time because of gravitational interactions with the giant planets.

In Greek mythology, centaurs were creatures with the lower body and legs of a horse and the torso and arms of a human. Chiron was the oldest centaur, the son of the Titan Kronos. He was considered the wisest centaur.

Fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians may also recognise Chiron as the director of Camp Halfblood.

A black background with multiple colourful circles and ovals demonstrating the orbits of planets and small solar system bodies in orbits outside Jupiter’s orbit. The many overlapping circles demonstrate how many objects there are out there in a bunch of d
The orbits of various centaurs, including Chiron. We can see the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune as well of the orbits of various Small Solar System bodies and dwarf planets.
Nick Anthony Fiorenza, CC BY-SA

Chiron in retrograde

In astronomy, retrograde motion is when something is going backwards compared with everything else.

Apparent retrograde motion is where an object in the sky, such as a planet, appears to be going backwards when we look at it from Earth. The object hasn’t actually changed direction; it just looks like it from our perspective.

All the planets (and Chiron) orbit the Sun in the same direction. This means the planets typically look like they are moving in a west-to-east direction across the sky. But when Earth “catches” up to a planet (or a planet catches up to Earth) and overtakes it, the planet temporarily appears to move in a west-to-east direction in the sky.

This temporary illusion is apparent retrograde motion. It’s just like when you’re driving in a car and overtake a slower car, that slower car looks like it’s going backwards as you overtake it.

Black and white animation demonstrating retrograde motion. On the left are two concentric circles with the Sun as a dot in the centre. The Earth orbits the Sun by orbiting on the inner circle. A planet orbits the Sun by orbiting on the outer circle. A lin
Animation demonstrating apparent retrograde motion. We can see the Earth and an outer planet orbiting the Sun in a circular motion on the left. On the right, we can see the direction the planet appears to be moving from Earth’s perspective.
Dominic Ford, CC BY-SA

Chiron went into retrograde (that is, apparent retrograde motion) on July 30 2025 and will go back to normal on January 2 2026. But unless you have a telescope or do some long-exposure photography, you’d never know which way Chiron is travelling. Chiron is very faint, so you can’t see it with your eyes.

Painting of a centaur teaching a boy to play the lyre.
An ancient Roman fresco showing the centaur Chyron teaching Achilles to play the lyre.
National Archaeological Museum of Naples / Muesse / Wikimedia

The ancient astrologers didn’t know about Chiron, but I like to think they’d appreciate a centaur in space with a ring on it.

The Conversation

Laura Nicole Driessen is an ambassador for the Orbit Centre of Imagination at the Rise and Shine Kindergarten, in Sydney’s Inner West.

ref. Move over Mercury – Chiron is in retrograde. What even is Chiron? – https://theconversation.com/move-over-mercury-chiron-is-in-retrograde-what-even-is-chiron-262509

The ANU is moving to kill the Australian National Dictionary – this is why it matters

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University

Bonzer. Dinkum. Troppo. We love our distinctive words and phrases.

We revel in the confusion they cause outsiders. We celebrate the stories behind them. We even make up a few furphies about them.

What many Australians might not know, however, is that for nearly 40 years a dedicated team at the Australian National University (ANU) has been hard at work digging up these past stories — real and furphy — and keeping a close eye on the new ones.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more committed group of lexical patriots. Most everything you know, want to know, or have heard about Australian words comes from the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC). From media, to academics, to everyday Aussies, we all rely on these quiet patriots — even if we don’t always know it.

But despite this work, and the central (and government-funded) role the ANU is meant to play in Australian history and identity, the ANU leadership is killing off the ANDC. The university has stated that the decision is a necessary part of reducing operating costs.

Dictionaries and our national sense of self

Dictionaries help define and reflect a nation’s identity. When Samuel Johnson published his famed Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, many celebrated that he and a handful of assistants accomplished in nine years what took 40 French academics half a century.

Dictionaries are especially important for colonial Englishes, such as those spoken in many countries, including Australia and the United States. At first, people looked down on these Englishes.

In the US, Noah Webster was derided for his suggestions Americans should assert their linguistic independence from Britain. US periodicals were openly hostile, jeering Webster’s “vulgar perversions” and “illiterate and pernicious” views of language.

