Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Murray, Senior Lecturer, Nutrition, Swinburne University of Technology

This time of year, many of us love to get out and spend time in nature. This may include hiking through Australia’s many beautiful national parks.

Walking in nature is a wonderful activity, supporting both physical and mental health. But there can be risks and it’s important to be prepared.

You may have read the news about hiker, Hadi Nazari, who was recently found alive after spending 13 days lost in Kosciuszko National Park.

He reportedly survived for almost two weeks in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales by drinking fresh water from creeks, and eating foraged berries and two muesli bars.

So next time you’re heading out for a day of hiking, what foods should you pack?

Here are my three top foods to carry on a bushwalk that are dense in nutrients and energy, lightweight and available from the local grocery store.

1. Muesli bars

Nazari reportedly ate two muesli bars he found in a mountain hut. Whoever left the muesli bars there made a great choice.

Muesli bars come individually wrapped, which helps them last longer and makes them easy to transport.

They are also a good source of energy. Muesli bars typically contain about 1,500–1,900 kilojoules per 100 grams. The average energy content for a 35g bar is about 614kJ.

This may be a fraction of what you’d usually need in a day. However, the energy from muesli bars is released at a slow to moderate pace, which will help keep you going for longer.

Muesli bars are also packed with nutrients. They contain all three macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) that our body needs to function. They’re a good source of carbohydrates, in particular, which are a key energy source. An average Australian muesli bar contains 14g of whole grains, which provide carbohydrates and dietary fibre for long-lasting energy.

Muesli bars that contain nuts are typically higher in fat (19.9g per 100g) and protein (9.4g per 100g) than those without.

Fat and protein are helpful for slowing down the release of energy from foods and the protein will help keep you feeling full for longer.

There are many different types of muesli bars to choose from. I recommend looking for those with whole grains, higher dietary fibre and higher protein content.

2. Nuts

Nuts are nature’s savoury snack and are also a great source of energy. Cashews, pistachios and peanuts contain about 2,300-2,400kJ per 100g while Brazil nuts, pecans and macadamias contain about 2,700-3,000kJ per 100g. So a 30g serving of nuts will provide about 700-900kJ depending on the type of nut.

Just like muesli bars, the energy from nuts is released slowly. So even a relatively small quantity will keep you powering on.

Nuts are also full of nutrients, such as protein, fat and fibre, which will help to stave off hunger and keep you moving for longer.

When choosing which nuts to pack, almost any type of nut is going to be great.

Peanuts are often the best value for money, or go for something like walnuts that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, or a nut mix.

Whichever nut you choose, go for the unsalted natural or roasted varieties. Salted nuts will make you thirsty.

Nut bars are also a great option and have the added benefit of coming in pre-packed serves (although nuts can also be easily packed into re-usable containers).

If you’re allergic to nuts, roasted chickpeas are another option. Just try to avoid those with added salt.

3. Dried fruit

If nuts are nature’s savoury snack, fruit is nature’s candy. Fresh fruits (such as grapes, frozen in advance) are wonderfully refreshing and perfect as an everyday snack, although can add a bit of weight to your hiking pack.

So if you’re looking to reduce the weight you’re carrying, go for dried fruit. It’s lighter and will withstand various conditions better than fresh fruit, so is less likely to spoil or bruise on the journey.

There are lots of varieties of dried fruits, such as sultanas, dried mango, dried apricots and dried apple slices.

These are good sources of sugar for energy, fibre for fullness and healthy digestion, and contain lots of vitamins and minerals. So choose one (or a combination) that works for you.

Don’t forget water

Next time you head out hiking for the day, you’re all set with these easily available, lightweight, energy- and nutrient-dense snacks.

This is not the time to be overly concerned about limiting your sugar or fat intake. Hiking, particularly in rough terrain, places demands on your body and energy needs. For instance, an adult hiking in rough terrain can burn upwards of about 2,000kJ per hour.

And of course, don’t forget to take plenty of water.

Having access to even limited food, and plenty of fresh water, will not only make your hike more pleasurable, it can save your life.

Margaret Murray 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. Going for a bushwalk? 3 handy foods to have in your backpack (including muesli bars) – https://theconversation.com/going-for-a-bushwalk-3-handy-foods-to-have-in-your-backpack-including-muesli-bars-246968

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Wei Zhou, Researcher in Ecology, Monash University

Every year, tens of thousands of land birds make a long flight across Bass Strait – the stretch of water separating Tasmania from continental Australia.

Well known for its high winds and rough seas, crossing Bass Strait is no small feat for these migrant land birds. Migration is stressful for birds, as they encounter inhospitable environments, predators, and weather changes while expending peak energy.

But how exactly do these birds traverse this daunting stretch of ocean?

Understanding this is more crucial than ever. New developments proposed in Bass Strait, particularly offshore wind farms, may introduce challenges for migrating birds. And until now, no one has looked closely at the movement pathways of these little migrants.

Our new research tracked the migration paths of Tasmanian boobooks, Ninox leucopsis, as they crossed from Victoria to Tasmania.

We found the Tasmanian boobook was indeed a regular migrant across Bass Strait – making it Australia’s only migratory owl. Rather than island-hopping, these small owls completed the roughly 250 kilometre flight across the strait in a single night, in one continuous flight.

These insights may help us protect birds in a rapidly changing world.

Tagging and tracking the Tasmanian boobook

As their name suggests, Tasmanian boobooks are common across Tasmania and were once considered endemic to the island. Over time, they were occasionally spotted in mainland Australia, with scattered records in Victoria and elsewhere.

In recent years, a more consistent pattern was revealed when keen birdwatchers discovered small numbers of these owls perched on Cape Liptrap, southeast of Melbourne, in spring. Could these birds actually be migrants about to make the Bass Strait crossing after winter on the mainland?

With thermal cameras, special nets, and lightweight miniature GPS-tracking devices in hand, we travelled to the southeast Victorian coast to catch five Tasmanian boobooks at these headlands.

Once we attached the tracking devices, we could follow their movements for up to three weeks before the tags failed and were dislodged.

Facinating findings

We found the Tasmanian boobook is Australia’s only migratory owl. In fact, it is what’s known as a “partial migrant”. This means while some birds of the species migrate, many other individuals remain in Tasmania year-round.

Three of our tagged birds departed southeast Victoria in October and November. They began their nonstop journeys at dusk and arrived in northern Tasmania early the following morning.

Two continued moving further inland to central Tasmania over subsequent nights and eventually settled at elevations of around 750 metres.

These observations suggest the migrating Tasmanian boobooks may be fleeing harsh winter conditions at high elevation areas. This phenomenon, known as altitudinal migration, has been observed in other Tasmanian birds such as the flame robin and crescent honeyeater.

We also discovered unexpected variety in the Tasmanian boobook migration patterns. Some birds left from Cape Liptrap and others from Wilsons Promontory, at the southern tip of Victoria.

They also flew at varying speeds under a surprising range of weather conditions, including headwinds upon departure. This is in an impressive feat for an owl, which weighs just 210–240 grams and probably undertakes the crossing by continuously flapping its wings.

New clues and questions about other Bass Strait migrants

Bird migration in the southern hemisphere is little-studied compared with northern hemisphere migration.

In Australia, movement patterns are particularly complex and variable due to the vast scale of the continental landmass, the variable geography such as mountains, deserts, and islands, and unpredictable climate.

At least 24 species migrate across Bass Strait. They range from songbirds and raptors to the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot and swift parrot.

Much of what we know comes from limited land-based observations. The Tasmanian boobooks we tracked give us just a small insight into the many migratory journeys across Bass Strait.

However, the variation we observed in just three migratory tracks for a single species raises questions about other Bass Strait migrants.

Are islands less crucial as stopover points than previously thought? Even for species like the orange-bellied parrot, which does use islands, it remains plausible many individuals might cross Bass Strait in a single non-stop flight.

These unanswered questions about bird movement across Bass Strait is not just a matter of curiosity.

Hazards old and new

Migratory birds are exposed to a greater range of threats than non-migratory birds. Crossing Bass Strait means risking inclement weather, artificial lighting, and collision with boats or oil rigs. Now, new developments may also present novel challenges.

Australia is rapidly expanding its renewable energy sector, including offshore wind.

Several areas in Bass Strait have been declared by the federal government as priority areas for wind farm development and many projects are already being planned.

These developments are essential for reducing emissions and combating climate change. But how do we balance the necessary transition to clean energy, while minimising direct harm to biodiversity?

Offshore wind farms can displace birds from their routes, or worse, introduce collision risks.

Environmental assessments are a mandatory part of wind farm development in Australia, but they need to be informed by robust ecological data.

Understanding the basic ecology of land-bird migration is crucial. We need to know where the threats to migratory birds are highest, which species are at risk of collisions, and how to mitigate these threats as the transition to renewable energy continues.

Jessica W. Zhou’s research group works with various stakeholders to address the threat posed by wildlife collisions with wind energy infrastructure. This includes contracts with wind farm developers, environmental consultancies, and DCCEEW and NOPSEMA, as the federal regulators of offshore wind. The research group has also received funding from environmental consulting firm Biosis.

Rohan Clarke’s research group works with various stakeholders to address the threat posed by wildlife collisions with wind energy infrastructure. This includes contracts with wind farm developers, environmental consultancies, and DCCEEW and NOPSEMA, as the federal regulators of offshore wind. The research group has also received funding from environmental consulting firm Biosis.

– ref. We tracked the Tasmanian boobook as it flew a remarkable 250 kilometres non-stop across Bass Strait – https://theconversation.com/we-tracked-the-tasmanian-boobook-as-it-flew-a-remarkable-250-kilometres-non-stop-across-bass-strait-246135

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett David Gartrell, Professor in Wildlife Health, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Pacific island nations are the only countries that remain free of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The deadly bird flu virus was first detected in the southern hemisphere in 2023 and spread through South America to the sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic peninsula. It has devastated wild bird populations globally, with millions of dead birds recorded at more than 2,600 separate clusters, according to reports by the World Organisation for Animal Health.

An outbreak poses a significant risk to wildlife in New Zealand but the country’s conservation volunteers could provide a crucial defence line.

Conservation in New Zealand depends on the goodwill and enthusiasm of passionate people who walk our beaches doing shore bird surveys, monitoring bittern calls in wetlands and tramping our mountains and rivers to maintain predator traps. Mobilising these groups is crucial to ensure the earliest possible detection.

Preparing for bird flu

Bird deaths have been reported from every continent except Australia and outbreaks are slowly moving closer to New Zealand. Globally, the virus has also spilled over into mammals, causing deaths in cats, dogs, bears, foxes and skunks.

Sustained transmission to mammals has now occurred in farmed mink in Spain, in dairy cows in the United States and in elephant seals in South America. The number of human infections fortunately remains very low but the mortality rate in people is high.

In New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries is responsible for the control of exotic disease incursions. In December last year, an outbreak of the H7N6 variant of avian flu in a poultry farm led to the culling of 160,000 chickens.

In a recent outbreak of the H7N3 variant in Australia, almost half a million birds (including poultry, turkey, farmed emus and pets) were culled.

If the highly pathogenic H5N1 variant were to be discovered in poultry in New Zealand, the ministry would likely adopt an eradication strategy. However, in wild birds eradication would probably not be attempted. The ministry has been working with the poultry industry, but we have yet to see detailed guidelines for outbreaks in other farmed animals and wild bird populations.

Incursion of the virus would have far-reaching effects on domestic and wild birds and the people who work with them. Waterfowl and seabirds are the most likely way the virus would spread within New Zealand, moving rapidly across the country within a few weeks.

Impacts on wildlife

Zoos and other facilities holding captive birds have already begun making plans, mostly focusing on movement restrictions and excluding wild birds. Core populations of our most critical endangered species such as kakī (black stilt), takahē, kākāpō, tūturuatu (shore plover) and kākāriki karaka will be vaccinated.

However, if this virus behaves as it has in other countries, New Zealanders should prepare to see dead and dying birds on beaches and in parks. Common signs include seizures, tremors, paralysis, nasal discharge, head swelling, diarrhoea and sudden death. Animals dying of this disease undergo considerable suffering.

Our conservation community would be faced with an unparalleled wildlife tragedy, with very limited options for effective and safe responses. Other communities of people that interact with wild birds would also be affected. An outbreak would likely mean cancellations of shooting seasons for several years.

People who keep free-range poultry and waterfowl would have to consider moving birds indoors, or culling flocks with little or no veterinary support. Veterinarians would need to focus on managing the biosecurity of their own hospitals and staff.

Responding to highly pathogenic bird flu in wild birds

If New Zealand has an outbreak in wild birds, the ministry will pass responsibility for operational responses on conservation land to the Department of Conservation and to local authorities on other public lands. Private landowners will be responsible for dealing with dead and dying birds on their own land.

On conservation land, affected areas will be closed to the public but there are no plans for culling, euthanasia or removal of dead birds. Removing ill and dead birds does not help to control local disease spread, but the virus persists in carcasses for extended periods. Scavengers and predators could transfer infections to new areas.

Our challenges will be to ensure that any disease management strategies protect the health of workers and volunteers, that affected animals are killed humanely and that bodies are disposed of safely. The tikanga (protocols) of tangata whenua must also be considered in all wildlife interventions.

Keeping communities safe and able to help

New Zealand’s current strategy is focused on preventing human harm by insisting any interventions are made by the relevant authorities. Our experiences suggest this approach is unrealistic as local communities are unlikely to stand by while animals are dying, especially when authorities advocate minimal or no intervention, however well motivated.

Wildlife rehabilitators are being asked to cease their activities in the event of an incursion, yet people will continue to bring them animals in need of care. Indeed, the number of animals brought to these volunteers is likely to increase substantially.

The mental health impacts of exposure to the trauma of animals are now well understood. An outbreak will likely affect the wellbeing of people involved in the response. Compassion fatigue and post-traumatic stress disorder are common and can be especially severe without adequate training and support to help people cope.

It is imperative that authorities develop strategies that will keep people safe while addressing their concerns for wildlife welfare. Community groups will inevitably deal with this pandemic, but to do so safely, they need clear guidelines and personal protective equipment.

We argue New Zealand should urgently develop a more detailed national strategy, focused on empowering local responses to prevent animal suffering wherever it is safe to do so.

Brett David Gartrell receives funding from the Department of Conservation and the Ministry of Primary Industries for contracted services. He is affiliated with the Wildlife Disease Association – Australasia.

Craig Brian Johnson has received funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries. He is a member of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee.

– ref. Why community volunteers will be essential for how NZ handles the arrival of bird flu – https://theconversation.com/why-community-volunteers-will-be-essential-for-how-nz-handles-the-arrival-of-bird-flu-246779

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tahlia Pollock, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Evans EvoMorph Laboratory, Monash University

Sabre teeth – the long, sharp, blade-like canines found in extinct predators such as Smilodon – represent one of the most extreme dental adaptations in nature. They evolved at least five times throughout mammalian history and are a classic example of convergence, which is when similar structures evolve independently in unrelated animal groups.

With no living representatives, scientists have long debated how these predators used their fearsome teeth, and why this extreme tooth shape evolved so often.

Our new study, published today in Current Biology, provides an answer. We found extreme sabre teeth are functionally optimal, meaning their shape provided a real advantage as specialised weapons. Their slender and sharp forms were perfect for puncturing prey. However, this came at a cost: sabre teeth were also weaker and more prone to breaking.

These findings are important because they help us better understand how extreme adaptations evolve across nature. They also offer insights into optimal design principles that extend beyond biology into engineering and technology.

Sabre-toothed predators through time

Sabre-toothed predators once roamed ecosystems around the globe. Their fossils have been found in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

The feature that defines them are their sabres, a distinct type of canine tooth. These teeth are long, sharp, laterally compressed (flattened from the sides) and curved.

This is different to the short, robust, conical canines of modern big cats such as lions and tigers.

This iconic tooth is older than the dinosaurs. It first appeared around 265 million years ago in a group of mammal-like reptiles called the gorgonopsids.

Over millions of years, sabre teeth evolved repeatedly in different groups of carnivorous mammals, marsupial relatives like Thylacosmilus and “false” sabre-tooth cats such as Barborofelis.

The most well known sabre-toothed predator is Smilodon. It persisted until just 10,000 years ago.

You can look at a 3D model of one of these predators – Smilodon fatalis – below. This model has been digitised from a cast specimen from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Based on extensive research into sabre-tooth ecology there is a general consensus that these predators primarily targeted large prey, delivering slashing bites to the soft tissue of the throat powered by strong neck muscles. It is thought that their teeth offered an advantage doing this, helping them to deliver the killing bite.

This idea is what we set out to investigate.

Testing the puncture-strength trade-off

Specifically, we tested whether their shape was an optimal balance between two competing needs related to tooth function. First, being sharp and slender enough to puncture prey effectively. Second, being strong and robust enough to resist breaking.

To investigate this, we conducted a large-scale analysis of more than 200 different carnivore teeth, including both extinct sabre-toothed species and modern animals.

First, we measured their 3D shape to show how sabre teeth compared to other carnivores. Then we tested how a subset of these teeth performed during biting via two experiments.

We 3D printed tooth models in stainless steel and drove them into a gelatine block (simulating prey flesh) to measure how much force was needed to puncture. We used metal replicas to prevent tooth bending during the experiment, ensuring accurate puncture force measurements.

We also ran engineering simulations to test how much stress different tooth shapes experienced under biting forces. This revealed their likelihood of breaking.

Finally, we conducted an “optimality” test to determine which tooth shapes struck the best balance between puncture efficiency and strength .

Extreme sabre-tooth forms are optimal

It terms of sabre-tooth shape, our results challenge the traditional idea that these predators fell into just two categories: dirk-toothed, which are long and slender, and scimitar-toothed, which are short and laterally compressed.

Instead, we uncovered a continuum of sabre-tooth shapes. This ranged from extreme forms, such as the long, curved canines of Barbourofelis, Smilodon and Hopolophoneus, to less extreme forms, such as the straighter, more robust teeth of Dinofelis and Nimravus.

Our results reveal that the extreme sabre-toothed forms, like Smilodon, were optimised for puncturing prey with minimal force. However, they were more prone to breakage under high stress.

Less extreme sabre-toothed forms, such as Dinofelis, were also optimal but in a different way. They struck a more balanced trade-off between puncture efficiency and strength.

The fact that different sabre-toothed species evolved varying balances between puncture efficiency and strength suggests a broader range of hunting strategies than previously thought. This supports a growing body of research on their ecological diversity.

A striking solution

These results help explain why extreme sabre teeth evolved so many times, likely driven by natural selection for an optimal design. They also provide a possible explanation for their eventual demise.

Their increasing specialisation may have acted as an “evolutionary ratchet”, making them highly effective hunters, but also more vulnerable to extinction when ecosystems changed, and their prey became scarce.

Our study also provides broader insights into how extreme adaptations evolve in other species. By integrating biomechanics with evolutionary theory, we can better understand how natural selection shapes organisms to perform specialised tasks.

The sabre tooth form represents a striking solution to a fundamental mechanical challenge, balancing efficiency with strength — one that is also reflected in human-made tools.

This trade-off between sharpness and durability is a key consideration in engineering, influencing the design of everything from surgical scalpels to industrial cutting blades.

Engineers developing precision tools, such as hypodermic needles or high-performance cutting instruments, can look to nature’s evolutionary solutions for inspiration, applying the same principles that shaped these prehistoric predators.

The author is currently working at the University of Bristol and acknowledges the generous support she received from them over the course of the research.

Tahlia Pollock receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation, Australian Research Council, and Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment – Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation & the Ecological Society of Australia.

– ref. New research reveals why sabre-toothed predators evolved their deadly teeth – https://theconversation.com/new-research-reveals-why-sabre-toothed-predators-evolved-their-deadly-teeth-246783

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor of History and Politics, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong

It is an interesting fact that no sitting Australian prime minister since John Howard has led his or her party to more than one election victory.

Anthony Albanese is seeking to buck this trend and lead the Australian Labor Party to victory in an election to be held sometime between February and May this year.

Recent polls and analyses indicate this is not going to be an easy task.

Polls taken in December either put the Coalition slightly ahead or found a 50-50 split between Labor and the Coalition.

A recent Morgan Poll gave the Coalition a 53–47% split in the two-party preferred vote, although, interestingly, this was on the basis that Greens preferences had declined from 85% for Labor to 55%. It also indicated there had been a significant swing to the Coalition in Victoria.

An analysis by John Black contended the Coalition would win 18 additional seats at the election, giving them a total of 73 and minority government. Black’s analysis saw the majority of the Coalition’s gains coming in New South Wales (six) and Victoria (eight, with six from Labor).

All of this is very worrying for the prime minister, especially given the polls also tend to portray him as a weak leader.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that Albanese has started the pre-election blitz this week. Convention holds that politicking doesn’t start again until after Australia Day, but the government started the campaign year on January 6, announcing multi-million dollar road upgrades in Queensland.

Whether voters are paying attention remains to be seen, but it’s possible the quieter news cycle gives the government’s plans more oxygen.

The government had also announced the revamped stage three tax cuts just before Australia Day last year, ultimately successfully.

Labor strategists may be angling to set the agenda early on this year to build similar goodwill.

Rebuilding trust

Albanese needs to develop a strategy to convince Australian voters that he remains the best person to lead them in what are quite difficult and uncertain times.

Cost of living remains the top issue for eight in ten Australians, but many voters have a low level of trust in their elected representatives.

This low level of trust is reflected in the fact that the Labor primary vote hovers around 30% and the Coalition struggles to reach 40%.

It is an often cited lore of Australian politics that first-time governments do not lose when they seek re-election. The last time a first-term sitting government wasn’t re-elected was the Scullin Labor government during the Great Depression.

Certainly, Albanese has no desire to join this club, but he is in a difficult situation. The government currently has a slim majority in the House of Representatives, holding 78 seats. Even the loss of a few seats will lead to a minority government.

Strategic maneouvering

Unfortunately for Albanese, he has limited options if he wishes to maximise his vote. The first strategy relates to timing.

There is a state election in Western Australia on March 8, which makes a March federal election somewhat unlikely. A March election, or an election in early April would mean the government would not have to hand down a budget on March 25.

A key strategy here is to avoid bad economic news and to maximise the chances the Reserve Bank will hand down an interest rate cut, thereby vindicating the government’s economic policies.

Recent inflation figures may or may not encourage the government in this hope.

The second strategy relates to focus. The polls seem to indicate that Labor is losing ground, particularly in Victoria but also in New South Wales. It’s interesting then that the first electioneering foray of the year was focused on Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Perhaps this indicates that Labor thinks it can make up some of its lost ground in these states.

Look forward or look back?

The third strategy for Albanese to maximise his chances at re-election relates to policy and what can be termed “narrative”.

In this context, it is worth considering Albanese’s comment this week:

this election is a choice between building Australia’s future or taking Australia backwards.

This is a very old trope in Australian politics going back well into the last century – that Labor is the “party of initiative” and the Liberals and Nationals the “parties of resistance”.

This plays into a very powerful idea, best exemplified by former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, that Labor is the party of progress and hence the Australian people can trust only Labor to deliver a better future for them.

This can then be turned very easily into a Medicare scare campaign and play into fears that a Coalition government threatens all aspects of the welfare state.

On the surface, this strategy of appealing to a traditional Labor narrative and view of the world would seem to be sound.

But one must wonder, especially given the core Labor vote is now around 30%, how much this will resonate with the wider Australian electorate. It’s like looking backwards to look forwards.

The real issue is Albanese is limited in his options.

The hard reality is cost of living is the central issue of Australian politics in 2025. Labor desperately needs some indication its policies are making a difference in this area, such as an interest rate cut, and can then time the election accordingly.

In all of this, there are so many contingent factors in play. Luck (and timing) do indeed matter in politics.

Gregory Melleuish has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Anthony Albanese is already on the campaign trail. It signals the tough election battle ahead – https://theconversation.com/anthony-albanese-is-already-on-the-campaign-trail-it-signals-the-tough-election-battle-ahead-246780

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor

There has been a great deal of heat – and not an overabundance of light – when it comes to the media’s reactions to Donald Trump’s renewed interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark after he resumes the US presidency on January 20. The tone of commentary has very much had a flavour of, “What on earth is Trump on about now?” The president-elect’s refusal this week to rule out using economic or military force if necessary to take control of the world’s biggest island has been met with copious, if predictable, warnings from world leaders about sovereignty and the inviolability of borders.

This is by no means to denigrate the vital importance of sovereignty, the rule of law or the inviolability of national borders. These should go without saying. But asking politicians to rule things out at press conferences is a classic journalistic gambit that almost always draws the answer “no”. It’s a fairly meaningless exercise.

Now, more than ever, it’s vital to be informed about the important issues affecting global stability. Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

So it’s particularly useful to read this offering by Stefan Wolff, an expert in international security and regular contributor to The Conversation, who provides valuable nuance and context to the debate. First, as Wolff points out, Trump is not the first US president to float the idea of buying Greenland. The idea was first suggested in 1868 (by US secretary of state William H. Seward) and surfaced at reasonably regular intervals thereafter. In 1946 the then US president Harry Truman made a formal offer of US$100 million (US$1 billion or £812 million today).

And there are plenty of reasons why such a deal might make sense for the US, Greenland’s exceptional mineral wealth and strategic location chief among them.

But whether Trump’s diplomatic approach is the most effective way of prosecuting the US case is debatable, warns Wolff. Greenlanders are themselves exploring options for independence from Denmark, for one. And in any case, Denmark – with which Greenland has had a home rule arrangement since 1979 – is a Nato ally. At present, given the geopolitical situation, the most sensible approach is one that does nothing to undermine the alliance. It’s not clear that this is uppermost in Trump’s mind, writes Wolff.

Read more:
Trump’s Greenland bid is really about control of the Arctic and the coming battle with China

The other (rather smaller but no less strategically vital) bit of land that the US president-elect has his acquisitive eye on is the Panama Canal, which Trump says the US needs for economic security. It’s particularly poignant that the canal should be in the news the week after the death of Jimmy Carter, as Carter was the US president who presided over the 1977 deal which gave Panama ownership of the canal – one of his most significant moves during his time in the White House.

Amalendu Misra, a professor of international politics at Lancaster University, runs through the history of the canal, which was the most expensive US building project when it was completed. Trump asserts that the canal should never have been handed to Panama and claims that is is now “being operated by China”. But as Misra points out, while two of the ports at either end of the canal are operated by Hong Kong-based company Hutchison Whampoa, the canal itself is owned and operated by an independent government agency, the Panama Canal Authority.

Under the terms of Carter’s treaty, the US cannot legally take control of the canal. That’s not to say the US couldn’t take control by force. Those with long enough memories will remember that US forces, under the direction of then-president George H.W. Bush, invaded Panama and deposed President Manuel Noriega in 1990 in what it dubbed “Operation Just Cause”. (Fun fact: to persuade Noriega to surrender and give himself up, US troops blared rock music from a fleet of Humvees non-stop for three days – a form of torture for the Panamanian president, who is said to have been a devotee of opera music.)

But as Misra notes, yet another attempt to intervene with force in Latin America would be likely to severely undermine the US position in a region which could, instead, turn towards China, Russia or Iran for alliances. So while the Trump may not have “ruled out” sending in the marines to occupy the canal, Misra believes this eventuality to be highly unlikely.

Read more:
Why Donald Trump is threatening to take control of the Panama Canal

It’s not as if many Latin American countries aren’t already looking towards China, which over the past two decades has “dramatically expanded its role as a top trading partner for Latin America,” writes Jose Caballero. Caballero, a senior economist with the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), says the first Trump term was widely seen as driving many Latin American countries towards China as a more reliable trade and development partner than the US. And things hardly improved under Joe Biden.

Since 2002, writes Caballero, trade between China and the region has risen from US$18 billion to US$500 billion by 2023. And, in the first two months of 2024, China’s exports to Latin America increased by 20.6%. “China is certainly ready to build on its partnerships in the region if, and when, opportunities arise,” Caballero believes.

An “America first” policy and rising tariffs are likely to exacerbate the situation. This will not be helped by Trump’s undeniably clumsy rhetoric (an example of which was the US president-elect’s rather bumptious recent suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America).

If isolationism becomes the name of the game in a Trump White House and the US seeks to disengage from its network of international ties, China has shown it is more than willing to step in and take its place, writes Caballero.

Read more:
With Trump in the White House, China and Latin America may try to forge an even deeper relationship

Double act

It’s hard to say who has been getting more press in recent days: Trump or his close associate, South African-born tech mogul Elon Musk. Certainly both appear to have studied the same playbook when it comes to international diplomacy. And Musk’s intervention in the domestic politics of several European countries must be seen as giving considerable cause for alarm.

While Trump and Musk appear as thick as thieves, there are those who think Washington’s not big enough for the two towering personalities and that a major falling out is all but inevitable. Certainly, writes Thomas Gift, an expert in US politics at UCL, there are signs that Musk is beginning to fall out with others in the Make America Great Again (Maga) crowd.

The problem, Gift believes, is immigration policy: specifically the H1-B visas which the US issues to allow immigrants to work in the US based on speciality talents or skills. This is particularly an issue in the tech industry, where Silicon Valley (and Musk himself) is scooping up talent from countries such as India.

On the other side of the debate are nativists such as Steve Bannon, who was Trump’s ideological alter ego in his first terms. Since emerging from a prison sentence last year in time for the election campaign, Bannon has been attempting to reposition himself as the loudest voice in the president-elect’s ear. He says that the H1-B visa schemes is “a total and complete scam from its top to the bottom”. He and like-minded Maga identities want to train up US-born and educated talent, in line with the general move away from mass migration to the US.

As Gift points out, it’s just one aspect of an increasingly bitter debate over globalisation which may rupture the still close partnership between Trump and his closest “tech bro”.

Read more:
Elon Musk and the tech titans v the rest of Maga — here’s where the big splits could happen

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– ref. Putting Donald Trump’s plans for Greenland and the Panama canal into context – https://theconversation.com/putting-donald-trumps-plans-for-greenland-and-the-panama-canal-into-context-247037

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Huish, Associate Professor in International Development Studies, Dalhousie University

“We take nothing by conquest…Thank God,” wrote the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, an influential Washington newspaper, in February 1847.

The United States had just purchased 55 per cent of Mexico for US$15 million as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The pact concluded the bloody Mexican-American War, which claimed thousands of lives.

Despite the loss of life, and American ambitions to take all of Mexico, the treaty painted the whole experience as a rightful “cession” of land rather than a conquest.

Not impossible, not unthinkable

Every Canadian needs to pay attention to this bit of American history. In one treaty, the U.S. annexed the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. It subsequently illegally invaded Indigenous territory in the west.

Read more:
White U.S. citizens once flooded into Indian Territory, prompting calls for mass deportations

Canada could be next — perhaps not immediately as the 51st state, but quite possibly as a U.S. territory that would deny Canadians any voting rights for Congress or the presidency, allow only some autonomy and make questions of citizenship ambiguous. The constitutional architecture exists in the U.S. to make it happen.

Impossible? Unthinkable? Many pundits dismiss Trump’s bellicose rhetoric as hot-headed bargaining. It’s just tough talk, they say. Some have argued his bluster is simply part of his favoured “art of the deal” negotiating tactics.

That’s the wrong reading. How Trump could make good on the threat can be found in the U.S. Constitution. There is both potential and precedent for the U.S. to acquire territory through cession or subjugation.

Invading Canada

The War Plan Red of 1930 was also drummed up by the U.S. Department of War on how to invade Canada if ever needed.

It included shocking details about kicking off the attack in Halifax with poison gas, quickly invading New Brunswick and then occupying Québec City and Montréal before claiming Niagara Falls.

Historically, America has made many Canadian leaders nervous. Queen Victoria felt that Ottawa, as a capital, would be sheltered from U.S. invasions. John A. Macdonald worried about Union forces attacks on Canada, as U.S. Confederacy spies and raiders were permitted to hole up in Montréal during the civil war.

In the 1911 election, when the Liberal party pushed for free trade with the U.S., they were shown the door by a wave of anti-American sentiment that backed Robert Borden’s Conservatives.

Treaties and congressional green lights

Hypothetical paranoia aside, the ability of the U.S. to acquire territories is ingrained in the U.S. Constitution. It is straightforward. First, start with Article II, Section 2 of the constitution:

“He [The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…”.

Treaties are the tools the U.S. uses to take “nothing by conquest” after the Senate ratifies those treaties by a two-thirds majority.

In 1848, President Zachary Taylor proposed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to Congress to annex Mexican lands. Even though some wanted to take all of Mexico, Congress ratified the treaty.

In 1898, Congress passed House Joint Resolution 259. It ratified President William McKinley’s treaty of the annexation of Hawaii. Due to protest, petition and dissent, it took 60 years for Hawaii to become an official state in 1957.

The American origin story of a country born in revolution only applies to a small piece of the country. The rest of the place came to exist through annexation. The U.S. expanded to 50 states and 14 overseas territories through a mix of cession, occupation and purchase.

The role of dissent

From the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 — which saw 827,987 square miles pass from France to the United States — to the cession of the Marshall Islands from Japan in 1947, Manifest Destiny, the belief that the expansion of the U.S. throughout the Americas was both justified and inevitable, is built into the spine of the U.S. Constitution.

But so, too, is dissent.

Once the U.S. legally acquires territories, Article IV, Section 2 of the constitution grants Congress the authority to manage them or dispose of them:

“The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting Territory and other Property belonging to the United States.”

If a territory was unjustly acquired through a treaty, through unlawful means or if it challenges American interests, then it can be disposed of. The Marshall Islands is case in point.

After serving as a U.S. nuclear testing ground, the country ratified a constitution in 1979 and is now in a compact of free association with the U.S.

President Ulysses S. Grant proposed the annexation of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 1870, thinking it would be a good place for freed Black slaves to establish themselves to escape discrimination in southern States while protecting the Dominican Republic from invasion by Haiti. Congress had none of it, and failed to ratify the treaty.

Cuba’s exclusion — over sugar

In 1898, the U.S. declared war on Spain by invading Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. Within six months, Spain surrendered and treaties of annexation by cession were drawn for each territory. The U.S. gained sovereignty over all except Cuba, although the Philippines won back its independence in 1946.

Cuba’s exclusion was thanks to Sen. Henry Teller of Colorado, who worried about Cuban sugar flooding the American market. He painted his ambitions in flowery rhetoric about the importance of autonomy, self-governance and the rights of man.

But in fact, Teller wanted to keep Cuba out to protect domestic sugar beet growers. The Senate passed the amendment excluding Cuba. Four years later, however, another amendment by Connecticut Sen. Orville Platt established Guantanamo Bay as a permanent U.S. military base on the island and gave the U.S. the right to invade Cuba whenever it saw fit.

Opening lines of communication

It seems hard to fathom that discussions about U.S. annexation efforts against Canada are actually unfolding. Alarming indeed, but it would be a mistake to ignore history, overlook the U.S. Constitution and try to outwit the art of the deal.

Trump’s calls for Canada to join the U.S. could only happen by drafting a treaty demonstrating that a process of cession, purchase or occupation is legal. Only then could Congress approve it, and only with a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Trump does not have two-thirds of the Senate.

The correct move is to get Canadian voices to Congress. The strength of Canada–U.S. relations has always been through person-to-person relations in a deeply intertwined stew of familial and business relations.

Read more:
How Canada and the country’s premiers must respond to Trump’s trade and energy policies

Trump does not see the value in that. Congress, however, might, especially if annexing Canada proves expensive.

This is why Canadian politicians at federal, provincial and even municipal levels need to open lines of communication with Congress, especially in economically strategic states.

Congressional representatives need to view annexing Canada as a ridiculous burden, both politically and financially, rather than as a prize.

Robert Huish received funding from The Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council

– ref. How the U.S. could in fact make Canada an American territory – https://theconversation.com/how-the-u-s-could-in-fact-make-canada-an-american-territory-246877

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Caballero, Senior Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

Within days of Donald Trump’s election win in November 2024, China’s president Xi Jinping was at a ceremony opening a deep-water port in Peru as part of a “diplomatic blitz” through Latin America.

Xi’s presence was a symbol of China’s rising influence in the region. The Chinese-funded (£2.8 billion) Chancay port represents an expansion of the relationship between China and Peru. The two countries also signed an agreement to expand free trade. Xi said this was the beginning of a maritime version of China’s belt and road initiative, to expand its worldwide trade and influence.

The first Trump administration opted for a confrontational stance towards many countries in the region, including Peru. This ultimately pushed it to deepen its alliance with China. Beijing saw the opportunity, through favourable trade deals and investments, to position itself as a more reliable and beneficial partner than Washington.

In the last 20, years China has dramatically expanded its role as a top trading partner for Latin America. In 2002, trade between China and the region was worth US$18 billion (£14.34 billion), that amount increased to US$500 billion by 2023. In the first two months of 2024, China’s exports to Latin America increased by 20.6%.

Trump’s first term was widely seen as driving Latin American nations away from US values and alliances and towards China. Brazil, for example, saw trade with the US drop to its lowest level for 11 years, while trade with China grew significantly. Joe Biden did little to improve relations.

Trump’s campaign rhetoric signals that the upcoming administration will continue that trend. And China is certainly ready to build on its partnerships in the region if, and when, opportunities arise.

The Trump administration is likely to be focused on immigration and drug trafficking, as well as trade. For instance, Mexico is more likely to become a policy priority, because of illegal immigration, than Brazil.

Trump may look for regional allies whose policies seem more aligned with his own. Argentina’s president Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele seem likely candidates, with their form of populism echoing some of Trump’s.

Despite efforts by Brazil’s president Jair Bolsanaro to work with Trump when they were both in power, and to echo Trump’s soundbites, trade between the two nations fell. Significantly, during Trump’s term of office three nations – the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama – withdrew recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign country, publicly shifting allegiance to Beijing and away from US-backed Taipei.

What next?

In 2025, countries with close ties with China could become targets for the Trump administration. Trump has threatened to increase tariffs on Chinese goods and outlined his tough China policies as part of his “America first” agenda. China may see the Chancay port as a back door to the US market, and possibly a way to avoid rising US tariffs. So Peru could become a trade-relations battleground.

Meanwhile, Trump’s America first policy, prioritising US interests, could also result in the reduction of regional aid.

Reduced US support might lead Latin American countries to seek even stronger ties with China. The latter has already been actively offering economic investments and supporting infrastructure projects through programmes related to the belt and road initiative over the past decade. Argentina has even become the base for a Chinese space station.

Belt-and-road-related projects are often seen as more attractive compared with aid and investments from western countries, including the US, as they come with fewer demands on the country receiving the investment.

Trump’s potential disengagement from multilateral organisations, such as Nato and the World Bank, could also strengthen China’s influence, globally. This US position would reduce its capacity to shape international norms and policies, leaving Latin American nations with fewer reasons to side with Washington.

Latin American countries, which often rely on multilateral institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank for economic and political support, could turn to China for increased investment. China’s diplomatic efforts, including high-level visits and participation in regional forums, continue to rise, signalling its intent to strengthen ties with Latin America.

Strong economic relations with China will probably remain appealing to Latin American countries. Particularly so for those that have experienced economic instability in the post-pandemic period and are looking for new avenues of growth and development.

Importantly, China’s investments in the region’s infrastructure and energy sectors have already been substantial in the last decade. They have provided much-needed capital and technology transfers. Such investments have not only boosted local economies but also strengthened diplomatic ties, positioning China an important partner in the region’s development.

China v US

Another aspect of China’s foreign policy that can be attractive to Latin American countries is its non-interventionist approach. This policy emphasises respect for sovereignty and the right of countries to choose their own development paths.

China presents itself as an alternative to traditional western powers. This enables China to portray itself as a fellow developing economy, suggesting a sense of solidarity with Latin American countries. This contrasts with the US’s complex history of intervention in the internal affairs of many of the region’s economies.

As Trump continues to emphasise a more isolationist and protectionist approach, countries in Latin America may find China’s approach more compatible with their own policies.

The hostile rhetoric towards many Latin American nations, particularly over immigration, during the first Trump term has left those nations expecting something similar this time. China appears poised to make even more of those opportunities.

Jose Caballero 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. With Trump in the White House, China and Latin America may try to forge an even deeper relationship – https://theconversation.com/with-trump-in-the-white-house-china-and-latin-america-may-try-to-forge-an-even-deeper-relationship-245891

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

When Donald Trump first offered to buy Greenland in 2019, he was widely ridiculed and nothing much came of it, apart from a cancelled state visit to Denmark. Fast forward six years and Trump’s renewed “bid” for the world’s largest island is back on the table.

And with renewed vigour at that. In an interview on January 7, the incoming US president refused to rule out the use of force to take possession of Greenland and he dispatched his son, Don Jr, “and various representatives” there on January 8, 2025, to underline his seriousness. With Elon Musk on board as well, money may not be an obstacle to any deal that Trump envisages.

Trump is not the first US politician to try to buy Greenland. The earliest documented attempt to acquire the island goes back to 1868.

The last serious pre-Trump effort is that by President Harry S. Truman’s government in 1946. Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland thus stands in a long tradition of American efforts of territorial expansion.

Even without this historical background, Trump’s latest bid is less irrational today than it may have seemed back in 2019. On the one hand, Greenland is exceptionally rich in so-called “critical minerals”. According to a 2024 report in the Economist, the island has known deposits of 43 of 50 of these minerals. According to the US Department of Energy, these minerals are essential for “technologies that produce, transmit, store, and conserve energy” and have “a high risk of supply chain disruption”.

The latter certainly is a valid concern given that China – a key supplier of several critical minerals to global markets – has been increasing restrictions on its exports as part of an ongoing trade war with the US. Access to Greenland’s resources would give Washington more supply chain security and limit any leverage that China could to bring to bear.

Strategic value

Greenland’s strategic location also makes it valuable to the US. An existing US base, Pituffik Space Base, is key to US missile early warning and defence and plays a critical role in space surveillance. Future expansion of the base could also enhance US capabilities to monitor Russian naval movements in the Arctic Ocean and the north Atlantic.

US sovereignty over Greenland, if Trump’s deal comes to pass, would also effectively forestall any moves by rivals, especially China, to get a foothold on the island. This may be less of a concern if Greenland remains part of Nato member Denmark which has kept the island economically afloat with an annual grant of around US$500 million (£407 million).

Greenland’s independence – support for which has been steadily growing – could open the door to more, and less regulated, foreign investment. In this case, China is seen as particularly keen to step in should the opportunity arise.

Add to that growing security cooperation between Russia and China and the fact that Russia has generally become more militarily aggressive, and Trump’s case looks yet more credible. Nor is he the only one to have raised the alarm bells: Canada, Denmark and Norway have all recently pushed back against an increasing Russian and Chinese footprint in the Arctic.

So, the problem with Trump’s proposal is not that it is based on a flawed diagnosis of the underlying issue it tries to address. Growing Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic region in general is a security problem at a time of rising geopolitical rivalry. In this context, Greenland undeniably poses a particular and significant security vulnerability for the United States.

Read more:
How the west is foiling Russia’s attempts to use the Arctic in the Ukraine war

The flaws in Trump’s plan

The problem is Trump’s “America first” tunnel vision of looking for a solution. Insisting that he wants Greenland and that he will get it – even if that means exceptional tariffs on Danish exports (think Novo Nordisk’s weightloss drugs) or the use of force.

Predictably, Greenland and Denmark rejected the new “offer”. And key allies, including France and Germany, rushed to their ally’s defence – figuratively for now.

Rather than strengthening US security, Trump is arguably effectively weakening it by, yet again, undermining the western alliance. Not only does the irony of doing so in the north Atlantic appear to be lost on Trump. But it also seems that there is an even more fundamental problem at work here in that this kind of 19th century-style territorial expansionism reflects Trump’s isolationist impulses.

“Incorporating” Greenland into the US would likely insulate Washington from the disruption of critical mineral supply chains and keep Russia and China at bay. And signalling that he will do it whatever the cost is an indication that, beyond the kind of bluster and bombast that is normally associated with Trump, his approach to foreign policy will quickly do away with any gloves.

Rather than investing in strengthening security cooperation with Denmark and the rest of its Nato and European allies to face down Russia and China in the Arctic and beyond, Trump and his team may well think that the US can get away with this. Given that what is at stake here are relations with the US’s hitherto closest allies, this is an enormous, and unwarranted, gamble.

No great power in history has been able to go it alone forever – and even taking possession of Greenland, by hook or by crook, is unlikely to change this.

Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

– ref. Trump’s Greenland bid is really about control of the Arctic and the coming battle with China – https://theconversation.com/trumps-greenland-bid-is-really-about-control-of-the-arctic-and-the-coming-battle-with-china-246900

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Armour, Associate Professor at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University

Medicare, Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, guarantees all Australians access to a wide range of health and hospital services at low or no cost.

Although access to the scheme is universal across Australia (regardless of geographic location or socioeconomic status), one analysis suggests women often spend more out-of-pocket on health services than men.

Other research has found men and women spend similar amounts on health care overall, or even that men spend a little more. However, it’s clear women spend a greater proportion of their overall expenditure on health care than men. They’re also more likely to skip or delay medical care due to the cost.

So why do women often spend more of their money on health care, and how can we address this gap?

Women have more chronic diseases, and access more services

Women are more likely to have a chronic health condition compared to men. They’re also more likely to report having multiple chronic conditions.

While men generally die earlier, women are more likely to spend more of their life living with disease. There are also some conditions which affect women more than men, such as autoimmune conditions (for example, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis).

Further, medical treatments can sometimes be less effective for women due to a focus on men in medical research.

These disparities are likely significant in understanding why women access health services more than men.

For example, 88% of women saw a GP in 2021–22 compared to 79% of men.

As the number of GPs offering bulk billing continues to decline, women are likely to need to pay more out-of-pocket, because they see a GP more often.

In 2020–21, 4.3% of women said they had delayed seeing a GP due to cost at least once in the previous 12 months, compared to 2.7% of men.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has also shown women are more likely to delay or avoid seeing a mental health professional due to cost.

Women are also more likely to need prescription medications, owing at least partly to their increased rates of chronic conditions. This adds further out-of-pocket costs. In 2020–21, 62% of women received a prescription, compared to 37% of men.

In the same period, 6.1% of women delayed getting, or did not get prescribed medication because of the cost, compared to 4.9% of men.

Reproductive health conditions

While women are disproportionately affected by chronic health conditions throughout their lifespan, much of the disparity in health-care needs is concentrated between the first period and menopause.

Almost half of women aged over 18 report having experienced chronic pelvic pain in the previous five years. This can be caused by conditions such as endometriosis, dysmenorrhoea (period pain), vulvodynia (vulva pain), and bladder pain.

One in seven women will have a diagnosis of endometriosis by age 49.

Meanwhile, a quarter of all women aged 45–64 report symptoms related to menopause that are significant enough to disrupt their daily life.

All of these conditions can significantly reduce quality of life and increase the need to seek health care, sometimes including surgical treatment.

Of course, conditions like endometriosis don’t just affect women. They also impact trans men, intersex people, and those who are gender diverse.

Diagnosis can be costly

Women often have to wait longer to get a diagnosis for chronic conditions. One preprint study found women wait an average of 134 days (around 4.5 months) longer than men for a diagnosis of a long-term chronic disease.

Delays in diagnosis often result in needing to see more doctors, again increasing the costs.

Despite affecting about as many people as diabetes, it takes an average of between six-and-a-half to eight years to diagnose endometriosis in Australia. This can be attributed to a number of factors including society’s normalisation of women’s pain, poor knowledge about endometriosis among some health professionals, and the lack of affordable, non-invasive methods to accurately diagnose the condition.

There have been recent improvements, with the introduction of Medicare rebates for longer GP consultations of up to 60 minutes. While this is not only for women, this extra time will be valuable in diagnosing and managing complex conditions.

But gender inequality issues still exist in the Medicare Benefits Schedule. For example, both pelvic and breast ultrasound rebates are less than a scan for the scrotum, and no rebate exists for the MRI investigation of a woman’s pelvic pain.

Management can be expensive too

Many chronic conditions, such as endometriosis, which has a wide range of symptoms but no cure, can be very hard to manage. People with endometriosis often use allied health and complementary medicine to help with symptoms.

On average, women are more likely than men to use both complementary therapies and allied health.

While women with chronic conditions can access a chronic disease management plan, which provides Medicare-subsidised visits to a range of allied health services (for example, physiotherapist, psychologist, dietitian), this plan only subsidises five sessions per calendar year. And the reimbursement is usually around 50% or less, so there are still significant out-of-pocket costs.

In the case of chronic pelvic pain, the cost of accessing allied or complementary health services has been found to average A$480.32 across a two-month period (across both those who have a chronic disease management plan and those who don’t).

More spending, less saving

Womens’ health-care needs can also perpetuate financial strain beyond direct health-care costs. For example, women with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain are often caught in a cycle of needing time off from work to attend medical appointments.

Our preliminary research has shown these repeated requests, combined with the common dismissal of symptoms associated with pelvic pain, means women sometimes face discrimination at work. This can lead to lack of career progression, underemployment, and premature retirement.

Similarly, with 160,000 women entering menopause each year in Australia (and this number expected to increase with population growth), the financial impacts are substantial.

As many as one in four women may either shift to part-time work, take time out of the workforce, or retire early due to menopause, therefore earning less and paying less into their super.

How can we close this gap?

Even though women are more prone to chronic conditions, until relatively recently, much of medical research has been done on men. We’re only now beginning to realise important differences in how men and women experience certain conditions (such as chronic pain).

Investing in women’s health research will be important to improve treatments so women are less burdened by chronic conditions.

In the 2024–25 federal budget, the government committed $160 million towards a women’s health package to tackle gender bias in the health system (including cost disparities), upskill medical professionals, and improve sexual and reproductive care.

While this reform is welcome, continued, long-term investment into women’s health is crucial.

Mike Armour has previously received a partnership grant between Western Sydney University and Endometriosis Australia to develop a workplace support program for people with endometriosis.

Danielle Howe receives funding from Endometriosis Australia and Western Sydney University for the development of workplace support for people with endometriosis.

Amelia Mardon, Hannah Adler, and Michelle O’Shea 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. Women spend more of their money on health care than men. And no, it’s not just about ‘women’s issues’ – https://theconversation.com/women-spend-more-of-their-money-on-health-care-than-men-and-no-its-not-just-about-womens-issues-243797

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney

The church of Saint Ignatius in Rome (or San Ignazio) has become a viral selfie location. Tourists have been queuing out the doors for a chance to take a selfie in a mirror that reflects the church’s richly painted ceiling.

The vault was painted by the artist Andrea Pozzo between 1688 and 1694. In the centre we can see Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Jesuit order. He is ascending through the clouds to heaven while a divine light pours into him and through him to representations of the four continents of the world, an allegory of the missionary work of the Jesuit order.

The real fascination of the painting is the optical illusion Pozzo created, which is probably also why it is gaining fans as an Instagram backdrop.

When you look up at the painting it seems the real architecture of the nave continue upwards to an impossible height and the roof has lifted off entirely.

Figures of angels dangle their legs from cloud, saints gaze down towards us or look towards heaven, putti (baby angels) hold symbolic objects and peek from beneath voluminous robes, while animals charge out from behind the architecture.

Even with the most critical eye it can seem impossible to tell where the real church ends and the illusion begins.

An ‘illusionistic’ ceiling painting

Pozzo’s masterpiece marks a significant moment in the history of illusionistic painting in Europe.

Since the 15th century, artists and architects had been interested in refining the use of a technique called “linear perspective” that allowed them to depict three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Anyone who has tried their hand at drawing lessons has probably had a go at depicting this kind of perspective.

A common exercise, found in a 15th-century book by the architect Leon Battista Alberti, shows the example of drawing straight lines that converge at a single point to create the illusion of depth.

Pozzo was one of the leading artists in the 17th century for this style of painting. He wrote a book, Rules and Examples of Perspective, explaining how he created these optical illusions using perspective.

For the ceiling of Saint Ignatius he first created a drawing on paper divided into squares. A grid was then suspended on the ceiling by attaching pieces of string to the cornice (the moulding between the wall and ceiling).

A central point on the floor (where the selfie mirror is) was chosen as the central viewing point and the design was copied line by line onto the ceiling. This was challenging as the ceiling is not flat, but curved.

If you could view it up close you would see that the figures and lines of architecture are distorted, stretched, curved and foreshortened, but when viewed from the central spot on the floor it creates a seamless illusion.

The science of vision

The fascination with illusionistic ceiling paintings in this period in Europe was in part a response to new scientific ideas about optics – the study of the properties of light.

Painting was regarded as an art that had its foundations in scientific reasoning. The best painters understood how shadows and light worked, understood colour theories and studied perspective and anatomy.

In 1604 the astronomer, mathematician and natural philosopher Johannes Kepler published a text proposing that vision was based on light passing through the cornea, pupil and lens to produce an image on the retina.

The philosopher Rene Descartes then proposed in two works, Dioptrique (Optics), published in 1637, and L’Homme (Treatise on Man), published posthumously in 1662, that these images were conducted to the brain – the idea of sensory projection.

Art played an important role in helping people conceptualise these new ideas. Both Descartes and Kepler used the metaphor of “painting” to describe how light created an image on the retina.

In the illustrations created for Descartes’ L’Homme we also see how theories about seeing were illustrated using geometry and linear perspective.

This new understanding of vision also led to the realisation the eye could be manipulated. Optical illusions in art prompted delight and anxiety about whether the eye could be trusted. They also prompted deeper reflection about the nature of truth and existence of god.

A theatre of religious visions

Illusionistic paintings in churches also had a religious purpose.

The Jesuits regarded performance and spectacle as a central part of their mission to educate and inspire religious devotion. Philosophers like Descartes believed that the experience of wonder prompted an emotional response that could transform the mind.

It is likely Pozzo was inspired by these popular ideas about wonder.

Visitors in the 17th century experienced the sense of amazement, as we still do, but the idea was this moment of wonder would translate into stronger religious faith.

These paintings helped to make abstract concepts – like religious faith and ascending to heaven – more real and tangible.

Why does a 350-year-old painting still hold such an attraction for modern visitors? For some, the religious message is still significant.

For many others it is the illusion that draws us in. We know what we see is not real, yet our brains register it as such. The visual dissonance delights and intrigues us.

And still for many it is just a popular Instagram or TikTok backdrop. But, hopefully, it is also a reminder that, in a world flooded with constructed and fake images, the eye is easily fooled.

Katrina Grant 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. Behind the viral selfie location of Saint Ignatius is a 350-year-old story of an optical illusion – https://theconversation.com/behind-the-viral-selfie-location-of-saint-ignatius-is-a-350-year-old-story-of-an-optical-illusion-244933

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Keeley, Research Ecologist, USGS; Adjunct Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

Powerful Santa Ana winds, near hurricane strength at times, swept down the mountains outside Los Angeles and pushed wildfires into several neighborhoods starting Jan. 7, 2025. Over 1,000 stuctures, mostly homes, had burned and at least five people had died by Jan. 8. Officials urged more than 100,000 residents to evacuate, but with the winds so strong, there was little firefighters could do to control the flames.

Jon Keeley, a research ecologist in California with the U.S. Geological Survey and adjunct professor at UCLA, explains what causes extreme winds like this in Southern California, and why they create such a serious fire risk.

What causes the Santa Ana winds?

The Santa Ana winds are dry, powerful winds that blow down the mountains toward the Southern California coast.

The region sees about 10 Santa Ana wind events a year on average, typically occurring from fall into January. When conditions are dry, as they are right now, these winds can become a severe fire hazard.

The Santa Ana winds occur when there is high pressure to the east, in the Great Basin, and a low-pressure system off the coast. Air masses move from high pressure to low pressure, and the more extreme the difference in the pressure, the faster the winds blow.

Topography also plays a role.

As the winds rush downslope from the top of the San Gabriel Mountains, they become drier and hotter. That’s a function of the physics of air masses. By the time the winds get to the point where the Eaton Fire broke out in Altadena on Jan. 7, it’s not uncommon for them to have less than 5% relative humidity, meaning essentially no moisture at all.

Canyons also channel the winds. I used to live in the Altadena area, and we would get days during Santa Ana wind events when the wind wasn’t present at all where we lived, but, a few blocks away, the wind was extremely strong.

These strong, dry winds are often around 30 to 40 mph. But they can be stronger. The winds in early January 2025 were reported to have reached 60 to 70 mph.

Why was the fire risk so high this time?

Typically, Southern California has enough rain by now that the vegetation is moist and doesn’t readily burn. A study a few years ago showed that autumn moisture reduces the risk of Santa Ana wind-driven fires.

This year, however, Southern California has very dry conditions, with very little moisture over the past several months. With these extreme winds, we have the perfect storm for severe fires.

It’s very hard to extinguish a fire under these conditions. The firefighters in the area will tell you, if there’s a Santa Ana wind-driven fire, they will evacuate people ahead of the fire front and control the edges – but when the wind is blowing like this, there’s very little chance of stopping it until the wind subsides.

Other states have seen similar fires driven by strong downslope winds. During the Chimney Tops 2 Fire in Tennessee in November 2016, strong downslope winds spread the flames into homes in Gatlinburg, killing 14 people and burning more than 2,500 homes. Boulder County, Colorado, lost about 1,000 homes when powerful winds coming down the mountains there spread the Marshall Fire in December 2021.

Have the Santa Ana winds changed over time?

Santa Ana wind events aren’t new, but we’re seeing them more often this time of year.

My colleagues and I recently published a paper comparing 71 years of Santa Ana wind events, starting in 1948. We found about the same amount of overall Santa Ana wind activity, but the timing is shifting from fewer events in September and more in December and January. Due to well-documented trends in climate change, it is tempting to ascribe this to global warming, but as yet there is no substantial evidence of this.

California is seeing more destructive fires than we saw in the past. That’s driven not just by changes in the climate and the winds, but also by population growth.

More people now live in and at the edges of wildland areas, and the power grid has expanded with them. That creates more opportunities for fires to start. In extreme weather, power lines face a higher risk of falling or being hit by tree branches and sparking a fire. The area burnt because of fires related to power lines has greatly expanded; today it is the major ignition source for destructive fires in Southern California.

The Eaton Fire, which has burned many homes, is at the upper perimeter of the San Gabriel Basin, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Fifty years ago, fewer people lived there. Back then, some parts of the basin were surrounded by citrus orchards, and fires in the mountains would burn out in the orchards before reaching homes.

Today, there is no buffer between homes and the wildland. The point of ignition for the Eaton Fire appears to have been near or within one of those neighborhoods.

Homes are made of dried materials, and when the atmosphere is dry, they combust readily, allowing fires to spread quickly through neighborhoods and creating a great risk of destructive fires.

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

– ref. How Santa Ana winds fueled the deadly fires in Southern California – https://theconversation.com/how-santa-ana-winds-fueled-the-deadly-fires-in-southern-california-246965

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Stone, Credit Union SA Chair of Economics, University of South Australia

It’s unlikely you’ve missed the story. In recent weeks, US President-elect Donald Trump has again repeatedly voiced his desire for the United States to take “ownership and control” of Greenland – an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Trump first floated the idea of the US buying Greenland back in 2019. At the time, he argued, quite correctly, that he was not the first US president to come up with the idea.

Modern-day territory sales are rare. Whether Trump will revive them remains to be seen. But the question is intriguing – how would one decide what to offer for an entire state, territory or nation?

Read more:
Trump won’t rule out force to take Greenland – a country with a complex colonial history

Not a new idea

Greenland’s strategic position has been of great value to the US since the early days of the Cold War.

In 1946, then-President Harry Truman offered to buy the Danish territory for US$100 million in gold. It is reported the Danes had much the same reaction to that offer as they did in 2019, and again in 2025: “No, thank you.”

One sovereign nation buying territory from another may seem strange today, but there are many instances where this has happened over time.

The US purchased much of its Western expansion in the early 19th century.

This included the “Louisiana Purchase”, vast swathes of land in North America, bought from France in 1803 for US$15 million (an estimated US$416 million in 2024 figures).

About half a century later, the US paid Mexico for large amounts of territory after the Mexican-American War. The US also bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, for US$7.2 million (over US$150 million today).

And it bought the US Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917 for US$25 million (over US$600 million today) in gold coin.

It isn’t just the US. Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Germany and Saudi Arabia have all purchased territory, transferring jurisdiction over local inhabitants and gaining land, access to critical waterways or simply geographical buffers.

What is a country’s value?

Valuing a country (or an autonomous territory like Greenland) is no simple task. Unlike companies or assets, countries embody a mix of tangible and intangible elements that resist straightforward economic measurement.

A logical place to start is gross domestic product, or “GDP”. Simply put, GDP is the value of all the final goods and services produced in an economy in a given time (usually one year).

But does this really capture the true “value” of an economy? When we buy something, the benefits derived from it last – we hope – into the future.

So, basing a purchase price on the value produced in a given time period may not adequately reflect the value of that object (in this case, an entire economy) to the buyer. We need to consider the ability to continue to generate value into the future.

Greenland’s productive resources include not only the existing businesses, governments and workers used to generate its current GDP (estimated at about US$3.236 billion in 2021), but also its (difficult to measure) ability to change and improve its future GDP. This will depend on how productive these resources are expected to be in the future.

There are other attributes of value not captured in GDP. These include the quality of its capital (both human and infrastructure), quality of life, natural resources and strategic position.

Unexploited resources

Beyond what is already there, from a market perspective, it’s the as-yet unexploited resources that make Greenland valuable.

Greenland has been mining coal for decades, with large, confirmed reserves. The subsoil has been shown to contain rare earths, precious metals, graphite and uranium.

In addition to coal mining, there is gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, graphite and marble.

Finally, there is the potential for major oil exploitation off the waters of Greenland. None of this potential is reflected in Greenland’s current GDP.

National assets are easier

Putting a price on a large national asset, such as the Panama Canal (which Trump also wants under US control), is a much easier prospect.

The theory of asset valuation is a fundamental part of the finance discipline and dates back to the 18th century.

The “asset pricing model” has evolved over time, but fundamentally, it’s about estimating the future net income flows from an asset, based on a few inputs.

For the Panama Canal, this would involve estimating the future net income that could be generated, based on factors such as fees generated by its use and the level of anticipated traffic.

You’d then take steps to subtract the anticipated costs of maintaining the equipment and any expected damage to the health of the waterway. Another factor in determining what you would pay is the risk of actually realising that net income.

The value or “price tag” of such an asset is usually determined by working out the present value of all of these future (net) income flows.

Modern territory sales are rare

The decline in territorial sales is tied to several factors. Historically, land sales often benefited ruling elites rather than ordinary citizens. In modern democracies, it is nearly impossible to sell land if local citizens oppose the idea.

Such democracies operate on the principle that national assets should serve the people, not the government’s coffers. Selling a territory today would require demonstrating clear, tangible benefits to the population, a difficult task in practice.

Nationalism also plays a powerful role. Land is deeply tied to national identity and selling it off is often seen as a betrayal. Governments, as custodians of national pride, are reluctant to entertain offers, no matter how tempting.

Compounding this is a strong international norm against changing borders, born of fears that one territorial adjustment could trigger a cascade of claims and conflicts elsewhere.

In today’s world, buying a country or one of its territories may be little more than a thought experiment. Nations are political, cultural and historical entities that resist commodification.

Greenland may theoretically have a price, but the real question is whether such a transaction could ever align with modern values and realities.

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. If Greenland were for sale, what would it be worth? How to put a ‘price tag’ on a territory – https://theconversation.com/if-greenland-were-for-sale-what-would-it-be-worth-how-to-put-a-price-tag-on-a-territory-246884

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group + School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

Debate erupted this week over the growing number of beach tents, or “cabanas”, proliferating on Australian beaches. The controversy, which began on social media, was fuelled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who declared it was “not on” for beachgoers to reserve a spot on the sand by erecting a cabana then leaving it vacant for hours.

Albanese told Nine’s Today show
“everyone owns the beach” and staking a claim on the sand was “a breach of that principle, really”.

Other critics deem beach cabanas an eyesore. And lifeguards say the structures can
obscure their view of the water, which poses a safety risk.

Beach cabanas do, however, serve a valid purpose. They provide some protection against the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays and, from a recreational perspective, can enable people to spend longer at the beach on hot days than they might have otherwise.

I’m a member of the University of NSW Beach Safety Research Group, and I’ve worked with local councils and national parks to address health and safety issues on beaches. So let’s look at how to strike the right balance between personal convenience and public safety when using a cabana.

A fair go for all?

In years past, Aussies came to the beach with a towel and maybe a book, stayed a little while then left.

But more recently, the use of beach tents and cabanas has grown. It’s likely the result of Australia’s growing coastal population, and a rising awareness of the dangers posed by sun exposure.

These days, it’s not uncommon to visit a popular beach in summer and find a village of cabanas stretching as far as the eye can see.

It’s great to see so many people using the beach. Beaches and oceans are health-giving places, though they come with inherent dangers.

And of course, in Australia the beach is free for all who wish to use it. It’s an approach in line with our supposedly egalitarian culture, in which everyone gets a “fair go”. Here, beaches are a place to be shared, no matter what your income or social status.

The approach contrasts to many destinations in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, where large sections of beaches are reserved for private use. At Waikiki beach in Honolulu, for example, people pay US$100 or more to hire an umbrella and chairs, and a place on the sand for the day.

To some naysayers, cabana use in Australia challenges the notion that the beach is for everyone. They question whether people should be allowed to mark out beach territory no-one else can use. That’s why in 2020, a bid by a private company to introduce paid cabanas on Sydney’s Bondi Beach prompted a public outcry.

Cabanas bring practical challenges, too. They represent an unplanned influx of temporary infrastructure into busy public spaces. Left unchecked, they could cause pedestrian congestion and become a flashpoint for disagreement between beachgoers.

The current debate may prompt Australian beach authorities to consider bringing in cabana regulation, similar to what’s in place for some beaches in the US.

In the meantime, here are five tips for safe and fair use of beach cabanas:

1. Placement: Erect your cabana at the back of the beach and away from lifeguard towers or lifesaver tents to avoid obstructing lifeguards’ views. Clear sightlines to the water are essential for ensuring timely emergency responses. This positioning also leaves space closer to the water for other beachgoers, including children playing at the water’s edge.

2. Tying down: Secure your cabana firmly in the sand to prevent it from being blown away by strong winds. Flying cabanas are a danger to other beach users, potentially causing injuries and damage to property.

3. Spacing: Avoid overcrowding by maintaining two to three meters between structures. This ensures free movement and accessibility for all beachgoers, and ensures families and groups can enjoy the beach without feeling cramped. Also, stay within the boundaries of your cabana and don’t claim territory outside its boundaries.

4. Emergency access: Keep pathways and access points clear at all times. This is crucial for lifeguard vehicles, ambulances and surf rescue teams. Unobstructed access can make the difference between life and death in an emergency.

5. Common sense: As with using any shared space, consider the needs of others and apply common sense. How would you feel if someone set up a structure right in front of you, blocking your view of the waves or ruining your vibe? Or if you or a loved one needed medical attention on a beach, would you want an ambulance crew obstructed by an unbroken line of tents?

Looking ahead

In the past, some have called for a ban on beach cabanas. But the structures appear here to stay – and that’s not a bad thing. Skin cancer affects more young Australians than any other cancer, and the Cancer Council applauds the use of cabanas.

It’s important to note, however, that cabanas do not provide complete protection from UV rays. If you’re at the beach all day, you might still get too much sun even under a tent.

When it comes to your next visit to the coast, by all means pack your cabana. But make sure you use it carefully and responsibly, so everyone’s day at the beach is safe and enjoyable.

Samuel Cornell receives funding from Meta Platforms, Inc. His research is also supported by a UNSW University Postgraduate Award, as well as project funding from the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia. He is affiliated with Surf Life Saving Australia and Surf Life Saving NSW.

– ref. Cabana drama: 5 expert tips on how not to be branded a twit when using a beach tent – https://theconversation.com/cabana-drama-5-expert-tips-on-how-not-to-be-branded-a-twit-when-using-a-beach-tent-246882

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

Olive oil is synonymous with the Mediterranean diet, and the health benefits of both are well documented.

Olive oil reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and premature death. Olives also contain numerous healthy nutrients.

Now evidence is mounting about the health benefits of olive leaves, including from studies in a recent review.

Here’s what’s in olive leaves and who might benefit from taking olive leaf extract.

What’s in olive leaves?

Olive leaves have traditionally been brewed as a tea in the Mediterranean and drunk to treat fever and malaria.

The leaves contain high levels of a type of antioxidant called oleuropein. Olives and olive oil contain this too, but at lower levels.

Generally, the greener the leaf (the less yellowish) the more oleuropein it contains. Leaves picked in spring also have higher levels compared to ones picked in autumn, indicating levels of oleuropein reduce as the leaves get older.

Olive leaves also contain other antioxidants such as hydroxytyrosol, luteolin, apigenin and verbascoside.

Antioxidants work by reducing the oxidative stress in the body. Oxidative stress causes damage to our DNA, cell membranes and tissues, which can lead to chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

Are olive leaves healthy?

One review and analysis combined data from 12 experimental studies with 819 participants in total. Overall, olive leaf extract improved risk factors for heart disease. This included healthier blood lipids (fats) and lowering blood pressure.

The effect was greater for people who already had high blood pressure.

Most studies in this review gave olive leaf extract as a capsule, with daily doses of 500 milligrams to 5 grams for six to 48 weeks.

Another review and analysis published late last year looked at data from 12 experimental studies, with a total of 703 people. Some of these studies involved people with high blood lipids, people with high blood pressure, people who were overweight or obese, and some involved healthy people.

Daily doses were 250-1,000mg taken as tablets or baked into bread.

Individual studies in the review showed significant benefits in improving blood glucose (sugar) control, blood lipid levels and reducing blood pressure. But when all the data was combined, there were no significant health effects. We’ll explain why this may be the case shortly.

Another review looked at people who took oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol (the antioxidants in olive leaves). This found significant improvement in body weight, blood lipid profiles, glucose metabolism and improvements in bones, joints and cognitive function.

The individual studies included tested either the two antioxidants or olive leaf incorporated into foods such as bread and cooking oils (but not olive oil). The doses were 6-500mg per day of olive leaf extract.

So what can we make of these studies overall? They show olive leaf extract may help reduce blood pressure, improve blood lipids and help our bodies handle glucose.

But these studies show inconsistent results. This is likely due to differences in the way people took olive leaf extract, how much they took and how long for. This type of inconsistency normally tells us we need some more research to clarify the health effects of olive leaves.

Can you eat olive leaves?

Olive leaves can be brewed into a tea, or the leaves added to salads. Others report grinding olive leaves into smoothies.

However the leaves are bitter, because of the antioxidants, which can make them hard to eat, or the tea unpalatable.

Olive leaf extract has also been added to bread and other baked goods. Researchers find this improves the level of antioxidants in these products and people say the foods tasted better.

Is olive leaf extract toxic?

No, there seem to be no reported toxic effects of eating or drinking olive leaf extract.

It appears safe up to 1g a day, according to studies that have used olive leaf extract. However, there are no official guidelines about how much is safe to consume.

There have been reports of potential toxicity if taken over 85mg/kg of body weight per day. For an 80kg adult, this would mean 6.8g a day, well above the dose used in the studies mentioned in this article.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women are recommended not to consume it as we don’t know if it’s safe for them.

What should I do?

If you have high blood pressure, diabetes or raised blood lipids you may see some benefit from taking olive leaf extract. But it is important you discuss this with your doctor first and not change any medications or start taking olive leaf extract until you have spoken to them.

But there are plenty of antioxidants in all plant foods, and you should try to eat a wide variety of different coloured plant foods. This will allow you to get a range of nutrients and antioxidants.

Olive leaf and its extract is not going to be a panacea for your health if you’re not eating a healthy diet and following other health advice.

Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.

– ref. Olive oil is healthy. Turns out olive leaf extract may be good for us too – https://theconversation.com/olive-oil-is-healthy-turns-out-olive-leaf-extract-may-be-good-for-us-too-245941

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania

As I write this, five people are dead and at least 1,000 buildings have been destroyed by wildfires that have swept across Los Angeles. Around 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.

We are not yet sure of the scale of the disaster, but maps show it is burning across many suburbs. That is shocking. We are looking at a disaster unfolding in real time.

But we knew this would happen eventually. We have moved from possible futures to these things now happening. The deferment has ended.

So, could something similar happen in major Australian cities – and how prepared are we? The answers are: yes, and not very.

Why is LA on fire?

The areas north of LA have always been at high fire risk. That’s because of the mix of the fuels from trees and plants and the uneven terrain; canyons and ridges can accelerate fire.

But in this situation, several things happened at once – all of which are bad.

We had the amazingly strong Santa Ana winds, in conjunction with a very dry landscape. The landscape was primed for fire, and then due to these winds, the fires grew extraordinarily fast. Fire suppression capacity was quickly overwhelmed.

In a place such as California, with its enviable aerial fire-fighting capacity, fires can usually be contained rapidly. But this one grew at a fantastic rate, driven by these terrible winds. It then got into the houses and all the way down the coast.

Shockingly, it crossed from the intermix housing on the border of bushland and city, and moved into suburban environments. It was an incredibly fast escalation.

All of these things aren’t unexpected. We know fires are burning faster and hotter and quicker, and fire seasons are getting longer. After all, these LA fires happened in the US winter.

The environment is being primed by climate change and we know there are limits to fire suppression.

So, we knew these things were going to happen – but it is still so confronting when they do.

Could this happen in a major city in Australia?

The short answer: yes.

We don’t have Santa Ana winds, of course, but we do have downslope winds (a wind that comes over a topographic barrier like a mountain range). They are often very dry and warm and can move quickly.

There is the possibility for fires to burn into Australian suburbs. It happened in Canberra in 2003. And it could happen again in a major city such as Sydney or Melbourne. We have all the ingredients.

If you have the wrong wind and the wrong fire and the wrong time, a fire can be driven very quickly into an urban area.

The degree to which it would spread depends on the suburban landscape and how well prepared the area is.

If a suburb has older housing stock with older gardens, for instance, it’s absolutely ripe for a fire to spread quickly. If you have more modern housing stock (which is usually better at defending against ember attack), and the houses are more spaced apart and the gardens are clearer, then you might be OK.

When fire gets into suburbs, the damage can be variable. Some houses might burn down and others may survive. But the worst case scenario is what we call “house-to-house ignition”, where the houses become the fuel.

The other frightening dimension is what happens if water supplies run out, which is reportedly happening in some parts of Los Angeles.

How ready are Australian cities for fires?

Australia is not well prepared for scenarios such as this. But rather than be fatalistic and assume urban areas are open game for wildfires, effort is needed from all levels of government and community to reduce the risk of fires impacting suburban and semi-suburban areas.

That means better boundaries between houses and keeping fuel loads low. It also means households, councils and fire authorities having a plan for when fires hit.

This may mean implementing planning rules to enforce safer gardens or the clearing of bushland behind homes. But such measures will be controversial in many cases.

Gaining public support will require designing landscape-scale firebreaks that are attractive and sympathetic to biodiversity.

Studies suggest that achieving fire-ready cities requires a mix of research, education, incentivisation and penalties.

We also need to ask: how bushfire-aware are city residents?

So much messaging around having a plan, knowing where to go and leaving early has been targeted at rural and bushland residents. Many people in suburban areas may not consider themselves vulnerable and might not have a plan at all.

Many regional and rural areas in Australia have bushfire places of last resort – safe places for the community to go when all other bushfire plans have failed. The LA tragedy shows we also need these places in cities. People also need a plan on how to get there (by walking or going on bike, where possible), so traffic jams don’t ensue as everyone tries to escape.

People should also be educated about what to expect at the evacuation point when you arrive. Where possible, they should take their own food, water and medicines and include pets in their plan.

And the planning discussion should include residents in fire-prone areas installing their own specially designed fire-shelters at home, if they can afford it.

Nowhere to hide

Global warming is making bushfires in Australia more frequent and severe. As bushfires become more prevalent, home insurance costs are increasing. That will affect the cost of living and the broader economy.

The LA fires show when it comes to climate change, there’s nowhere to hide. Around the world, authorities and communities must overhaul their assumptions about bushfire risk and preparedness. That includes people living in cities.

Kicking the can down the road won’t work. The crisis is already here.

David Bowman has received funding from the ARC and Natural Hazards Research Australia.

– ref. LA is on fire. How will Australia cope when bushfires hit Sydney, Melbourne or another major city? – https://theconversation.com/la-is-on-fire-how-will-australia-cope-when-bushfires-hit-sydney-melbourne-or-another-major-city-246967

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Feigin, Lecturer in Genetics & Evolutionary Biology, La Trobe University

Hidden beneath the dunes, a mysterious creature glides through the sand.

This is not one of the giant worms of Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic, Dune. Rather, it’s an enigmatic and tiny mammal found only in the deserts of Australia – the marsupial mole.

There are two related species of the marsupial mole.

Notoryctes typhlops, or southern marsupial mole, is found across the deserts of central and southern Australia. It is also also called itjaritjari by the local Indigenous Aṉangu peoples. Notoryctes caurinus, or the northern marsupial mole, is found in the deserts of northwestern Australia. It is also called kakarratul by the local Indigenous Martu people.

Until recently, these elusive animals have been nearly impossible to study. But our recent study in Science Advances has finally started to unravel the basis of their incredible “desert power”.

Rarely observed

Marsupial moles are small, about the length of a pencil, and weigh between 40 to 70 grams. They have a tubular body, yellow hair and limbs that barely protrude from their sides.

Rather than building permanent tunnels like their namesakes in the northern hemisphere, they “swim” through the loose sands of Australia’s deserts.

The subterranean lifestyle of marsupial moles, along with the vastness of the deserts they inhabit, means they are rarely observed. In fact, there are only a handful of sightings each decade.

New technologies, new insights

New DNA technologies can provide a window into the lives of cryptic species such as the marsupial mole that can’t be studied effectively in the wild.

To this end, our team worked with the Australian Biological Tissue Collection at the South Australian Museum to acquire two tiny tissue samples frozen more than a decade ago from a southern marsupial mole.

From these, we extracted extremely long fragments of DNA needed to produce a genome assembly. This is a digital representation of every base or “letter” that makes up the marsupial mole’s genetic code.

Because DNA contains both the instructions for how to make an organism’s traits and a record of its evolutionary history, we were able to glean remarkable insights into this cryptic species.

Unique adaptations

Marsupial moles have a variety of unique adaptations that help them survive in their harsh environment. For example, their eyes are tiny and located beneath their skin, making them functionally blind.

By comparing the sequences of eye genes to those of related marsupials, we were able to show that marsupial moles first lost genes critical for the eye’s lens. This probably happened because a clear image isn’t very important underground.

This was followed by genes for colour-sensing cone cells in the retina. After the eye had lost considerable function, the last genes to degrade were the ones active in rod cells, important for low-light conditions.

In mammals living on the surface, these changes would likely be harmful. Yet, by occurring in the right order, the stepwise degradation of eye genes allowed the marsupial mole’s ancestors to change gradually without harming their fitness.

This is a beautiful illustration of how both adaptations and disorders can share a similar genetic basis, with the line between them being shaped by their context.

Other traits

Sequencing the genome allowed us to study other traits in marsupial moles.

For example, we showed that a key gene involved in testicles dropping during puberty is likely to have also degraded in this species. This may help to explain why male marsupial moles lack a scrotum and have their testes perched in their abdominal wall.

We also found that marsupial moles have two copies of a gene encoding haemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells. This is important because sand has low oxygen levels and poor air movement.

Moreover, this duplicated haemoglobin gene is typically used in newborn mammals.

The pouch of a marsupial is already a low-oxygen environment, so marsupial moles needed to evolve ways to avoid their young suffocating. Having more haemoglobin may help.

Tracing the mole’s evolutionary heritage

For years the marsupial mole’s strange, specialised traits have frustrated attempts to determine precisely who its closest relatives actually are. But sequencing its genome has allowed us to trace its evolutionary heritage.

To do this, we examined a special type of DNA sequence called retrotransposons.

These are short stretches of DNA that can make copies of themselves that get randomly inserted across an animal’s genome and passed down through generations.

Our examination revealed marsupial moles are a sister group to bandicoots and bilbies, with carnivorous marsupials like the Tasmanian devil being distant cousins.

Long-term decline

Almost nothing is currently known about the population health of marsupial moles. However, deserts are among the ecosystems most threatened by climate change.

Given this, we also sought to glean the first insights into how marsupial mole populations have changed over time.

Using patterns of genetic diversity across the marsupial mole genome, we were able to show they have likely experienced a long-term decline in effective population size that began around 70,000 years ago. This corresponds with historical changes during the last glacial period, suggesting the decline was because of climate change rather than human actions.

It’s unclear precisely how genetic diversity lost over tens of thousands of years will affect the marsupial mole’s ability to continue its record of adaptation to extreme environments.

However, these findings highlight that new, more expansive efforts to study marsupial moles through genetic methods may be needed to ensure they aren’t lost to the sands of time like too many other Australian mammals.

Charles Feigin 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. World-first study reveals the mysteries of the desert-dwelling marsupial mole – https://theconversation.com/world-first-study-reveals-the-mysteries-of-the-desert-dwelling-marsupial-mole-246677

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Risk & Resilience, UNSW Sydney

The popularity of e-bikes has soared over the past decade. Shared electric bikes for rent have become a common sight in major cities worldwide, while private ownership is also rising.

Since 2020, both sales and import of e-bikes have nearly tripled in Australia.

In Germany, nearly half of all bike sales are now e-bikes.

Trends suggest these bikes – equipped with battery-powered motors that assist the rider – will continue to replace many conventional car and bike trips.

But some serious questions about safety remain – and in Australia we still don’t have the data to know how many injuries and even deaths e-bikes are connected to.

What international data tells us

The Netherlands is sometimes called a “cycling paradise” thanks to its extensive cycling infrastructure and high volume of bike riders.

For researchers, there’s another plus: the country maintains thorough records on cycling injuries and fatalities from all types of bikes.

Data collected since 2000 shows Dutch cyclist fatalities remained relatively stable for almost two decades.

However, since 2018, this trend has begun to shift. Cyclist deaths hit a record high in 2022, with 291 fatalities reported — a nearly 25% increase on this century’s previous record (233 deaths in 2000).

This increase coincides with the rapid uptake of e-bikes. Between 2018 and 2021 the number of Dutch e-bike owners shot from 2.2 million to 3.1 million, while the number of regular bike owners declined.

Are e-bikes more deadly?

The Dutch data shows a higher number of cycling crashes still involve regular bikes compared to e-bikes. However, that’s likely because there are simply more regular bikes overall.

When we control the data for the number of e-bikes versus regular bikes, as well as the distance they tend to travel, we can compare the risk.

A clear trend emerges: e-bike riders face a higher risk of dying.

Data from China shows a similar trend.

Between 2011 and 2021, the number of accidents and fatalities per 100,000 people in the city of Guangzhou increased for e-bikes, but decreased for regular bikes.

E-bike fatalities in Guangzhou have continued to rise since 2018, while deaths linked to regular bikes have plateaued.

What about injuries?

Cycling also has non-fatal risks. To look at what kind of injuries e-bikes are involved in, and how severe they are, we can examine hospital data and compare this to regular bikes.

One clinical study looked at 557 patients who presented to a Swiss trauma centre from 2010 to 2015. Traumatic brain injury was more frequent and more severe in e-bikers than in regular bike riders.

In Israel, the National Trauma Registry records all hospitalisations. Between 2013—17 it revealed a dramatic increase in hospitalisation rates for injuries related to e-bikes, while those related to regular bikes decreased. E-bikers were also at greater risk of head injuries compared to regular bike riders.

However, other clinical studies have suggested the patterns of injury severity are similar in riders of e-bikes and regular bikes. For example, a Dutch study found no difference in the frequency or severity of traumatic brain injuries.

So, are e-bikes more unsafe?

Clearly, there is variability across individual studies. But when we combine findings from multiple countries, some clear patterns emerge.

E-bike users are more likely to sustain injuries to their spine and lower extremities (hips, legs, ankles and feet) compared to regular cyclists.

When injured, they are more likely to be admitted to hospital wards or intensive care units, where they also have a higher chance of undergoing surgery – and of dying.

Do we know why e-bikes have greater risks?

Not exactly.

But speed is one prominent factor. E-bikes reach higher speeds with less effort – e-bike riders average around 13.3 km/h compared to 10.4 km/h for regular cyclists.

E-bike riders may often be older and inexperienced cyclists.

This combination of speed and potential physical limitations, along with the heavier weight of e-bikes, increases crash and injury risk.

In the Swiss study above, injured e-bike riders admitted to hospital were significantly older compared to regular cyclists.

The Dutch data also shows number of e-bike fatalities increases by age, especially for those aged 60 and older.

E-bikes may be linked to other risky behaviours, including not wearing helmets, violating traffic rules and riding under the influence of alcohol – although we don’t have data to know if e-bikers do these more than regular cyclists.

But riders on shared e-bikes in particular are often less likely to wear helmets compared to those on their own bikes. There may be hesitation around using shared helmets, for example, due to hygiene concerns.

What needs to change?

Trends suggest this green mode of transport is here to stay. But two key changes are needed to make e-bikes safer for riders, pedestrians and other road users in Australia.

First, Australia should establish a national registry that tracks injuries and fatalities related to e-bikes. As we don’t currently collate these statistics, policymakers are forced to rely on international data.

Second, we need regulations tailored and proportional to the specific risks of e-bikes. This could mean stricter enforcement of helmet use, speed limits and better regulation of shared e-bike services, such as ensuring helmets are available and well-maintained.

As e-bikes increase in popularity, raising awareness about their risks remains key.

Milad Haghani 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. E-bike popularity is booming. But are they as safe as regular bikes? – https://theconversation.com/e-bike-popularity-is-booming-but-are-they-as-safe-as-regular-bikes-242703

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashish Kumar, Senior Lecturer, RMIT University

Once, borrowing money to make a purchase was a relatively tedious process, not a spur-of-the-moment thing.

True, some stores offered lay-by plans that would let you pay for goods in instalments. But if they didn’t, and you didn’t already have a credit card, you’d have to go to a bank and apply for one.

That would mean providing a range of supporting documents, negotiating an appropriate credit limit, and waiting for approval. It’s unlikely you’d apply for credit just for a single, small purchase.

In recent years, though, the financial technology or “fintech” revolution in the customer credit market has changed all that, with the meteoric rise of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services.

BNPL credit allows consumers to split their purchases into smaller, interest-free instalments. It is often directly integrated into online checkouts with fast approval, making it easy to purchase something instantly and spread the cost over coming months.

There are some obvious risks. Many BNPL providers charge less visible fees, such as late payment fees and account maintenance fees. In many countries, the BNPL sector is also less regulated than traditional credit.

But does it also change our spending habits? Our recent research uncovered a concerning insight: consumers who use BNPL services end up spending more money online than those who don’t. This effect is particularly strong among younger shoppers and those with lower incomes.

Our research

We analysed data from an online retailer in the Nordic region that offered customers three payment options for online purchases: card, pay on delivery and BNPL.

We found that consumers who used BNPL spent an average of 6.42% more than those who didn’t.

This increase was particularly noticeable for low-ticket items, suggesting that BNPL may encourage customers to buy more when shopping for smaller, everyday things.

Why might this be the case? For one, BPNL spending is constrained by the size of the loans on offer. In the US, the average BNPL loan amount is US$135 (A$217).

It may also be related to what’s known in economics as the “lipstick effect”, where customers under financial strain tend to reduce spending on big-ticket items in favour of lower-priced luxuries.

Selling such low-ticket items doesn’t always give online retailers the biggest profit margins. But it can play a crucial role in acquiring and retaining customers, and creating opportunities to upsell.

Our research also showed that younger, lower-income customers were more likely to spend more when using BNPL services, likely because it provides them with additional “liquidity” – access to cash.

Why might they be spending more?

It’s easy to see why so many consumers like BNPL. Some even think of it as more of a way of payment than a form of credit.

The core feature of such services – offering interest-free instalment payments for online purchases – has a significant psychological impact on customers.

It leverages the principle that the perceived benefit of spending in the present outweighs the displeasure associated with future payments.

This behaviour aligns with theories of “hyperbolic discounting” – our preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger later ones – and the related “present bias” phenomenon.

Our results also suggest customers with high category experience – that is, more familiar with the larger product categories carried by a retailer – and those more sensitive to deals and promotions are likely to spend more when online retailers provide BNPL as a payment option.

A growing influence on spending

The economic impact of BNPL is substantial in the countries that have pioneered its adoption.

In Australia, birthplace of Afterpay, Zip, Openpay, and Latitude, it’s estimated that (allowing for flow-on effects) BNPL services contributed A$14.3 billion to gross domestic product (GDP) in the 2021 financial year.

Industry research firm Juniper Research projects the number of BNPL users will exceed 670 million globally by 2028, an increase of more than 100% on current levels.

Substantial projected growth in the sector is attributed to multiple factors. These include increasing e-commerce usage, economic pressures, the flexibility of payment options and widespread adoption by merchants.

Buyer, beware

BNPL services can be a convenient way to pay for online purchases. But it’s important to use them responsibly.

That means understanding the potential risks and benefits to make your own informed decisions. Be mindful of your spending. Don’t let the allure of easy payments let you get carried away.

Customers should explore beyond the marketing tactics of interest-free split payments and pay close attention to terms and conditions, including any fees and penalties. They should treat BNPL like any other form of credit.

Whether you’re a shopper considering using BNPL or a business thinking about offering it, our research highlights that it may have the power to significantly influence spending patterns – for better or worse.

Ashish Kumar 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. Research suggests those who use buy-now-pay-later services end up spending more – https://theconversation.com/research-suggests-those-who-use-buy-now-pay-later-services-end-up-spending-more-246686

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ned Watt, PhD Candidate, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

Meta has announced it will abandon its fact-checking program, starting in the United States. It was aimed at preventing the spread of online lies among more than 3 billion people who use Meta’s social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

In a video, the company’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg, said fact checking had led to “too much censorship”.

He added it was time for Meta “to get back to our roots around free expression”, especially following the recent presidential election in the US. Zuckerberg characterised it as a “cultural tipping point, towards once again prioritising speech”.

Instead of relying on professional fact checkers to moderate content, the tech giant will now adopt a “community notes” model, similar to the one used by X.

This model relies on other social media users to add context or caveats to a post. It is currently under investigation by the European Union for its effectiveness.

This dramatic shift by Meta does not bode well for the fight against the spread of misinformation and disinformation online.

Independent assessment

Meta launched its independent, third-party, fact-checking program in 2016.

It did so during a period of heightened concern about information integrity coinciding with the election of Donald Trump as US president and furore about the role of social media platforms in spreading misinformation and disinformation.

As part of the program, Meta funded fact-checking partners – such as Reuters Fact Check, Australian Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and PolitiFact – to independently assess the validity of problematic content posted on its platforms.

Warning labels were then attached to any content deemed to be inaccurate or misleading. This helped users to be better informed about the content they were seeing online.

A backbone to global efforts to fight misinformation

Zuckerberg claimed Meta’s fact-checking program did not successfully address misinformation on the company’s platforms, stifled free speech and lead to widespread censorship.

But the head of the International Fact-Checking Network, Angie Drobnic Holan, disputes this. In a statement reacting to Meta’s decision, she said:

Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it’s added information and context to controversial claims, and it’s debunked hoax content and conspiracy theories. The fact-checkers used by Meta follow a Code of Principles requiring nonpartisanship and transparency.

A large body of evidence supports Holan’s position.

In 2023 in Australia alone, Meta displayed warnings on over 9.2 million distinct pieces of content on Facebook (posts, images and videos), and over 510,000 posts on Instagram, including reshares. These warnings were based on articles written by Meta’s third-party, fact-checking partners.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that these kinds of warnings effectively slow the spread of misinformation.

Meta’s fact‐checking policies also required the partner fact‐checking organisations to avoid debunking content and opinions from political actors and celebrities and avoid debunking political advertising.

Fact checkers can verify claims from political actors and post content on their own websites and social media accounts. However, this fact‐checked content was still not subject to reduced circulation or censorship on Meta platforms.

The COVID pandemic demonstrated the usefulness of independent fact checking on Facebook. Fact checkers helped curb much harmful misinformation and disinformation about the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines.

Importantly, Meta’s fact-checking program also served as a backbone to global efforts to fight misinformation on other social media platforms. It facilitated financial support to up to 90 accredited fact-checking organisations around the world.

What impact will Meta’s changes have on misinformation online?

Replacing independent, third-party fact checking with a “community notes” model of content moderation is likely to hamper the fight against misinformation and disinformation online.

Last year, for example, reports from The Washington Post and The Centre for Countering Digital Hate in the US found that X’s community notes feature was failing to stem the flow of lies on the platform.

Meta’s turn away from fact checking will also create major financial problems for third-party, independent fact checkers.

The tech giant has long been a dominant source of funding for many fact checkers. And it has often incentivised fact checkers to verify certain kinds of claims.

Meta’s announcement will now likely force these independent fact checkers to turn away from strings-attached arrangements with private companies in their mission to improve public discourse by addressing online claims.

Yet, without Meta’s funding, they will likely be hampered in their efforts to counter attempts to weaponise fact checking by other actors. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced the establishment of a state fact-checking network following “Russian values”, in stark difference to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles.

This makes independent, third-party fact checking even more necessary. But clearly, Meta doesn’t agree.

Michelle Riedlinger has received funding from Meta’s 2022 Foundational Integrity Research granting scheme.

Silvia Montaña-Niño has received funding from Meta’s 2022 Foundational Integrity Research granting scheme.

Ned Watt 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. Meta is abandoning fact checking – this doesn’t bode well for the fight against misinformation – https://theconversation.com/meta-is-abandoning-fact-checking-this-doesnt-bode-well-for-the-fight-against-misinformation-246878

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johari Amar, Lecturer in Property, Bond University

Australia’s housing crisis represents a fundamental market imbalance where undersupply meets excess demand.

In major cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the dream of home ownership is slipping away from many as median house prices far exceed average household incomes.

Because of this, many people are weighing up all practical solutions as they seek to one day own their own homes.

The supply and demand puzzle

The supply side of the crisis is multifaceted – critical shortages of skilled labour and the increasing cost of building materials (since before COVID) have driven up construction costs, while the availability of serviced land in desirable locations remains limited.

The planning processes for residential development can be slow and unpredictable, creating additional barriers to new housing supply. This adds further pressure on construction affordability.

The demand pressures are equally concerning.

Rising living costs have made housing increasingly unaffordable, pushing many potential buyers into an expensive rental market.

This has created a cascade effect where younger people are staying at home longer, prioritising shift works over education and sharing accommodation with more people to manage costs.

Read more:
20 people in a two-bedroom apartment: the growing health and safety risks of ‘hot bedding’

In this challenging environment, house relocation – the practice of physically moving existing homes to new locations – is a possible alternative solution.

How does house relocation work?

House relocation involves preparing an existing house for transport, moving it to a new location (generally by lifting it onto a large truck) and re-establishing it on new foundations on a vacant block of land.

In Australia, this practice has a history dating back to the 1860s, especially in Queensland. This is because traditional, timber-framed, Queenslander-style homes are usually elevated on stilts with wraparound verandas, and this design and construction method means they are particularly suitable for relocation.

Comprehensive statistics on house relocations in Australia are limited. However, in New Zealand, about 3,000 houses are relocated annually. This accounts for up to 12% of the housing supply, according to estimates from the New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association.

Is it a viable solution?

The economics of house relocation are compelling.

Relocating a house in Queensland, for instance, typically costs $45,000–80,000, including restumping and council fees.

The relocated homes can sell for $60,000–300,000, depending on size, condition and quality.

Of course, people relocating homes also need to own a block of land to put the house on.

Aside from being cost-effective, relocated houses are completed more quickly than a new construction. This can reduce waste and the carbon footprint associated with demolition and new builds. It also preserves heritage homes.

Construction and demolition data reveal most demolished houses (73%) are relatively modern structures built after the Second World War. This suggests redevelopment decisions are driven by land value rather than building condition.

And it indicates there is significant potential for house relocation as an alternative to demolition.

However, while the cost benefits are clear, most people prefer to live in urban areas with access to employment and amenities.

As such, there are opportunity costs of relocating homes to rural or remote areas where land is cheaper. These include longer commutes, reduced access to services and diminishing market demand for timber houses.

Why hasn’t this unconventional approach gained traction?

Despite its potential, house relocation faces significant obstacles.

Unlike other forms of relocatable dwellings (such as caravans or “prefab” homes), which are treated as personal property, relocated homes straddle the line between “real” property and personal property.

When a home is prepared for relocation, it must be detached from its existing site to a degree that changes its legal status.

This process involves more than just disconnection. The house must be sufficiently detached to be treated as a separate asset, yet its ultimate destination requires it to become real property for a title to be issued and registered once again.

This has significant implications:

• similar to prefab houses, financial institutions often require relocation completion before approving loans, creating upfront costs

• the bespoke nature of each relocatable home makes insurance solutions tricky

• many buyers prefer new homes over existing and relocated ones

• finding affordable, suitable land in urban areas remains a major obstacle.

Breaking down the barriers

House relocation may not be a silver bullet for Australia’s housing crisis but it’s a proven solution that has successfully been used for generations.

The challenge lies not in proving the concept but in supporting systematic changes and making it more accessible and widely adopted. Some ideas include:

• simplifying approval processes to make house relocations easier and more affordable

• offering financial incentives for using relocated homes in affordable housing projects

• improving infrastructure to streamline the transport and installation of relocated houses

• promoting the awareness of relocated homes to boost public acceptance and demand.

The housing crisis won’t be solved by waiting for new developments alone.

But instead of tearing down perfectly good houses and sending them to landfill, we could be giving them new life in areas where they’re needed most, while freeing valuable urban land for denser developments.

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. (Literally) moving house: how home relocations can help address the housing crisis – https://theconversation.com/literally-moving-house-how-home-relocations-can-help-address-the-housing-crisis-245466

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Clark, Professor in Public History, University of Technology Sydney

From the Torres Strait to Tasmania, and from the east coast to the west, beach shacks are an iconic part of Australian coastal history.

Beach shacks have a distinctive identity as emblems of summer holidays and unadorned simplicity. Yet, their history also reflects the complexity of Australians’ attachment to the beach.

Many Australians have associations with beach shacks, through old family connections, recent sea changes or holiday rentals. They’re seared into family memories of place and time, where generations of children play in the same rockpools and revisit the same stretch of sand.

Writing about a shack in southern Tasmania, the author Shelly O’Reilly remembers family feasts of mussels “placed on a sheet of metal to fizz with the brine inside them until they opened up”. She also recalls learning to swim in the cold, calm saltwater of the tidal lagoon as her aunts safely held her.

Across the country, the Blowholes shack community near Carnarvon in Western Australia, has been threatened for several years with demolition by state and local governments. The small collection of rough-hewn shacks tucked into the dunes survives for now. Most are empty, but clearly in use, awaiting a weekend, school break or summer sojourn.

These beach escapes might be separated by thousands of kilometres – and inhabit vastly different parts of the country – yet they still evoke a shared feeling of everyday lives being shed.

A distinctly Australian architectural style

I’m researching and writing a history of the beach in Australia, and through this work, I’ve traced how a style of building and living has developed over generations around the beach shack. Heritage professionals refer to these spontaneous, opportunistic structures, woven together with reused materials on the fly, as a type of “vernacular architecture”.

While the origins of these structures are practical and humble, it’s ironic the very isolation and simplicity of their construction on the coastal edge now makes Australia’s beach shacks privileged spaces, out of reach for most people.

My research of material archives of the shacks reveals a long history stretching back to the 19th century, when keen fishers stashed swags and cooking pots in beach scrub and dunes to return to their favourite spot when the weather and tides were right.

Sometimes these camps were fashioned into meagre little shacks, scrounged together from anything at hand, such as driftwood, tin and repurposed building supplies. They were used as fishing shacks or weekenders. Some were shelters for the destitute who had nowhere else to live.

Many didn’t last, swallowed by the growing cities, increasingly regulated public spaces or the elements themselves. Others are still standing, palimpsests of beach occupation that are constantly being added to.

First Nations’ cultural connections to the shores

This built simplicity forced by place and culture might have an identifiable, even celebrated, architectural “style” today. However, it’s misleading to think the historical significance of these beach shacks doesn’t reach much farther back into the deep past.

What we now call “architecture” has been associated with Australian beaches for millennia. When Captain James Cook sailed in through the heads of Kamay Botany Bay in 1770, he described gunyas dotted along the foreshore in his search for water:

Saw as we came in on both points of the bay Several of the natives and a few hutts.

The remnants one wooden structure — a possible sleeping platform — can still be seen at the Yindayin rock shelter above a beach on Flinders Island off Cape York, alongside a stunning gallery of rock art.

Research by archaeologists and Traditional Owners dates the human use of this place back 6,000 years, to the last sea level rise. This confirms an enduring cultural connection to the beach on Yithuwarra Country.

Colonisation profoundly disrupted First Nations life, pushing people off coastal Country in ways that facilitated settler-colonial leisure at the beach.

At other times, colonisation forced Indigenous communities onto the beach when their more arable Country further inland was invaded by pastoralists, who filled it with livestock and crops.

Coastal settlements, like Lake Tyers in Victoria, Wallaga Lake and Wreck Bay on the New South Wales south coast, and La Perouse in Sydney, provided some safety and autonomy, as well as varying degrees of financial and cultural independence, thanks to fishing.

But these First Nations communities were deliberately located on the fringes of colonial society, sometimes alongside other marginalised people, like Chinese fishers.

They were also wracked by the violent, impoverishing effects of colonisation, characterised by excessive state control on the one hand and neglect on the other.

Fringe-dwelling during hard times

During the Great Depression, swathes of non-Indigenous families were also forced into coastal shanties when they could no longer pay rent.

Those with nowhere to live took to camp life wherever they could — by the banks of the Swan and Canning rivers and on Wanneroo beachfront in Perth, along the Torrens in Adelaide, and by beaches up and down the east coast near towns and cities where there was likely to be work.

At places such as Frog Hollow (Yarra Bay) and Happy Valley in Sydney, the unemployed camped alongside the La Perouse Aboriginal reserve, blurring the racial boundaries of “fringe-dwelling” that had shaped geographies of Australian space since the early years of colonisation.

In 1932, at Yarra Bay alone, more than 1,000 people were living in 300 camps fashioned from flattened kerosene tins, packing cases, hessian and canvas.

Public attitudes to that place were a mix of disdain and admiration. “Misery camp at La Perouse”, read one desperate headline from The Sun in 1931. The paper reported:

There is no system of sanitation, and the water supply comes from a freshwater spring. The sea is their bathroom, and their food is Government rations, for which they walk weary miles into town twice a week.

Yet in that “misery” was also a sense of communitarian spirit. As the economic ripples of the Great Depression impacted more and more workers, renters and families, informal and illegal beach shacks like those at Crater Cove on Sydney Harbour, La Perouse and Royal National Park became permanently occupied.

It’s a vital part of Australian history, but not an uncomplicated one.

A precarious future

While a powerful sense of social connection and place is evoked in these historically significant shack communities, some conservationists and regulators have argued for their removal. They point out many shacks were built illegally on public land, can restrict public access to public beaches, and present ecological threats to vulnerable coastal habitats.

Yet, that very isolation and precarity, their unique vernacular style, is also what makes these beach shacks loved by shackies and their families, who have fought for their heritage protection.

Anna Clark 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. Beach shacks are an iconic part of Australian summer. Yet, they also have a hidden, more complex history – https://theconversation.com/beach-shacks-are-an-iconic-part-of-australian-summer-yet-they-also-have-a-hidden-more-complex-history-241908

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ágnes Szabó, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Elder abuse is prevalent in New Zealand, with one in ten people aged 65 and older experiencing some form of it and only one in 14 abuse cases brought to the attention of a service agency that can intervene.

Last year alone there were numerous media reports featuring accounts of neglect, financial exploitation and physical or verbal abuse of older people.

However, elder abuse is notoriously difficult to study. Those experiencing abuse often avoid disclosing these experiences for a variety of complex reasons. It is often friends, other family members, neighbours or practitioners who realise that something harmful is happening to the older person.

Some forms of ill treatment are immediately identifiable as abuse. But elder abuse can also be very subtle, which makes it difficult for older people to pinpoint when it happens and for others in the community to recognise it.

Our recent study explores a poorly understood form of elder abuse known as “cold violence” within the Chinese community in Aotearoa New Zealand. We interviewed older Chinese migrants, midlife Chinese migrants caring for older parents and practitioners supporting Chinese migrant families.

Although participants saw similarities in types of elder abuse across cultural groups, they described cold violence as particularly common.

What is ‘cold violence’

Cold violence is a form of emotional abuse that occurs within care relationships. It happens when the person with more power and resources in the relationship completely and intentionally withdraws communication and emotional support for a sustained period. Cold violence is used to punish people for particular conduct or to limit their independence and freedom.

This form of abuse is incredibly difficult to detect. Other forms of abuse have clear signs. Physical abuse may leave telltale marks. Suspicious bank transactions can be monitored and traced. Signs of neglect may be seen in malnutrition and poor hygiene. They are materially evident.

Cold violence, on the other hand, is open to interpretation. By strategically withdrawing emotional support and care, people can powerfully punish the older person without leaving any evidence, thus maintaining plausible deniability.

This makes cold violence difficult for older people to identify and for service providers or authorities to challenge. Family members and carers can argue they didn’t do anything wrong. This failure to respond to need is what makes cold violence a form of abuse.

Understanding the context

Participants in our study commonly mentioned refusal to engage with older family members.

It’s like they see you but act as if they don’t.

Chinese culture values filial reverence and there is an expectation that the concerns and needs of older generations are prioritised. Being rejected by family is very damaging.

Consequently, older Chinese people in our study considered cold violence as the most unacceptable form of abuse that can happen to an older person. They told us that withdrawal of verbal communication and emotional care was made worse by demeaning nonverbal behaviours, such as looks of “disdain” or “disgust”.

They agreed that being treated this way had a “negative impact on their mental health”, making them “feel heartbroken”. One participant likened it to mental torture.

Experiencing cold violence can also leave older people unable to meet their basic needs. In the context of Chinese family arrangements, older parents who migrated in later life are often highly dependent on younger family members.

They might lack language skills, the ability to drive and knowledge of institutional systems necessary to independently navigate everyday life. In these situations, the withdrawal by family members is a highly destabilising experience, leaving older people unsure how to act and often without alternative sources of support.

Making sense of cold violence

Family carers are commonly under significant financial, emotional and time pressure and receive relatively little formal support for care. However, there was a clear mismatch between how practitioners and family carers framed emotional withdrawal as carer stress and the way it was experienced by older people as cold violence.

Chinese migrants providing care for older parents agreed that cold violence was concerning. However, they saw it as the unintentional outcome of limited time and resources. As one participant explained:

There are old people above and young children below, and their energy is limited […] They have tried their best.

Practitioners also attributed neglectful behaviour to carer stress.

This mismatch highlights the need to understand older people’s perspectives and to provide continuous education about less obvious forms of elder abuse. Awareness raising should extend beyond older people to include family members, practitioners and the wider community.

Cold violence is not unique to the Chinese community, but it may be experienced differently across cultural groups. Regardless of the cultural context, being treated in this way is an unsettling and undermining experience for older people.

We have a collective responsibility to create safe environments for people to be able to age with dignity. This starts with understanding how our actions can intentionally or unintentionally cause harm to older people in our families and communities.

Ágnes Szabó has received funding from the Ageing Well National Science Challenge and the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Mary Breheny has received funding from the Ageing Well National Science Challenge for this research.

Polly Yeung has received funding from the Ageing Well National Science Challenge for this research.

– ref. ‘Cold violence’ – a hidden form of elder abuse in New Zealand’s Chinese community – https://theconversation.com/cold-violence-a-hidden-form-of-elder-abuse-in-new-zealands-chinese-community-245661

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Carson, Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine, The University of Western Australia

A doctor’s visit often ends with you leaving with a pathology request form in hand. The request form soon has you filling a sample pot, having blood drawn, or perhaps even a tissue biopsy taken.

After that, your sample goes to a clinical pathology lab to be analysed, in whichever manner the doctor requested. All this is done with the goal of getting to the bottom of the health issue you’re experiencing.

But after all the tests are done, what happens with the leftover sample? In most cases, leftover samples go in the waste bin, destined for incineration. Sometimes though, they may be used again for other purposes, including research.

Who can use my leftover samples?

The samples we’re talking about here cover the range of samples clinical labs receive in the normal course of their testing work. These include blood and its various components (including plasma and serum), urine, faeces, joint and spinal fluids, swabs (such as from the nose or a wound), and tissue samples from biopsies, among others.

Clinical pathology labs often use leftover samples to practise or check their testing methods and help ensure test accuracy. This type of use is a vital part of the quality assurance processes labs need to perform, and is not considered research.

Leftover samples can also be used by researchers from a range of agencies such as universities, research institutes or private companies.

They may use leftover samples for research activities such as trying out new ideas or conducting small-scale studies (more on this later). Companies that develop new or improved medical diagnostic tests can also use leftover samples to assess the efficacy of their test, generating data needed for regulatory approval.

What about informed consent?

If you’ve ever participated in a medical research project such as a clinical trial, you may be familiar with the concept of informed consent. In this process, you have the opportunity to learn about the study and what your participation involves, before you decide whether or not to participate.

So you may be surprised to learn using leftover samples for research purposes without your consent is permitted in most parts of Australia, and elsewhere. However, it’s only allowed under certain conditions.

In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) offers guidance around the use of leftover pathology samples.

One of the conditions for using leftover samples without consent for research is that they were received and retained by an accredited pathology service. This helps ensure the samples were collected safely and properly, for a legitimate clinical reason, and that no additional burdens or risk of harm to the person who provided the sample will be created with their further use.

Another condition is anonymity: the leftover samples must be deidentified, and not easily able to be reidentified. This means they can only be used in research if the identity of the donor is not needed.

The decision to allow a particular research project to use leftover pathology samples is made by an independent human research ethics committee which includes consumers and independent experts. The committee evaluates the project and weighs up the risks and potential benefits before permitting an exemption to the need for informed consent.

Similar frameworks exist in the United States, the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere.

What research might be done on my leftover samples?

You might wonder how useful leftover samples are, particularly when they’re not linked to a person and their medical history. But these samples can still be a valuable resource, particularly for early-stage “discovery” research.

Research using leftover samples has helped our understanding of antibiotic resistance in a bacterium that causes stomach ulcers, Helicobacter pylori. It has helped us understand how malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum, damage red blood cells.

Leftover samples are also helping researchers identify better, less invasive ways to detect chronic diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis. And they’re allowing scientists to assess the prevalence of a variant in haemoglobin that can interfere with widely used diagnostic blood tests.

All of this can be done without your permission. The kinds of tests researchers do on leftover samples will not harm the person they were taken from in any way. However, using what would otherwise be discarded allows researchers to test a new method or treatment and avoid burdening people with providing fresh samples specifically for the research.

When considering questions of ethics, it could be argued not using these samples to derive maximum benefit is in fact unethical, because their potential is wasted. Using leftover samples also minimises the cost of preliminary studies, which are often funded by taxpayers.

Inconsistencies in policy

Despite NHMRC guidance, certain states and territories have their own legislation and guidelines which differ in important ways. For instance, in New South Wales, only pathology services may use leftover specimens for certain types of internal work. In all other cases consent must be obtained.

