In the Brazilian Amazon, water is not simply a natural resource. For many rural communities, it shapes mobility, livelihoods, food systems, and everyday life. In the Amazon River delta, the Marajó Archipelago – the world’s largest fluvio-marine archipelago – rivers, floodplains, and wetlands are deeply intertwined with the ways people inhabit and experience the territory. Yet, despite living in one of the most water-abundant regions on Earth, thousands of families still lack access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

This paradox is not simply a consequence of environmental conditions. It reflects political choices about infrastructure, territorial investment, and water governance.

Abundance of water, lack of infrastructure

This contradiction reflects a broader structural problem in the Brazilian Amazon.

Although northern Brazil holds a significant share of the country’s freshwater resources, around 6.5 million people in the region still lack access to treated water. At the same time, nearly 15 million live without sewage collection services.

In Pará – the state where Marajó is located, sanitation indicators are among the

worst in Brazil. Data from Brazil’s National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) show that less than 10% of the state’s population is connected to sewage systems.

Across many rural communities in the archipelago, families still rely on shallow wells, improvised rainwater storage systems, or untreated river water for daily consumption.

The problem extends far beyond water scarcity. It is shaped by unequal access to clean drinking water, chronic sanitation deficits, and competing claims over how water resources are used and governed. While traditional communities have historically faced limited public investment in water and sanitation infrastructure, water-intensive economic activities – such as the expansion of irrigated rice farming in the grassland areas of Marajó – continue to advance across the territory, deepening disputes over who has the right to water.

Sanitation, territorial inequality, and rural communities

In the Amazon, water insecurity is shaped less by the absence of water than by the
absence of infrastructure capable of capturing, treating and distributing it safely. This challenge is particularly acute in rural and riverine territories, where sanitation systems remain limited and public investment has historically been concentrated in urban centres.

Approximately 42.6% of the population in northern Brazil lacks access to safe
drinking water, despite the region concentrating most of the country’s freshwater availability. In the north of Brazil, around 1.53 million people – roughly 8% of the population – live in households without an exclusive bathroom. These indicators, from Instituto Trata Brasil, reveal some of the country’s deepest sanitation inequalities.

Geography further intensifies these vulnerabilities. Seasonal flooding can contaminate wells and household water storage systems, while drought periods increasingly affect water quality and availability.

In estuarine territories such as the Marajó Archipelago, tidal variation and salinisation create additional challenges for securing safe drinking water throughout the year.

Climate change may deepen inequalities

Climate change is likely to intensify existing water inequalities across the Amazon, including in Marajó. In recent years, the Brazilian Amazon has experienced record-breaking heatwaves, prolonged droughts and increasingly unpredictable hydrological cycles. Historic droughts in 2023 and 2024 disrupted river transportation, isolated rural communities and reduced water availability across northern Brazil.

In 2024, Brazil’s National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency (ANA) declared incidents of water scarcity in major Amazonian river basins, including the Tapajós, Xingu, Madeira and Purus rivers. Extreme droughts and floods disrupted transportation, food supply systems and local access to water in many rural communities across the region.

The impacts were also felt across the Marajó Archipelago. During recent climate
extremes, municipalities such as Muaná, Portel, Bagre, Anajás, Ponta de Pedras, and
Santa Cruz do Arari declared states of emergency associated with severe drought
conditions, while Cachoeira do Arari experienced emergencies linked to both drought and flooding events in different years.

These events illustrate how climate change interacts with longstanding infrastructure deficits and territorial inequalities, amplifying existing vulnerabilities across the archipelago. Water insecurity in Marajó is therefore shaped not only by environmental variability, but also by the unequal capacity of communities and institutions to respond to climatic extremes.

More than a resource: Marajó’s many ways of living with water

In Marajó, water is far more than a natural resource.

Rivers, floodplains, and wetlands are sources of drinking water, transportation routes, fishing grounds, ecological habitats, and spaces where cultural practices, livelihoods, and community relations are continuously reproduced. Different social groups relate to water in distinct ways, reflecting broader debates about development, territorial governance, and the future of the Amazon.

Livestock production has historically shaped the occupation of the Marajó Archipelago. Buffalo and cattle ranching, adapted to seasonal floodplain dynamics, remain central to the regional economy and to the landscape itself. Seasonal water cycles determine grazing areas, mobility patterns, and the organisation of extensive ranching systems across the islands (Medeiros; Souza e Nelson, 2026)

More recently, irrigated rice farming has expanded rapidly across the grassland areas of eastern Marajó, especially in municipalities such as Cachoeira do Arari and Salvaterra.

This model depends on canals, pumps, and irrigation systems connected to the Arari

River basin. According to FAO estimates, producing one kilogram of rice may require between 1,000 and 3,000 litres of water, while environmental reports from the region indicate that some irrigation systems withdraw around 2,000 litres of water per second from local rivers during cultivation periods (Medeiros; Souza, 2025).

For producers and agricultural organizations, these activities are associated with
modernisation, productivity, and regional economic growth. Marajó’s extensive floodplains and abundant water availability are frequently presented as favourable
conditions for expanding agribusiness in the region.

For quilombola and riverine communities, however, water is also inseparable from
fishing, mobility, local food systems, and collective territorial practices shaped over generations (Medeiros; Souza, 2025). Seasonal flooding cycles impact everyday life, while rivers and streams connect communities socially, economically, and culturally.

These different perspectives coexist in the same territory, but they prioritise water in different ways. In this context, water becomes more than a natural resource; it becomes part of broader debates about development, infrastructure, territorial governance, and the future of the Amazon.

In this context, water governance becomes more than an environmental challenge. It
also reflects political decisions about infrastructure, territorial planning, and whose needs and livelihoods are prioritised in responses to climate change.

Water is embedded in social, economic and ecological relations

The situated experience of Marajó reveals that water insecurity in the Amazon is not simply the result of environmental scarcity. In one of the most water-abundant regions on Earth, unequal access to safe water emerges through the interactions between infrastructure, territorial governance, development priorities, and everyday relations with water. Rather than a paradox of nature, it reflects the social and political processes through which water is governed, distributed, and lived.

The archipelago also demonstrates that water is embedded in social, economic and
ecological relations that sustain livelihoods, mobility, and territorial identities. At the same time, these waters are increasingly incorporated into projects of agricultural expansion and economic development, generating tensions over how water should be used, by whom, and for what purposes.

Climate change could well intensify these tensions. More frequent droughts, irregular flooding, and growing pressure on fragile ecosystems may deepen existing inequalities, particularly in territories where public infrastructure remains limited and institutional capacity for climate adaptation is weak. In this context, water governance becomes inseparable from broader questions of climate justice, territorial rights, and social equity.

What people in Marajó are experiencing also shows that responses to water insecurity cannot be reduced to technical solutions alone. Access to water is shaped by the ways people inhabit, use, and govern their territories, as well as by the historical patterns of investment and exclusion that define who benefits from infrastructure and public services. Understanding water insecurity, therefore, requires attention not only to environmental conditions but also to the social relations, power dynamics, and development choices that shape access to water in everyday life.

The disputes surrounding water in Marajó are ultimately disputes about the future of the Amazon itself. They raise questions about whose needs are prioritised, whose ways of living with water are recognised and supported, and which development pathways receive political attention and public investment. As global debates on climate justice and environmental governance advance, Marajó offers an important reminder: even in places defined by water abundance, access to safe and secure water remains profoundly unequal. Addressing these inequalities requires approaches that acknowledge the multiple meanings of water and the diverse realities of Amazonian territories, where water is not only a resource to be managed but also a fundamental element of social life, territorial belonging, and collective futures.

This article draws on Monique Medeiros’ ongoing research on water governance and territorial inequalities in the Marajó Archipelago. It is also informed by her work within the socio-environmental component of AmazonFACE, a large-scale interdisciplinary research initiative that investigates how climate change affects Amazonian ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

Monique Medeiros is a member of AmazonFace.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/why-safe-water-is-still-lacking-in-the-marajo-archipelago-one-of-the-worlds-most-water-abundant-regions/

African governments are increasingly encouraging young people to work abroad. To address youth unemployment at home, for example, Ghana and Kenya have expanded labour mobility agreements with other countries. These include Spain, Qatar and Caribbean states.

Agreements with Gulf countries have largely focused on construction and service-sector jobs. But newer partnerships with Caribbean countries are targeting skilled professionals like nurses and healthcare workers.

These arrangements can create structured pathways for people to work abroad, often in sectors where labour is in high demand.

Many African countries have large and growing youth populations struggling to get decent jobs. Meanwhile, wealthier economies face ageing populations and labour shortages. Evidence suggests that 71.7% of young adult (25-29) workers in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in “insecure” work. At the same time, countries across Europe and elsewhere need labour in sectors such as care, agriculture and construction. Matching workers to labour shortages abroad appears to offer a practical solution.

But a deeper question emerges. What are the long-term development implications of governments promoting overseas employment as an economic strategy?

We study migration governance and youth aspirations in Ghana. We have examined how governments, international actors and young people understand the role of migration in development. Drawing on documentary analysis, interviews with policymakers and migration stakeholders, and ethnographic research with young people in Ghana, our recent research found that policymakers increasingly adopt an “economic gains” lens. They view migration as a source of remittances, skills and investment. On the other hand, young people’s aspirations to migrate remain rooted in limited opportunities and broader socioeconomic realities.

Our study focused on migration governance rather than labour mobility agreements themselves. However, it raises the question of what happens when seeing migration as an economic resource begins to shape labour mobility policy.

The drivers

In Ghana, remittances account for 6% of the country’s GDP. In 2024, this was about US$4.6 billion. It was far more than foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined that year. Expanding overseas employment is therefore seen as increasing these inflows while easing pressure on domestic labour markets.

One example of the implications concerns the protection of migrant workers.

Recent research from Kenya has shown how governments may encourage overseas employment even when protections for migrant workers remain uneven. This is an important concern, but misses a larger issue.

Broader development trade-offs can receive less attention. Even where labour mobility agreements are relatively well regulated, they may still contribute to structural challenges at home, such as the loss of skilled workers in critical sectors like health and education.

Ghana provides a clear example. The country is already experiencing a significant outflow of health professionals. Records show 500 nurses have left every month in recent years to work abroad. At the same time, health systems at home remain under pressure, with high patient-to-healthcare personnel ratios and limited resources.

This has prompted wider debates about ethical recruitment from countries already facing healthcare workforce shortages. Promoting further migration, even under formal agreements, raises important questions. Can countries sustain essential services while easing the departure of skilled workers? And how do these policies affect long-term investments in human capital?

What happens when migrants return?

Our research also highlights the importance of thinking about migration as a broader development process rather than simply movement across borders. As labour mobility expands, the question of what happens when migrants return is becoming increasingly important. Many migrants eventually return home, bringing skills, experience and financial resources.

Return migration can support entrepreneurship, innovation and local development. But these outcomes are not automatic. The UN World Youth Report on Youth and Migration suggests that returnees often require effective reintegration support and access to economic opportunities to translate the skills and experience acquired abroad into local development gains. Policies such as skills recognition and access to finance can help make this possible.

Rethinking labour mobility

One implication of our research is that migration policies should be embedded within broader development strategies rather than judged only by their immediate economic returns. This does not mean labour mobility should be discouraged. Rather, it should complement (not replace) investments in decent work, skills development and strong public institutions at home. Labour mobility is therefore not inherently negative. When well designed, it can contribute to both individual and national development.

For this to happen, it needs to move beyond a narrow focus on job placement abroad.

First, strategic partnerships between governments, employers, education and training institutions, recruitment agencies and international organisations are essential. This could involve jointly designed training programmes, mutual recognition of qualifications, and agreements where destination countries invest in training skilled workers in origin countries.

Second, reintegration needs to be taken more seriously. Providing access to finance, training and employment opportunities for returnees can help translate migration experiences into local economic development gains.

Third, labour mobility should not replace domestic job creation but complement it. Governments need to continue investing in sectors that can offer young people decent work at home, rather than relying on migration as the primary solution to youth unemployment or underemployment.

The key question is how migration fits into a broader development strategy.

Labour mobility can create opportunities for individuals and families. But it cannot substitute for long-term investments in decent work, education and economic transformation at home.

If treated simply as a short-term solution to unemployment, labour mobility risks deepening inequalities and weakening already fragile systems. When embedded in a broader development strategy, it can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable growth.

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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/jobs-abroad-or-jobs-in-africa-why-a-focus-on-work-in-other-countries-shouldnt-replace-opportunities-at-home/

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

In Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Odysseus (played by Matt Damon) is lost not only at sea, but within his own memories. On the island of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), eating lotus flowers offers him relief from the trauma of Troy, allowing him to forget the war, his comrades – and eventually even his wife and son.

While it’s a point of focus in Nolan’s film, the episode of the so-called “Lotus eaters” is, in the scheme of Homer’s Odyssey, very minor. Occupying scarcely more than 20 lines of verse in a poem of over 12,000, the story of the magical, memory-wiping fruit is no more than an unfortunate escapade.

The cyclops, in the economy of the poem, is far more significant. The famous trick, by which Odysseus makes the cyclops believe he is called “Nobody”, rendering the creature’s cries for help useless (“Nobody is attacking me!”), encourages Odysseus, at a safe distance, to reveal his name. The cyclops’ subsequent curse becomes a major motive force for the rest of the poem.

Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation of the Odyssey has reversed this. Although the cyclops still represents the clash of civilisation and brutishness, the episode in the film is relegated to a symptom of a wider problem.

Read more:
Can we map The Odyssey? How ancient geographers and modern researchers have traced Odysseus’s travels

When finally reunited with his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), Odysseus confesses his guilt over the destruction of Troy. To trick a people into accepting a gift – the Trojan horse – which spells their doom, in the name of the goddess Athena, is to violate the divine sanctions that keep human behaviour decent. If the cyclops does not know “the laws of Zeus” (in Greek, xenia: the bonds of behaviour between guest and host), what of it? The Trojan war has collapsed any meaning these notions once had anyway.

Into the gap steps the lotus – in Nolan’s film it’s a flower, and not a fruit as in Homer’s poem. In Nolan’s film, the magic flower is used by Calypso to purge Odysseus’ trauma. What she unleashes is, however, a crippling addiction. Only through painstaking narrative can Odysseus slowly piece together the memory of his men, and only by touching an artefact from his past can his memory of his wife be restored. The whole first half of the film, then, is a lotus-induced dream.

The traumatic Odyssey

How are we to handle memories we do not like? If you could remove them, would you? For many, memories are so painful that chemical remedies are sought.

Among UK veterans of combat, 11% have reported alcohol misuse problems. In the US, some million veterans suffer from addictions to alcohol or drugs.

Nolan’s Odysseus is a commentary on this. Confronted with a world he has played a pivotal role in destroying, Odysseus loses himself in lotus addiction. Calypso’s motives are left tantalisingly ambiguous. Part nursemaid, part temptress (but somewhat sexless in comparison with Homer’s version), she regulates the supply of the drug she has introduced him to (we see her both encourage and forbid the use of lotus).

Both forgetting and memory have their pitfalls. Neither the bitterness of dwelling on a lost past, nor the blanking out of suffering, are the same as healing. In Homer’s Odyssey, a pivotal moment features Odysseus listening to a singer tell the story of the Trojan war at a banquet. It’s the only time Homer actually mentions the notorious wooden horse. Much is made of Odysseus’ response: he covers his face and he weeps. The song of the Sirens too introduces Odysseus to pain and regret, to memory both lost and betrayed.

In the film, unlike the poem, narrative therapy – the telling of the tale – does not suffice. The solution is rather the rediscovery of powerlessness – of a small human’s place in a vast world. Nolan’s Odysseus is a figure of controlling power, whether successfully, in the case of the attack on the Cyclops, or unsuccessfully, as Circe (Samantha Morton) implies when his men raid her home. Research has found that surf therapy can help veterans suffering with PTSD. In a similar way, Odysseus’s trauma is healed by understanding, and yielding to, what he cannot control after all.

Odysseus is described by Homer in the first line of the poem as polutropos: “of many turns”, “complicated”, “resourceful” – the word is notoriously untranslatable. Whatever this means, in Nolan’s imagination, Odysseus is not a warrior. He is a culture hero – a figure who changes the world – and it is responsibility for the downfall of a culture which has marked him with trauma.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Ben Cartlidge 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/what-the-lotus-flower-reveals-about-veteran-ptsd-in-christopher-nolans-the-odyssey/

For some survivors of intimate partner violence, leaving an abusive relationship might mean facing a difficult choice between prioritizing their own safety and that of a beloved pet.

A study of 86 residents at 16 domestic violence shelters in Canada found that concern for a pet’s safety is a significant factor in decisions about when to leave an abusive relationship. A recent evidence review shows that abusive partners may threaten, injure or kill animals to intimidate and control other members of the household.

These experiences help explain why animal maltreatment is increasingly recognized as an important community safety risk. That connection received specific attention in Ontario, where the Standing Committee on Justice Policy released a report on intimate partner violence in December 2025.

The report (which the NDP accused of being partly AI-generated but that I have independently verified) contains important, well-considered and well-researched information. Among its findings was recognition that animal maltreatment can be linked to intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, coercive control and broader community safety concerns.

The report creates an opportunity to bring this overlooked issue into public discussion.

The ‘violence link,’ explained

Researchers have spent decades studying what is termed the “violence link”, a pattern in which animal maltreatment — abuse, cruelty and neglect — and violence directed toward humans occur together.

While this does not mean that everyone who harms an animal will become violent toward people, animal maltreatment frequently occurs alongside other forms of family and interpersonal violence.

Studies in Canada and internationally have found higher rates of animal maltreatment in homes where intimate partner violence is occurring, and have linked it with more severe forms of intimate partner violence.

Perhaps the most important insight from this research is the role animals can play in coercive control — patterns of behaviour designed to dominate, isolate and create fear over time. Abusive relationships also involve psychological tactics intended to maintain power over a partner, and animals can become part of that strategy.

Threatening or harming a pet, withholding veterinary care and abandoning an animal are all forms of animal maltreatment that can be used to punish, intimidate or manipulate another person. Research examining animal maltreatment in the context of intimate partner violence has found that these behaviours are often used as deliberate tools of power and control.

In these situations, the target is often not only the animal itself but also the emotional bond between the animal and the victim. Canada’s Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act, received royal assent in June 2026, with most provisions taking effect on July 18. It addresses these behaviours and adds them as specific offences in the Criminal Code of Canada.

Children may also be affected. Young people who witness animal maltreatment are often exposed to other forms of violence, intimidation or neglect within the home.

Research has linked childhood exposure to animal maltreatment with later behavioural and developmental concerns. For violence prevention professionals, harm directed toward animals can provide important clues about a child’s environment and about opportunities to support children early.

Read more:
People in abusive relationships face many barriers to leaving — pets should not be one

How warning signs get missed

As a veterinary forensic scientist, my work at the Ontario Veterinary College has highlighted how information about animal maltreatment can reveal patterns of violence that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Veterinarians, social workers, child protection professionals, police officers and victim service providers may each encounter different pieces of the same story. Canadian research involving service providers has highlighted how concerns for animal care and safekeeping frequently intersect with efforts to support survivors of intimate partner violence.

The challenge is that our systems often respond to these concerns in isolation.

Animal-related information is not consistently incorporated into violence risk assessments, safety planning or information-sharing practices. As a result, opportunities for early intervention may be missed, and information that could help professionals better understand risk may never be shared across agencies.

Recognizing the violence link does not mean treating every report of animal maltreatment as evidence of intimate partner violence. It means understanding that harm to animals can sometimes provide important context when other risk factors are present. When professionals collaborate and pay attention to this information, overall risk assessments are strengthened.

Changing how risk gets assessed

Animal maltreatment should concern us because animals suffer. But the evidence increasingly suggests it may also reveal risks facing children, partners and families.

Ontario’s report offers an opportunity to recognize animal maltreatment as part of a broader conversation about violence prevention and community safety. Using its recommendations to inform policy and practice would help ensure that information about animal harm is included in efforts to assess and reduce risk.

Humane Canada and other organizations emphasize that recognizing the violence link can improve both human safety and animal welfare outcomes.

When animals are harmed in the context of intimidation, coercion or family violence, the question is not only what happened to the animal, but what that harm may be telling us about the safety of the people around it.

Shane Bateman works for Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, and has received external funding to develop Violence Link education for medical professionals. He serves on the Board of Directors of Humane Canada.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/the-violence-link-animal-maltreatment-and-family-violence-often-happen-together/

Complex characters represented with sensitive and powerful performance is part of what draws audiences to drama, including live theatre.

This is no less the case for musical theatre — but what is the role of music in character development?

Part of my research has been concerned with developing a method for young actors to begin building characters that involves listening to subtle cues in the music. For example, a rising melodic line could be interpreted as reaching or pleading. A pause in the music could feel like doubt or hesitation.

I call this method score-based character analysis. I had the chance to apply it this past spring with a cohort of students at MacEwan University’s theatre department who presented the world premiere of the new musical Monoceros.

It’s based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Canadian author Suzette Mayr. The story follows a high school student, Faraday, on a journey of grief and discovery after the death of a fellow classmate, Nathan, whom she hardly knew.

Faraday, who is longing to find her purpose, gathers some of her school friends and they set off on an adventure to finish the quest Nathan never got to finish: acquiring a unicorn assistance certificate from the Unicorn Society of Lethbridge.

The show enjoyed a sold-out run this past March.

New roles and stories

Tackling a new role in an original musical can be a daunting challenge for any actor.

In addition to the performances, Monoceros‘s run was also recorded live by Bent River Records, which will release an original cast album recording later this year.

A huge part of my job as musical director was to ensure that the words and emotions the actors were singing would translate to an audience that did not see the show live.

Creating a character without a blueprint

Most modern Broadway musicals have bootleg performances or “pro shots” that can be viewed on sites such as YouTube that can serve as a starting point for actors to see how the original roles were portrayed.

However, generally, directors expect actors to show up to rehearsals with their own choices rather than reproducing the original performer’s interpretation. Casting directors also warn actors that watching a famous performance can lead to unconscious imitation and invite direct comparison with the original actor.

Aside from a few demo recordings from earlier workshops, the Monoceros actors had little reference points to begin building new characters.

While building a character is highly interpretive work, listening carefully to what the music is telling them can encourage actors.

The score becomes a critical key in unlocking interpretive choices while anchoring performance in embodied movement — using one’s body to tell a story. Monoceros was the perfect opportunity to put my research into practice.

Seeing versus hearing

Watching live theatre gives the audience physical and visual information. Listening to a cast album recording asks the listener to understand the story and feel the emotion through sound alone. While rehearsing and performing the show for a live audience, I also had to be conscious that the show would also be recorded.

An audience watching a musical in person can understand character through the help of facial expressions, movement, gestures, design and staging. While listening to a recording, the emotive power of the acting must be audible.

Cast recordings also allow musicals to circulate far beyond the audiences who encounter them in the theatre. For many listeners, the album becomes the primary — or only — means of experiencing a work, while individual songs can develop lives of their own through repeated listening, performance, teaching and popular culture.

A cast recording therefore functions not merely as a souvenir of a live production, but as an independent, mediated version of the musical that helps shape how its score, characters and original performances are remembered.

Each night of the run, Paul Johnston, head of recording at MacEwan University, and his team of students at Bent River Records would record and upload the recordings of the show for me to begin the process of selecting takes.

During show week, I listened each morning to the previous night’s recording with one question in mind: without the stage visuals, was the acting and emotion present in the voices alone?

Throughout show week, I had regular check-ins with the actors and let them listen to their own performances and reflect on what they heard. Together we identified the moments where the acting and emotion was clear and other moments where they could lean into musical clues to elevate the text.

In doing so, the recording process not only served as merely a documentation of the production; it shaped and deepened the performances as the actors continued to explore.

Expanding how we create musical theatre

As we transitioned from rehearsals to performance, this process reinforced the main idea in my research. When the actors used the score as a primary tool for building character, their performances became elevated and more visceral through sound alone.

This approach offered interpretive tools so that young actors didn’t need to rely on imitation, but rather used their own imagination to bring the music to life.

Often when I’ve listened to a cast album recording, I’ve felt the need to see it live in order to truly connect with the material. For me, a studio album rarely carries the same magic and emotional resonance as a live performance.

The original Broadway recording of Rent, however, is an example of a musical that I listened to and immediately felt a connection between word and song. I believe that this is, in part, to the fact that the recording wasn’t overproduced.

Actors feed off the energy from a live audience — that’s evident as I listen to the individual takes of Monoceros.

Live theatre is unpredictable, and no two shows in a run are the same. By encouraging actors to take risks and try different choices throughout the run, it has created an energy and magic that is heard through the microphone as it unfolded in real time.

When this cast album is released it is my hope that when audiences listen closely, the music does more than simply support the story; it becomes the story.

Shawn Henry 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/how-music-cues-helped-actors-harness-emotion-in-monoceros-a-new-canadian-musical/

Canada is facing an attribution problem when it comes to extremist violence. The person who pulls the trigger may not be the person who has the motive; in some recent cases, there may be no single motive at all.

An emerging form of brokered violence involves local youth, encrypted communications, symbolic targets, recorded attacks, payment and multi-layered motives.

Put simply, this is motive-fragmented violence: the motive may be split among the shooter, recruiter, payer, ideological ecosystem and sometimes a foreign or transnational criminal sponsor.

The cases

Take the Toronto-area synagogue shootings in March 2026. Although no one was injured, York Regional Police later said an 18-year-old male was charged in the shootings.

The question is: Was this antisemitic attack bought and paid for, a copycat incident or an example of hybrid violence?

Then came the U.S. consulate shooting on March 10, 2026. Toronto Police later arrested and charged 19-year-old Zara Jabbi. Police said the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team treated the incident as a national security issue while the motive remained undetermined.

Law enforcement agencies in Toronto reportedly connected dozens of shootings, including some of the above incidents, to a “multi-layered” gun-for-hire network.

The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom has reported a similar pattern involving teenagers and young adults recruited through Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, paid to carry out attacks and sometimes asked to film the violence as proof.

Simply put, shooters have become freelance contractors. The target’s ideology is entirely irrelevant to them. Their involvement is purely transactional, driven by organized crime, financial exchange or youth recruitment pipelines.

Hybrid threat

Authorities in the United States also accuse an Iraqi national of supporting Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the IRGC, including via an alleged involvement in attacks in Canada.

Though unproven in court, these allegations highlight a hybrid threat: foreign entities using local gang violence as a proxy to carry out attacks.

The recent U.S. indictment against Lawrence Bishnoi and Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. in 2023, could provide a glimpse of how one transnational group can wage violence in another country.

The indictment accuses them of directing Nijjar’s killing.

Public Safety Canada had already listed the Lawrence Bishnoi-led Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity in September 2025.

This designation underscores the blurry boundary between crime and terror: a single group can simultaneously operate as an organized crime syndicate, a diaspora intimidation network, an extortion racket and a legally designated terrorist entity.

Common hallmarks

Outsourcing is key in this new crime trend. In Toronto, the reported use of teenagers and young adults, encrypted apps, payment and filming suggests a divide between the person committing the violence and those directing or benefiting from it.

Symbolic targeting also plays a big role. Synagogues, consulates, Sikh temples and public institutions carry political or communal meaning, even when the shooter is paid. Although an investigation is ongoing, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw has not ruled out a motive to “stoke fear in a particular ethnic community” in the recent shooting at the Salsa on St. Clair festival.

Motive-layering is also a hallmark of the shooters-for-hire trend because an attack’s labelled motive often obscures how it was carried out.

Whether a shooting is labelled as terrorism, gang violence or a hate crime, the underlying method is often identical: a young man is recruited online, paid a few thousand dollars to shoot at a building, and told to film it for proof — often with no idea who is actually paying him.

This overlap matters because while motive explains why an attack happens, it doesn’t explain how. The same digital recruitment pipeline is being reused across entirely different categories of crime. As a result, the shooter is easily replaced, while the broker who arranged the hit often goes unnoticed by investigators.

Most importantly, young people are becoming ensnared — youth vulnerability is also an important feature. Those lured into urban crime are mostly male, often very young and frequently recruited, sub-contracted and peripheral rather than ideological masterminds.

In its 2025 operations and analysis report, CSIS warned that nearly one in 10 terrorism investigations includes at least one person under 18. The demographic trend is “young male, digitally reachable, operationally disposable, and often disconnected from the ultimate motive-holder.”

Transnational networks of online nihilistic violent extremists that target children and teens on popular gaming and social media platforms provide useful insights. Public Safety Canada listed 764 as a terrorist entity, describing it as a decentralized online network rooted in nihilism and misanthropy that grooms and extorts youth into sexual violence, self-harm and, increasingly, offline violence.

The pathway to violence is not always political, but it can still produce terrorism-like harm.

Another feature of the guns-for-hire trend is category collapse: in the same 2025 report, CSIS also warned that violent extremism increasingly involves diverse and hybridized world views, making it harder to distinguish hate from extremism.

Diasporas as targets

The demographic profile of recent attackers defies simple categorization, moving far beyond binary frameworks like “white right-wing extremism” or “racialized crime.”

Earlier ideologically motivated violent attacks in Canada often involved white male perpetrators radicalized through misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia or grievance-based extremism. But the 2026 gun-for-hire and extortion clusters seem different.

Read more:
Muslim family killed in terror attack in London, Ontario: Islamophobic violence surfaces once again in Canada

Peel Police arrested 17 people in an alleged network that targeted South Asian business owners and community members across Canada and the U.S. This begs the question: Why do some transnational criminal networks use diaspora spaces as recruitment, intimidation and targeting environments?

Several structural reasons matter:

• Co-ethnic targeting is efficient: criminals understand language, business practices, family ties and fear thresholds.
• Transnational intimidation travels through family and reputation networks, including relatives abroad, property disputes, remittance flows, caste or clan rivalries and reputational fears.
• Foreign interference and organized crime can overlap. CSIS says foreign states target ethnic, religious and cultural communities in Canada through coercion, proxies, illicit financing and transnational repression.
• Diaspora communities can be both victims and recruitment pools. The South Asian extortion cases reveal South Asian businesses as targets, not merely South Asian individuals as offenders.
• Young men from diaspora communities are often considered operationally disposable and potential low-cost violence providers by forces above them, often foreign entities.

Harder to classify

Canada’s ongoing urban violence problem isn’t just about more guns, more hate or more extremism. It’s increasingly about a brokered violence market in which young people can be recruited, paid, coerced or gamified into attacks whose purpose is supplied by someone unknown to them.

The shooter may be local, the grievance global.

The incidents may not be connected, yet they expose a common problem: violence is easier to outsource, harder to attribute and even harder to classify within the old boundaries of crime, hate, terrorism and foreign interference.

Kawser Ahmed has receives funding from Public Safety Canada for developing tools to counter extremism in Manitoba schools.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/shooters-for-hire-whats-fuelling-the-canadian-increase-in-outsourced-violence/

In early July 2026, the Trump administration quietly tapped Matthew Wielicki to lead the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The move places a podcaster known for downplaying the threats of climate change – and importantly, someone who has not been meaningfully involved in research on climate change or its impacts – at the top of one of the country’s most important scientific enterprises, one mandated by federal law.

Under the law, the Global Change Research Program – USGCRP for short – is required to prepare and submit a National Climate Assessment to the president and Congress at least every four years. Its purpose is to help the country’s businesses, communities and governments at all levels make better decisions about how to respond to the growing risks posed by climate change.

The National Climate Assessments have done two things exceedingly well since the first report was released in 2000: They have told hard truths about the risks that climate change poses to the United States, and they have made clear that, if left unchecked, those risks are going to get much worse.

But despite the best intentions and science, the assessments have largely failed to fulfill a critical aspect of their mandate: They haven’t provided decision-makers with a clear accounting of the range of national and local options for adapting to or mitigating climate risks. They have also remained largely silent on which adaptation or mitigation strategies are most appropriate in different places and under different climate scenarios. And they have said next to nothing about how to make decisions in the face of the risks – and inevitable uncertainties – posed by climate change.

This is why I have argued that the National Climate Assessment, and other climate reports like it, are broken and in urgent need of repair. I come to this conclusion from my experience as an interdisciplinary climate and decision scientist, as a member of the team that reviewed the Fourth National Climate Assessment beginning in 2017 and as chair of a National Academies working group charged with figuring out how climate reports like the National Climate Assessment could better support decision-makers in business and government.

Fixing a broken National Climate Assessment is the job of the person in charge of the USGCRP. But the fix it needs isn’t pretending that climate change isn’t happening – the evidence is everywhere in extreme downpours, deadly heat waves and severe droughts. The real fix is to expand the focus of the National Climate Assessment from just reporting the causes and consequences of climate risks to providing better advice about how to manage them.

Why sharing solutions also matters

To be fair, scientists who develop assessments like this focus on the evidence; they tend to avoid recommending particular courses of action because doing so would require making explicit value judgments that extend beyond the scientific evidence. This is a level of restraint that many people have come to expect from the scientific community.

But as the risks posed by climate change have become more acute, this omission has limited the National Climate Assessment’s usefulness for leaders in business and government who might want – or need – to use it.

Imagine learning from your doctor that you have been diagnosed with a serious illness, only to be ushered out of the office before hearing about either your treatment options or what other patients have done – and how they have fared – under similar circumstances. That’s largely the story of the National Climate Assessment. It does a terrific job of enumerating risks, but a poor job of helping people decide how – and, in some cases, even if – they should manage them.

The National Climate Assessment under Trump

Appointing Wielicki, a former geochemistry instructor and climate science critic, to lead the USGCRP and oversee the National Climate Assessment won’t address the report’s shortcomings. In fact, I expect it will make them worse.

Given the administration’s history, it’s not a stretch to imagine a USGCRP under Wielicki’s leadership soft-pedaling climate risks or, worse, amplifying the debunked “climate change is a hoax” narrative advanced by the Trump White House. Why? Because it’s already happening.

The administration dismantled the USGCRP in 2025. Then it commissioned a group of climate skeptics to write their own government report dismissing the risks of climate change, part of an effort to buttress the administration’s moves to rescind a decades-old federal finding that climate change endangers public health and welfare. A court later determined that the report was illegally produced.

At the same time, the world’s 10 hottest years on record have all happened since 2015, and Americans across the country are experiencing climate change in worsening storms, riskier floods and fires, extreme heat and drought. Leaders are looking for ways to alleviate those risks. Indeed, the long-term success of their businesses demands that they do so.

What decision-makers in business and government across the country really need isn’t deflection or denial. They need information about the costs, benefits and uncertainties associated with different climate risk-management options that they can act on.

They also need a clearer picture of the trade-offs associated with acting now, delaying action or, in some cases, choosing to do nothing.

Over time, an improved National Climate Assessment would build a searchable library of practical and relatable case studies of climate risk-management decisions. They would describe, among thousands of examples, why and how New York City used scenario planning to prepare for sea-level rise and more intense storms; why Flagstaff, Arizona, turned to a ballot initiative to address flood and wildfire risks; how places from Burlington, Vermont, to Georgetown, Texas, fared after transitioning their electricity grids exclusively to renewables; and why governments in South Florida have continued to avoid policies that would limit development or pursue managed retreat from vulnerable areas despite swelling political and scientific consensus about the long-term risks.

Cases like these are what would form the backbone of a more effective National Climate Assessment.

Providing candid, useful examples to follow

One key to making these case studies useful is to be candid about the strengths and weaknesses of competing options for managing risk, including maintaining the status quo.

Another is to provide guidance on how the lessons from each case can be adapted to different places and different kinds of risks.

An important third key is to keep these cases updated over time so users of the National Climate Assessment can learn from the outcomes of others’ decisions.

All three are well within the grasp of the USGCRP if it is operating under knowledgeable and experienced leadership.

And this brings us back to the analogy of the doctor and the patient. Some patients will opt for treatment, while others will choose to ignore their diagnosis. It’s the same story for how organizations and governments respond, or not, to climate change.

Only by developing a better understanding of how and why specific decisions to act on climate were made, and then what happened next, can those charged with managing future climate risks be better prepared to confront decisions about climate action when it’s their turn to make them.

Over the course of his career, Joe Árvai has received funding from the International Development Research Centre of Canada, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation, and others.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/the-national-climate-assessment-is-broken-appointing-matthew-wielicki-to-lead-it-wont-help/

Within a few months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, more than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees arrived in the Czech Republic.

Social service nonprofits responded immediately. They organized emergency housing, connected refugees with schools and healthcare, helped families navigate government services and distributed food and other basic necessities. In the first weeks of the crisis, those nonprofits relied on volunteers and existing community networks to meet urgent needs.

I research nonprofits. My Fulbright Scholarship in the Czech Republic coincided with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing an unexpected opportunity to study how nonprofits responded to the refugee crisis. With my colleagues Monica Lea and Vladimir Hyánek, I interviewed 13 Czech nonprofit leaders between February and June 2022. About a year later, we surveyed 235 Czech nonprofits.

One finding stood out: Many nonprofits that mobilized to help Ukrainian refugees weren’t starting from scratch. Instead, they were able to rely on existing partnerships, volunteer networks and systems they had developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience they gained during one crisis helped those organizations respond more quickly to the next.

We also found that nonprofits were central to delivering assistance but were rarely included in decisions about how that assistance was organized. They housed refugees, coordinated volunteers, distributed supplies and helped families connect with housing, schools, healthcare and government services. Although the central government depended on nonprofits throughout the crisis, many nonprofit leaders had little say in planning and coordinating these efforts at a national level.

In our study, which we published in Nonprofit Policy Forum, an academic journal, in June 2026, we found that the nonprofits working most closely with refugees had unique, firsthand knowledge of changing needs. Yet that experience was not always incorporated into government planning and decision-making.

Several described being consulted only after key decisions had already been made, or providing feedback that was never incorporated into planning.

Why it matters

The Czech Republic, with just over 10 million people, has faced one of the largest refugee inflows in Europe relative to its population.

Czech nonprofits initially scrambled to provide these refugees with housing, education and other essential support. According to the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, nearly 385,000 Ukrainians still live in the Czech Republic under temporary protection. As the crisis has continued, public debate in the country has shifted, with growing concerns about the long-term costs of supporting Ukraine’s war effort and the country’s refugees.

The Czech experience reflects a broader challenge. Many local communities increasingly face recurring and overlapping crises, from climate-related disasters and armed conflicts to public health emergencies. Responding effectively is important, but so is applying the knowledge, relationships and experience from one crisis to the next one.

That means that as complex crises become more common, preparedness will not depend on a government’s capacity alone.

Clearly, nonprofits will always need to mobilize and respond when crises strike. Our research highlights an important question: Will governments adapt their policies, funding and decision-making to reflect the central role nonprofits now play in countries like the Czech Republic?

What still isn’t known

Researchers still know little about how knowledge gained during one crisis can strengthen preparedness for the next. Understanding how governments and nonprofits preserve that knowledge, build on it and use it to shape planning may prove just as important as understanding how they respond during future disasters.

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

Tara Kolar Bryan received funding as a Fulbright Scholar to the Czech Republic in 2021-2022 from the U.S. Department of State and the Czech Fulbright Commission.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/czech-nonprofits-applied-lessons-learned-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-to-the-ukrainian-refugee-crisis-but-had-little-say-in-key-decisions/

The American chestnut tree was a dominant and iconic species in many Appalachian forests until it was devastated by an introduced fungus from Asia called chestnut blight.

A majestic forest tree, an American chestnut was typically 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) in height, but could grow as tall as 150 feet (45 meters) over its several-hundred-year lifespan. Its leafy canopy provided shade and beauty from Maine to Mississippi. The chestnuts it produced had helped to nourish wildlife, Indigenous peoples and European settlers alike. Its rot-resistant wood was also prized for lumber.

People first noticed the blight fungus in New York City in 1904, when it began killing trees at the Bronx Zoo. Over subsequent decades, it spread south and east through the chestnut’s range, killing nearly every mature tree in its path.

Chestnut lovers, foresters and scientists – many under the umbrella of the American Chestnut Foundation – have been working for about a century to bring the trees back. The main strategy has been the use of conventional crossbreeding methods to create blight-resistant varieties.

Resistance is exceedingly rare in the American chestnut itself. So breeders have relied on hybridization, crossing the American chestnut with the naturally resistant Asian chestnut by putting pollen from one into the flowers of the other. They recross the hybrids with American chestnut and pick out offspring that are blight-resistant and look like American chestnuts in growth and form. However, progress had been limited.

More recently, scientists have learned more about the tree’s genome – its complete set of DNA – including how its genes are expressed, interact and give rise to traits. Now, researchers are turning to genome science for new strategies for chestnut restoration.

I am a forest biotechnologist who has been studying and teaching about the genetics and engineering of forest trees and other plants for more than 40 years. My laboratory has been using genomic methods, and developing gene transfer and editing methods, for a variety of tree species, including the American chestnut. Our goal is to develop improved genetic transformation techniques to facilitate the restoration of American chestnuts to their dominant role in Eastern forests.

OXO excites, then disappoints

The first major genetic engineering approach focused on inserting a single gene from bread wheat into the American chestnut. This gene encodes a protein called OXO, short for oxalate oxidase, which breaks down oxalic acid, the fungus’s key weapon for invading and killing plant tissues.

For about 20 years, it appeared the OXO gene could produce fully blight-resistant and healthy chestnuts. This work was pioneered by the late William Powell and his colleagues in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York in Syracuse.

Unfortunately, recent field results suggest that this approach is not working as well as hoped. Many of the trees with the OXO gene unexpectedly developed large abnormal growths called galls, grew slower and showed other symptoms of poor health. Although work to expand and refine the OXO approach continues, new methods and insights from the ongoing genomics revolution in biology have provided new options.

Genomics is helping in two distinct ways

Scientists using genome-guided breeding can rapidly identify thousands of DNA segments that, when used together, can predict blight resistance in young, healthy plants. Then researchers can choose individual trees for making crosses, and for field testing, that have genomes that contain those same DNA segments.

This method enables much faster breeding progress, as breeders can quickly zero in on the best parent trees and progeny, rather than waiting five or more years for the baby tree to grow to see how it fares against the blight. By improving the precision of field studies and disease evaluation, it can save time and money.

The second genomic approach, often just called “omics,” focuses not just on DNA segments, but on genes and what they do. The goal is to figure out how the presence or absence of a particular gene, the matching mRNA transcripts or cellular biochemicals that a gene codes for relates to blight resistance.

Scientists have now identified numerous genes and expressed molecules that are statistically associated with blight resistance in Asian chestnuts. These are logical targets for genetic transformation approaches – that is, using genetic engineering methods to modify naturally occurring genes or introduce genes from one organism into another. My lab has been practicing these techniques for many years in poplars, eucalypts, hops and, recently, chestnut.

The goal is to insert genes from Asian chestnuts, or modify American chestnut genes to act more like those in Asian chestnuts. Genomics-informed studies have been carried on in a modest way for some time, but they are poised to expand rapidly given all the new genomics-informed leads now in hand, together with highly efficient gene-editing technologies like CRISPR.

There are also some surviving large American chestnuts, some of which have heritable blight resistance. Genomic studies of these rare survivors can provide additional insight into the critical genes and processes keeping them healthy, potentially informing both genome-guided breeding and transformation approaches.

Challenges beyond the science

From a scientific viewpoint, genomics-guided breeding and genetic transformation approaches are complementary technologies. The former integrates easily into conventional breeding because it’s just another way to choose parents for crossing and field testing. Transformation approaches enable researchers to create or refine novel mechanisms that are not easily accessible by simple breeding. In practice, however, both tactics add significant costs to conventional breeding.

To make matters worse, transformation approaches also face two additional noneconomic barriers to adoption. First, for reasons scientists don’t yet understand, chestnut remains technically challenging to genetically transform. It is often hard to insert genes into chestnut cells; and even once the DNA is in cells, it can be very difficult to get those modified cells to develop into normal plants.

Another limiting factor is that most previous transformation approaches have relied on tissues from developing seeds that are only available during limited times of the year and require very specialized culturing methods. My lab is currently working on a new and hopefully more efficient approach that we hope will mitigate this bottleneck.

Genetic transformation approaches also face major social barriers in the form of government regulations. Though any kind of chestnut hybrid can be grown in the field freely, those produced with most transformation methods – even when using chestnut genes as the “active ingredients” – cannot.

Transformation-modified trees require strict containment and federal inspections during field studies. Pollen or seed movement – which are very difficult to restrict from mature trees – would violate federal guidelines. Limits on field trials are likely one of the reasons that the problems with OXO were not revealed for many years.

The Agriculture Department has recently begun considering regulatory changes that I hope lead to regulations more in line with consensus scientific advice about genetically engineered crops; these should ease the burdens of conducting field tests. But similar moves over past decades have failed or been reversed due to legal challenges.

Market restrictions also come into play. All the major green certifiers, such as the Forest Stewardship Council, do not allow any materials that result from transformation approaches in certified forest products. These prohibitions on gene editing and transfer reduce the land area where trees created with transformation approaches could be grown, and dampen interest in associated research.

As a scientist, I hope that the barriers to transformation approaches for chestnut, which also apply to the many other forest trees under threat from exotic pathogens and climate stresses, fade. Genomic methods in all their forms have the potential to help protect and restore forests.

Steve Strauss’ laboratory at Oregon State University receives research (not personal) funding from a variety of industry and government organizations, including the National Science Foundation, USDA, and DOE, to advance the science and methods relevant to plant and tree biotechnology. He has also consulted with The American Chestnut Foundation and supervised grant reviews for chestnut related studies under The former Forest Health Initiative (https://2017-2019.archive.usendowment.org/what-we-do/forest-health/forest-health-initiative/).

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/new-genetic-approaches-raise-hopes-for-restoring-the-american-chestnut-to-its-former-glory/

A commercial robotic spacecraft called LINK launched on an emergency mission to save NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has been slowly falling toward Earth, on July 3, 2026. Over the coming weeks, LINK, built by Katalyst Space Technologies, will try to grasp the telescope, then spend months raising it to a safer orbit.

For most of the space age, satellites have been disposable: moved aside or replaced when they ran low on fuel or failed. That wasn’t much of an issue decades ago, when orbit was far less crowded. Now, space surveillance networks track tens of thousands of human-made objects, and the European Space Agency estimates that more than 1.2 million pieces of satellite and spacecraft debris larger than half an inch (1 centimeter) are in orbit. Even chunks that small are large enough to cause severe damage in a collision.

You might say “just clean up the junk” because space debris looks motionless in photographs. But as a Ph.D. candidate researching satellite servicing, I know that the hardest part of removing a dead satellite before it breaks apart into new debris is not reaching it – it is understanding how it moves, how to approach without hitting it, and controlling the instant that two free-flying objects touch.

A tow hook changes the problem

So, how do you catch a dead or broken satellite? The spacecraft doing the catching is a servicer: a robotic mechanic that flies up to refuel, repair or move a disabled satellite.

Some satellites, called prepared satellites, are easier to catch. They carry a built-in feature that works like a car’s tow hook. The servicer knows where to attach, what loads the hook can bear and what its cameras can use as landmarks. That feature removes several unknowns at once.

Many older, unprepared satellites have no docking plate, beacon or navigation marker. Some can still be serviced by gripping a strong structural feature. Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicles, for example, have docked onto communications satellites and taken over their propulsion and pointing.

To grab the satellite, engineers first identify a safe attachment point and estimate the object’s shape, mass and motion, often while working off incomplete information. But even if they find a potential attachment point, this strategy may not work. A solar panel, antenna or insulation blanket may not be strong enough to carry the load from the servicer.

The target does not hold still

Even if a satellite is prepared with some sort of tow hook, capturing it is still extremely difficult.

A dead or disabled satellite is not parked in space. It keeps orbiting Earth and may spin or tumble because it can no longer control its orientation or reorient itself to face the servicer.

Imagine fitting a key into a lock while the lock, or even the door, keeps rotating, your hands float freely and a hard touch sends everything spinning. Reaching the lock is only half the task. Matching its motion closely enough for controlled contact is the rest of the challenge.

Swift is an example of an unprepared satellite. It was not built with any standardized fixture that a repair craft can latch onto. Without one, there is no obvious place to grab and no guarantee it survives capture. LINK’s mission is a vivid case of what engineers call noncooperative capture: catching a spacecraft that cannot help the servicer, may be tumbling unpredictably and was never built to be caught.

To catch a tumbling satellite, the servicer has to estimate several things at once: where the target is, how fast it is moving, which way it is facing and how that orientation is changing. Cameras and laser-ranging sensors on the servicer offer clues, and data from those readings can provide an estimate of how the satellite is moving before the servicer edges close enough to touch.

When the servicer’s robotic arm touches a tumbling satellite, the force from that contact pushes the servicer back. The arm acts like a long lever, so even a gentle nudge at its tip can throw it off course. A rigid grab lands a sharp, jarring impact; a softer, shock-absorbing one keeps the satellite from bouncing away.

The servicer will have an onboard control system, which flies the spacecraft and keeps its body back at a safe distance while the arm reaches in. If the satellite starts moving in an unexpected way, the servicer’s control system helps it retreat. Researchers study how to coordinate the servicer spacecraft’s body, thrusters and arm so that contact becomes a controlled transfer of momentum, not an accidental collision.

In my doctoral research in aerospace engineering at the University of Florida, I study how to approach defunct satellites in a controlled way. My broader research looks at how a single framework can handle both cooperative satellites, built to be caught, and noncooperative ones – the dead or tumbling craft that can’t help their rescuers.

Designing for rescue changes the equation

Designing a satellite with a standardized fixture to grab onto and navigation markers to help the servicer line up can cut down on uncertainty. But these features can’t totally replace precise navigation. A servicing craft still needs to move nimbly through orbit. Knowing where the capture point is gives the servicer’s cameras a clear reference and a predictable place to connect, and lets engineers trust that the satellite’s structure will survive capture.

ELSA-M and ClearSpace-1 show two complementary paths. Astroscale’s ELSA-M will capture commercial satellites fitted with a magnetic docking plate before launch (targets built to be serviced). The European Space Agency’s ClearSpace-1, planned for 2029, tackles the harder case by capturing the unprepared, noncooperative Proba-1 satellite and dragging it down to burn up.

Servicers usually stay in orbit instead of coming home. Some, like the Mission Extension Vehicles, park the satellite they have been helping in a high “graveyard” orbit, clear of working spacecraft, then undock and move on; others ride down with their target and burn up when they reach Earth’s atmosphere.

The next few years will show whether the space industry really leaves disposable satellites behind and starts building them to be caught and repaired, or simply gets neater about throwing them away, designing them to burn up on the way down.

Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba is the co-founder and CEO of Vicillion Inc., an early stage aerospace company focused on commercial spaceflight and spaceport interoperability. She is affiliated with organizations including the Global Spaceport Alliance, the Space Generation Advisory Council, and Women in Space. She has no funding from or financial relationship with any satellite servicing or debris removal companies named in the article.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/rescuing-satellites-is-harder-than-it-looks-a-growing-space-junk-problem-will-make-doing-so-more-important/

After wild turkeys attacked an 83-year-old woman in May 2026, sending her to the emergency room for stitches, police warned residents of Alameda, California, to avoid interacting with the animals. Wild turkeys can be particularly aggressive
during mating season. They can also damage property: digging up gardens, staining decks with their droppings and occasionally attacking cars and windows when they mistake their own reflections for rival turkeys.

Turkeys may be a nuisance to Alameda’s human residents, but they have also been highly valued by multiple cultures throughout the history of North America. Given these threats to human safety and property, is it fair to call this quintessentially American bird a pest?

As an anthropologist who studies human-animal interactions, I have found that the idea of a “pest” is a flexible concept that changes over time and across cultures. Just as one person’s weed can be another’s wildflower, the category of pest is a subjective one that depends on social, aesthetic and economic values within a particular culture.

Labeling an animal a pest typically justifies the use of harmful or deadly methods to remove undesirable species from human spaces. But these methods can lead to costs that far outweigh their benefits, causing unnecessary suffering for not only the so-called pests, but also for humans, other animals and entire ecosystems.

Understanding why people label certain animals pests can help society respond to potential conflicts while minimizing harm to both humans and animals.

What is a pest?

The English word “pest” comes from the Latin word “pestis,” meaning plague, instrument of death or destruction, or nuisance.

The Black Death is one of the most infamous historical examples of the link between disease and pests. This pandemic of bubonic plague spread via rodents carrying infected fleas, killing an estimated 25 million people in the 14th century in Europe. The discovery that animals carried the plague gave rise to one of the earliest pest control professions: the ratcatcher.

Some animals that humans consider pests are synanthropes: wild animals that have adapted to human habitats for the various benefits they receive from human activities. Sometimes, this adaptation is self-directed, as in the case of rodents or coyotes attracted to human food stores.

But humans often contribute more directly to the adaptation of synanthropic animals, as in the case of pigeons, one of the earliest domesticated bird species. The wild descendants of domesticated rock doves, pigeons still thrive in human environments where they can find food and nest in the clifflike edifices of buildings.

People have also contributed to the spread of nonnative or “invasive” species. Maritime travel dispersed rodents and feral pigs across countless island ecosystems. Misguided efforts at controlling other pests, in this case insects that damage sugarcane crops, led to the introduction of cane toads in Australia.

Animals out of place

Many pest animals pose no actual threats to humans or their ecosystems, but this does not stop people from seeing them as trouble.

Most species of spiders, for example, are harmless to humans and can help eliminate insects that may be even more unwelcome in a home. And despite their status as despised backyard invaders, moles actually provide benefits to gardens by aerating soil and consuming insects and mollusks that feed on plants.

To understand why harmless animals are still often perceived as pests, you can look to anthropologist Mary Douglas’ foundational concept of matter out of place. In her 1966 book “Purity and Danger,” Douglas argues that cross-cultural concepts such as purity and pollution are based on normative ideas about the proper places for particular things.

Dirt, for example, is not a specific unclean substance, but a social category people use to describe matter that is in a place where it does not belong. Mud smeared on your clothes, skin or eating utensils, for example, might be dirt in this sense, whereas mud on the ground would just be a part of the soil where it belongs.

Pests, similarly, can be understood as animals that violate spatial boundaries determined by cultural values. For example, a deer and her fawn grazing in a meadow, or a family of squirrels nesting in a tree, might become pests if they were to start grazing on prized rosebushes or nesting in an attic.

Like plague-spreading fleas, these animals can pose real harms to humans, but the category of pest need not be tied to an objective assessment of risk.

Potential dangers of pest control

Designating animals as pests can sometimes do more damage than the animals themselves.

Historical efforts to control or eradicate pests illustrate both how culture influences which animals are placed in this category and the unintended consequences that can arise from putting them there.

In 1532, the Tudor Vermin Laws provided bounties for killing a broad range of species perceived as a threat in Early Modern English society to agricultural food stocks. These animals included badgers, bats, crows, foxes, hedgehogs, otters and owls, among many others. Vilified for superstitious or erroneous beliefs, many of these species did not actually compete with people for food or pose other significant dangers.

Four centuries later, in the mid-20th century, China’s government similarly encouraged people to eradicate over a billion sparrows to prevent them from depleting grain supplies.

These policies in England and China pushed many species to the brink of extinction, inflicting ongoing harm on ecosystems while failing to address food supply problems. In the case of China’s anti-sparrow campaign, a failure to recognize sparrows’ ecological role as insect predators led surviving swarms of locusts to devastate the grain crops, contributing to mass famine that killed nearly as many people as the Black Death in Europe.

Contemporary efforts at pest control have also caused unanticipated collateral damage. The pesticide DDT notoriously caused widespread harm to ecosystems while also posing a significant risk to human health. The regular use of chemical rodenticides is a danger to humans, companion animals and wildlife.

New ways of coexisting

Humans have very good reasons to be concerned about potentially harmful species. Indeed, the mosquito, one of the most common pests around the world, is also responsible for more human deaths than any other animal.

However, the category of pest has often provided an overly simple framework for targeting other animals for extermination, in many cases with serious ecological consequences.

Beyond the many harms of efforts to eradicate pests, the concept of pest itself has contributed to human violence by providing a powerful metaphor for dehumanizing marginalized groups throughout history.

Rather than denigrating other animals as pests, people can address potential dangers of other species while also taking responsibility for how we contribute to these fraught relations. Understanding pests as a subjective cultural category opens space for questioning whose interests are served by such designations, who is harmed by the label, and what possibilities for alternative relations may exist.

As in the case of Alameda’s turkeys, leaving other animals alone and finding ways to coexist may lead to better outcomes for all.

Elan Abrell 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/why-are-some-animals-considered-pests-it-comes-down-to-culture-and-convenience/

As healthcare costs continue to rise, more Americans are looking beyond their regular doctor’s office for care.

Some travel to Mexico for prescriptions, routine visits or diagnostic tests. Others turn to telehealth companies that promise convenient access to treatments such as weight loss medications. Increasingly, insured Americans are navigating more than one healthcare market at once. For example, they may buy some prescriptions from their in-network primary care provider and have a separate provider for their cash-based GLP-1 medication.

As researchers who study consumer decision-making, healthcare markets and consumer vulnerability, we wanted to understand how people evaluate healthcare quality when they move between different systems.

Our research suggests that many consumers face a hidden challenge: The signals they rely on to judge quality in one healthcare setting often mean something very different in another. Sometimes these misjudgments lead to adverse health outcomes.

Seeking healthcare access

For decades, employer-sponsored insurance carried an implicit promise. If you get a good job, you’ll have access to affordable healthcare. However, that promise has become harder to keep.

Healthcare spending in the United States reached nearly $5 trillion in 2023 and continues to climb. Workers with employer-sponsored insurance continue to face rising deductibles, premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. At the same time, hospital consolidation has contributed to higher prices and fewer competitive options in many communities.

Even beyond cost, many consumers struggle to access care amid the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system.

Meanwhile, Americans insured through Affordable Care Act marketplaces and Medicaid face mounting healthcare costs amid the loss of ACA subsidies and massive Medicaid cuts.

As costs rise, patients are increasingly acting like shoppers, comparing prices and looking for better deals on prescriptions and other healthcare.

For some Americans, that means crossing into Mexico, where clinic visits and prescriptions can cost a fraction of U.S. prices. Patients also report fewer administrative hurdles. Instead of waiting weeks for referrals, prior authorizations or insurance approvals, they can often obtain care immediately. To a lesser extent, some also seek care in other countries, including Canada.

Others are seeking care online. Direct-to-consumer telehealth companies have expanded rapidly, particularly for treatments such as GLP-1 weight loss medications. Many patients can now consult with a provider and receive a prescription without directly visiting with a doctor.

These alternatives are often convenient, affordable, helpful and legitimate. But they also require patients to evaluate healthcare quality in unfamiliar ways.

The problem with familiar signals

People rarely have all the information they need when making healthcare decisions. Even with health insurance, the out-of-pocket cost and duration of treatment are difficult to decipher before receiving care. Patients traveling out of the country for care face even more question marks. For example, a provider’s credentials and quality of treatment may be hard to figure out.

As a result, consumers rely on fewer signals that could help them estimate quality, such as online reviews, provider credentials, consultation length, facility appearance, recommendations from friends and price.

These shortcuts work reasonably well when consumers understand the system they are operating within. Problems arise when people assume those same signals mean the same thing everywhere.

We studied how people make these decisions by interviewing 71 Americans who sought some of their healthcare in Mexico. We also asked our study participants to keep video diaries of their cross-border healthcare experiences and traveled with some participants ourselves.

Everyone in our study had employer-sponsored health insurance. Many described this benefit as a factor that led them to choose their current job. Yet with deductible and copay costs being so high, they still could not afford routine care, so they sought cheaper care elsewhere.

We found that many familiar indicators changed meaning across healthcare systems.

For example, a crowded waiting room in the United States may suggest inefficiency or poor scheduling. In some Mexican clinics, that same crowd may indicate that a physician is trusted and in high demand.

Long consultations can signal attentive care in one setting and inefficiency in another. A clear price can feel reassuring. But it does not tell you whether the provider is properly trained, who is accountable if care goes wrong or whether follow-up visits are required.

Research on healthcare decision-making has consistently shown that consumers struggle to evaluate medical quality directly and often rely on cues, past choices and physician referrals. When patients move between healthcare markets, these old decision-making processes can become less reliable.

Why confidence can become a problem

Healthcare needs are often urgent, and even with health insurance coverage, finding an available in-network provider can sometimes take weeks. As a result, crossing into Mexico or choosing a new telehealth provider for a quick solution offers some relief even if it is not ideal.

One of the most surprising findings from our study was that most consumers did not recognize they were evaluating healthcare in this new market differently.

Some participants recognized that familiar signals and quick decisions no longer worked. They slowed down, asked questions, sought recommendations and researched providers more carefully. While this required additional effort, it often helped them to better evaluate their decisions in this new market.

But others felt completely confident about their evaluation of quality. They assumed that the cues they trusted in one healthcare setting would transfer seamlessly to another. Because they felt certain, they were less likely to question their assumptions or seek additional information. Ironically, those who felt most in control were sometimes the most vulnerable to making mistakes.

For example, some patients described assessing a provider’s quality by researching their credentials in the U.S. In Mexico, however, they found themselves evaluating the cleanliness of the clinic and comparing its appearance to U.S.-based clinics to determine the quality of the provider.

When these choices went wrong, some consumers reported serious consequences. One was left temporarily unable to walk. Others developed antibiotic resistance. In some cases, patients in our study had to pay out of pocket for additional treatment to fix a problem caused by the treatment they sought in Mexico.

What consumers can do

None of this means people should avoid alternative healthcare options. In fact, many patients benefit from lower costs, faster access and friendlier service. But consumers should recognize that healthcare quality is not always communicated in the same way across systems.

Before seeking care outside your usual provider network, consider asking questions, such as the following:

• What quality signals did I consider when choosing my current provider, and can I use those same cues in this new healthcare setting?

• What credentials or accreditation matter in the U.S., and do they also matter in other countries?

• How will I be responsible for my medical records and prescriptions if my providers don’t know about each other?

• What happens if complications arise after treatment in Mexico (or another country)?

As healthcare becomes increasingly fragmented, patients are no longer simply choosing between doctors. They are choosing between different healthcare systems – and the signals they trust may not travel as well as they think.

Kelli Frias has received funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the National Science Foundation, Providence Health, and the VentureWell Foundation.

Deidre Popovich has received grant funding from BlueCross BlueShield of Texas and Providence Health.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/why-americans-seeking-affordable-doctor-visits-and-medicines-abroad-may-misjudge-healthcare-quality/

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce on Thursday the extension of the “Prac Payment” for health professionals undertaking placements to 10 new categories.

The extension begins from July 1 next year.

The payment, which began last year, provides eligible students with up to $338.60 a week while they are doing their clinical and professional placements. The payment is means tested and indexed.

The new categories are:

• clinical psychology
• physiotherapy
• occupational therapy
• speech pathology
• paramedicine
• radiography
• pharmacy
• rehabilitation therapies
• audiology

Albanese will make the announcement during his speech on the first day of the 50th Labor national conference in Adelaide. The speech is titled Delivering Real Change.

Those already covered by the Prac Payment are students enrolled in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses.

The expansion will cost $158 million over the period 2026-2027 to 2029-2030.

It is expected to support more than 20,000 extra students. This would take the total number supported by the scheme to 95,000. The total spending would be $745 million over the period.

In his speech, a part of which was released before delivery, Albanese says the Prac Payment provides “real help with the cost of living for tens of thousands of Australians. And a real investment in the health care workers of tomorrow”.

The three-day conference is being carefully managed to avoid or minimise arguments that could be damaging to the government. It is being attended by some 400 delegates, including parliamentarians, branch members and unionists. Although the left of the party has a slight majority at the conference, factional wrangling will ensure the government retains the whiphand.

In his address, Albanese emphasises the government’s reform credentials and empathises with the difficult situation of many Australians.

“I understand that for many Australians right now, looking to the future runs second to the immediate pressures they are under.

“The last decade has inflicted one global shock after another. And people have been given every reason to feel like the economy is simply not working for them.”

[The government’s] focus remains squarely on helping with the cost of living, on the practical measures that matter to people and make a positive difference to their lives.

Because that is how we demonstrate to Australians that their hard work will pay off, that their effort is worth it, that they can plan and build for their future. And it is how we prove that the status quo is not set in stone.

In an apparent gibe particularly at One Nation, without mentioning it or Pauline Hanson, Albanese says, “You can go a long way in politics, for a long time, by raging against a system that you are a part of, without a plan to fix it.

“Or blaming people who cannot defend themselves for a problem they did not cause. That doesn’t build anything. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t take our country forward.

“It doesn’t help anyone find a job, pay their bills, or put a roof over their head. This has always been the fundamental contrast between Labor and all our political opponents. And never more so than now.”

Gas tax

With many in the Labor rank and file urging a gas tax, former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, has said there is a “national appetite” to consider such a tax.

He told the ABC on Tuesday: “I think probably the time has arrived to consider reviewing the taxation on gas. […] I think there’s a national appetite.

“I mean, the government’s paring back on things like the NDIS. That’s necessary, I get. But I think there’s a lot of people saying, ‘What about the gas companies?’”

Agitation over Middle East

Agitation continues around the draft platform’s section on Israel and Palestine. Some in the party want it changed to be tougher on Israel although they appear unlikely to prevail.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in a statement on Wednesday criticised the draft platform, which earlier this week also came under attack from the Israeli embassy.

The council, pointing to positions stated by the Albanese government, said: “It is a reasonable question to ask why the ALP National Conference is not backing in the Albanese government in expressly recognising the government’s position on excluding Hamas and requiring the Palestinian Authority to honour the commitments for governance reform upon which the government’s recognition of a Palestinian State was explicitly based”.

Union call for greater action on housing

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) will launch “Housing Charter” outside the conference on Thursday morning.

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy said the charter was “unapologetically pro-worker”. “Working people expect action, not incrementalism,” he said.

He said the charter “calls for tax settings that put homeowners before investors, a dramatic expansion of public and social housing, a new national Housing Commission to coordinate housing delivery, and a government-backed modular housing industry to build union-secured homes faster”.

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

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/albanese-will-announce-extension-of-paid-prac-at-labor-national-conference/

Across the U.S., it’s a hot summer, and electricity prices are high. Various public officials and corporate websites suggest people set their thermostats to 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25.6 degrees Celsius), or even 81 F (27.2 C), as a way to stay relatively cool without breaking the bank. But as someone who studies energy costs, I know from both personal and professional experience that it’s not that simple.

The summer after my daughter’s first birthday, she began vomiting in the middle of the night and small bumps covered her chest. I thought it was the blueberries we’d given her. My husband and I cut out acidic foods and changed her milk. At the time, we often kept our thermostat set to 79 F (26.1 C). Before becoming parents, that setting kept the summer electric bill below US$200. We would sleep without blankets and take cold showers like I had in graduate school.

Then, on a cooler night, she kept her blueberries down. After that, I lowered the hallway thermostat setting enough to get her bedroom near 74 F (23.3 C). The nighttime vomiting stopped. My experience as a parent changed how I hear universal recommendations for air conditioner settings, especially during heat waves.

There is no single thermostat setting that is right for every person or every home. And there are other easy, low-cost steps that can help keep everyone comfortable when hot weather sets in.

Air conditioning is a big help, but can be costly

Every piece of cooling equipment is different, in terms of its technical design specifications, and its age and maintenance history. And the homes these systems serve vary in terms of insulation, size, sun exposure, and local climate. So there’s not one temperature setting that’s maximally energy- and cost-efficient for every home.

It may be useful to start at 78 F (25.6 C) to keep a lid on costs, but that temperature is neither a safety threshold nor a temperature every household will find comfortable and safe. If you are uncomfortable, try lowering your thermostat one degree at a time while monitoring yourself and others in your household for any signs of heat stress.

In general, a higher thermostat setting saves energy because the air conditioner has less work to do. When it is 95 F (35 C) outside, maintaining a home at 78 F requires removing less heat than maintaining it at the average level most U.S. households seek in the summer: 72 F (22.2 C). The smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the less frequently or intensely the air conditioning system has to run, thereby using less electricity.

Running an air conditioner also reduces the humidity in a home. When the air is humid, sweat evaporates less effectively. The National Weather Service has a chart that says if the temperature is above 90 F (32.2 C), and the humidity is above 60%, the air will feel like it’s above 100 F (37.8 C).

Running air conditioning may be necessary in a heat wave, but it can represent over 50% of a home’s energy usage in summer months – and a similar proportion of the resulting electricity bill.

Fortunately, there are other ways you can keep yourself and your home cool for very little money.

Keep heat out

Prevent outside heat from seeping into the building by closing curtains on sun-facing windows. Close windows and doors too, unless it is cooler outside than inside, which may happen overnight or in the early morning.

And don’t add more heat inside your home if you can avoid it. For instance, avoid using the oven during the hottest part of the day.

Combine air conditioning with air movement

The moving air from a ceiling fan or a portable fan can make temperatures feel cooler, even if the thermostat is set relatively high.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people should only use fans to cool themselves down when indoor temperatures are below 90 F (32.2 C). This is because when the air is hotter than your skin temperature – about 90 to 94 F – a fan creates a convection oven effect, accelerating the shift of heat into the body and potentially raising your body temperature to unhealthy levels.

The thermostat isn’t in every room

Remember that a hallway thermostat may not reflect the temperature in an upstairs room, or one facing the sun. Use an inexpensive thermometer to measure temperatures in the rooms where people actually sleep or spend their time. If possible, have people stay in shaded rooms or on a lower floor, or even in one space, rather than cooling every room equally.

Cool your body as well as the rooms

A cool shower or a damp cloth can provide immediate relief, and drinking water regularly helps replace fluid lost through sweating. If you are feeling really hot, consider using ice packs to help cool your body down.

Always protect your health

There are many stories of people dying indoors because they turned off their working air conditioners during times of high heat, or because their cooling system wasn’t functioning properly.

Infants and people with certain health conditions may need to be in cooler spaces for longer periods of time than healthy adults.

Don’t be afraid to seek help

If your home’s heat makes you afraid for your health, call your local 211 resident-services hotline or search online for local cooling centers where you can spend some time in air conditioning at no charge. Even a few hours in an air-conditioned space can reduce heat risk. Splash pads and public pools are other options, as are public libraries and other government buildings, or even a restaurant, cafe or movie theater, which often have air conditioning.

Keep an eye on yourself and each other for signs of heat stress. If someone becomes dizzy, weak, intensely thirsty, nauseated, confused or unusually tired, move them to a cooler place or go to the hospital. Confusion, loss of consciousness and very high body temperature can indicate heat stroke, which is a medical emergency.

Lastly, if you need help paying your electricity bills, check in with your utility company, which may have programs for spreading out your costs over time. You may even find you’re eligible for cost subsidies. State and local governments also usually have programs that help residents insulate their homes and upgrade inefficient appliances.

The best temperature setting is the one that provides adequate cooling at costs the household can sustain. While a thermostat setting of 78 F (25.6 C) is often touted as a solution, in reality it is just one of several options. In my house, becoming a mother changed the amount I determined was necessary to spend on my summer cooling bills. I couldn’t determine the right amount of cooling from the thermostat or my electricity bill – I had to look after the people in my home.

Destenie Nock, PhD is the CEO and Founder of Peoples Energy Analytics, an energy affordability data analytics company. She has previously received research funding from the Sloan Foundation, RK Mellon Foundation, National Science Foundation, Google, and the Environmental Protection Agency. She serves as a volunteer on the board of Clean Energy Works. She currently serves as an expert consultant for the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, where she has spoken about energy affordability and the challenges households face properly cooling their homes. In addition, she has a forthcoming book about energy affordability.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/why-78-degrees-isnt-the-right-thermostat-setting-for-everyone-during-a-heat-wave/

Mandatory kerbside collection of soft plastic (crisp packets, bread bags, plastic wrap) has just been pushed back from 2027 to 2030.

On July 16, the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) quietly confirmed this change. The reason, according to Defra, is that the facilities and infrastructure just aren’t ready to accommodate the material. Currently, only 7% soft plastics are recycled in the UK, illustrating that recycling urgently needs improving and simplifying.

Earlier in 2026, many Brits were left confused when mandatory weekly food waste collection legislation came into effect. Months since that change, one-quarter of councils are still not meeting the requirements.

With soft plastics, the government has moved its own deadlines by three years when the system genuinely isn’t ready. But households didn’t get that option.

Simpler recycling rules were introduced through the 2021 Environment Act to streamline the number of bins households are required to separate their waste into, provide frequent food waste collections and introduce plastic films into standard recycling streams. The goal is to make our lives easier and recycling processes more efficient.

But the waste itself keeps arriving. For the first time in history items are being produced with the sole purpose of being thrown away. Every week in the UK we throw away an estimated 1.6 billion pieces of plastic packaging, mostly food and drink packaging.

Extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) is a UK government scheme that charges producers fees based on the packaging they put on the market. Run by a scheme administrator that operates within Defra called PackUK, this is built on the polluter pays principle: the idea that whoever creates the problem should fund the fix, not the public.

That should mean producers are financially responsible for helping us deal with what they sell us. In practice, there’s a mismatch. The pEPR fees are charged per tonne, so lighter packaging is cheaper to report, regardless of whether it’s actually easier to recycle.

Take a pack of mince: switching from a rigid plastic tray to a flexible pouch can lower a producer’s pEPR fee exposure, even though the flexible pouch is the one material stream the UK still can’t recycle at scale.

Producers are being financially nudged toward exactly the material stream the government has just admitted it can’t process.

Now it is the public’s problem to solve, one supermarket trip at a time. Drop-off schemes at certain supermarkets are quietly doing more heavy lifting than they get credit for, taking soft plastic off householders’ hands without asking them to store yet another separate bag, and taking on the downstream cost of dealing with it themselves. Although in some cases, your efforts may be in vein.

The same tension is coming for absorbent hygiene waste (nappies, period products, wet wipes). None of these can be collected in food or dry recycling streams so they now compete for space in a residual black bin. According to my calculations based on waste collection frequency data from environmental charity Wrap, more than half of England households only have their black bins collected fortnightly.

What are polluters paying for?

And the money that’s supposed to close this gap? Earlier this year, after several delays PackUK paid councils £1.4 billion in producer collected fees. But that funding is not ringfenced for waste services. PackUK’s only real lever if a council spends it elsewhere is a vague threat to claw back future allocations.

Given how short an electoral cycle is, and how much easier it is to point to a visible win today than a waste truck bought two years from now, that isn’t much of an incentive.

Councils are being held to a stringent standard when PackUK is still struggling to get clean, consistent tonnage data out of producers in the scheme’s first year.

The uncomfortable truth is that our whole system is built to reward recyclability. But recycling is really not a circular solution. Most plastics can only be recycled a few times before they become too brittle to be useful.

What actually matters is how much we’re manufacturing in the first place. So while we were told to sort our recycling, it’s now time producers are told to stop producing excess packaging that ends up being thrown out.

So next time you’re unwrapping something, ask not just “can this be recycled” but “did it need to exist in this form at all”. Policy needs to stop treating recyclability as the finish line and start pricing packaging on what it actually costs the places that have to deal with it, weighted by real harm, not just by weight on a scale.

Producers need to be held to the same standard of urgency that the government is demanding of households. And we, as shoppers and citizens, can start by refusing to accept that convenience for a company should mean inconvenience, or a dirtier street, for us.

Randa Lindsey Kachef 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/22/soft-plastic-recycling-laws-have-been-delayed-an-expert-explains-why/