However, when Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language came out in 1828, it established the global importance of this new English. Mark Twain soon wrote,

The King’s English is not the King’s. It is a joint stock company and Americans own most of the shares.

Australia’s colonial English got off to a slow start — dismissed as “the base language of English thieves” and “crude, mis-shapen and careless”. But by the late 19th century, Australians began celebrating their distinct words, in the Bulletin, in books like Sidney Baker’s “The Australian Language”, and in dictionaries such as E.E. Morris’s “Austral Language”.

Still, many called for a truly national dictionary to capture the way Australians speak. Australian lexicographer Peter Davies wrote in 1975:

Vigorous cultures demonstrate pride and interest in their own languages and literatures by building great works in their honour.




Read more:
Get yer hand off it, mate, Australian slang is not dying


Constructing working and living monuments to Aussie English

Finally, in the 1980s, Australians stopped taking their linguistic cues from Britain. With the publication of the Macquarie Dictionary in 1981 and the Australian National Dictionary in 1988, the language found its local voice.

However, these works differ in how they approach Australian English. The Macquarie Dictionary describes the spelling, pronunciation and definitions of English words as they are used in Australia.

The Australian National Dictionary (AND) grounds our words, and their meanings, in their historical and cultural contexts. The AND tells us where words have come from, when they were first used and how their meanings have changed over time. In short, the AND is a living, breathing and evolving record of how language is wrapped up in who we are as Australians.

As linguist Don Laycock once wrote, “there’s no other dictionary quite like this one in the world”. Its pages sing of “boundary riders, larrikins, sundowners, fizgigs, diggers and other dinkum Aussies”. Sidney J. Baker argued if the “Australian language [was] something to be reckoned with it” it was because of these iconic characters.

But the dictionary’s first editor, Bill Ramson, was not as romantic as Baker. Ramson wanted an academic and historical work — he left the romantic side of Australian English to the rest of us.

As an academic work, or more accurately, a monument to Australian English, the AND is unparalleled. Its second edition, released in 2016, contains the history of more than 16,000 words and phrases. Moreover, the second edition did the hard yakka to acknowledge the influence of Indigenous words on our English (words like “yakka”, from the Yagara language).

But the AND is more than an academic resource — its insights inform media, education and everyday life. We (the authors) write and speak widely about Australian English, with hundreds of media appearances each year, and we’ve both authored high school texts exploring its history and use. Howard Manns recently developed an SBS program introducing newcomers to Australian English.

Crucially, the AND’s research doesn’t just support this work — it makes it possible.

‘The most unpatriotic thing ever’?

When the Australian National Dictionary was first published – by Britain’s Oxford University Press – some baulked at foreign involvement. In 1983, Australian publisher Kevin Weldon even called it “the most unpatriotic thing ever”, also objecting to it being edited by a New Zealander (Bill Ramson) and an English woman (Joan Hughes).

History, of course, has vindicated them — and the many others, Australian or not, who helped create this cultural landmark.

But Weldon was not necessarily wrong. In the end, it seems American-style managerialism will be the death of the ANDC. Weldon surely didn’t anticipate that the “most unpatriotic thing ever” — the killing off of the AND — would be an act by Australians at the Australian National University.

In a statement, the ANU told The Conversation: “This decision reflects the need to reduce recurrent operating costs while ensuring that core academic activities are sustainably embedded within Schools and Colleges”.

Cutting the ANDC isn’t just a short-sighted administrative decision to save a few quid. It’s the wilful disregard of Australian cultural heritage and the powerful work its scholars do to help us understand the past, present and future of Australians, our English and our identities.

This dictionary centre is a national asset — once it’s gone, we lose a living record of our national voice.

The Conversation

Howard Manns receives funding from the ARC SR200200350.

Kate Burridge receives funding from the ARC SR200200350.

ref. The ANU is moving to kill the Australian National Dictionary – this is why it matters – https://theconversation.com/the-anu-is-moving-to-kill-the-australian-national-dictionary-this-is-why-it-matters-261844

17 older Australians die from falls every day. Here are 5 things you can do to reduce your risk

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Tiedemann, Professor of Physical Activity and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney

ipuwadol/Getty Images

Every day in Australia, more than 400 people aged over 65 are admitted to hospital due to a fall. That’s around one person every four minutes.