Ethical standards and their application in research are not static, and they evolve over time. As medical research continues to advance, so too will the frameworks that govern the use of leftover samples. Nonetheless, developing a nationally consistent approach on this issue would be ideal.

Striking a balance between ensuring ethical integrity and fostering scientific discovery is essential. With ongoing dialogue and oversight, leftover pathology samples will continue to play a crucial role in driving innovation and advances in health care, while respecting the privacy and rights of individuals.

Christine Carson is a founder with a financial interest in Cytophenix, a company developing new diagnostic tests. Her work is supported by government funding sources, philanthropy and private companies.

The views expressed here are the author’s own and are not those of Monash University.

– ref. Blood, urine and other bodily fluids: how your leftover pathology samples can be used for medical research – https://theconversation.com/blood-urine-and-other-bodily-fluids-how-your-leftover-pathology-samples-can-be-used-for-medical-research-237562

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rossana Ruggeri, Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of Queensland

By looking at light from distant exploding stars called supernovas, in 1998 astronomers discovered the universe isn’t just expanding – its expansion is speeding up. But what’s behind this acceleration?

Enter dark energy. It’s one of the most debated and intriguing missing puzzle pieces of modern physics – a mysterious form of energy believed to uniformly permeate all of space. In the current most accepted model of modern cosmology, dark energy is what drives the accelerated expansion of the universe.

But what if there’s another explanation that doesn’t involve dark energy? A recent study using data from supernovas hints there might indeed be one, and it’s called the Timescape model.

This finding could profoundly challenge our understanding of the cosmos, so let’s dive in.

What is dark energy?

The backbone of modern cosmology is the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter (Lambda-CDM) model. It describes a universe where a dark energy – denoted with Λ, the Greek letter Lambda – is the driving mechanism behind the universe’s accelerating expansion.

Under this model, galaxies are dancing together under the effect of an invisible dark matter web made of heavy particles that don’t interact with anything. The effects of this cold dark matter can only be observed through gravity.

Dark energy accounts for nearly 70% of the universe’s total energy budget, but its exact nature remains one of the greatest mysteries in physics.

Some interpretations suggest dark energy could be linked to the energy of the vacuum, while other studies have attempted to describe it as a new, evolving energy field spread across space.

And a recent study from the international DESI collaboration that traces the universe’s expansion hinted dark energy may be weakening over time.

It’s also possible that our current theory of gravity (Einstein’s theory of general relativity) is incomplete. Perhaps it requires an extension to describe gravitational interaction at cosmological scales – distances on the order of millions to billions of light-years.

What is the Timescape model?

Matter – dark matter, gas, galaxies, star clusters and super clusters – is not uniformly spread throughout cosmos.

But for the Lambda-CDM model, we assume the universe is homogeneous and isotropic. This means that, on cosmic scales, the distribution of matter appears smooth and uniform. Any clumps and gaps we might find can be considered insignificant due to the grand scale of the entire thing.

By contrast, the Timescape model takes the uneven distribution of matter into account. It suggests our intricate cosmic web – made up of galaxies, clusters, filaments and vast cosmic voids – directly affects how we interpret the expansion of the universe.

This would mean the universe isn’t stretching out evenly.

According to the Timescape model, the universe’s expansion rate varies across different regions, depending on how dense they are.

The key parameter in the Timescape model is the “void fraction”: it quantifies the proportion of space occupied by expanding voids.

Gravity dictates that voids expand faster than denser regions – they have less matter to hold them back, allowing space to stretch more freely. This creates an average effect that can mimic the accelerated expansion attributed to dark energy in Lambda-CDM.

In short, the Timescape model suggests it might only appear to us that the universe’s expansion is speeding up. The expansion speed depends on where you are in the universe.

What did the study find?

The authors of the new study looked at one of the biggest collections of Type Ia supernovas, called the Pantheon+ dataset. These supernovas are a reliable standard used to test cosmological models.

The team compared two major models: the standard Lambda-CDM (our “vanilla” recipe of the universe), and the Timescape model.

When looking at nearby bright supernovas, the Timescape model explained things better than our standard model. This was only statistical though, with the statistical analysis showing a “very strong” preference.

Even when they examined more distant supernovas, where things should be more evenly spread out, Timescape still held up slightly better than the usual model.

The takeaway? The Timescape model, which focuses on how cosmic “clumps and gaps” change the way we see the universe growing, might be better at capturing the true nature of our universe’s expansion. This would be especially so for the nearby universe – we have a lot of voids and filaments near us, which would affect how we see the expansion.

How strong is the evidence, then?

There are important caveats. The analysis doesn’t account for peculiar velocities – small, random motions of galaxies that can affect supernova measurements. They also don’t account for Malmquist bias, when brighter supernovas are more likely to be included in the data simply because they’re easier to detect.

These potential sources of error could badly affect their results. Additionally, the study didn’t use the latest DES5yr dataset of supernovas. It’s more consistent and uniform in its data collection than Pantheon+, potentially making it more reliable for comparison.

There are other things besides supernovas currently propping up the Lambda-CDM model, most notably baryon acoustic oscillations and gravitational lensing. Future work would need to integrate those into the Timescape model.

But with this new study, the Timescape model offers an intriguing alternative to Lambda-CDM. The bottom line is that our universe’s acceleration is an illusion due to the uneven distribution of matter with large cosmic voids expanding faster than denser regions.

If confirmed, this would represent a revolutionary paradigm shift in cosmology.

Rossana Ruggeri is the recipient of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), which supports her independent research project titled “Probing Dark Energy with the Largest 3D Map of the Universe”.

– ref. Huge if true – dark energy doesn’t exist, claims new study on supernovas – https://theconversation.com/huge-if-true-dark-energy-doesnt-exist-claims-new-study-on-supernovas-246674

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Clark, Professor in Public History, University of Technology Sydney

From the Torres Strait to Tasmania, and from the east coast to the west, beach shacks are an iconic part of Australian coastal history.

Beach shacks have a distinctive identity as emblems of summer holidays and unadorned simplicity. Yet, their history also reflects the complexity of Australians’ attachment to the beach.

Many Australians have associations with beach shacks, through old family connections, recent sea changes or holiday rentals. They’re seared into family memories of place and time, where generations of children play in the same rockpools and revisit the same stretch of sand.

Writing about a shack in southern Tasmania, the author Shelly O’Reilly remembers family feasts of mussels “placed on a sheet of metal to fizz with the brine inside them until they opened up”. She also recalls learning to swim in the cold, calm saltwater of the tidal lagoon as her aunts safely held her.

Across the country, the Blowholes shack community near Carnarvon in Western Australia, has been threatened for several years with demolition by state and local governments. The small collection of rough-hewn shacks tucked into the dunes survives for now. Most are empty, but clearly in use, awaiting a weekend, school break or summer sojourn.

These beach escapes might be separated by thousands of kilometres – and inhabit vastly different parts of the country – yet they still evoke a shared feeling of everyday lives being shed.

A distinctly Australian architectural style

I’m researching and writing a history of the beach in Australia, and through this work, I’ve traced how a style of building and living has developed over generations around the beach shack. Heritage professionals refer to these spontaneous, opportunistic structures, woven together with reused materials on the fly, as a type of “vernacular architecture”.

While the origins of these structures are practical and humble, it’s ironic the very isolation and simplicity of their construction on the coastal edge now makes Australia’s beach shacks privileged spaces, out of reach for most people.

My research of material archives of the shacks reveals a long history stretching back to the 19th century, when keen fishers stashed swags and cooking pots in beach scrub and dunes to return to their favourite spot when the weather and tides were right.

Sometimes these camps were fashioned into meagre little shacks, scrounged together from anything at hand, such as driftwood, tin and repurposed building supplies. They were used as fishing shacks or weekenders. Some were shelters for the destitute who had nowhere else to live.

Many didn’t last, swallowed by the growing cities, increasingly regulated public spaces or the elements themselves. Others are still standing, palimpsests of beach occupation that are constantly being added to.

First Nations’ cultural connections to the shores

This built simplicity forced by place and culture might have an identifiable, even celebrated, architectural “style” today. However, it’s misleading to think the historical significance of these beach shacks doesn’t reach much farther back into the deep past.

What we now call “architecture” has been associated with Australian beaches for millennia. When Captain James Cook sailed in through the heads of Kamay Botany Bay in 1770, he described gunyas dotted along the foreshore in his search for water:

Saw as we came in on both points of the bay Several of the natives and a few hutts.

The remnants one wooden structure — a possible sleeping platform — can still be seen at the Yindayin rock shelter above a beach on Flinders Island off Cape York, alongside a stunning gallery of rock art.

Research by archaeologists and Traditional Owners dates the human use of this place back 6,000 years, to the last sea level rise. This confirms an enduring cultural connection to the beach on Yithuwarra Country.

Colonisation profoundly disrupted First Nations life, pushing people off coastal Country in ways that facilitated settler-colonial leisure at the beach.

At other times, colonisation forced Indigenous communities onto the beach when their more arable Country further inland was invaded by pastoralists, who filled it with livestock and crops.

Coastal settlements, like Lake Tyers in Victoria, Wallaga Lake and Wreck Bay on the New South Wales south coast, and La Perouse in Sydney, provided some safety and autonomy, as well as varying degrees of financial and cultural independence, thanks to fishing.

But these First Nations communities were deliberately located on the fringes of colonial society, sometimes alongside other marginalised people, like Chinese fishers.

They were also wracked by the violent, impoverishing effects of colonisation, characterised by excessive state control on the one hand and neglect on the other.

Fringe-dwelling during hard times

During the Great Depression, swathes of non-Indigenous families were also forced into coastal shanties when they could no longer pay rent.

Those with nowhere to live took to camp life wherever they could — by the banks of the Swan and Canning rivers and on Wanneroo beachfront in Perth, along the Torrens in Adelaide, and by beaches up and down the east coast near towns and cities where there was likely to be work.

At places such as Frog Hollow (Yarra Bay) and Happy Valley in Sydney, the unemployed camped alongside the La Perouse Aboriginal reserve, blurring the racial boundaries of “fringe-dwelling” that had shaped geographies of Australian space since the early years of colonisation.

In 1932, at Yarra Bay alone, more than 1,000 people were living in 300 camps fashioned from flattened kerosene tins, packing cases, hessian and canvas.

Public attitudes to that place were a mix of disdain and admiration. “Misery camp at La Perouse”, read one desperate headline from The Sun in 1931. The paper reported:

There is no system of sanitation, and the water supply comes from a freshwater spring. The sea is their bathroom, and their food is Government rations, for which they walk weary miles into town twice a week.

Yet in that “misery” was also a sense of communitarian spirit. As the economic ripples of the Great Depression impacted more and more workers, renters and families, informal and illegal beach shacks like those at Crater Cove on Sydney Harbour, La Perouse and Royal National Park became permanently occupied.

It’s a vital part of Australian history, but not an uncomplicated one.

A precarious future

While a powerful sense of social connection and place is evoked in these historically significant shack communities, some conservationists and regulators have argued for their removal. They point out many shacks were built illegally on public land, can restrict public access to public beaches, and present ecological threats to vulnerable coastal habitats.

Yet, that very isolation and precarity, their unique vernacular style, is also what makes these beach shacks loved by shackies and their families, who have fought for their heritage protection.

Anna Clark 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. Beach shacks are an iconic part of Australian summer. Yet, they have also have a hidden, more complex history – https://theconversation.com/beach-shacks-are-an-iconic-part-of-australian-summer-yet-they-have-also-have-a-hidden-more-complex-history-241908

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Davis, Industry Professor of Emerging Technology and Co-Director, Human Technology Institute, University of Technology Sydney

In November 2023, the estates of two now-deceased policyholders sued the US health insurer, United Healthcare, for deploying what they allege is a flawed artificial intelligence (AI) system to systematically deny patient claims.

The issue – they claim – wasn’t just how the AI was designed. It was that the company allegedly also limited the ability of staff to override the system’s decisions, even if they thought the system was wrong.

They allege the company even went so far as to punish staff who failed to act in accordance with the model’s predictions.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of this case, which remains before the US court system, the claims made in the suit highlight a critical challenge facing organisations.

While artificial intelligence offers tremendous opportunities, its safe and responsible use depends on having the right people, skills and culture to govern it properly.

Read more:
Beyond the hype: what workers really think about workplace AI assistants

Getting on the front foot

AI is pervading businesses whether they like it or not. Many Australian organisations are moving quickly on the technology. Far too few are focused on proactively managing its risks.

According to the Australian Responsible AI Index 2024, 78% of surveyed organisations claim their use of AI is in line with the principles of responsible AI.

Yet, only 29% said they had implemented practices to ensure it was.

Sometimes visible, sometimes not

In some cases, AI is a well-publicised selling point for new products, and organisations are making positive decisions to adopt it.

At the same time, these systems are increasingly hidden from view. They may be used by an upstream supplier, embedded as a subcomponent of a new product, or inserted into an existing product via an automatic software update.

Sometimes, they’re even used by staff on a “shadow” basis – out of sight of management.

The pervasiveness – and often hidden nature – of AI adoption means that organisations can’t treat AI governance as merely a compliance exercise or technical challenge.

Instead, leaders need to focus on building the right internal capability and culture to support safe and responsible AI use across their operations.

What to get right

Research from the University of Technology Sydney’s Human Technology Institute points to three critical elements that organisations must get right.

First, it’s absolutely critical that boards and senior executives have sufficient understanding of AI to provide meaningful oversight.

This doesn’t mean they have to become technical experts. But directors need to have what we call a “minimum viable understanding” of AI. They need to be able to spot the strategic opportunities and risks of the technology, and to ask the right questions of management.

If they don’t have this expertise, they can seek training, recruit new members who have it or establish an AI expert advisory committee.

Clear accountability

Second, organisations need to create clear lines of accountability for AI governance. These should place clear duties on specific people with appropriate levels of authority.

A number of leading companies are already doing this, by nominating a senior executive with explicitly defined responsibilities. This is primarily a governance role, and it requires a unique blend of skills: strong leadership capabilities, some technical literacy and the ability to work across departments.

Third, organisations need to create a governance framework with simple and efficient processes to review their uses of AI, identify risks and find ways to manage them.

Above all, building the right culture

Perhaps most importantly, organisations need to cultivate a critically supportive culture around AI use.

What does that mean? It’s an environment where staff – at all levels – understand both the potential and the risks of AI and feel empowered to raise concerns.

Telstra’s “Responsible AI Policy” is one case study of good practice in a complex corporate environment.

To ensure the board and senior management would have a good view of AI activities and risks, Telstra established an oversight committee dedicated to reviewing high-impact AI systems.

The committee brings together experts and representatives from legal, data, cyber security, privacy, risk and other teams to assess potential risks and make recommendations.

Importantly, the company has also invested in training all staff on AI risks and governance.

Bringing everyone along

The cultural element is particularly crucial because of how AI adoption typically unfolds.

Our previous research suggests many Australian workers feel AI is being imposed on them without adequate consultation or training.

This doesn’t just create pushback. It can also mean organisations miss out on important feedback on how their staff actually use AI to create value and solve problems.

Ultimately, our collective success with AI depends not so much on the technology itself, but on the human systems we build around it.

This is important whether you lead an organisation or work for one. So, the next time your colleagues start discussing an opportunity to buy or use AI in a new way, don’t just focus on the technology.

Ask: “What needs to be true about our people, skills and culture to make this succeed?”

Nicholas Davis works at the UTS Human Technology Institute which receives funding from Minderoo Foundation for its AI Corporate Governance Program, among other grants from government, industry and philanthropic sources.

Gaby Carney works at the UTS Human Technology Institute which receives funding from Minderoo Foundation for its AI Corporate Governance Program.

– ref. Businesses can’t escape the AI revolution – so here’s how to build a culture of safe and responsible use – https://theconversation.com/businesses-cant-escape-the-ai-revolution-so-heres-how-to-build-a-culture-of-safe-and-responsible-use-246024

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caroline Spry, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University

On the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, there is a series of large rings which rise mysteriously out of hills.

These “earth rings”, located on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in the suburb of Sunbury, aren’t natural phenomena. In fact, they represent large scale feats of human endeavour. They also represent the ancient and ongoing connection Aboriginal people have to Country.

Our new study, published today in Australian Archaeology, presents the results of the only known archaeological excavation of one of these rings combined with Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung understanding of these enigmatic places.

It expands our understanding of the richness and diversity of Australia’s archaeological record, created over more than 65,000 years of continuous occupation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Secret and sacred locations of initiation and ceremony

Earth rings have been reported across the world, including in England, Amazonia and Cambodia.

People created these rings hundreds to thousands of years ago. They did so by excavating and heaping together earth in a large circle (or circles) measuring up to hundreds of metres in diameter.

In eastern Australia, earth rings are understood to represent secret and sacred locations of initiation and ceremony for different Aboriginal language groups.

Many earth rings were destroyed following European colonisation and land development. It’s estimated that hundreds of earth rings once existed in New South Wales and Queensland alone. But only around 100 remain today. A smaller number of rings are documented in Victoria – including five earth rings in Sunbury.

Reading the landscape

The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people are the Traditional Custodians of a large area in central-southern Victoria. This area includes much of greater Melbourne and surrounds.

In 2021–22, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people led the first cultural values study of the broader landscape that encompasses the five Sunbury earth rings.

For Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, this landscape holds immense cultural significance.

It reflects a deep history of occupation, colonisation, resistance, adaptation, self-determination and resilience. It is where Liwik (Ancestors) have lived, travelled, gathered together and raised successive generations of people.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people have actively managed this landscape over thousands of years. This is in accordance with their traditional lore and customs relating to creation ancestors Bunjil and Waa.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people today continue to hold traditional responsibilities to care for Country. The Narrap team is currently working to restore and preserve the health of this important cultural landscape.

New archaeological excavations

In 2022, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people led a new archaeological excavation of one of the rings, known as Sunbury Ring G.

Sunbury Ring G represents a place where Liwik travelled and came together, and of probable ceremony. It is also a highly significant location between the traditional lands of the Marin bulluk and Wurundjeri wilam clans of Woi-wurrung speaking people, separated by biik wurrdha (also known as Jacksons Creek).

Archaeologist David Frankel first excavated Sunbury Ring G in 1979. To date, no other excavation of an earth ring is known in Australia.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people led the dating and re-analysis of the 166 stone artefacts found during the 1979 excavations.

This involved dating the ring deposits to estimate when the ring was made. It also involved piecing the artefacts back together like a jigsaw, and studying residues and wear patterns on their surfaces and edges. This provides clues on how Woi-wurrung speaking people made and used stone tools at Sunbury Ring G.

An ancient ring

The results of our study reveal Woi-wurrung speaking people constructed the ring sometime between 590 and 1,400 years ago. They spent time in the area clearing the land and plants, scraping back soil and rock to create the ring mound and layering rocks to create stone arrangements.

They also lit campfires, made stone tools which they used on a variety of plants and animals, and moved items around the ring’s interior.

Wear patterns and residues on some of the stone artefacts suggest Woi-wurrung speaking people may have also used some of these stone tools to create feather adornments and scar human skin for ceremony. This practice has been documented in other parts of Victoria.

Our study is the first to combine cultural and archaeological insights on earth rings in Australia.

It demonstrates the importance of further investigating and preserving these earth rings, as well as others known to occur across eastern Australia. This is especially important in the face of continued threats by land development and climate change which threaten the survival of earth rings.

The authors of this article acknowledge Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elders and community, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Aunty Di Kerr, Delta Lucille Freedman, Elspeth Hayes, Garrick Hitchcock, Wendy Morrison, Richard Fullagar, Rebekah Kurpiel, Nathan Jankowski, Zara Lasky-Davison, Ariana Spencer-Gardner, Lauren Modra, Lauren Gribble, Maria Daikos, Matthew Meredith-Williams, Paul Penzo-Kajewski, Jamie Rachcoff, Allison Bruce, Tracy Martens, Western Water, Hume City Council, Parks Victoria, Museums Victoria (including Rob McWilliams). The Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (formerly known as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) funded this study.

Caroline Spry receives funding from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (formerly known as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning).

Allan Wandin, Bobby Mullins, and Ron Jones 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. New excavation of ‘rings of mystery’ in Victoria reveals rich Aboriginal history – https://theconversation.com/new-excavation-of-rings-of-mystery-in-victoria-reveals-rich-aboriginal-history-246408

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Message, Professor of Public Humanities and Director of the ANU Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University

Pompeii: Inside a Lost City at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra depicts life in the flourishing Roman city of Pompeii before it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

It pictures an ancient city frozen in time, eerily preserved by volcanic ash. It also tells the story of the city’s rediscovery in the late 16th century and the archaeological excavations that have been underway ever since.

The exhibition’s representation of a natural disaster that has reached timeless proportions has the potential to say a lot about the risks and costs of the urgent environmental crises facing humans today.

It offers a crucial opportunity for contemporary audiences to look at a lost city from the perspective of a world on the verge of collapse, but could have done more to consider what this level of destruction might mean now.

Ancient artifacts and technical precision

The exhibition’s main intention is to create human understanding across millennia. “Beauty and fashion were no less important in the 1st century CE than they are today”, says one wall-text.

A highlight for many visitors will be the authentic, vividly coloured frescoes recovered from the site. A wide curved screen plays a montage of digital images in situ near a selection of tiny clay pots holding the remains of pigments the painters used immediately before the eruption.

The exhibition is split into three parts. The first emphasises domestic life before the eruption. The second explores the remains of Pompeii and documents the work of researchers bringing the site and its fragments back to life.

These “before” and “after” sections are connected by a wide central corso (thoroughfare) reflecting the urban plan and textures of the ancient city. It provides a space of civic engagement and interaction between exhibition visitors and the residents of Pompeii.

The thoroughfare leads to a vast projection of Vesuvius that erupts every 15 minutes, giving the impression volcanic rain is falling across the exhibition. The panoramic area relies heavily on large-scale digital reconstructions and soundscapes to bring a contemporary treatment to an ancient story.

But it is more than a space of technical precision. Walking around in the crowd, the heat of visitors’ bodies moving around each other offers a nod to the unsettling and perhaps unspeakable experience faced by the 20,000 people estimated to live in Pompeii at the time of the eruption.

A small alcove to the side of the exhibition holds historical copies of faceless casts of four people and a dog in their moments of death.

Most Pompeiians survived by fleeing the city when the early tremors hit, but many did not. Over a thousand victims have been excavated. In 1863, a technique was developed to inject plaster into the ash cavities left by the eruption to create casts from those who perished. This process has been extensively developed and analysed in the centuries since, and laser scanners and 3D printers now make more accurate casts.

Beautiful, often ordinary

Exhibition designers and curators have relied as much on spectacle as they have on information to create an emotive atmosphere to accentuate the feeling of travelling through time and space.

This effect is not solely produced through media supplementation but by the objects on display – including the terrible casts but also by the decayed frescoes, from which ever-young faces return our gaze.

The excavated artifacts are beautiful, often ordinary: things like tweezers, cups, storage containers and lamps. Other everyday but less familiar items include small, mass-produced figurines of deities included in small shrines in a kitchen space or atrium.

Visitors can lean into displays to consider how similar – or different – the objects and the lifestyles they represent are from our own.

They complement the only existing eyewitness account of the eruption, written by Pliny the Younger:

People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.

This description is presented in large text in a small anteroom that has the purpose of helping visitors suspend disbelief as they enter the exhibition. There are no objects in this room.

The moment of pause it demands prepares visitors to:

Walk the city streets and immerse yourself in both the ancient city and the archaeological site – but beware the ever-present volcano.

Our own at-risk planet

There is a certain irony in being encouraged to step out of our everyday life to enter a past world in which we are directed to find common experiences. This is more a function of immersive blockbuster exhibitions in general than it is a complaint of Pompeii.

Pompeii is a polished, beautiful exhibition about an endlessly fascinating topic that will draw, enthral and enlighten crowds.

And yet, Pompeii misses an opportunity to demonstrate connections between a long dead civilisation and our own at-risk planet. Its approach to building human understanding across time could have been extended to ask visitors to consider how they would react to an equivalent catastrophe or what it might mean today.

We do not need to look far to generate a conversation about crises in different eras: last month, we saw the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy; we are now five years on from the Black Summer bushfires.

These events are featured in the museum’s Great Southern Land exhibition, which shows the damage they caused to communities as well as their legacies. It also features salvaged artifacts with similar everyday characteristics to those included in Pompeii.

This exhibition makes the case that distant civilisations are not too far from our own. But by placing us in a highly immersive exhibition we are – despite its opposite intention – disconnected from our own daily lives, and the true connection we have to the past. This can weaken society’s collective will to take the urgent action required if we are to survive the next 2,000 years.

Pompeii: Inside A Lost City Package is at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, until May 4.

Kylie Message is an honorary Research Fellow of the National Museum of Australia (2023–25). She has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Pompeii comes to Australia, and ancient and contemporary stories of disaster and loss converge – https://theconversation.com/pompeii-comes-to-australia-and-ancient-and-contemporary-stories-of-disaster-and-loss-converge-246236

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allen Cheng, Professor of Infectious Diseases, Monash University

Five years on from the first news of COVID, recent reports of an obscure respiratory virus in China may understandably raise concerns.

Chinese authorities first issued warnings about human metapneumovirus (hMPV) in 2023, but media reports indicate cases may be increasing again during China’s winter season.

For most people, hMPV will cause symptoms similar to a cold or the flu. In rare cases, hMPV can lead to severe infections. But it isn’t likely to cause the next pandemic.

What is hMPV?

hMPV was first discovered in 2001 by scientists from the Netherlands in a group of children where tests for other known respiratory viruses were negative.

But it was probably around long before that. Testing of samples from the 1950s demonstrated antibodies against this virus, suggesting infections have been common for at least several decades. Studies since have found hMPV in almost all regions in the world.

Australian data prior to the COVID pandemic found hMPV to be the third most common virus detected in adults and children with respiratory infections. In adults, the two most common were influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), while in children they were RSV and parainfluenza.

Like influenza, hMPV is a more significant illness for younger and older people.

Studies suggest most children are exposed early in life, with the majority of children by age five having antibodies indicating prior infection. In general, this reduces the severity of subsequent infections for older children and adults.

In young children, hMPV most commonly causes infections of the upper respiratory tract, with symptoms including runny nose, sore throat, fever as well as ear infections. These symptoms usually resolve over a few days to a week in children, and 1–2 weeks in adults.

Although most infections with hMPV are relatively mild, it can cause more severe disease in people with underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease. Complications can include pneumonia, with shortness of breath, fever and wheezing. hMPV can also worsen pre-existing lung diseases such as asthma or emphysema. Additionally, infection can be serious in people with weakened immune systems, particularly those who have had bone marrow or lung transplants.

But the generally mild nature of the illness, the widespread detection of antibodies reflecting broad population exposure and immunity, combined with a lack of any known major pandemics in the past due to hMPV, suggests there’s no cause for alarm.

Are there any vaccines or treatments?

It is presumed that hMPV is transmitted by contact with respiratory secretions, either through the air or on contaminated surfaces. Therefore, personal hygiene measures and avoiding close contact with other people while unwell should reduce the risk of transmission.

The virus is a distant cousin of RSV for which immunisation products have recently become available, including vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. This has led to the hope that similar products may be developed for hMPV, and Moderna has recently started trials into a mRNA hMPV vaccine.

There are no treatments that have been clearly demonstrated to be effective. But for severely unwell patients certain antivirals may offer some benefit.

Why are we hearing so many reports of respiratory viruses now?

Since the COVID pandemic, the pattern of many respiratory infections has changed. For example, in Australia, influenza seasons have started earlier (peaking in June–July rather than August–September).

Many countries, including Australia, are reporting an increased number of cases of whooping cough (pertussis).

In China, there have been reports of increased cases of mycoplasma, a bacterial cause of pneumonia, as well as influenza and hMPV.

There are many factors that may have impacted the epidemiology of respiratory pathogens. These include the interruption to respiratory virus transmission due to public health measures taken during the COVID pandemic, environmental factors such as climate change, and for some diseases, post-pandemic changes in vaccine coverage. It may also be the usual variation we see with respiratory infections – for example, pertussis outbreaks are known to occur every 3–4 years.

For hMPV in Australia, we don’t yet have stable surveillance systems to form a good picture of what a “usual” hMPV season looks like. So with international reports of outbreaks, it will be important to monitor the available data for hMPV and other respiratory viruses to inform local public health policy.

Allen Cheng receives funding from the Australian Government for respiratory virus surveillance. He is a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, the National Respiratory Virus Surveillance Committee and the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia, advising governments on surveillance and immunisation.

– ref. hMPV may be spreading in China. Here’s what to know about this virus – and why it’s not cause for alarm – https://theconversation.com/hmpv-may-be-spreading-in-china-heres-what-to-know-about-this-virus-and-why-its-not-cause-for-alarm-246775

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Jean Baker, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Monash University

Nominations galore, but no wins for Aussiewood at the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday.

Formerly, the Golden Globes were voted on by the nonprofit Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which consisted of about 100 entertainment journalists based in California and writing for foreign publications.

In 2023, the association rebranded as the Golden Globe Foundation and opened up its voting to entertainment journalists based anywhere in the world.

This year the awards were judged by 334 journalists from 85 countries, including nine Australians.

It’s an elite club compared to the 9,000 voters for the Oscars.

The award show is known for its hilarious, brutally honest tone. This year comedian and Golden Globe nominee Nikki Glaser became the first solo woman to host the ceremony.

Aussiewood presence

Five Australians were nominated for Golden Globes: three for motion pictures and two in television.

Nicole Kidman has won six times, and received her 20th nomination, this time for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for her role as Romy Mathis, a middle-aged CEO of a tech company seduced by a young male intern in Babygirl. The award went to Fernanda Torres in I’m Still Here.

Guy Pearce was up for his second nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Drama, as the wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren in The Brutalist. Kieran Culkin won for his role in A Real Pain.

However, The Brutalist proved to be one of the big winners for the night, and so a favourite at the upcoming Oscars. The film won three Golden Globes in the drama categories for best motion picture, best director (Brady Corbet) and best actor (Adrian Brody).

The Australian animated feature Memoir of a Snail, from director Adam Elliot, was nominated for best animation, but lost out to Flow. Featuring all Australian voices, Elliot’s film is a melancholic tale about Grace Pudel (played by two-time Golden Globe winner Sarah Snook) who hoards snails. Her twin brother, Gilbert, is played by another past winner, Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett were nominated for their work in television. This was Watts’ second nomination, this time as publisher and socialite Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

Blanchett was nominated for the 14th time, and what could have been her fifth Golden Globe, as documentary journalist Catherine Ravenscroft in Disclaimer.

Unfortunately, neither won, rounding out a disappointing night for the Australian contingent.

The changing face of the Golden Globes

Beginning in 1944, in recent years the Golden Globes have been riddled by media and actor boycotts, conflicts of interest, diversity issues, and the Hollywood writers and actors strike.

In 2021, a Los Angeles Times investigation exposed a lack of diversity among the voters, and raised concerns about its ethics and financial practices.

The awards are now run by the Golden Globes Foundation, a nonprofit organisation which manages the awards, film restorations, philanthropic activities and promotes freedom of the press.

Voters can be entertainment journalists working anywhere in the world. To become a voter you must be an experienced entertainment journalist working for a recognised media organisation.

Writers need to be sponsored by a current Golden Globe voter and submit at least five examples of published or aired work within the past 12 months. Most voters are now based outside the United States.

This year, Australia’s voters included film critic David Griffiths, the Saturday Paper’s Andy Hazel and Jenny Cooney, a long time voter and legacy member who has spent her career covering Aussies in Hollywood for various presses.

A rocky road ahead

In 2023, the Golden Globes was sold, and they are now owned by Penske Media Eldridge, the owner of Variety, Rolling Stone, Deadline Hollywood, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Since then, there have been allegations Jay Penske, CEO of Penske Media Corporation, has a “near-monopoly” of the celebrity press, while Todd Boehly, CEO of Eldridge, is “profiteering” from the awards.

More recently, Boehly has been accused of fraud by former members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in his co-takeover of the Golden Globes.

Unlike previous years, this year Boehly did not allow Golden Globe voters to attend the ceremony at the Beverly Hilton’s ballroom.

Instead, legacy members from the Golden Globe Foundation (those who were previous members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and now play a role in supporting the foundation’s activities, particularly its charitable and philanthropic efforts) were invited to watch the ceremony via a “viewing party” in an adjacent, small function room.

After the controversies were exposed in 2021, some asked if “Hollywood’s party of the year” was over.

Given the jubilant success of the 82nd Golden Globe awards these worries seem to be allayed. But institutional integrity is needed to ensure sustainability of the foundation, and the continuation of the awards.

Andrea Jean Baker 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. 9 Australians can now vote for the Golden Globes – but Aussiewood came up empty – https://theconversation.com/9-australians-can-now-vote-for-the-golden-globes-but-aussiewood-came-up-empty-246416

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dirk Matten, Professor of Sustainability, Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada

The second season of Squid Game, Netflix’s most-watched show of all time, has been eagerly awaited by many. The first season featured players participating in a series of deadly children’s games to win prize money.

The new season, which is also on track to set another Netflix record, takes a deeper look at the economic context and constraints surrounding the surrealistic games.

More than a third of the season takes place outside the actual game setting, highlighting the dystopian life circumstances that drive participants to enter the deadly competition in the first place.

In many ways, Squid Game Season 2 is a very South Korean story. The country has one of the highest levels of household debt in the world, much of which has incurred through a failing social security system.

Read more:
‘Squid Game’ highlights plight of South Korean workers sacrificed for nation’s economic gain

Most notably, a nominally public health-care system offloads considerable burdens on those who require special treatments or operations. Gambling, too, has emerged as a pressing social and economic problem among young Koreans.

Beyond that, Season 2 highlights one specific feature of a capitalist system built on zero-sum competition: people are drawn into it because of the promise of fairy tale wins for a few, despite it resulting in devastating losses for the many.

The illusion of choice

In contrast to other contemporary critiques of capitalism that tend to highlight the players behind the scenes, Squid Game unearths the reasons why the general public plays along with the system in the first place. It’s a depiction of a very real individual financial abyss.

Squid Game doesn’t shy away from the motive of greed, a sentiment famously encapsulated in the 1987 film Wall Street. However, the show frames this greed against a broader canvas of personal bankruptcy, unpaid health-care bills and gambling losses in the form of failed crypto investments.

Squid Game’s perspective on contemporary capitalism, and why it’s supported by billions of people around the world, is striking. Crumbling public services, privatized insecurity and unattended health issues are not mere side-effects of neo-liberal economic policies — they are designed to push people into the system.

Almost all the players in the game see it as the only option left for them. No one enters the game willingly; they are all thrust in it involuntarily out of necessity.

It is a role in this game that provides the hope of steering clear of the potential abyss against which a declining middle class in many capitalist economies has survived. Like the players of Squid Game buy into the game as their only means of survival, we, too, buy into the capitalism system because we don’t have another choice.

In a global context, the show highlights how extreme poverty and lack of public infrastructure force vast parts of the population in so-called developing countries to participate in exploitative — and often lethal — labour conditions.

Business professor Bobby Banerjee has explored the latter aspect under the label of “necrocapitalism,” while
professors Carl Cederström and Peter Fleming have explored the experiences of first-world white-collar workers in their book Dead Men Working.

The promise of more

The repeating votes and battles over the continuation of the game highlight why so many people continue to participate in the broader capitalist system: the promise of more.

Recently, we have seen some junior investment bankers literally working themselves to death. Private gain as the “defining trait of capitalist society” is a well researched phenomenon.

Squid Game plays on the almost comical ability people have to believe in their own capacity to survive and be the chosen winner.

The cruelty and violence of the game itself fuels players’ almost transcendental convictions that they are destined to be the sole victor of the games. These desires, however, clash with the core humanity of the players.

Camaraderie develops as the players work together, and family ties, past friendships, shared experiences, compassion and spirituality all have a clear presence in the show. But in the end, they are overshadowed by the rigid logic of the overarching game.

The most scandalous recent example for such behaviour is American financier Bernie Madoff who ruthlessly defrauded family and kinship in the Jewish community for his personal gain.

‘Temporarily embarrassed millionaires’

Some critics bemoaned that Season 2 is too focused on the lives of the players, with the actual games not beginning until episode four.

However, this shift arguably makes the relationship between the players’ real lives and the games much more explicit. In turn, it makes the show’s critique of capitalism even more pronounced.

While the high-stakes games are undoubtedly the series’ main draw, the popularity of the series still has a lot to do with its intrinsic message, which becomes much more pronounced in the second season. People can identify with the characters risking their survival for the promise of heroically winning another lease on life against all odds.

As American writer John Steinbeck once put it, many middle- and working-class Americans see themselves as “temporarily embarrassed capitalists.” This mindset encapsulates the relentless participation in a capitalist system that offers only the faint possibility of success.

This dynamic is illustrated in Squid Game Season 2, which explores how individuals rationalize their participation in a game that otherwise runs counter to their most basic human impulses.

The lyrics to Bertold Brecht’s satirical song March of the Calves comes to mind: “Following the drum / The calves trot / The skin for the drum / They deliver themselves.” It’s a sobering metaphor for the way the promise of success often blinds us to the personal sacrifice we may pay to achieve it.

Dirk Matten 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. ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 is a dystopian reflection of capitalism’s dark side – https://theconversation.com/squid-game-season-2-is-a-dystopian-reflection-of-capitalisms-dark-side-246633