Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashna Gulati, PhD Candidate, Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney

Some of the universe’s most extreme explosions leave behind almost no trace. The original explosion is unseen, but our observations can capture the long-lived echo it leaves behind as the shock front ploughs into its surrounding environment.

In new research accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, we have discovered what may be the clearest example yet of one of these hidden explosions: the radio afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst whose initial blast went unnoticed.

The only other viable explanation for what we see is an extraordinarily rare event in which a star is torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole: a long-hypothesised, elusive class of black holes that has proven difficult to detect.

Either way, we’re watching the slow-motion aftermath of one of the most extreme, rare events the cosmos can produce.

The explosions we usually miss

Gamma-ray bursts are brief but powerful jets of high-energy radiation. Within seconds, they release as much energy as the Sun will emit over its entire lifetime. They are caused when massive stars die and form black holes.

While these jets are launched in all directions, we only observe the small fraction whose emission is directed towards us. When it is directed away from us, the initial flash goes unseen, and all we can observe is the slowly fading afterglow.

Although these so-called “orphan afterglows” of gamma-ray bursts have been predicted for decades, finding them has proven extraordinarily difficult. Without a high-energy flash to announce their arrival, astronomers have to search thousands of square degrees of sky.

As a result, these cosmic explosions are easy to miss, and hard to recognise when they do appear – until now.

A cosmic ghost appears

Using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), a 36-antenna radio telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara in Western Australia, we scanned vast regions of sky for unexpected long-lived radio transients (astronomical objects that appear and change over weeks to years). We were trying to catch rare events that reveal themselves only through their fading radio emission.

In data from one of these wide-field surveys, we noticed a radio source (named ASKAP J005512-255834), that hadn’t been there before.

It brightened rapidly, releasing 10³² Watts of energy into space – comparable to the total radio energy output of billions of Suns – and then began to fade slowly over time.

This behaviour immediately set it apart. Most radio transients either evolve quickly or flare repeatedly. This source did neither. Instead, it behaved like the lingering echo of a single, immensely powerful explosion.

Although ASKAP J005512-255834 was bright at radio wavelengths, it left almost no signal at other wavelengths. We could not see a counterpart in visible light or X-rays.

This is exactly what astronomers expect from an orphan afterglow: the fading, widening glow of a tightly focused cosmic jet that was not initially pointed towards Earth, becoming visible only after it slows and spreads.

A busy neighbourhood, billions of light-years away

This rare transient is located in a small but bright galaxy around 1.7 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy has an irregular structure and is actively forming stars, making it a natural environment for extreme stellar events such as stellar collapse or violent stellar disruption.

The position of the explosion is off to one side, not aligned with the galaxy’s central nucleus. Instead, it appears to lie within a compact star-forming region, possibly a nuclear star cluster.

This raises new questions about what kinds of environments can host such powerful cosmic events.

Could it be something else?

Because ASKAP J005512-255834 is so unusual, we had to do some detective work to figure out what it might be. We carefully examined (and ruled out) some alternative explanations, including stars, pulsars and supernovae.

The only other scenario capable of reproducing the observed radio behaviour involves a star being torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole. These are a rare class of black holes that sit between stellar remnants and the supermassive giants found in galaxy centres.

Such events are thought to be extremely rare at radio wavelengths, but we cannot completely rule out this explanation. Confirming it would make this the first example of its kind, a discovery just as interesting as an orphan gamma-ray burst.

A hidden universe revealed by radio waves

Was this discovery a stroke of luck, or the first glimpse of a long-hidden population? Until recently, we simply didn’t have the tools to know.

ASKAP J005512-255834 is the most convincing orphan gamma-ray burst afterglow yet identified. It was found by using our radio telescope to search for the long-lived echo of an explosion we didn’t know had occurred.

Using the same approach, we now hope to uncover many more of these orphan afterglows and finally give them a place in our cosmic story.

In doing so, we may be able to build a full picture of the gamma-ray burst population, including those that never announced themselves with a flash, but lingered quietly as ghosts in the radio sky.

– ref. A cosmic explosion with the force of a billion Suns went unseen – until we caught its echo – https://theconversation.com/a-cosmic-explosion-with-the-force-of-a-billion-suns-went-unseen-until-we-caught-its-echo-275565

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorinda Cramer, Lecturer, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University

The “frugal chic” aesthetic is having its moment, however contradictory the concept may seem. “Frugal” suggests a focus on thriftiness, while “chic” oozes a sense of classic luxury.

Coined by former model and content creator Mia McGrath before trending on TikTok, this is one of the latest attempts to change how we think about clothes and disrupt our voracious appetite for fashion.

McGrath encourages Gen Z to think about the positive aspects of making do with less. For her, being frugally chic refers to:

An individual who values quality, high taste, and freedom. They reject this new world of overconsumption that preys on the insecurities of unconscious doom scrollers.

Frugal chic means a commitment to purchases that will last for many years and be part of a “forever wardrobe”.

McGrath calls on consumers to invest in quality – “buy it nice or buy it twice” – while blending luxury purchases with cheaper and even thrifted clothes.

Slow fashion, repair cafes and capsule wardrobes

McGrath is not the first to try to influence change by promoting sustainable, responsible clothing consumption.

The global slow fashion movement supports individuals to (as the name suggests) slow down clothing purchases. But simply shopping less is easier said than done.

Slow fashion is driven by an increased awareness of the environmental and societal impact of the purchases we make. It also means forming a different, deeper relationship with our clothes.

Repair cafes set up in many countries (including Australia) further aid this work. They offer opportunities for people to fix their clothes – whether broken zips, missing buttons, rips, or something more complex – with the help of skilled repairers.

An uptick in “capsule wardrobes” has also been framed as a responsible choice. A capsule wardrobe encourages fewer classic, high-quality items in neutral colours as staples that can be worn interchangeably with each other and with bolder accent pieces.

Each of these matters as a counterpoint to what has become a massive problem: Australia’s spiralling consumption and discard rates.

Our passion for fashion

In 2024, Australians purchased 1.51 billion items of new clothing. That’s the equivalent of 55 garments for every person each year.

Many of those clothes don’t form part of a “forever wardrobe”. Across that same year, Australians sent 220,000 tonnes of castoffs to landfills. That’s 880 million items. A further 36 million items of unwanted clothing were shipped overseas, adding to mounting global landfills.

The production, consumption, use and disposal of clothing are emission-intensive. In 2024, Australia’s per capita emissions for clothing were equivalent to driving more than 3,600 kilometres in a petrol-fuelled car. That’s further than a road trip from Melbourne to Perth.

Despite these startling figures, our shopping continues.

Restrictions and austerity

Frugal chic has plenty of historical parallels. Though the contexts differ, these moments encouraged Australians to make do with the little they had.

More than 150 years ago, as a flood of gold-rush migrants descended on Australia, many had only a few changes of clothes – as many as could be counted on one hand. This was considered sufficient.

Clothing did not have a single life. It could be mended, adjusted and adapted. It could be passed down from person to person. Clothing was so valuable it was often bequeathed.

At the end of its wearable life, clothing was recycled into something new. It might be cut down to fit children, pieced together and sewn into quilts and waggas (quilts made out of recycled clothes, fabric scraps, old blankets and burlap bags) for warmth at night, or torn into rags.

This considered attitude to clothing did not end in the 20th century. Global upheavals continued to underline the critical importance of long clothing lifecycles.

In the Great Depression, as rates of unemployment soared, clothing budgets plummeted. This demanded ingenuity to keep families clothed.

Austerity measures introduced in Australia during World War II included the rationing of clothing. Measures also included the control of clothing styles to save fabric, threads and buttons. Known as “victory styling”, this created a direct link between less clothing and contributing to the war effort.

Some responded by making new clothes out of old garments salvaged from the back of wardrobes. Others turned to novel materials such as sugar bags to make themselves new outfits.

Reframing restraint

Like these historical examples, the “frugal chic” aesthetic frames frugality as virtuous – aligning with the shift towards sustainability – and aspirational, signalling an intention to live more mindfully.

In today’s context, it’s also inextricably linked to the cost-of-living crisis that has encouraged a rise in secondhand clothing and dress hire.

But “frugal chic” is not without tension. For one thing, most “frugal chic” content casts frugality as a choice rather than a necessity for dealing with issues of overconsumption or low income.

For another, it could be seen as an example of the pressure placed on women to look and act in certain ways – not simply to prioritise sustainability, but to appear both fashionable and financially savvy at the same time.

Will the “frugal chic” aesthetic change how we think about our clothes? It’s hard to say, but all rallying cries for sustainable fashion consumption hold potential for much-needed change.

– ref. ‘Buy it nice or buy it twice’: what the ‘frugal chic’ trend tells us about our clothing habits – https://theconversation.com/buy-it-nice-or-buy-it-twice-what-the-frugal-chic-trend-tells-us-about-our-clothing-habits-276261

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anais Möller, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Science, Computing and Emerging Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology

When you look up at the night sky, it appears unchanging. But if you look deep enough you will find that the sky is in fact constantly shifting. Satellites, asteroids and interstellar objects pass by. Stars not only shine brightly, they can suddenly burst with energy or explode in bright supernovae.

There is a plethora of explosive and cataclysmic phenomena waiting to be witnessed. For physicists, this is an opportunity to study our universe and physics that we can’t reproduce on Earth.

A whole new era of discovery is opening with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. For the next ten years, Rubin will create a high-definition video of the southern sky, revealing our universe in an unprecedented way. Many of the objects it finds will have never before been seen by human eyes.

More than 20 years in the making

This moment has been more than 20 years in the making, from the concept to completion of the Rubin Observatory.

Located on a dark sky mountaintop in Chile, the observatory represents a generational leap in astronomy with its ultra-wide, deep and high-resolution imaging capabilities.

Rubin has the largest camera ever built, with 3,200 megapixels. Each image scans an area equivalent to 40 full moons. The resolution of the images is so high that if we pointed the camera toward a lime located 24 kilometres away, it would be able to resolve exactly what type of fruit it is.

Last year, Rubin amazed us with its first test images. These images revealed a swarm of new asteroids never before detected, stars varying in our Milky Way and beautiful deep images of galaxies. This is just a taster on what is to come.

The telescope will be uniquely used for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. This ten-year-long survey, which has just started, aims to solve the biggest mysteries of the universe – and the nature of the physics out there.

20 billion galaxies

With its advanced imaging capabilities and its systematic scan of the sky, Rubin will image an incredible number of objects in our universe over the next decade.

Starting in our cosmic backyard, our Solar System, it will make 6 million detections of asteroids. Moving toward our galaxy, it will catalogue 17 billion stars. Farther away, it will gather colour images of 20 billion galaxies.

The same patch of the sky will be imaged up to 100 times each year. With an expected 10 terrabytes of image data per night, the amount of data Rubin will deliver in a single year will be greater than all optical observatories combined.

With this data, we aim to answer fundamental questions. These include the nature of the most mysterious components of our universe: dark matter and dark energy.

I am particularly interested in using the data to measure whether the universe expansion maintains a constant acceleration or changes with cosmic time. This accelerated cosmic expansion is attributed to dark energy, which comprises 70% of our universe. Yet we still don’t know what it is.

By itself, this measurement would be amazing, especially since recent observations have hinted the expansion rate may be changing. From the physics point of view, this will allow us to narrow down which potential theories can explain dark energy.

A firehose of cosmic treasures

To find changing sky objects, we compare a new image to an “old” or reference image. The difference between the two images can reveal a new object or a change of brightness.

So how do we find the most interesting exploding stars or asteroids within this mass of detections?

Rubin has selected seven “community brokers”. A broker is both the infrastructure and the team that receives this data firehose within minutes of detection, processes it to find the most exciting objects, and makes them publicly available.

One of these community brokers is Fink, which I have the privilege of co-leading.

Fink is made up of hundreds of scientists and engineers around the world working together to understand our universe. With the incredible Rubin data, comes a great opportunity but also a big challenge.

We need state-of-the-art technologies such as distributed computing (a network of computers, similar to commercial cloud services) and artificial intelligence tools to process the data very fast. We are talking about analysing thousands of detections from Rubin every minute or two, and up to 10 million every night for ten years.

Become a Rubin citizen scientist

You can also engage with Rubin right now.

Rubin’s first images are available online and you can use apps such as Orbitviewer to track asteroids, as well as look at deep images with SkyViewer.

You can also become a Rubin citizen scientist. For example, you can help to identify changing objects in our universe with Rubin Difference Detectives and find comets with Rubin Comet Catchers.

The data from community brokers is also publicly available. Through our Fink portal, you will be able to inspect the latest detections from Rubin just minutes after an image has been taken.

The data may not look like the stunning Rubin first light images. But they come directly from the telescope and are full of universe treasures.

– ref. 20 billion galaxies: new survey of the sky will reveal the universe in unprecedented detail – https://theconversation.com/20-billion-galaxies-new-survey-of-the-sky-will-reveal-the-universe-in-unprecedented-detail-273574

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato

Two of Australia’s top ten bestsellers in 2025 were cookbooks, both by Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats. Other popular books include Brooke Bellamy’s Bake with Brooki and Steph De Sousa’s Easy Dinner Queen. Yet increasingly, people are cooking from YouTube videos and other social media clips. What is the appeal of cookbooks today?

Cooking content on social media has become one of the most popular categories globally. Dedicated apps like SideChef have been created to help beginners understand technical terms in online recipes and automatically generate shopping lists.

In a 2025 study, SideChef found there were more than 4.6 million #TikTokFood posts and Pinterest listed food and drink as a top category. On YouTube, there are 6.74 million food and drink channels, which are 99% creator-driven. All-time YouTube views of food content reached 5.9 trillion in 2025.

Short-form videos provide step-by-step instruction and glamorous depictions of your next meal, but hard-copy cookbooks are more than just a collection of recipes.

Most cookbooks are technically categorised as illustrated non-fiction, filled with close-up photographs of food and images of the author in action. These illustrate the recipes, integrated with accompanying conversational text to engage the reader.

The three types of cookbook readers

Today’s cookbook audiences can be divided into three major groups: aspirational readers, everyday cooks and escapists.

The aspirational readers may want to cook like a chef, hoping the author will share secrets and include them in an inner circle of confidants. Others may aspire to a gendered ideal of domesticity, or seemingly effortless sophistication (just a little smoked duck breast and pickled fennel salad with pomegranate seeds and candied mandarin peel they threw together at the last minute).

The everyday cooks are looking to answer the dreaded question: what’s for dinner tonight? Some of these readers seek reliable, practical, frugal, and efficient solutions for the task of making food at home.

Others are seeking specialised instruction for new generations of appliances offering shortcuts or hands-off cooking, such as slow cookers, air fryers, or electric pressure cookers.

The escapists, however, are less concerned about 30-minute meals or how to reverse sear a steak. Their ideal cookbook is instead a fantasy, travelogue, or memoir, transporting the would-be cook to a nostalgic past or a far-off land, such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem.

The most extreme form of this escapism was described by US food writer Molly O’Neill as “food porn”, a substitute for actually engaging in the physical act of cooking. Stripped of the connections of community and shared meals, food porn is an extreme form of self-indulgent food writing that replaces the depth of social and cultural connections with “prose and recipes so removed from real life that they cannot be used except as vicarious experience”.

Cookbooks in this category are more like coffee-table books, meant to be perused at leisure rather than addressing an urgent need to get a meal on the table. Impractical recipes with difficult techniques, specialised equipment, and exotic ingredients are no barrier to this genre. The reality that time is also an expensive ingredient is not a consideration.

The most successful, bestselling cookbooks in Australia in recent years, like Maehashi’s RecipeTin Eats: Dinner or De Sousa’s Easy Dinner Queen, combine some elements of aspirational and everyday cooking, while turning away from the extremes of food porn. Their appeal extends beyond competent instructions and dependable results.

Maehashi’s recipes start with a pitch to the reader: Why should I make this, and why should I use this recipe? How will the dish fit into my repertoire of standbys? Her unpretentious, personable tone is reassuring for anyone developing their skills. The notes to the methods include helpful tips, substitutions, and explanations, avoiding technical terms. Many recipes are easy enough for rank novices, but include a wide range of cuisines and dishes that elevate the everyday cook. Her most challenging recipe is beef wellington, now infamous for its connection to the “mushroom murders”.

As with other successful cookbook authors, Maehashi’s popularity benefits from social media crossover. She has 1.7 million Instagram followers alone.

Is there a generational divide?

While there is a presumption that younger readers are more likely to get their food inspiration online and older readers prefer hard copy, the desire to limit screen time and “be present” also drives print sales.

Physical cookbooks are an antidote to the false efficiency of recipes on social media. Influencers often ask you to follow, comment and like to get their recipes. This content often ends up unread in your inbox or in a jumbled folder of saved posts and screenshots.

Without an extra paid app, such as ReciMe, and the time to organise the content, locating that viral recipe may take longer than pulling a book off the shelf and flipping to an old favourite. Some print cookbooks, like Jerusalem, now offer access to the e-book edition, so you don’t have to lug the hard copy around the grocery store or take photos of the cookbook with your phone.

Historically, cookbook audiences were first limited by literacy levels and the cost of purchasing books. Because of this, the first cookbooks were written by, and for, an elite audience rather than skilled professionals. During the 17th century, French cuisine as a distinct mode of cooking became the standard for noble households across Europe, and cookbooks for nouvelle cuisine gained popularity. Many skilled chefs, however, were illiterate and were prohibited from sharing the methods of their guilds.

Before printing technology increased the availability of books in the early modern period, cooking and baking were reliant on oral tradition and apprenticeship to teach skills and share knowledge. Chefs working in noble households, however, were exempt from guild restrictions and revealed their trade secrets to an elite audience only.

Today’s hard-copy cookbooks bear the scars of use – tangible evidence of time and effort in the kitchen, covers stained with splatters of tomato or pages stuck together with drips of pancake batter. The dirtiest, dog-eared cookbook is the one you turn to for dependable, familiar results. This contrasts with the pristine, glossy cookbook gathering dust in the front room, filled with recipes you will never make.

Like yellowed, handwritten recipe cards from a bygone era, a physical cookbook becomes an heirloom to pass on to the next generations. Smudged with butter, dotted with red wine, and covered in annotations (too much salt!), the cookbook becomes part of family history.

The ubiquity and convenience of digital recipes, often fleeting, has not replaced the physical cookbook as a touchstone of reliability, a cultural archive, or a guilty pleasure.

– ref. There are more than 4.6 million food posts on TikTok alone. Why, then, do we still love cookbooks? – https://theconversation.com/there-are-more-than-4-6-million-food-posts-on-tiktok-alone-why-then-do-we-still-love-cookbooks-276505

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maxwell Modell, Research associate, Cardiff University

At the 2026 Bafta awards, big wins for independent British film I Swear and American horror film Sinners were overshadowed by a regrettable moment. Activist John Davidson said the N-word – arguably the most offensive slur in the English language due to the centuries of violence and oppression it carries – while Sinners’ stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award.

Davidson, on whom the film I Swear is based, has Tourette syndrome – including coprolalia which causes the involuntary use of obscene and socially inappropriate words and phrases.

Jordon and Lindo looked shaken and have since expressed their discomfort and disappointment with Baftas’ handling of the situation. In an apology letter to Bafta members, the academy said it was launching a “comprehensive review” into the incident.

Since the incident, Davidson has received extensive online abuse, including accusations that he is a racist – an accusation that fails to consider that this was an involuntary audible compulsion. Davidson has stressed there was no intention behind the word, stating he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning”.

Two things can be true at the same time. While this incident was involuntary, that does not lessen the hurt or offence that Jordan, Lindo and members of the viewing public felt. No one could have prevented Davidson’s involuntary compulsion in the moment.

However, it could have been edited out of the delayed broadcast. In fact, a second slur was removed, but this one was missed. Doing so would have spared viewers from hearing the slur and helped protect Davidson and others with Tourette’s from the abuse that followed. It also could have reduced the spread of misinformation about the condition, which directly undermines the mission of I Swear to teach empathy and kindness towards people with Tourette syndrome.

By broadcasting the Baftas on a two-hour delay in a condensed format, the BBC assumes greater editorial responsibility than with live transmission. It must therefore meet higher standards and be able to justify its editing choices. The BBC failed to do that in this instance, causing undue harm to both black and disabled people.

There are two main reasons why the Baftas are broadcast at a delay. The first is engagement. The award ceremony lasts three hours, so to help make it less tedious, the broadcast is edited down to two hours.

The second is political. The BBC’s editorial guidelines require them to prevent harm and offence to viewers. Award shows are considered high-risk because they are live and broadcasters cannot control what winners say.

This is often called “the tyranny of live”. As media and communications scholar Paddy Scannell wrote, in live broadcasting “if something goes wrong, the best you can do is damage limitation, for once the words are out of your mouth they are in the public domain and they cannot be unsaid”.

Yet, by broadcasting at a delay to mitigate “the tyranny of live”, broadcasters open up a new can of editorial worms – “the tyranny of the edit”.

In live broadcasting, when things go wrong, they can often be blamed on live conditions. While this does not necessarily reduce any harm caused, it can reduce culpability. Once a programme has been edited, this no longer applies, raising the editorial standards and making broadcasters accountable for every word spoken and removed.

In other words, broadcasters must be able to justify every editorial choice to their audience, especially when those choices cause harm or censor a political perspective.

Reaction and lessons for the BBC

The BBC has apologised for broadcasting the slur and re-edited the programme for BBC iPlayer. Producers overseeing the coverage told the Guardian that they did not hear the N-word from the broadcast truck due to a technical issue. That would hardly be a reassuring defence of their actions.

Davidson later said that he was assured by Bafta that any swearing would be edited out of the broadcast, and that he felt “a wave of shame” over the incident. He also questioned the decision to seat him so close to a microphone.

The BBC has also offered no explanation for the post-production removal of sections of My Father’s Shadow director Akinola Davies Jr’s acceptance speech, including a statement of solidarity with “the economic migrant, the conflict migrant, those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide” and the remark “free Palestine”.

Labour MP Dawn Butler has written to the BBC seeking a full explanation for these decisions.

Beyond the immediate fallout, this episode carries wider lessons for the BBC about learning from past errors. Last summer, the BBC was found to have broken harm and offence standards after airing “death, death to the IDF” chants in Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set. After this incident, they promised to review their protocols around the livestreaming of “high-risk” events. Yet a similar misjudgement happened again.

To maintain public trust and support, the BBC must be more responsive in explaining their editorial choices – and more forthcoming when they get things wrong.

– ref. Baftas racial slur controversy: what should the BBC have done? – https://theconversation.com/baftas-racial-slur-controversy-what-should-the-bbc-have-done-276801

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aleix Nadal, Analyst, Defence, Security and Justice team, RAND Europe

Officials recently sounded the alarm over Russia intercepting communications from European satellites. But this isn’t a new problem.

Ever since the initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, two Russian satellites have been secretly stalking European spacecraft. They have been manoeuvring close enough to raise concerns about more than mere observation.

In 2018, the French defence minister accused Russia of espionage after one of these vehicles was spotted in the vicinity of a Franco-Italian military communications satellite. Two Intelsat satellites were similarly targeted before that.

These so-called proximity and rendezvous operations (RPOs), in which a spacecraft deliberately manoeuvres to dock or operate near another object in space, are becoming commonplace in geostationary orbit (GEO), where satellites effectively stay fixed over the same spot on Earth.

RPOs are not inherently malicious. These operations can sometimes be used to refuel a satellite and extend its lifespan, or to remove defunct satellites and debris, keeping orbits clear for future missions.

Because the technology to improve satellite manoeuvrability is dual use – it has both civilian and military applications – the challenge is then to define intent and, if required, respond accordingly.

Satellite inspections

Launched in 2014 and 2023, the two highly secretive Russian “inspector” satellites, Luch/Olymp 1 and 2, are part of Russia’s efforts to identify any technical vulnerabilities embedded in Nato countries’ satellites.

If this had been their sole purpose, European officials would have had few grounds for serious concern or complaint. Approaching a satellite to characterise its profile is neither a new mission nor exclusive to Russia.

The US Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) inspection satellites have come as close as ten kilometres of other satellites in the past. Even commercial companies have begun to provide inspection services.

An Australian company called HEO recently flew by a classified Chinese satellite to uncover its technical features. In theory, information like this could be used in the future to disrupt the functioning of satellites.

However, the Russian satellites have often shadowed the same spacecraft for months, occasionally approaching within five kilometres of their targets. This does not fit the mission profile of satellite inspection, which would involve merely passing by a target, taking pictures and quickly moving on to another trajectory.

GSSAP satellites, for example, typically work in pairs, adopting a pincer-like approach: one satellite orbits above GEO, inspecting the back of a target satellite, while the other moves just below, surveying its front.

Luch satellites by contrast are essentially signals intelligence (Sigint) systems. By positioning them between a target satellite and its ground station, Russia can intercept the signal and eavesdrop on communications from European satellites such as those operated by Eutelsat, a French company, and Intelsat, a Luxembourgish-American company. Among other customers, these European satellites provide bandwidth to European militaries for secure communications.

Examined in isolation, these Luch vehicles should be viewed as surveillance satellites rather than counterspace weapons – which are satellites that can actually disrupt or disable another spacecraft. The Russian satellites are simply collecting information. On this basis alone, they do not pose a significant security threat.

However, space as a domain remains entangled with broader geopolitical dynamics on Earth. Any Russian space operation should be seen as part of a larger campaign to accrue strategic benefits, whether to gain a military advantage over Ukraine or to coerce European countries into withdrawing their support for Ukraine.

Future threat

From this perspective, the Luch RPOs could be interpreted not only as part of a Sigint effort, but also as a warning to European countries that their satellites are vulnerable to disruption.

As Major General Michael Traut, commander of Germany’s Space Command has noted, the Luch satellites have also likely intercepted the command links of their targets. The command links are supposedly secure transmissions from ground stations to satellites that convey operational instructions.

If this is true, Russia could potentially replicate the uplink signals used by ground stations to control satellites, allowing them to disrupt European space operations in the future.

If this sounds familiar, it is because the scenario would closely mirror Russia’s hybrid campaign against European undersea cables. This has included years of covertly mapping western infrastructure and, more recently, a sustained effort to sever fibre optic cables.

The RPOs conducted over the last few years by the two Luch satellites could be suggestive of more escalatory moves in the future should Russia continue to fail in deterring Europe from continuing its support for Ukraine.

What can Europe do, in this scenario? A first welcome step has been the release of public information exposing Russia’s activities in geostationary orbit. In the past, space operations were generally concealed under a veil of secrecy.

More transparency can be leveraged to delegitimise these activities in the eyes of the international community whilst also legitimising the development of Europe’s own counterspace programmes for self defence.

Indeed, European countries including the UK and Germany have been much more vocal about the requirement to deploy their own counterspace systems. Russia has demonstrated other in-orbit capabilities that use RPOs and can be employed as counterspace weapons.

Without a comprehensive toolbox that includes self-defence options, Europe may be exposed to more escalatory in-space activities for which it is not adequately prepared.

Safeguarding its dependence on space-enabled services, from military communications to economic connectivity, therefore requires treating orbital security as an integral component of its broader strategic posture.

– ref. How Russia is intercepting communications from European satellites – https://theconversation.com/how-russia-is-intercepting-communications-from-european-satellites-276094

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Power, Lecturer in Politics, University of Bristol

Peter Mandelson was released on bail this week after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Coming just days after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the images of the former US ambassador being led away by police will likely stick with viewers for some time.

The political ramifications of Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US continue to reflect badly on Keir Starmer’s political judgment. While this is a story that will likely run and run, it is worth taking stock of how we got here.

December 19 2024: Mandelson appointed US ambassador

When Starmer chose Mandelson as ambassador, the general reaction was that it was a risk. The BBC pointed to his friendship with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and described him as “not a baggage-free choice”. This baggage, if being friends with a known paedophile was not enough, included having to resign from government twice during the New Labour years.

Matthew Lynn, in the Telegraph, went further, arguing that he would make a “terrible” ambassador because he was both “damaged goods” and “put politely … accident prone”. For balance, Tom Harris (also in the Telegraph) described Mandelson as a “political genius” and “the right man to deal with Trump”.

This was, ultimately, the gamble taken by Starmer and his team. They appointed a known associate of Epstein with a dubious ethical track record, but who was – as a Downing Street source told the BBC in February 2025 – “supremely political” and a “brilliant operator”.

May 8 2025: Front and centre of UK-US trade deal

“Cometh the hour, cometh the Mandelson”, read the Guardian headline the day after the UK and the US agreed to a trade deal. A deal which, not for nothing, may well have been unpicked by Trump’s response to the Supreme Court ruling his tariffs unconstitutional. The Times said that Mandelson had “proven the doubters wrong”, and called him the “Trump whisperer”.

This was the moment, as I previously outlined in the Conversation, of supreme triumph. And it was widely seen, across the political spectrum, as vindication of the risk Starmer took.

September 8 2025: Birthday messages to Epstein released, Mandelson fired

The wheels came off with the release, by a US congressional panel, of a 238-page scrapbook given to Epstein for his 50th birthday. In it, Mandelson’s multi-page message to Epstein described him as his “best pal”. Mandelson said that he regretted “very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done”.

Starmer was initially supportive of Mandelson in the Commons, but sacked him after newly surfaced emails showed that he had sent supportive messages to Epstein when he faced charges of soliciting a minor in 2008. The BBC later reported that Number 10 and Foreign Office officials were aware of these emails prior to Starmer’s defence of Mandelson at prime minister’s questions, but that Starmer himself was not aware of the contents.

January 30 2026: Further Epstein files released

The release of further information about the close relationship between Mandelson and Epstein pointed to potential criminality. The emails, published by US officials, suggest that Mandelson passed privileged and market-sensitive information to Epstein during the fallout of the financial crisis. This led to the police investigation for misconduct in public office. Mandelson’s position, according to the BBC, is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.

Read more: Mandelson and the financial crash: why the Epstein allegations are so shocking

February 4 2026: MPs approve the release of documents

A House of Commons debate was held surrounding the release of files related to the appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador. Starmer initially suggested that files which could damage diplomatic relations or national security would be exempt from release. However, after an intervention from Angela Rayner, the government agreed to include a cross-party parliamentary committee in the process. The BBC has subsequently reported that these documents could number over 100,000.

February 23 2026: Mandelson arrested

Mandelson was arrested Monday night on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and released on bail Tuesday morning. Mandelson has claimed that his arrest was based on the “complete fiction” that he was a flight risk and planning to flee to the British Virgin Islands (which have an extradition agreement with the UK). It has now emerged that Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle passed information to the police ahead of the arrest.

What happens now?

Misconduct in public office is notoriously difficult to prosecute and tends to rely on a three stage test: that the accused must have been acting in an official capacity at the time of the alleged offence, that they wilfully misconducted themselves and that that conduct falls “so far below acceptable standards that it amounts to an abuse of the public’s trust”.

Legal experts suggest that the latter is an incredibly high bar. In this instance it might well be the case that simply leaking information does not meet that bar, and that the police will need to show some kind of material gain or beneficial exchange. Either way, Mandelson will ultimately be required to return to a police station when he will either be charged, have his bail extended or face no further action.

Further questions, naturally, will also be asked of Starmer’s judgement. A Cabinet Office due diligence report into Mandelson’s appointment is reportedly expected as early as next week. The document is said to have warned of the “reputational risk” of making him ambassador.

If this is the case, it could reignite conversations about Starmer’s leadership and a potentially bruising night in the Gorton and Denton byelection on Thursday won’t help. Though Starmer’s replacement in most circles is now being discussed as a matter of when, not if.

In the end, Starmer is learning the hard way – just as Boris Johnson did before him – that standards matter in British politics. It is not enough, as Starmer did when he updated the ministerial code, to just talk a big game. One cannot say that “restoring trust in politics is the great test of our era” and then do very little to actually address the root cause of that trust.

– ref. How Peter Mandelson went from US ambassador to arrested over misconduct claims – https://theconversation.com/how-peter-mandelson-went-from-us-ambassador-to-arrested-over-misconduct-claims-276787

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zsuzsanna Dancso, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Sydney

We all know we live in three-dimensional space. But what does it mean when people talk about four dimensions?

Is it just a bigger kind of space? Is it “space-time”, the popular idea which emerged from Einstein’s theory of relativity?

If you have wondered what four dimensions really look like, you may have have come across drawings of a “four-dimensional cube”. But our brains are wired to interpret drawings on flat paper as two- or at most three-dimensional, not four-dimensional.

The almost insurmountable difficulty of visualising the fourth dimension has inspired mathematicians, physicists, writers and even some artists for centuries. But even if we can’t quite imagine it, we can understand it.

What is dimension?

The dimension of a space captures the number of independent directions in it.

A line is one-dimensional. We can move along it forwards and backwards, but these are opposite, not independent, directions. You can also think of a string or piece of rope as practically one-dimensional, as the thickness is negligible compared with the length.

A surface, such as a soccer field or the skin of a balloon, is two-dimensional. There are independent directions forwards and sideways.

You can move diagonally on a surface, but this is not an independent direction because you can get to the same place by moving forwards, then sideways. The space we live in is three-dimensional: in addition to moving forwards and sideways, we can also jump up and down.

Four-dimensional space has yet another independent direction. This is why space-time is considered four-dimensional: you have the three dimensions of space, but moving forward or backward in time counts as a new direction.

One way to imagine four-dimensional space is as an immersive three-dimensional movie, where each “frame” is three-dimensional and you can also fast-forward and rewind in time.

Consider the cube

A powerful tool for understanding higher dimensions is through analogies in lower dimensions. An example of this technique is drawing cubes in more dimensions.

A “two-dimensional cube” is just a square. To draw a three-dimensional cube, we draw two squares, then connect them corner to corner to make a cube.

So, to draw a four-dimensional cube, start by drawing two three-dimensional cubes, then connect them corner to corner. You can even continue doing this to draw cubes in five or more dimensions. (You will need a large piece of paper and need to keep your lines neat!)

This experiment can help accurately determine how many corners and edges a higher-dimensional cube has. But for most of us, it will not help us “see” one. Our brains will only interpret the images as complex webs of lines in two or at most three dimensions.

Knots

We can tie knots in three dimensions because one-dimensional ropes “catch on each other”. This is why a long rope wound around itself, if done right, won’t come apart. We trust knots with our lives when we’re sailing or climbing.

But in four dimensions, knots would instantly come apart. We can understand why by using an example in fewer dimensions, like we did with cubes.

Imagine a colony of two-dimensional ants living on a flat surface divided by a line. The ants can’t cross the line: it’s an impassable barrier for them, and they don’t even know the other side of the line exists.

But if one day an ant, and its world, becomes three-dimensional, that ant will step over the line with ease. To step over, it needs to move just a tiny bit in the new, vertical direction.

Now, instead of an ant and a line on a flat surface, imagine a horizontal and a vertical piece of rope in three dimensions. These will catch on each other if pulled in opposite directions.

But if the space became four-dimensional, it would be enough for the horizontal piece of rope to move just a little bit in the new, fourth direction, to avoid the other entirely.

Thinking of four dimensions as a movie, the pieces of rope live in a single, three-dimensional frame. If the horizontal piece of rope shifts just slightly into a future frame, in that frame there is no vertical piece, so it can easily move to the other side of the vertical piece before shifting back.

From our three-dimensional perspective, the ropes would appear to slide through each other like ghosts.

Knots in more dimensions

Is it impossible, then, to knot a rope in higher dimensions? Yes: any knot tied on a rope will come apart.

But not all is lost: in four-dimensional space you can knot two-dimensional surfaces, such as balloons, large picnic blankets or long tubes.

There is a mathematical formula that determines when knots can stay knotted: take the dimension of the object you want to knot, double it, and add one. According to the formula, this is the maximum dimension of a space where knotting is possible.

The formula implies, for example, that a rope (one-dimensional) can be knotted in at most three dimensions. A (two-dimensional) balloon surface can be knotted in at most five dimensions.

Studying knotted surfaces in four-dimensional space is a vibrant topic of research, which provides mathematical insight into the the still poorly understood mysteries into the intricacies of four-dimensional space.

– ref. Why you can’t tie knots in four dimensions – https://theconversation.com/why-you-cant-tie-knots-in-four-dimensions-272445

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacey Pizzino, Lecturer, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland

When a war ends and peace agreements are signed, most people assume the danger is over. But for many communities around the world the danger remains in the ground, waiting.

Landmines and other explosives left behind after a conflict can stay active for decades – buried in the paths to school, in the fields that feed families and in the areas where children play.

In some countries, such as Laos and the Solomon Islands, bombs from conflicts decades ago still injure and kill.

This quiet danger isn’t a distant problem. Today, at least 57 countries are contaminated by landmines and other explosive ordnance, including mortars and grenades.

At the same time, some governments are stepping back from the Landmine Ban Treaty, the first comprehensive treaty aimed at eliminating landmines in conflicts. Decisions made in parliaments today can translate into hazards underfoot for years to come.

Our new research is aimed at understanding the ongoing risk landmines pose. The study is the world’s largest analysis of landmine and explosive ordnance casualties. And the data allows us to answer critical questions: who dies from these weapons, and why?

What do the numbers tell us?

In our study, we analysed 105,913 casualties across 17 conflict-affected countries, using operational data. These are the real world operational records routinely collected by national mine action authorities, the UN and other humanitarian organisations.

These records let us see what communities are facing without adding any burden to these often stretched services.

Across all settings, the case fatality rate was 38.8%. Put simply: for every ten people injured by landmines or other explosive ordnance around the world, nearly four die. This is extraordinarily high.

For comparison, the fatality rate for blast injuries among military personnel or civilians treated in well-resourced trauma centres is around 2%.

The gap highlights the brutal disparity between those who are injured in environments with functioning surgical and trauma care and those who are not.

Not all explosive threats are equal, either.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the most lethal weapon type in our analysis.

IEDs are increasingly used in many modern conflicts and are often remotely detonated to maximise casualties. Their explosive force and unpredictability cause devastating injuries that many local health systems are simply not equipped to manage.

Who is most affected?

Although most casualties from landmines and explosive ordnance are men, women had significantly higher odds of dying from their injuries. This likely reflects unequal access to health care, delayed treatment, and social barriers that limit mobility and decision making in many conflict-affected settings.

Children’s risks are different – they are both vulnerable and resilient.

Children are particularly at risk of detonating landmines when playing, when caught up in active conflict, or simply as bystanders.

The reason is often tragic. Children tend to play together in groups, meaning when one child encounters an explosive remnant, several are injured at once.

Yet, overall, children in our data were more likely to survive their injuries than adults, perhaps because they sustain different injury patterns or receive care sooner when adults rush to assist.

But survival is only the beginning. Children may need multiple surgeries, new prostheses as they grow up, long-term rehabilitation and lifelong disability support. These are needs that many health systems struggle to meet.

Age also shapes outcomes. The highest odds of death were observed in adults aged 45–64. Older people may have pre-existing health issues and face greater barriers to reaching medical care, yet their needs can often be overlooked.

The human cost of explosives

The impact of landmines and explosive ordnance extends far beyond immediate injuries. These injuries disrupt people’s daily lives in ways that can entrench communities in poverty.

For example, farmers cannot safety cultivate their land because of the threat of landmines. Women gathering water or food can trigger explosives, too.

When injuries occur, families lose breadwinners and care-giving roles change, pushing households deeper into poverty.

How can we strengthen care for survivors?

There are ways to mitigate the impacts of landmines and explosive ordnance, though. This is a preventable public health crisis.

Our findings highlight the urgent need to strengthen emergency, critical and surgical care in conflict-affected areas to reduce preventable deaths.

Reliable pre-hospital care, transport and basic surgical care saves lives. So does long-term rehabilitation and disability support, especially for children who will live with the consequences of these explosive weapons and injuries for decades.

As old conflicts continue and new ones emerge, explosive ordnance keep contaminating the places where people live, play, work and travel.

Understanding who dies, and why, is essential to preventing future deaths and ensuring that peace, when it comes, offers real safety.

– ref. New global study: long after war, nearly 4 in 10 people injured by landmines and explosives die – https://theconversation.com/new-global-study-long-after-war-nearly-4-in-10-people-injured-by-landmines-and-explosives-die-276062

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josh Sunman, Associate lecturer, Flinders University

Since the 2025 federal election, poll after poll has shown surging support for right-wing populist party One Nation. The party, and its leader Pauline Hanson, have been on the Australian political scene for 30 years. Yet until recently, One Nation had never been more than a fringe group of the far right.

The latest polling shows One Nation not just leap-frogging the decimated Coalition parties, but also closing in on Labor. A new Guardian Essential poll also shows nearly 60% of Australians would be open to voting for the party at the next federal election.

Even five years ago, One Nation having that kind of appeal was unthinkable. So what has changed in the meantime?

Broad-scale political shifts, including a global anti-immigration push, are certainly aiding One Nation’s cause. Radical-right political actors such as US President Donald Trump, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni are experiencing success at the ballot box and in dominating the global policy agenda.

Issues such as immigration, increased cost of living and a general distrust in political leaders and institutions are top of voters’ minds. In Australia, recent polling shows a consistent lack of faith in the major parties.

Economic strain, grievance, fear and the aftermath of the Bondi terrorist attack have created the perfect conditions for the populist party.

Is this One Nation’s breakthrough moment?

Fringe-dwellers no more

One Nation has been consistently represented in the Australian Senate since Hanson’s return to federal parliament following the 2016 double dissolution election.

However, despite intermittent surges in support, the party has never managed to win a significant number of seats in either state or federal lower houses (outside of its short-lived 1998 result in Queensland).

Read more: Can One Nation turn its polling hype into seats in parliament? History shows it will struggle

This is due to One Nation’s organisational dysfunction, as well as broader political structures, including the electoral and party system. One Nation’s organisational issues – particularly in keeping elected members inside the tent – have been well documented in research. Over the years, the party has been involved in several scandals and high-profile fallings-out between its members and its leader.

In structural terms, the position of the major parties is strengthened against challengers in Australia by our system of single member electorates paired with preferential voting. These structures reward parties with widespread, rather than concentrated, support.

The greater electoral success of many European populists such as Meloni and far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders is in large part due to proportional electoral systems. This enables populist actors to gain consistent representation and bargaining power in coalition governments.

In Australia, declining support for the major parties is not new. At the 2025 federal election, just 66% of voters gave their first preference to Labor or the Coalition.

The 2025 Australian Election Study (AES) captures this declining attachment to the major parties. It finds only 11% and 13% of voters only ever voted for Labor or the Coalition respectively. Likewise, it reveals a record high 25% of voters do not identify as aligning with any political party.

But what is new is that One Nation is the main beneficiary of voter dissatisfaction. Alongside a growing detachment from major parties, the AES reveals only 32% of voters trust government, and only 30% report satisfaction with Australian democracy. In other words, people have deep grievances with government and democracy. This creates an opportunity for parties with anti-establishment messages.

Immigration, racism and fear

In terms of issues, immigration is consistently rated as the top concern of One Nation voters. This aligns with global far-right parties that emphasise nativist messaging, and offer simplistic explanations for economic insecurity. These messages blame an immigrant “other” and traitorous political elite for selling out a country’s “true people”.

Success for the radical right is not limited to proportional systems. Farage’s Reform Party is another example of a radical right party that is surging in a majoritarian system.

Both Reform and One Nation share a common opportunity: the collapse of centre-right competitors, and voters’ disaffection with the Labo(u)r alternatives.

Both the British Tories and the Coalition in Australia have left a vacuum of policy and leadership on the right. Scandal and instability have marred successive British governments. In Australia, the Peter Dutton-led opposition suffered the worst defeat in the Liberal Party’s history after going into the 2025 election without coherent policies.

Riven by an urban/rural divide and policy disagreements, the Coalition has split twice in the past year. Sussan Ley – its first female leader – lasted a mere nine months in the role before being replaced by Angus Taylor. Early indications suggest Taylor may try to shift the Liberals to the right to counter One Nation, especially on immigration.

Grievance and economic hardship

Like many radical right parties, One Nation has capitalised on economic grievances. Research shows economic issues are a key driver in shifting voters from the centre-right towards radical right parties.

Hanson’s frequent stunts in parliament and love of courting outrage have enabled her to remain in the spotlight through the years.

Effective social and digital media use has been core to One Nation’s issue salience. It is also a key tool for communication for populist radical right actors worldwide. What differentiates One Nation’s social media use from that of other parties is its often low-brow nature.

While social media posts heavily feature the Australian flag, the party’s lineup of “please explain” cartoons soften and make acceptable racist, misogynistic and anti-queer messaging. Recent international research suggests social media algorithms play a key role in displaying content to users and reinforcing radical right messages and attitudes.

The fragmentation of the Coalition has created fertile ground for One Nation’s surging popularity. But whether this surge is a temporary protest vote or represents a far more serious and lasting realignment of the Australian right, will depend on how effectively the major parties can rebuild their credibility. It will also depend how well they can address the economic and cultural anxieties driving voters towards radical right parties.

– ref. One Nation has been on the fringes of Australian politics for 30 years. Why is its popularity soaring now? – https://theconversation.com/one-nation-has-been-on-the-fringes-of-australian-politics-for-30-years-why-is-its-popularity-soaring-now-276763

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra James, Research Fellow, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University

Among the corsets and chemistry, the latest season of Bridgerton gets one thing right: the taboos around talking about sex and sexual pleasure.

Newlywed Francesca asks in hushed confusion what it means to reach “the pinnacle” (orgasm). As she cannot reach one, she is concerned this may be linked to her inability to fall pregnant.

When Francesca seeks advice from her mother Violet, she’s told:

A pinnacle, it is pleasant … It is a delightful um, closeness, that is um, it’s nearly impossible to describe. It’s like a shared language. And when you speak the same language you are able to feel um [a] magical, special feeling inside.

Confused, Francesca turns to her more experienced sister-in-law Penelope for clearer answers. But she still can’t find what she’s looking for.

Bridgerton may be a Regency-era historical fantasy. But this dynamic mirrors what we see today – young people want information about sex and sexual pleasure, yet parents often feel awkward and ill-equipped to provide it.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Some things don’t change

Young people today consistently say they want information about sex and relationships that emphasises emotions and pleasure. But they often learn about it from peers or online.

Meanwhile, many parents share their discomfort when discussing the more intimate dimensions of sexuality.

In our 2025 study of Australian parents and carers, many said they were uncertain about how to initiate or sustain meaningful conversations about sex and relationships. They were unsure what information was age-appropriate, especially where children may already find sexual content online.

Parents and carers were more confident talking about body image, consent and safety, puberty and periods. But they were particularly uncomfortable talking about sexual pleasure, satisfaction and masturbation.

Parents frequently connected their unease to their own upbringing, describing childhood homes where sex was rarely discussed openly. (In Bridgerton, when Francesca’s mother later admits she struggles to talk about sex even with her lover, the parallel is hard to miss.)

Parents who felt more comfortable discussing sex with partners, friends or health professionals were more likely to feel confident talking about it with their children.

Mothers still take the lead

While Francesca searches for information about her own pleasure, a female housekeeper cautions her brother Benedict about power and responsibility when she notices his attraction to Sophie, a housemaid.

This echoes contemporary differences in how sons and daughters are prepared for intimate relationships. Boys are positioned to manage power and consent, often with less space to explore ideas of love and romance.

Significantly, it is also women who most often take on this preparatory work.

In Bridgerton, the roles of Francesca’s mother, her sister-in-law Penelope and the housekeeper reflect a broader pattern of gendered labour in sex education: women continue to be positioned as the default parent responsible for navigating these conversations.

In our study, mothers reported significantly higher confidence than fathers in discussing consent and safety with both daughters and sons, compared with fathers, particularly fathers of sons.

What about pleasure?

When we talk about sex only in terms of risk, focusing on pregnancy, infection and harm, we also narrow the story young people can tell about intimacy.

It can reinforce a familiar binary: boys as potential perpetrators, girls as potential victims, and sex itself as something that “happens” rather than something negotiated.

Leaving pleasure out of conversations between parents and their children doesn’t make conversations safer; it makes them incomplete. Without a language for desire, boundaries and dissatisfaction, young people have fewer tools to recognise coercion, communicate their needs, or imagine sex that is mutual and wanted.

We also cannot expect young people, especially young women, to advocate for their own pleasure if they have never been given the vocabulary to understand what it is and what to expect.

We also know young people ask for clarity about the “mechanics” of sex; how it works, what it feels like, and how to do it.

Parents play an important role in supporting this learning, particularly as sexual pleasure and wellbeing are among the topics less likely to be covered in school-based education, which has tended to focus on reducing harm.

Read more: 6 ways to talk to your teens about sex without the cringe

But some things have changed

If parents are reluctant to talk to their children about sex and relationships, it’s rarely because they don’t want to. Our study shows they’re not certain what to say, when to say it, and how much detail to provide.

Many parents worried their child would feel uncomfortable, or feared saying the wrong thing. One in three said they had not had any conversations about sex or relationships with their children in the past 12 months.

But unlike in Bridgerton, today’s parents are not confined to metaphor. Resources exist to support more open, direct conversations about bodies, relationships and pleasure, which young people want.

Talking about sex, especially pleasure, can feel uncomfortable. But this is not a reason to stay silent. It is often a sign the conversation matters.

Talk soon. Talk often: a guide for parents talking to their kids about sex helps parents judge age-appropriate information and how to talk about it.

– ref. What Bridgerton’s ‘pinnacle’ tells us about sex talk today – https://theconversation.com/what-bridgertons-pinnacle-tells-us-about-sex-talk-today-276504

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

Australia’s new fuel efficiency scheme has been in place for just seven months.

But the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard has already created a new, tradeable carbon currency applying just to cars and light commercial vehicles (utes and vans) market. In just months, the scheme has created a surplus of roughly 16 million “NVES unit” credits.

When manufacturers sell efficient cars, they earn credits. When they sell high-emitting ones, they rack up a debt. Any debts will have to be settled either by buying credits from car companies in surplus or by paying financial penalties.

As a result, brands such as BYD, Toyota and Tesla are already banking millions of credits, while others such as Mazda, Nissan and Subaru are building up debts which will get harder to ignore. We don’t know how much credits are worth yet as the market is too new and carmakers haven’t started trading them yet.

The architects of the scheme deliberately designed credit trading into the laws. But the speed and scale of these market dynamics has been surprising. From next year on, the legally binding targets will progressively tighten – and the average new car on the road will get cleaner and cleaner.

Promising signs

For decades, Australia was one of the few developed nations with no limit on how much carbon dioxide cars could belch out in their exhaust.

That changed on July 1 2025 when the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard came into effect. It sets a limit on total emissions a manufacturer’s range of models can produce (141 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre for cars, 210g/km for utes and vans in 2025) and then lowers the limit every year.

The first results from the new fuel efficiency scheme tell an encouraging story: almost 70% of carmakers beat their fleet emissions targets.

The results come from the six months between July 1 and December 31 2025, when almost 621,000 new vehicles were registered. Around 71% were cars and 29% were light commercial vehicles.

The scheme likely contributed to the first fall in transport emissions since COVID.

The credit kings

At present, Australia has 59 brands active in the market. Of these, 40 beat their targets and 19 didn’t.

Many of these leaders should be no surprise. BYD stood out, earning a combined 6.3 million credits across its two registered entities from sales of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Tesla is a major credit generator too, banking 2.2 million credits.