Although anyone can experience a fall, they’re a common cause of disability and loss of independence in older age.

Sadly, 17 older people die as a direct result of falls every day in Australia, often due to head trauma or internal bleeding. Many of these people are dying early, not when their “time has come”.

The good news is that many falls are preventable. Here are five key actions you can take to reduce your risk of falls.

1. Do balance challenging exercises

Recent Australian fall prevention guidelines recommend all people aged 65 years and over, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years and over, should take part in exercise to prevent falls, even if they have never fallen.

In particular, exercise that targets balance and strength is crucial for preventing falls. These are exercises you do while standing, with the feet close together or while standing on one leg (if it’s safe to do so).

These exercises should include controlled movement of the body (such as leaning, reaching and stepping). Examples include heel raises, squats, lunges and stepping in different directions.

To gain the most benefits, fall prevention exercises should be performed at least three times per week.

People who have already had regular falls may benefit from specialised advice from a physiotherapist, exercise physiologist or trained exercise instructor.

2. Have your medications reviewed

Certain medications, such as sleeping tablets, as well as taking multiple medications, can increase your risk of falling.

Older people should discuss and have their medications reviewed each year or after a change in their health, by a GP in collaboration with a pharmacist. Where appropriate, a health-care professional may be able suggest changes which minimise the use of medicines that increase a person’s risk of falling.

3. Maximise the safety of your home

About half of all falls that result in hospital admissions occur in and around the home.

Older people at a higher risk of falls – such as those with significant vision impairment or who have poor mobility – can benefit from a home safety intervention. This would involve:

  • an assessment of their home environment
  • advice about how to safely undertake daily tasks at home and elsewhere, such as safe mobility on stairs and the use of walking aids where needed
  • suggested changes to the home such as installation of grab rails, improved lighting and non-slip mats in the bathroom.

This may be more effective at reducing the risk of falls when provided by an occupational therapist.

Even for older people who have not fallen before, it’s a good idea to reduce clutter, ensure good lighting in the house and remove trip hazards such as electrical cords in walkways.

4. Get your eyes tested regularly

Good vision is essential for maintaining balance, seeing obstacles and moving around safely. Cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye, blur your vision and can make you sensitive to light and glare. This common eye condition, associated with age, reduces your ability to spot hazards in the environment.

Research shows having cataracts removed reduces the risk of falls. Fall prevention guidelines recommend a yearly eye check with an optometrist to detect cataracts and other eye conditions.

There’s also evidence wearing bifocal or multifocal glasses can increase the risk of falls by blurring edges close to the feet (such as the edge of a step or gutter). For this reason the Australian fall prevention guidelines recommend active older people use single-lens distance glasses (rather than bifocal, multifocal or progressive lenses) when doing activities outdoors.

It’s also wise for anyone getting a new glasses prescription to be especially careful while they adjust to the new glasses.

5. See a podiatrist if you have painful feet

Healthy and strong feet are important for maintaining good balance and avoiding falls. Research suggests if people with foot problems or painful feet see a podiatrist to have these problems treated, this can reduce their risk of falls.

It’s also important to wear sturdy, well-fitted shoes that have a low, wide heel for greater stability, and a sole with tread to prevent slips.

Don’t wait for a fall to happen before you take action. Every step you take today to reduce your risk of falls is a powerful move toward staying safe and independent.

The Conversation

Anne Tiedemann receives funding from the Australian government National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund. Anne Tiedemann has voluntary roles on the Executive Committee of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society and of the World Falls Prevention Society and is working with others to establish the Falls Prevention Alliance of Australia.

Cathie Sherrington receives funding from the Australian government National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund. Cathie Sherrington has voluntary roles on the Executive Committee of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society and is working with others to establish the Falls Prevention Alliance of Australia.

ref. 17 older Australians die from falls every day. Here are 5 things you can do to reduce your risk – https://theconversation.com/17-older-australians-die-from-falls-every-day-here-are-5-things-you-can-do-to-reduce-your-risk-260307

- ADVERT -

MIL PODCASTS
Bookmark
| Follow | Subscribe Listen on Apple Podcasts

Foreign policy + Intel + Security

Subscribe | Follow | Bookmark
and join Buchanan & Manning LIVE Thursdays @ midday

MIL Public Webcast Service


- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -