How realistic is Mattel’s new autistic Barbie?

January 14, 2026

Autistic people are so rarely depicted in media and entertainment, it’s no wonder most people don’t really understand much about the neurotype.

So we were pleased to see the launch of autistic Barbie.

Autism is a life-long neurodevelopmental difference, meaning autistic children grow into autistic adults. As autistic researchers, who advocate for the increased meaningful representation of our community, it was a good sign that multinational toy company Mattel worked with an autistic-led advocacy organisation based in the US, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, in creating this new toy.

The autistic Barbie doll.

Mattel

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Here are some considerations about her features to help you make up your own mind.

The tablet

Autistic Barbie is shown with a tablet with an augmented and alternative communication (AAC) application, which speaks aloud when buttons are pressed.

Some autistic people find communicating extremely challenging, and around a third cannot communicate reliably by speaking. This leads to needs going unmet, feeling misunderstood and often significant distress.

That is, unless an alternative mode of communication is available. Applications available on tablets, such as Proloquo2Go and Coughdrop, are helpful for some autistic people to communicate their needs and preferences.

Although some non-speaking autistic people find it easier to communicate with non-digital options such as printed cards, or using a low-tech signboard with letter tiles alongside a skilled communication partner, we think it’s great that this Barbie comes with a tablet.

The headphones

Sensory sensitivities are a core element of autistic lived experience. Autistic people are commonly sensitive to noise, light, smells, textures and taste. To represent this, autistic Barbie comes with noise-cancelling headphones which can be vital for some autistic people with noise sensitivities. However, other autistic people may find them too uncomfortable to wear and prefer in-ear options. For this reason, autistic people should be allowed to wear ear protection any time it is safe.

Eye contact

The development team reportedly gave Barbie a sideways glance, which aimed to show that eye contact may be uncomfortable and thus avoided in autistic people. An additional way to strengthen autistic Barbie could be to show the potential of visual distress, and to provide her with a coloured glasses accessory. Coloured lenses are a helpful tool to reduce the pain some autistic people feel in response to light, movement and colours. In reality, a specialist test can be used to help autistic people figure out what colour is best for them.

The outfit

Mattel seem to have invested thought in making Barbie’s outfit comfortable from a sensory point of view. Her outfit does not come with labels sewn in – a common cause of irritation to autistic people.

Her dress is loose and flowing, which may appeal to those with tactile hypersensitivity. We didn’t have an autistic Barbie to hand, so we aren’t sure what the fabric is like, but soft and comfortable fabric is a must for many autistic people.

It is worth noting that autistic people often have individual clothing preferences, and some may prefer tight – or even restrictive – clothing as it provides proprioceptive feedback, which can be comforting. It can also support hypermobile joints, which are at least three times as common in autistic people compared to non-autistic people. Furthermore, many autistic people are gender non-conforming, so may not see themselves represented in this outfit.

Autistic Barbie is wearing Mary Jane-style flat shoes, rather than Barbie’s typical high heels. Many autistic people struggle with shoes and rigid slim shoes may be uncomfortable for some. Almost half of autistic young people also walk on their tiptoes as a way of stimming, so allowing a movable ankle would have allowed this to be visible.

The stim tool

Stimming is an important way for autistic people to stay comfortable and regulated. It can undo some of the pain and discomfort of an unsuitable sensory environment. For this reason, we were really pleased to see that Barbie has two opportunities to stim. First, she has bendable elbows and wrists – many autistic people do some form of repetitive movement of their arms and hands as part of stimming. Also, Barbie holds a fidget spinner. This is a small toy that creates an interesting tactile and visual response.

Although not all autistic people will like fidget spinners, most engage in stims with their hands, so this is a good representation of one object that autistic people use to stim.

So how did Mattel do?

Social science researchers have claimed that Barbie – regardless of neurotype – has historically been reductive and problematic. Barbie is unachievably thin, extremely feminine and all too often white. It is important not to ignore these criticisms, however, Barbies are very popular toys and have a reach beyond other brands, and their range of disabled Barbies feels important to raise awareness.

There is no single “look” to being autistic, so the Barbie Mattel created can’t represent everyone, especially as her design is limited to visual elements. Despite these issues, we think, in general, that Mattel and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network have done a great job of creating the autistic Barbie doll.

Her existence is an overall positive. Her inclusion creates a much-needed opportunity for representation, education and normalises the use of disability accommodations.

Aimee Grant is an Associate Professor in Public Health and Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, Swansea University. Rebecca Ellis is an Assistant Researcher in Public Health, Swansea University.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

House prices are up – but what’s going on in Wellington?

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

QV has released its latest house price index, showing for the country as a whole, prices were up 1.1 percent over the three months to December. 123RF

Auckland house prices are showing signs of picking up, but Wellington’s continue to fall and increased supply is keeping townhouses cheaper.

QV has released its latest house price index, showing for the country as a whole, prices were up 1.1 percent over the three months to December.

The national average value was now $910,118 – 0.9 percent higher than the same time last year, but still 13.1 percent below the peak of January 2022.

Christchurch prices were up 2.5 percent in the quarter, and Hamilton 2.1 percent. Auckland turned around a decline of 2.2 percent in the October quarter and a 1.1 percent fall in three months to November to lift 0.8 percent.

Wellington was the only main centre where values were still falling, down 0.5 percent.

Invercargill was up 3.3 percent, Rotorua 2.6 percent and Whangārei 2.5 percent.

“A clear majority of the areas we measure recorded quarterly growth, indicating that value movements are now occurring across a broader range of regions,” spokesperson Andrea Rush said.

“With the number of homes for sale nationwide at the highest level in a decade, buyers continue to have the upper hand, with more choice and the ability to negotiate. This is keeping value movements in check, even as activity improves in some areas.

“That dynamic is also contributing to improved affordability in relative terms, particularly for first-home buyers, who remain active across many parts of the country.”

She said apartments and townhouses were under price pressure in Auckland and Christchurch because of high levels of supply as well as higher building and servicing costs, and the fact standalone houses had dropped in price.

There were 35,969 new homes consented in the year ended November 2025, up 7 percent compared with the year before, Stats NZ said.

“In the year to November 2025 multi-unit homes drove the increase in new homes consented,” Stats NZ economic indicators spokesperson Michelle Feyen said. “That’s reflected in the number of townhouses, flats, and units being consented.”

There were 9.6 percent more townhouses, flats and units than a year earlier.

“In many cases, buyers are choosing houses on their own sections – offering more storage, privacy, living space and carparking – over townhouses or apartments that lack these amenities and are often not significantly cheaper to purchase,” Rush said.

“Agents also report that buyers are favouring developments that do offer these features, particularly those in popular locations, over those that lack parking, storage, privacy and outdoor space.”

She said there had been a “reset” in development land values in some areas such as Waitākere, Manukau and Papakura.

“Building costs remain elevated compared to pre-peak levels, alongside higher interest rates, some developers who paid a premium for land during the peak can no longer afford to develop or hold it, resulting in land being resold in some cases at significantly lower prices than originally paid.”

Wellington emptying out

Rush said Wellington prices were now 3.6 percent lower than a year ago, but the 0.5 percent drop was more of a stabilisation than a fall.

“You still are having the impact of job losses in the public sector, people leaving, students leaving, people going overseas. So what you’ve sort of got is an excessive housing supply not only in terms of rentals but also in terms of properties that are on the market and that demand for housing with fewer people looking for housing across the board is seeing pressure on values continue.”

Townhouses are bringing prices down. RNZ/Calvin Samuel

Some parts of the city were 30 percent below their previous peak values. She said that was positive for first-home buyers who wanted to enter the market.

“However interest rates remain much higher than during the previous peak, so servicing debt is still a barrier to potential buyers… But you know, there’s a positive to this. There was a period there where rents were very high in Wellington and house prices were, too. So there’s always a positive side to the reset that we’ve seen since the previous peak.”

Property investment coach Steve Goodey said Wellington felt flat.

“There are some green shoots – there are not as many listings for a summer period as we would normally expect.

“With rental demand, rents have gone down 7 percent to 10 percent meaning landlords are reducing their rents to get a better occupancy… suddenly places are starting to fill up. I had a boarding house with 11 bedrooms and a whole pile of people left before Christmas and I couldn’t get new tenants over Christmas – now it’s back to nine rooms out of 11.

“There’s decent rental demand in Wellington and good quality properties are being snapped up fairly quickly.”

Wellington real estate salesperson Mike Robbers said he was optimistic about the year ahead. The first big round of open homes would happen this weekend, he said. “Normally you find quite a few people milling around… in the last few years the last few weeks of January have generally been quite buoyant.”

Rush said she expected a stable 2025.

“An election year can create a degree of caution and that sometimes restrains activity.

“Buyers and sellers take a more wait-and-see approach. So that tends to happen towards the end of the year during the election year.

“However, as we head into the summer months activity was on the rise previous to Christmas, we do have the situation where across the country we have more properties listed for sale than has been seen in a decade.

“Buyers have plenty of choice, which keeps pressure on prices.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The World Trade Organization is on life support. Will Trump’s new rules finish it off?

By The Conversation -

January 14, 2026

Screenshot 2024-07-14 at 6.50.00 PM — US President Donald Trump raised a fist in defiance after an assassination attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, Saturday, July 13, 2024 (USEDST).

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

The United States has now withdrawn from 66 international organisations, conventions and treaties, illegally invaded Venezuela, and promoted an “America First” agenda in its new National Security Strategy.

This all signals the collapse of a global system that has operated for the past 60 years. The old world order – driven by hyper-globalisation and US hegemonic power – is in its death throes, but a new era is yet to be born.

We now face a deepening ideological, strategic and military conflict over what shape it will take. The global “free trade” regime, overseen by the World Trade Organization (WTO), is one such battleground.

Largely designed to serve its strategic and corporate interests, the US now sees the WTO as a liability because of the economic ascendancy of China and a domestic populist backlash against globalisation and free trade.

But US antipathy to the current multilateral trade regime is not exclusive to the Trump administration. America has long resisted binding itself to the trade rules it demands other countries obey.

Congress reserved the power to review US membership when it authorised joining the WTO in 1994. Since then, both Republican and Democrat administrations have undermined its operation by:

calling for an end to the Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001
breaking the WTO dispute mechanism by defying rulings that go against it, and refusing to appoint judges to the WTO Appellate Body so it is now moribund (effectively allowing rules to be breached)
and starving the WTO’s budget during the latest US review of international organisation memberships.

To date, Trump has not withdrawn the US from the WTO. But his administration seeks instead to reinvent it in a form it believes will restore US geostrategic and economic ascendancy.

Rewriting the rulebook

In December 2025, the newly-arrived US Ambassador to the WTO warned its General Council:

If the WTO does not reform by making tangible improvements in those areas that are central to its mission, it will continue its path toward irrelevancy.

“Reform” in this context means abandoning the cornerstone most-favoured-nation rule that requires all WTO members to be treated equally well, which is the bedrock of multilateralism.

The US wants to reinterpret the WTO’s “security exceptions” (which apply to arms trade, war and United Nations obligations to maintain peace and security) to allow countries absolute sovereignty to decide when the exception applies – effectively neutralising the rules at will.

The WTO would also cease to address issues of “oversupply” and “overcapacity”, “economic security” and “supply chain resilience”, which the US believes have enabled China’s growing economic dominance, leaving the way open for unilateral action outside the WTO.

In the stripped-down WTO, decision-making by consensus would be abandoned and multilateral negotiations replaced by deals that are driven by more powerful players on cherry-picked topics.

Unilateral action is not an idle threat. Trump has imposed arbitrary and erratic tariffs on more than 90 countries for a variety of “national and economic security” reasons, demanding concessions for reducing (not removing) them.

Those demands extend way beyond matters of trade, and impinge deeply on those countries’ own sovereignty. There is nothing the WTO can do.

Weaponising tariffs is also not a new strategy. President Joe Biden maintained the tariffs imposed on China during the first Trump presidency, triggering WTO disputes which remain unresolved.

But Trump’s embrace of raw coercive power strips away any chimera of commitment to multilateralism and the model that has prevailed since the 1980s, or to the development of Third World countries that have been rule-takers in that regime.

Where now for the WTO?

Some more powerful countries have bargained with Trump to reduce the new tariffs. China’s retaliation generated an uneasy one-year truce. Brazil held firm against Trump’s politically-motivated tariffs at considerable economic cost. Australia made a side-deal on critical minerals.

The European Union remains in a standoff over pharmaceutical patents and regulating big tech. India has diversified to survive relatively unscathed, ironically forging closer ties with China.

Less powerful countries are much more vulnerable. Among other obligations, the full texts of “reciprocal trade agreements” with Malaysia and Cambodia, signed in October, require them to:

replicate US foreign policy and sanctions on other countries
consult the US before negotiating a new free trade agreement with a country that “jeopardises US essential security interests”
promise to make potentially crippling investments in and purchases from the US
involve the US in regulating inward investment and development of Malaysia’s rare earth elements and critical minerals (Malaysia has large unmined repositories, an alternative to China)
and not tax US tech giants, regulate their monopolies or restrict data flows.

If implemented, these agreements risk creating economic, fiscal, social and political chaos in targeted countries, disrupting their deeply integrated supply chains, and requiring they make impossible choices between the US and China.

In return, the 2025 tariffs will be reduced, not reversed, and the US can terminate the deals pretty much at will.

This poses an existential question for WTO members, including New Zealand and Australia, at the 14th ministerial conference in Cameroon in late March: will members submit to US demands in an attempt to keep the WTO on life support?

Or can they use this interregnum to explore alternatives to the hyper-globalisation model whose era has passed?

Jane Kelsey is affiliated with a number of international NGOs that monitor and advise on developments in international trade law and the WTO.

– ref. The World Trade Organization is on life support. Will Trump’s new rules finish it off? – https://theconversation.com/the-world-trade-organization-is-on-life-support-will-trumps-new-rules-finish-it-off-273216

New Zealand passport drops down global power rankings

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Henley Passport Index for 2026 ranks New Zealand 24th-equal in the world in terms of destinations passport holders can travel to without a prior visa. Customs / supplied

Global rankings show New Zealand’s passport is less powerful than last year.

The Henley Passport Index for 2026 ranks New Zealand 24th-equal in the world in terms of destinations passport holders can travel to without a prior visa.

People with New Zealand passports have easy access to 183 countries, compared to 190 last year. Countries in which travellers can get a visa on arrival are included in the calculation.

The ranking puts New Zealand in the sixth tier, on par with nations such as Croatia, Estonia and Poland and in front of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

Last year New Zealand was in 17th-equal place, in the fifth tier with easy access to 190 countries.

Singapore remains the most powerful passport in the world, with access to 192 countries without a prior visa, followed in second-equal place by Japan and South Korea.

Henley said its rankings were based on “exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database” and enhanced by its own research team.

The top passports were:

192 countries – Singapore
188 – Japan, South Korea
186 – Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
185 – Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy ,Netherlands, Norway
184 – Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates
183 – Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Malta, New Zealand, Poland
182 – Australia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, United Kingdom
181 – Canada, 180 Iceland, Lithuania
180 – Malaysia
179 – United States

The weakest passports belonged to Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Holders of an Afghan passport only have easy access to 24 countries.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Young driver going 80km/h over limit hits spikes, collides with oncoming truck

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say the vehicle hit two sets of road spikes before eventually colliding with an oncoming truck. AFP / Andri Tambunan

A young driver has died in a fiery crash after seen dangerously driving in Hamurana, north of Rotorua.

The silver Lexus, carrying the driver and two young passengers, was reportedly seen cutting people off and driving 80kmh over the speed limit on Tuesday.

Police said the vehicle hit two sets of road spikes before eventually colliding with an oncoming truck.

Bay of Plenty Road Policing Manager, Inspector Phil Gillbanks, says officers and members of the public put themselves at risk to put flames out and save the two passengers.

He said people ran to the scene with extinguishers and about 18 were used to put the fire out.

“Their actions were courageous and saved lives of the trapped passengers.”

The passengers were taken to hospital in a serious condition, while the young driver was found dead at the scene.

Several officers were also treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation.

Gillbanks said police recognised the vehicle as it was of interest following an aggravated robbery in Tauranga on Monday.

A scene examination was completed on Tuesday night and the road was reopened at midnight.

A critical incident investigation is also under way and the IPCA has been notified.

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Person dead, three critically wounded in Waitārere Beach shooting

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police at the scene at Waitārere Beach, a small settlement 13km south of Foxton. RNZ/Mark Papalii

Warning: This article discusses family harm.

Horowhenua’s mayor says a shooting overnight that left a man dead and three people critically hurt was a family harm incident.

Police were called to a Waitārere Beach address near Levin at about 12.40am on Wednesday.

They found four people with gunshot wounds when they arrived.

Hato Hone St John said it sent two helicopters, two ambulances, one operations manager and two rapid response vehicles to the scene.

Waitārere Beach Road. Google Maps

Manawatū Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham said a woman and two teenage boys have been taken to hospital in a critical condition. The woman was taken to Palmerston North Hospital by ambulance and the two teenagers were flown to Wellington Hospital.

“Another young person who was at the address is physically unharmed and they are being given wrap-around support,” Grantham said.

He said the gun was found at the scene and a forensic examination of the property will take place on Wednesday.

Police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the shooting. RNZ/Mark Papalii

Access to State Highway 1 from Waitārere Beach Road was closed overnight; however, it has since reopened under traffic management.

Horowhenua Mayor Bernie Wanden told RNZ it was a family harm incident and described the shooting as tragic.

“As far as I am aware, it is only family members who have been involved in this incident,” he said.

Neighbour Elizabeth Taylor told RNZ she was woken up last night by helicopters and lights.

“We thought, ‘What the heck is going on?’” She said.

She said a handful of neighbours gathered in the street.

Police at the scene of the shooting. RNZ/Mark Papalii

Grantham said police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the shooting, and officers would be visible around the area while an investigation is underway.

“This is a shocking incident for Waitārere Beach and the district,” Grantham said.

“This was a confronting scene, and I want to acknowledge the emergency personnel who responded to the call for help.

“We are still in the very early stages of our enquiries, but we are focused on understanding how and why this tragic event occurred.”

Manawatū Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham RNZ Mark Papalii

He said police will release more information when it becomes available.

The police presence had reduced on Wednesday morning, with two officers and a patrol car parked outside the address.

Another family killing

The latest incident comes just over ten years after a horrific crime shook the small township.

In 2016, 26-year-old Eric McIsaac was sentenced to life imprisonment after he admitted murdering his brother, 10-year-old Alex Fisher, at Waitārere Beach the previous year.

Alex’s body was found after a three-day search involving more than 100 people helped by helicopters, police dog units, search and rescue teams, and Air Force personnel.

McIsaac was sentenced to life in jail with 14 years without parole for the murder.

Where to get help:

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
Samaritans: 0800 726 666
Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
Healthline: 0800 611 116
Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Family Violence

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Heavy rain warning as more 110mm of rain forecast to hit South Island

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Up to 110 millimetres of rain is expected to fall in the top of the South Island. MetService

Heavy rain is forecast to hit the top of the South Island as a low-pressure system moves in this evening.

MetService has an orange heavy rain warning in place for Marlborough Sounds, Richmond Range and the Rai Valley from 7pm on Wednesday until Thursday afternoon.

Up to 110 millimetres of rain is expected to fall and people in the area are encouraged to prepare by clearing their drains and gutters and avoiding low-lying areas.

Heavy Rain Watches issued for Tasman and Marlborough
A low-pressure system moves in late tomorrow night into Thursday, bringing heavy rain to the upper South Island
Widespread rain is expected on Thursday, with a risk of thunderstorms for the North Island especially pic.twitter.com/qbWc8kbspf

— MetService NZ (@MetService) January 13, 2026

Heavy rain watches have also been issued for parts of Nelson, Tasman, Buller, Wellington, the Kaikoura Coast and Marlborough south of the Richmond Range.

MetService said there was a moderate chance of them being upgraded to warnings.

Taranaki has a severe thunderstorm watch in place from 2am until 11pm on Thursday due to a moist unstable northwesterly flow.

Intense, localised rainfall of 25 to 40 millimetres an hour is predicted with the potential for surface or flash flooding.

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Auckland scientists hope to develop melanoma treatments with million-dollar boost

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Molecular basis for melanoma cell motility. (Julio C. Valencia Public Domain)

Scientists at the University of Auckland hope a $1 million grant will help them develop groundbreaking new therapies for deadly skin cancers.

New Zealand has the world’s highest melanoma death rate, with almost 300 people losing their lives to the cancer each year.

Associate Professor of Pharmacology Stephen Jamieson and his team are developing new treatments to kill deadly skin cancers caused by a specific type of gene mutation.

The Winn Trust has granted $1 million for research into melanoma led by Jamieson and Dr Dean Singleton from the university’s Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre and Centre for Cancer Research.

“It just enables us to put all our resources into trying to develop new therapies for melanoma,” Jamieson said.

He is using cutting-edge gene editing technologies to try to develop new treatments to tackle melanomas caused by a mutation of the NRAS gene. This mutation is found in about 15 to 20 percent of melanomas, but there is no specific treatment at present.

“Melanoma is a major issue in New Zealand – with Australia, we have the highest incidence and mortality rates in the world,” he said.

“Immunotherapy can be used to treat melanomas, but if that fails, there are no effective treatment options for NRAS-mutant melanomas and there’s a very poor prognosis – so there’s an urgent need for new treatments.”

Every year, more than 7,000 melanomas are diagnosed and approximately 300 people die from the skin cancer in New Zealand.

Under Jamieson’s supervision, former PhD student Andrea Gu investigated weaknesses in melanoma’s genetic makeup, before making a groundbreaking discovery – that the SHOC2 gene is essential for the growth of melanoma cells with the NRAS mutation.

This research, funded by Cancer Society New Zealand and Cancer Research Trust New Zealand, was published in the journal, Cancer Communications, last year.

Gu won a John Gavin Postdoctoral Fellowship from Cancer Research Trust New Zealand and Melanoma New Zealand to research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute at Cambridge University in the UK. She plans to return to the University of Auckland to share her knowledge.

With $200,000 from Cancer Society New Zealand, Jamieson’s research team plans to investigate billions of compounds to see if they can block the SHOC2 protein and kill melanoma cells with NRAS mutations.

Promising compounds will be tested, with the goal of developing a new drug or combination of drugs to treat this type of melanoma.

Jamieson hopes a new treatment will be ready to test in patients in just over five years.

Singleton’s research is focused on finding out why immunology treatments are not helping about 60 percent of patients with metastatic melanomas – those which have spread from the skin to other parts of the body, such as the lungs, brain or liver.

Melanoma cells were complex and could take many forms, some of which were not recognised by new treatments that used the body’s immune cells to fight cancer, Singleton said, who is a senior lecturer in molecular medicine and pathology.

Singleton hopes discovering how some melanoma cells dodge existing treatments and finding their vulnerabilities might pave the way to developing new treatments with higher success rates.

“Immunology treatments aim to kill melanoma cells, but sometimes they make the cells change. Then cancer cells can hide from the treatment and are less able to be recognised and killed,” he said.

“We’re investigating what’s going on in those different melanoma cell differentiation states and how best to target them.”

Cancer Society Auckland Northland has funded research supervised by Singleton and led by PhD student Claire Palma that is investigating the PHD2 gene and oxygen sensing pathways in melanoma cells. This gene seems like a weak point that drugs could potentially alter to wipe out some melanomas.

“It’s exciting to be involved in this project, which is trying to make new medicines that will block PHD2 and will hopefully work better at killing melanoma cells,” Singleton said.

Both Jamieson and Singleton said a valuable resource powering their search for cures for melanoma is the New Zealand Melanoma living biobank. It holds more than 100 cell lines grown in the lab from samples donated by New Zealand melanoma patients.

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‘Our food culture wasn’t destroyed, it was buried’

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

A collective of chefs is working to revive classical Māori cooking knowledge and reconnect Māori to traditional sources of kai.

That includes teaching people to forage for edible native plants including the spicy horopito, fragrant tarata or lemonwood, and kawakawa with its range of culinary and medicinal uses, as well as using traditional cooking techniques such as tīpoti, a type of basket for cooked food.

For chef Joe Mcleod reconnecting people to their classical kai Māori culture and the native flora and fauna that underpins it, happens “one chef at a time”.

.

He is adamant that despite a loss of biodiversity over the period of colonisation all the primary ingredients that the ancestors of Māori used have endured and the practical cultural heritage is still strong.

“The thought was that our food culture was stolen, destroyed, it wasn’t, it was buried deep amongst those who could pick it up and carry it on for the next [generation,] that’s where I come in and my like-minded chefs, we have the same, similar background, but there’s not many of us left. That’s why the work and role that I play is a very important part of that recovery process.”

Chef Kealoha Domingo examines a native plant at Velskov native forest farm.

RNZ/Nick Monro

McLeod said he is perfectly happy to throw people in the deep end in order to teach them, whether that is through foraging, hunting or making the tools needed to cook, like kete, raurau (baskets) or using the umu or ground oven.

The more people he connects with, whether that is Māori chefs or just chefs interested in Māori cuisine, the better the chances of reviving kai Māori, he said.

Hawaiian Chef Kealoha Domingo was one of several international indigenous chefs who traveled to Aotearoa in November for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, where they collaborated with Māori chefs on an exclusive dinner.

Members of the Indigenous Chef’s Collective foraging for kai Māori at Velskov native forest farm.

RNZ/Nick Monro

Domingo has been following a similar kaupapa as McLeod in Hawai’i of reconnecting indigenous people to their food traditions.

“It’s not something that I designed, went out and sought after, but I feel fortunate to have fallen into that role and try my best to hold up to the responsibility. And I understand the importance of it,” he said.

“It’s motivating me to continue the work and to connect with other people who are doing the same.”

One place helping people reconnect with kai Māori is Velskov forest farm in the Waitākere Ranges, which across 10 acres cultivates a variety of edible native plants and offers experiences for tourists as well as catering for business retreats in the “bush boardroom”.

Velskov partner Ramona Radford.

RNZ/Nick Monro

Velskov partner Ramona Radford (Ngāi Tai, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe) said the produce from native forests isn’t well understood, so one of the farms goals is to make it more accessible.

“So what we do here at Velskov is we combine regenerative farm produce with tours and experiences, as well as education for the people that come to the farm. We tell them the story of this place and the traditions and the whakapapa, some of the knowledge about the native plants and produce that come off the whenua.”

Traditional Māori ingredients can be difficult to source because it is not a well understood source of produce, she said.

“It’s not so much that there are regulations or permits required because councils and the government aren’t even aware of, or even seeing this as a current option. Our intention with what we’re doing here is to establish a framework, a set of standards and guidelines for working with native bush produce.”

Radford said sourcing kai under a culturally endorsed set of guidelines will help protect native plants from being over harvested.

“The reason why we are providing a framework and a set of guidelines is because there is a fear, a lot of fear from our people that the bush will be exploited, that it will be over harvested.”

Radford is hoping to ensure the protection of not only the ngāhere, the native forest, but also the cultural knowledge that sits behind kai Māori, she said.

“This is a Māori customary right to be able to forage in your ngāhere. And so as we’re passing on the knowledge of the plants and the food and inviting people to this place, we’re educating them around how important it is to apply principles to the way that we that these forests are managed.”

Chef Kārena Bird

RNZ/Nick Monro

Kārena Bird said it was a highlight to connect with other indigenous chefs at Velskov, although the Maketu based chef admits that foraging in the rainy forest is not really her deal as a “coastal gal”.

“Obviously, when you go into the forest, there’s just something about it that really calms the spirit. And being able to forage and eat food [at Velskov] is really special because a lot of the places around Aotearoa are reserves and you can’t really get things from there. So it’s really cool to see such a thriving ngāhere.”

A Tarata or Lemonwood leaf.

RNZ/Nick Monro

Bird (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Whakaue) said as a chef when it comes to kai Māori ingredients it is important to make sure you have traceability.

“To source ingredients like kai Māori ingredients, we either get it ourselves, or we have to go through really trusted providers, because obviously anybody can go out and get herbs and things. But we’d like to know that it’s from an indigenous supplier or from somebody who has the same whakaaro.”

Velskov native forest farm.

RNZ/Nick Monro

Bird said Velskov provides a great space to learn more about edible native plants and it’s nice for people to know that “there is more than just mānuka” out there in our forests.

“When you get into kai, it’s just natural for you to want to learn more. And when you are in the world of food, you’ll never know everything. So I think there have been some generations that have been separated from our taiao. And I think the reconnection of us to nature is cultural reclamation.”

Chef Kealoha Domingo prepares kina.

RNZ/Nick Monro

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

From bolts to blue jets, lightning comes in many strange forms

By The Conversation -

January 14, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dowdy, Principal Research Scientist in Extreme Weather, The University of Melbourne

Lightning has captured people’s fascination for millennia. It’s embedded in mythology, religion and popular culture. Think of Thor in Norse mythology or Indra in Hinduism.

In Australia, lightning is also associated with important creation ancestors such as shown in First Nations rock art.

There are many different types of lightning – and many ways in which it influences our society and environment.

What exactly is lightning?

Lightning occurs due to a buildup of electric charge in clouds. This is similar to when you brush your hair or jump on a trampoline making your hair stand up on end, but to a much more extreme level.

This buildup in clouds happens due to different types of frozen and liquid water bumping into each other in the updrafts and downdrafts that occur due to convection – that is, from hotter air rising and colder air falling. The buildup of electric charge can become so extreme that electricity flows through the air. This is what we see as lightning.

We see the flash of the lightning almost as soon as it happens, but the sound of thunder comes later.

Sound takes about three seconds to travel one kilometre. Counting the time between the flash and the thunder can tell you the distance to the lightning. Just count the number of seconds and divide by three to find the distance in kilometres.

Earth also isn’t the only place where lightning is found. Scientists have also recently detected it on Mars for the first time.

A lightning bolt striking the ground. — Cloud-to-ground lightning is a real risk for human safety, with many deaths globally each year.
Philippe Donn/Pexels

The main types of lightning

There are two main types of lightning found on Earth:

Intra-cloud (or cloud-to-cloud) lightning goes from one part of a cloud to another part of a cloud, without ever reaching the ground. It might look like a cloud momentarily glows, often with the whole cloud appearing illuminated, sometimes without seeing the actual thin path that the lightning takes. It occurs when the build-up of electric charge is very different between different parts of a cloud, and is common because the lightning typically doesn’t have to travel far.
Cloud-to-ground lightning can occur when the build-up of electric charge becomes very different between a part of the cloud and the ground. This is perhaps the most famous type of lightning. While impressive to witness, cloud-to-ground lightning is a real risk for human safety, causing many recorded deaths each year.

The rare types of lightning

There are also some other rarer, even more spectacular types of lightning:

Pyrogenic lightning occurs alongside extreme bushfires in some cases. These fires can sometimes generate lightning in their smoke plumes, known as pyrocumulonimbus clouds. This lightning can then ignite new fires far away as occurred on Black Saturday near Melbourne in 2009. Similarly, lightning can also sometimes occur in other hot plumes such as from volcanic eruptions or nuclear bombs.
Upper atmospheric light phenomena related to lightning, also known as “transient luminous events” include sprites, blue jets, ELVEs and PIXIES. Science is still trying to understand details on why these have different characteristic shapes and colours. For example, sprites look like glowing red jellyfish, while blue jets are giant sapphire beams that shoot upwards into the sky. ELVEs look like glowing red halos while PIXIES are flashes of electric blue light atop a thunderstorm.
Ball lightning is claimed to have been seen by many people over the years, but similar to claims of other strange things being seen such as the Loch Ness Monster or aliens, it is yet to be scientifically verified. For example, there might be various other explanations for floating balls of light that people see, such as proposed for the Min Min lights in outback New South Wales potentially due to distant car headlights.

Lightning in a warming world

The thunderstorms that cause lightning are often seen as tall billowing clouds known as cumulonimbus. They look like giant cauliflowers floating in the sky, with an anvil shape at their top in mature thunderstorms.

Our recent study on thunderstorms and other weather systems suggests trends since the 1970s towards fewer thunderstorms in northern Australia and more near the southeast. There are still considerable uncertainties around how climate change influences thunderstorms and lightning.

In general, we know warmer air can hold more water vapour, which might help fuel more intense convective storms and lightning.

If more lightning occurs in a warmer world, the increase could in turn create more warming. That’s because lightning splits nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere to produce ozone which has a warming effect on the atmosphere. Ozone also contributes to air pollution as it is a respiratory irritant.

However, lightning is far from the main cause of global warming, and more research is needed on these potential feedback processes to understand how important lightning could be in a warming climate.

So next time you are watching the spectacular light show during a storm, you might like to consider the various forms that lightning can take. It is one of the marvels of the world we live in, as well as of other worlds, to be enjoyed – from a safe distance.

Andrew Dowdy receives funding from University of Melbourne, as well as supported by the Australian Research Council including as a member of the Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.

Jennifer Catto receives funding from The Natural Environment Research Council and the US Department of Energy. She is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, and a past member of AMOS.

Robyn Schofield receives funding from the University of Melbourne, the Australian Research Council, Medical Research Future Fund, the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program and the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring program. She is a member of expert advisory group of The Safer Air Project, a member of CASANZ, member of AMOS and is past president of the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors.

– ref. From bolts to blue jets, lightning comes in many strange forms – https://theconversation.com/from-bolts-to-blue-jets-lightning-comes-in-many-strange-forms-268197

What’s the difference between a sprained ankle and a twisted ankle?

By The Conversation -

January 14, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, Adelaide University

After the summer break, you’re ready to get back into exercise. You put on your shoes, pop on your headphones and head out the door on your first run of the new year.

But as you step out onto the footpath, disaster strikes. You trip and land awkwardly.

A sharp pain shoots along the outside of your ankle. Before you know it, your ankle has swollen like a balloon. Did you sprain it or twist it? Is there’s even a difference?

People often use the terms “sprained” and “twisted” ankle interchangeably. But in practice, there is a small difference.

The ankle is complex and vulnerable

The ankle is a complex joint. It’s made up of three bones, the:

tibia (the shin bone)
fibula (the thinner bone on the outside, next to it)
and talus (the bone underneath these two that connects the shin to the foot).

Several strong bands of tissue, known as ligaments, hold these three bones together to keep the joint stable. Several muscles and tendons that surround the ankle also help you maintain balance and allow you to move your ankle.

While the ankle needs to be stable enough to support your weight, it also needs to be mobile enough to allow you to walk, run and jump. This means it can move in a lot of different, and sometimes unexpected, ways.

This also makes it more vulnerable to injury. For example, when you land with your foot turned inwards, a lot of force is placed through a small area on the outside of your ankle, which can lead to injury.

In fact, the ankle is the most commonly injured joint in the lower body.

What is a sprained ankle?

A sprained ankle occurs when the ligaments around the ankle stretch or tear. This most commonly happens when the foot rolls inwards (known as an inversion or a lateral ankle sprain) and ligaments on the outside of the ankle are damaged. However, a sprained ankle can also happen in other ways.

Ankle sprains are typically graded based on their severity:

Grade 1: the ligaments are stretched but not torn or have had a very small tear. There will be minor swelling, and the ankle will be tender to touch.

Grade 2: the ligament is torn, but not all the way through. There will be moderate pain, moderate swelling, and it will hurt to move.

Grade 3: the ligament is completely torn all the way through. There will be significant swelling, bruising and it will be very painful to move.

So an ankle sprain refers to damage to the ankle ligaments.

This is what a clinician will diagnose after assessing your swelling, tenderness and pain. Depending on what they find, they may send you off for an X-ray to make sure you haven’t fractured any ankle bones.

What is a twisted ankle?

A twisted ankle is not a specific diagnosis, but a broad term. It normally relates to the ankle rolling or twisting awkwardly.

In short, you can think of a twisted ankle as how the injury occurred, and a sprained ankle as what the injury is.

You can twist your ankle without spraining it. For example, you might land awkwardly, feel a tweak of pain, but then walk away with no structural damage.

But twisting the ankle has also been linked to more severe injuries, such as ankle breaks and fractures.

How should we treat them?

When it comes to treatment, we should really consider how the ankle feels rather than how it happened.

The first thing is to make sure you haven’t fractured any of the bones in your ankle.

Clinicians use the Ottawa ankle rules to decide whether you need to get an X-ray. This is based on assessing your swelling, tenderness and pain.

If you don’t need an X-ray, the priority is to manage the pain and swelling.

The first step is to temporarily limit the amount of weight you put through your ankle. You can lie on the sofa with a cushion under your ankle or you can use crutches. You might also want to wear some form of compression bandage, which can reduce swelling and reduce pain.

After about 48–72 hours, your ankle will generally start to feel a bit better. This is when you can start doing some basic exercises to restore your ankle’s range of motion, strengthen the muscles around the ankle, and improve balance.

These exercises are important. If you’ve had one ankle sprain, this is the biggest risk factor for having another. These exercises can restore muscle strength and stability back to your ankle, which may help prevent future sprains.

There is some debate about whether the common recommendation to apply ice to the ankle improves recovery. Evidence seems to suggest that simply limiting swelling and starting exercise early will be more effective.

So, is a sprained or twisted ankle the same?

Well, kind of – but not exactly.

Most people who say they twisted their ankle probably had a mild sprain. But not all twisted ankles are sprained ankles.

If you think you have sprained your ankle, it might be worth getting it checked out by a medical professional just in case.

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

– ref. What’s the difference between a sprained ankle and a twisted ankle? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-sprained-ankle-and-a-twisted-ankle-270055

As we begin to assess the fire damage in Victoria, we must not overlook these hidden costs

By The Conversation -

January 14, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sonia Akter, Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Devastated by widespread fires, Victoria has declared a state of disaster. More than 500 structures have reportedly been destroyed and 1,000 agricultural properties have been affected. Tragically, there has also been one fatality.

On Monday, the Victorian government announced new assistance payments of up to A$52,250 to help uninsured home owners and renters “re-establish their principal place of residence”.

This builds on a joint state and federal $19.5 million package offering food, emergency housing, mental health support, a recovery hotline, agricultural support and case-specific assistance.

People in impacted areas may also be eligible for the federal Disaster Recovery Payment ($1,000 per adult and $400 per child) and the Victorian government’s Personal Hardship Assistance Program ($680 per adult and $340 per child, up to a family cap of $2,380). They may also be eligible for Disaster Recovery Allowance income support.

All of these supports and payments are important and are being rolled out rapidly. But much more can be done, especially when decision-makers recognise that treating everyone affected by bushfires the same does not actually produce fair outcomes – as our research has shown.

The divide disasters reveal

Many Australians think disaster-hit regions are all, more or less, the same if they suffer the same size of area burned or other immediate measures of fire loss.

But when viewed through a more comprehensive lens, such as key Australian Bureau of Statistics measure of disadvantage data, and for suburbs affected by the most recent fires, a different story emerges.

Harcourt and Longwood sit in the lower half of the the state’s rankings for socio-economic disadvantage. That is, on average, there are proportionally more households in these locations that have lower incomes and fewer financial buffers to cope with a shock like a bushfire.

Yet, in some cases right next door, the localities of Harcourt North, Ruffy and Ravenswood South are ranked among the top most advantaged areas in Victoria.

This isn’t to argue we shouldn’t support all impacted communities. But a uniform $1,000 disaster payment, for example, treats a renter in Harcourt the same as a property owner in Harcourt North.

Most property owners have insurance, some savings and an ability to borrow to tide them over. In contrast, a low-income renter with little or no savings risks falling into a poverty trap. For some, a week of lost wages spirals into rent arrears and long-term debt.

Australia needs to do more about underinsurance

The Victorian government’s newly announced payments of up to $52,250 will go some way to helping uninsured homeowners and renters get back on their feet. But the announcement also highlights a problem it doesn’t solve: underinsurance.

Many households did have insurance, yet their cover may fall far short of today’s rebuild costs. That shortfall will push families to run down savings, take on debt, or stay stuck in expensive rentals, despite having done the “right thing” by being insured.

Underinsurance, especially for disadvantaged households, turns short-term shocks into long-term setbacks. When policy limits don’t match real rebuild costs after years of rising construction prices, families stay in rentals longer and drain savings.

In California, repeated wildfires have pushed some major insurers to stop writing new home policies. Premiums soared, and the state’s last-resort insurance program, the FAIR Plan, ballooned.

After the Los Angeles fires of January 2025, reports documented illegal rent gouging and sharp rent spikes in nearby cities as thousands of people searched for temporary housing.

How we measure hidden costs

In Australia, we typically measure disaster impacts by insured losses and property damage. That’s because those numbers are visible, immediate and easy to collect. But they’re only part of the picture. They show where assets were lost, not where people’s wellbeing took the hardest hit.

Two studies into the 2019-20 Black Summer fires explain why focusing only on assets misses the full story.

First, fires really do discriminate. This is because socio-economic disadvantages raise exposure before the fire and widen gaps after it. More disadvantaged communities are, we found, closer to major burns.

That starting point means having fewer savings and weaker safety nets when bills arrive for clean-up and rebuilding.

Second, further losses after the fires matter. Some are non-economic and they may take time to manifest.

One year after the Black Summer fires, for example, rents in disadvantaged areas had risen by about $20–$26 per week, crowded living conditions increased, and incomes fell. Disadvantaged areas saw more households reporting zero or negative income in the years that followed, widening existing income and wealth gaps.

And fires are not gender neutral. Unpaid domestic work skyrocketed for women everywhere, but for men it rose significantly in disadvantaged, high-burn communities.

What we need to get right

To prevent this natural disaster from becoming an ongoing socio-economic failure, governments need to adjust how they respond to accommodate geographic disadvantages that make it much harder to recover in some locations than others.

Evidence suggests cash support should be determined based on disadvantage and how badly areas were burned, so that economic inequality does not worsen.

Beyond cash, governments must broaden the metrics of measuring bushfire impacts. Official recovery dashboards need to track rent changes, overcrowding and the unpaid work burden for men and women.

As a country, we also need to confront a growing insurance gap by creating rebuild-gap top-ups that account for increasing construction costs and fund “build back safer” standards.

We can and must do better by explicitly considering the hidden and longer-term costs of bushfires and other disasters. If we did, Victoria could rebuild fairer and faster without leaving the most disadvantaged further behind.

If you’ve been impacted by the January 2026 Victorian bushfires, you can find out what support you may be eligible for, either online or by calling the Emergency Recovery Hotline on 1800 560 760 from 9am to 5pm. Press 9 for an interpreter or call for translation help on 131 450.

Sonia Akter receives funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Manh-Tien Bui and Quentin Grafton 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. As we begin to assess the fire damage in Victoria, we must not overlook these hidden costs – https://theconversation.com/as-we-begin-to-assess-the-fire-damage-in-victoria-we-must-not-overlook-these-hidden-costs-273218

Why the Heated Rivalry TV series understands gay men better than the book

By The Conversation -

January 14, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Stewart, PhD Candidate in Queer Male Romance, Flinders University

Heated Rivalry, written and directed by Jacob Tierney, has become a massive hit, going viral among gay romance fans and gathering millions of likes on the show’s official TikTok page.

Tierney’s adaptation of Rachel Reid’s 2019 novel turns Reid’s words into a beautiful exploration of queer male love and sex.

Reid’s romance novel was written for a mainly female readership, and it doesn’t quite capture all of the nuances of a gay male relationship. Under a gay male director, the TV series brings a whole new understanding to the intricacies of gay love.

Not just a pretty face

Heated Rivalry follows the romantic relationship between two rising professional hockey players: the Canadian captain of the Montreal Metros, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), and the Russian captain of the Boston Raiders, Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).

Reids’ original novel boxes the characters into their corners. Shane is the “pretty” boy who is “like a doll”, naturally “smooth” and “like a swimmer”. Ilya is “masculine” and “big” and has a “muscular chest”, “muscular arms” and “thick, muscular thighs”.

Based on these physical descriptions it comes as no surprise that Shane is the “bottom” in this pairing, depicted as softer in appearance and more emotional. Ilya is the “top” – a more masculine, imposing figure.

Tierney doesn’t change these roles, but instead doesn’t draw attention to how Ilya’s traits are more “manly” and Shane’s more “feminine”. Rather, Tierney focuses on how Shane and Ilya’s personal lives make them who they are – in and out of the bedroom.

Production image: Ilya in the change room. — As Ilya, Connor Storrie gives us a bisexual man who is muscular and masculine – but he is also vulnerable.
HBO

Ilya’s dominance and masculinity in the books isn’t a focal point in the show. Instead, we see more of him as a vulnerable bisexual man who fights against his emotions and his family, but just wants to be held in the arms of a person that he loves.

Shane isn’t just a pretty face for the audience either, with his Asian-Canadian heritage expanded upon. We get the pressures of his identity as a representative figure in the media, and softer moments that he shares with his mother after coming out.

Tierney’s perspective makes the pair fully realised people who are each battling their own demons. He emphasises that queer men’s lives aren’t just full of spicy, sexy moments. Often, our sexuality can be a point of difference in how we are perceived in our careers, family lives, relationships and on the wider world stage.

Production image: the couple have a drink. — Tierney’s perspective makes the pair fully realised people.
HBO

Consent is sexy

One of the biggest changes is how Tierney handles consent. Shane and Ilya have a lot of sex both in the book and in the show. In a famous scene from the book, Shane receives a call from his teammate. Ilya takes it as a chance to perform oral sex on Shane. Reid writes Shane “was soft, so maybe he really didn’t want Ilya to be doing this”, and Shane describes it as “fucking creepy”.

The show adjusts this dubious consent and silent protest. Instead – after slight push back – Shane physically moves into a position that enables Ilya better access to his groin and gives facial clues that imply consent is clear.

Tierney has said adding explicit consent to this scene “makes it hotter”. The line between what is acceptable is far clearer in Tierney’s show than Reid’s book because of these changes.

Production image: the couple in a shower. — By foregrounding consent, Heated Rivalry makes the sex scenes ‘even hotter’.
HBO

Consent is prevalent and very much an expectation in the gay community. Tierney’s lens adds these conversations about consent to the show, and makes it clear that Shane and Ilya are so in-tune with each other that there are boundaries, and that’s still sexy.

Tierney lets Ilya and Shane feel less like tough athletes, and more like two people learning to be vulnerable with each other. Ilya’s character is softened, and portrayed as a kinder masculinity.

In the book, when they both say “I love you”, Ilya is stoic and “scared”. In the show he cries, happily.

In the sex scenes, Tierney peels back layers of tough, male energy and instead focuses on showing a tenderness and emotional depth more aligned with real life gay male relationships. Tierney understands the need for emotion in this scene, and his addition shows an awareness of his gay male viewership’s need for vulnerable, fulfilling queer men on screen.

Finding an audience

In adapting the sex to the screen, Tierney spoke about how he wanted to “script the fuck out of these sex scenes” because he knew fans of the book “love this stuff”. He also wanted to emphasise “horny good sex for gay people on TV”, sex that “is not going to end in misery or AIDS or punishment”.

Tierney’s adaptation honours both the women who will come to the show from the novel, and the show’s new male audience. He understood the show had to be spicy and honour the books, but also be authentically gay.

In this, Tierney follows in the footsteps of other amazing queer male directors and writers, such as Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon (2018) and Peter Paige’s The Thing About Harry (2020).

Tierney’s Shane and Ilya cry, have good sex, share their hurts and worries, and work through their vulnerabilities together. All while still being active, attractive and complicated queer men.

Harry Stewart 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. Why the Heated Rivalry TV series understands gay men better than the book – https://theconversation.com/why-the-heated-rivalry-tv-series-understands-gay-men-better-than-the-book-273001

Coroner calls for urgent support for prisoners as parolee dies after 30 years in jail

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

123RF

Warning: This article discusses suicide.

A coroner is calling for urgent psychological support for prisoners before and after their release, following the death of a man who served almost 30 years of a life sentence for murder.

Lee Rawiri Kohiti was sentenced in 1996 for the murder of his cousin. He was released on parole in May 2025.

Two months later, Kohiti was found dead at the Hamilton parole address he had been living at.

He was 19 when he entered prison.

According to the coroner, on his release at 49 years old, he wasn’t visited by friends or family and he expressed a desire to return to the prison environment.

“His closest support had been his mother; however, her health had deteriorated, and she had recently passed away,” Coroner Bruce Hesketh said.

Kohiti’s death has been ruled a suicide.

It’s a story that’s all to familiar to University of Auckland professor Tracey McIntosh.

“We’ve a parole board that largely looks at risk, with particular focus, as we can understand, on risk to community, but perhaps far less is done in actually determining the risk for individuals, particularly around their wellbeing,” she said.

McIntosh wanted more support on the inside to prepare prisoners for re-integrating into society.

“We’re letting people down … it’s very difficult for me to understand why these people wouldn’t be the highest priority, given that they’ve been in prison for such a long time because of the reasons of what they were convicted with.

“We do need to look at community, Corrections, probation, is there emphasis, particularly in that first six months, on the right things,” she said.

It was a significant and urgent issue, McIntosh said.

“When we think about how we do reintegration, I don’t know if there’s any country that really does integration extremely well, but we certainly, we’ve got so much more work to be done at the reintegration level,” she said.

“If you’re really going to talk about community safety, then it has to be a much broader view, and there has to be a much more nuanced understanding of safety.”

Work with other agencies needed

Coroner Hesketh’s ruling on Kohiti’s death recommended the Department of Corrections work with other agencies to address systemic issues in providing services to prisoners on release.

He also suggested Corrections collaborate with relevant partners to collate and review data on suspected suicide deaths after release, within a relevant time period.

“I add a further recommendation that long-term prisoners should have their cases marked as ‘urgent’ to receive psychological services support in preparation for their release in the critical weeks and months both before and after their release,” he said.

Corrections chief mental health and addictions officer Dr Emma Gardner said there were teams that regularly assess inmates’ risk of suicide.

“If a person becomes unwell after they have left prison, they will be having, if they are on probation, regular connections with their probation officer. That probation officer would be doing wellbeing checks on an individual and if they became concerned about their mental health then they would be able to refer them to services in the community…,” she said.

Gardner said a lot of work had been done for those in prison, such as expanding the mental health services across the prison network.

“We are now starting to turn our attention to ‘what does support in the community look like, how do we ensure that the relevant agencies that are already available out in the community are connecting with our people’, but it’s early days on that work and we’ve got a lot more to do,” she said.

Gardner said the Corrections executive have commissioned a piece of work looking at community support.

She said there was always room for improvement, but that Corrections had done a lot of work over the last four to improve internal services for inmates.

Gardner believed the systemic issues mentioned by the coroner were being addressed.

“We really do take every death in custody very, very seriously, and obviously every death for people on community sentences is an absolute tragedy, and we are really, really focused on doing everything we can to improve the support we offer those people and their whānau.”

Where to get help:

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
Samaritans: 0800 726 666
Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
Healthline: 0800 611 116
Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

‘Dilbert’ comic creator Scott Adams dies

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Scott Adams, the creator of the popular comic strip Dilbert, has died, according to an announcement on his social media pages.

Adams, who was 68, announced in May that he’d been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Dilbert, a chronicle of the indignities of American office work, was one of the country’s most widely read comic strips from its breakout success in the 1990s until February 2023, when Adams made racist comments against Black Americans, calling them a “hate group” that white people should “get the hell away from,” in response to a dubious poll about whether it’s “OK to be white.” Hundreds of newspapers stopped carrying Dilbert within days, and the strip was soon dropped by its distributor.

Dilbert, a fictional character created by Scott Adams.

Scott Adams, Fair use

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Adams, also a longtime outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, began self-publishing the strip, in a “spicier version” called Dilbert Reborn, on his website for a subscription fee. He stopped personally drawing “Dilbert” in November 2025 due to cramping and partial paralysis in his hands, he said, though he continued to write scripts and have them illustrated for him.

Adams’ ex-wife Shelly Miles announced his death on Tuesday’s episode of the livestream Coffee with Scott Adams, which he hosted daily until his death, with a written statement from Adams.

“I had an amazing life,” Scott Adams wrote in the statement, composed on New Year’s Day. “I gave it everything I had. If I get any benefits from my work, I’m asking that you pay it forward as best as you can. That’s the legacy I want. Be useful, and please know, I loved you all to the very end.”

Adams, a New York native, worked as a bank teller from 1979 until 1986, the same year he graduated with an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. (He was twice held at gunpoint as a teller, he wrote in the 20-year retrospective Dilbert 2.0.) He debuted “Dilbert” in 1989 while working as an engineer at the telephone company Pacific Bell, whose sterile setting and zany employees inspired his strip.

“For the future of Dilbert, you could say that the group I was in was a target-rich environment,” he told EE Times, an electronics industry publication, in 2005.

Dilbert didn’t become a hit until a few years into its run, when Adams started to set most of its strips in his bespectacled office drone’s workplace. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but it worked,” he told the Associated Press when he won the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award for the best comic strip of 1997.

He credited Dilbert’s blankness — his absence of visible eyes, for one, but also the lack of any particulars about his location or role at his company — with making the strip so popular.

“People have no reason to think it’s not just like their experience,” Adams told EE Times. “For instance, there are both engineers and programmers who are convinced Dilbert is one of them.”

And for decades, Dilbert was. Readers recognised their own upward-failing managers in Dilbert’s clueless “pointy-haired boss,” or identified with the everyman hero’s losing battle against incompetence in meetings with his dim coworkers. Adams included his email address in strips for years to gather stories from readers struggling in their own offices, material that “keeps me going,” he told the New Yorker in 2008.

Following the success of the strip, Adams felt unstoppable: “For a while, everything I touched turned to gold,” he told Bloomberg in 2017.

Confident in his ability to sell just about anything, he entered the food business, with much less success. In 1997, he opened a restaurant near his California home called Stacey’s Cafe. He eventually took over as boss at its sister location, where employees described him to the New York Times as “dramatically clueless about the harsh realities of the restaurant industry,” despite his years satirizing oblivious bosses. Both Stacey’s locations went “belly-up” sometime before 2017, Bloomberg reported.

He was also briefly the purveyor of the “Dilberito,” a frozen vegetarian burrito named for his cartoon and marketed as a nutrient-packed alternative to unhealthy microwavable meals. (The AV Club in 2020 remembered the product as “stomach-ruining.”) The Dilberito, launched in 1999, was discontinued in 2003. Adams told the New Yorker a few years later that “the world wasn’t interested in being healthy, so I got out of that business eventually.”

Adams started to become better known for his conservative politics when he began praising President Donald Trump in 2015, correctly predicting ahead of the 2016 election that Trump would win. Adams, who described himself as a “trained hypnotist,” said he found similarities between the persuasive methods of hypnosis and Trump’s rhetorical style.

He began blogging about Trump almost daily following the candidate’s 2015 debate against Hillary Clinton, and the new subject helped boost his readership, social media following (where he had a prolific presence up until his death) and TV news appearances.

“I could go on for pages about how Trump has good-but-not-world-class skills in a variety of areas,” he wrote on a now-defunct Dilbert blog, per Bloomberg. “And when you put all of those talents together it makes him the most persuasive human I have ever observed.”

His outspoken support for the president led to an invitation to the White House following Trump’s 2016 victory. The pair stayed in touch: In November, he publicly pleaded with the president for access to a new cancer treatment. Trump responded “on it.” Adams posted that he was scheduled to receive the drug two days after making the request, and he credited the Trump administration.

Adams began calling himself a “disgraced and canceled cartoonist” after Dilbert was pulled from syndication in 2023. His beliefs about race, though, had been visible well before that: In the 2005 EE Times interview, he said he “actually was told that as a Caucasian male, I had no future with the company,” referring to Pacific Bell, which he left in 1995, a few years after Dilbert debuted. He also wrote in Dilbert 2.0 that the animated series based on his comic was canceled after two seasons because “the network made a strategic decision to focus on shows with African-American actors”.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump remembered Adams as “The Great Influencer” and shared a photo of Adams’ visit to the Oval Office.

“He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so,” the president wrote.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Tougher fines for power companies that play unfair a ‘credible deterrent’ – minister

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Simon Watts. RNZ/Mark Papalii

Tougher fines are on the way for electricity providers and retailers that breach the rules, in a move to give the Electricity Authority more teeth to maintain a fair and competitive market.

Energy Minister Simon Watts said this year the authority will be able to hand out instant infringement fines of up to $2000 for minor breaches.

And from next year, heavier duty penalties will increase from $2 million to the highest of three options – a $10m fine, 10 percent of a company’s turnover or three times the gain made from the breach.

“This is about being a credible deterrent to not meeting the rules and not playing fairly in the market,” Watts said.

“It’s making sure that the penalties and infringements are significant enough to ensure that they are a credible threat.”

Watts said a stronger Electricity Authority will improve competition and should mean more affordable power.

There have been calls to split the generation and retail arms of the large power companies, with the aim of increasing competition and lowering prices.

Last year the Auckland Business Chamber released a survey showing 49 percent of people wanted power gentailers broken up, and 62 percent wanted the government to underwrite the cost of new electricity generation.

Watts said the new penalties will match what the Commerce Commission can do and allow better monitoring of the electricity market.

“Kiwis are feeling the pressure of high power bills. The government is moving quickly to fix this by strengthening the Electricity Authority, which oversees the electricity market and makes sure power companies play by the rules.”

The changes will require amendments to the Electricity Industry Act.

Watts said good progress had been made on National’s energy plan, announced in October:

commenced the first stage of the procurement process for an LNG facility to provide New Zealand with greater security of supply
assessed new energy projects under the Fast-Track Approvals process which will increase supply and unlock investment in new generation
started work on a new regulatory framework to prevent dry-year shortages that drive up prices.

“These steps are about making sure New Zealand has the affordable, abundant, reliable energy our economy needs,” Watts said.

“It’s critical to have strong leadership at the Electricity Authority to ensure it can support the market to deliver abundant and affordable energy.”

The government has also agreed to the appointment of new members to the Electricity Authority Board.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Locals want popular Kerikeri swimming spot reopened

By Evening Report -

January 14, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tommy Lodge backflips from the top of the falls at Charlie’s Rock, on Kerikeri’s Waipapa River. RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Record temperatures in Kerikeri have highlighted a long-standing bugbear in the Northland town – declining access to once-popular swimming spots.

According to MetService, last Saturday’s maximum of 32.3C set a new January record for the town.

That was broken just 24 hours later by Sunday’s high of 32.7C.

Sweltering temperatures send Northlanders, like 17-year Te Moemoea Milne, flocking to streams and waterholes.

“It’s been ridiculously hot. Just boiling,” he said.

When RNZ caught up with him he was cooling off by doing bombs off Charlie’s Rock, a scenic waterfall on Kerikeri’s Waipapa River.

“If I have money, I just ask the boys to come and pick me up and go somewhere. Anywhere with a wharf or any jumping spots.”

Over recent decades, however, the fast-growing town has lost access to beaches due to the coastal property boom and the closure of privately owned roads once used by the public.

The most recent swimming spot to become off-limits is Fairy Pools, on the Kerikeri River, which used to be accessed from a public road in the town centre.

Fairy Pools Lane was closed by the Far North District Council in November 2024 for what was supposed to be a four-month period, due to a major housing development on the surrounding land.

Long-time Kerikeri resident Anne Trussler describes Fairy Pools as “a serene and beautiful place”. RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Late last month, the closure, already three times longer than originally intended, was extended indefinitely.

At the time a council statement said the closure was for safety reasons, and the extension was because the developer’s work programme had expanded.

“Heavy machinery, tree felling, bush clearance, and earthworks in and around the accessway make public entry unsafe,” the council said. To ensure public safety during the ongoing works, a full closure of access to the reserve is required… The extended closure will remain until all major development works have been completed.”

Young swimmers told RNZ that Charlie’s Rock was far superior for its jumping-off places and cool water, but Fairy Pools was close to the town centre and easy to access.

Charlie’s Rock was reached via a 20-minute, bouldery path, which was challenging for less mobile residents.

Tommy Lodge, 17, said Charlie’s Rock was easily the town’s best freshwater swimming spot.

“But Fairy Pools is nice and accessible, real close and still good for a swim.”

He described the closure as “pretty stupid”.

“I reckon it should be open, especially for people that don’t have as much access to cars or transport.”

In recent days, when no tree felling is taking place, the access road to Fairy Pools has been open – though the council sign says it is still officially closed. RNZ / Peter de Graaf

RNZ contacted the Matakana-based developer, Turnstone, and the council for an estimate of when Fairy Pools Lane would officially reopen. Neither had responded before this story was due to be published.

Long-time Kerikeri resident Anne Trussler lamented the loss of what she described as “a serene and beautiful spot”.

She said Fairy Pools was her late father’s favourite place, where he used to take his dog for daily walks. Now she was unable to go there to remember him.

“More and more of these very, very special places, uniquely Kerikeri places, are slowly being denied to us. It’s wrong, and nobody’s really looking out for the people of Kerikeri. So I am deeply concerned.”

Fairy Pools Lane and reserve was until recently surrounded by the Bing property, named after a previous owner, and planted in gum and redwood trees about 90 years ago.

The roughly 20-hectare property, between Kerikeri’s town centre, the Heritage Bypass and Kerikeri River, was sold to a developer in 2021. Transfer of the land was delayed by a legal dispute until 2024.

Plans for the land included up to 350 homes, a “lifestyle village”, new roads, and commercial premises.

Most of the trees have now been cut down but felling is continuing this week alongside the river, prompting a two-day closure of part of the Rainbow Falls Track in the nearby Department of Conservation reserve.

Updated council signs at Fairy Pool Lane in Kerikeri now state the closure of the popular swimming spot is “until further notice”. Supplied

Firefighters were called to at least two fires in the property late last year.

In the most recent blaze, on 14 December, two helicopters and firefighters from five Far North brigades were needed to bring the flames under control.

FENZ said the fire started when high winds fanned a burn pile back into life.

Recent record-breaking temperatures prompted community group Our Kerikeri to compile a list of the town’s remaining swimming spots.

As well as Charlie’s Rock, the list included the pool at the bottom of Rainbow Falls, Waipapa Landing, and waterholes along Wairoa Stream, accessed via a bush track off Cobham Road.

The nearest beach was Wharau Bay, 14km away at the entrance to Kerikeri Inlet.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Locals want popular Kerikeri swimming spot Kerikeri reopened