But the real surprise is Toyota, which earned nearly 2.9 million. The Japanese carmaker has not been enthusiastic about EVs. Instead, it has flooded the market with hybrids, giving it a fleet emitting well under the current limit. But this advantage will be short-lived as limits tighten year on year. Eventually, even Toyota will have to shift to plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles.

The scheme is not a zero-sum game – it can run in surplus. In 2025, credits generated outstripped liabilities by more than 15 to 1, reflecting deliberately easy first-year targets to ease industry into the system. But as targets tighten sharply from 2026, carmakers now in surplus will likely need those banked credits for their own future compliance – meaning the market is less unbalanced than the current numbers suggest. Unused credits expire after three years.

Who’s feeling the heat?

On the other side of the ledger, name brands are starting to sweat. Mazda has the largest debt at present, owing more than 500,000 units. Nissan has around 215,000, and Subaru is close behind.

These carmakers are facing a tough choice. Do they radically change the types of cars they ship and sell in Australia? Do they pay financial penalties to the government? Or do they buy credits from rivals? In practice, most will use a combination, gradually greening their fleet while buying credits to bridge the gap.

Cleaner models are a better business decision

Most likely, carmakers accruing debts under the scheme will pass the cost on to consumers, making cars from higher-polluting brands more expensive. Companies in surplus can sell credits, using the proceeds to lower prices and attract more customers.

Think of it as a stealth subsidy. Every time someone buys a less efficient car from a struggling brand, they could be making someone else’s new electric vehicle cheaper.

For the first time in Australia, fuel efficiency is rewarded and waste penalised. This means cleaner models are now a better business decision for carmakers. Volume of sales alone now isn’t enough for success in Australia’s highly competitive market. Model range and choice of technologies have become increasingly important.

Clearer air

Overall, new cars sold from July to December beat their emissions targets by 21%, emitting 114g of CO₂ per km on average against a target of 144g/km.

Light commercial vehicles also cleared the bar – though only just – averaging 199g/km against a target of 214g/km. Without a rapid influx of hybrid or electric utes, the sector could hit a compliance wall as early as next year, when targets tighten sharply.

In total, I estimate the new cleaner vehicles will stop between 190,000 and 220,000 tonnes of CO₂ entering the atmosphere every year they remain on the road. That’s the equivalent of taking 100,000 older, dirtier cars off the roads.

Impressive start, job far from done

This early good news doesn’t mean the job is done. The 2025 targets were set to be achievable to ease industry into the system, meaning credit kings could coast until 2027, delaying the launch of even cleaner models.

But the reprieve won’t last long. Targets will get harder and harder to meet. A car emitting just over the limit today will be significantly over it by 2028. Because penalties scale with emissions, highly polluting cars will cost makers more and more. A huge credit surplus could be wiped out surprisingly quickly if a manufacturer is slow to modernise.

What’s next?

Australian consumers can expect to see more fuel-efficient cars, more affordable EVs and fiercer competition as carmakers clean up their range.

Australia’s carbon market for cars has officially opened. In this game, standing still is the most expensive move any company can make.

– ref. How Australia’s new fuel efficiency scheme quietly created a carbon currency for cars – and it’s working – https://theconversation.com/how-australias-new-fuel-efficiency-scheme-quietly-created-a-carbon-currency-for-cars-and-its-working-276379

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian R. Camilleri, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney

You’re scrolling through an online retailer, like Amazon, Shein or eBay, and spot a shirt on sale for $40. You add it to your cart, but at checkout, a $10 shipping fee suddenly appears. Frustrated, you close the tab.

But what if that same shirt was priced at $50 with “free” shipping? The likelihood that you would have bought it without a second thought is much higher.

COVID changed the way we shop and accelerated our reliance on e-commerce. But as online sales have grown, so has the expectation of free delivery.

The reality, however, is that shipping physical goods is never actually free. Retailers use subtle marketing strategies and psychological hacks to mask these costs. As a result, consumers are often the ones footing the bill.

The magic of zero

There is something uniquely attractive about the concept “free”. In behavioural economics, zero is not just a lower price; it flips a psychological switch.

When a transaction involves a cost, we instinctively weigh the downside. But when something is entirely free, we experience a positive emotion and perceive the offer as more valuable than it is mathematically.

Retailers no doubt realise that offering free delivery is one of the most effective ways to stop a consumer from abandoning a digital shopping cart.

The minimum spend trap

Perhaps the most common marketing tactic is the free shipping threshold. Sometimes this is phrased as: “Spend $55 to qualify for free shipping.”

If your shopping cart is sitting at $40, you face a dilemma. You can pay $10 for postage, or you can find a $15 item to reach the threshold. Many of us choose the latter, reasoning it is better to get a tangible product, such as a pair of socks, than to “waste” money on shipping.

This tactic uses the “goal gradient effect”, which describes the tendency to put in more effort the closer we get to a goal. It also works incredibly well for the retailer.

Research shows that free shipping increases both purchase frequency and overall order size. Policies with a threshold for free shipping often prompt this exact “topping up” behaviour. The consumer ends up buying things they did not initially want, thus boosting the retailer’s sales.

Baked-in costs and the reality of ‘free’ returns

Another strategy is unconditional free shipping, where the delivery cost is simply baked into the product’s base price. This allows consumers to avoid the “pain of paying” a separate fee at checkout. However, we are still paying for the postage through higher item costs.

For retailers, offering unconditional free shipping without a markup can be difficult to sustain profitably. The bump in sales usually does not offset the lost fee revenue and the costs of fulfilment.

A major reason for this lack of profitability is that free shipping leads to significantly higher product return rates.

Consumers tend to make riskier purchases if the appearance of waived fees lowers the perceived financial risk of the transaction.

For example, you might order the same shirt in two different sizes, knowing you can just send one back for free. Who pays for that added convenience? The retailer, who now has to cover the courier fees twice.

The retailer usually won’t simply absorb this cost, but will have to pass it on in other ways.

The subscription illusion

To combat these unpredictable costs, many businesses are turning to membership, loyalty, or subscription models such as Amazon Prime. Consumers pay an upfront annual fee in exchange for “free” expedited shipping year-round.

Membership-based programs successfully increase customer loyalty and purchase frequency, and allow for better customer segmentation.

But in the long run, they may actually hurt a retailer’s profit margins. While loyalty rises, the operational costs of fulfilling many smaller, free-shipped orders can potentially outweigh the benefits if not strictly managed.

For the consumer, this model manipulates our “mental accounting”. Because we view the upfront fee as money already spent, every additional purchase feels like it comes with a free perk. We end up shopping more frequently on that specific platform just to “get our money’s worth”.

Don’t buy the illusion

The age of limitless free shipping may be coming to an end.

As global supply chain costs remain volatile, we are likely to see retailers raising their minimum spend thresholds, removing offers, or increasing base product prices to compensate.

The next time you are shopping online, resist the urge for instant gratification.

If you are about to add a $15 pair of novelty avocado socks to your cart, just to save $10 on shipping, take a step back. Ask yourself if you truly need that purchase to arrive this week.

Instead of rushing to checkout, let your digital basket fill up naturally over time with items you actually need. You will eventually hit the threshold, but on your own terms.

“Free” delivery is just a clever psychological illusion. The cost is rarely eliminated; it is simply redistributed into higher product prices or reframed as a loyalty perk.

Don’t let the allure of “free” shipping trick you into paying for more than you intended.

– ref. Does ‘free’ shipping really exist? An expert shares the marketing tricks you need to know – https://theconversation.com/does-free-shipping-really-exist-an-expert-shares-the-marketing-tricks-you-need-to-know-276397

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Poplin, Teaching Associate, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University

“Drink hot water” has become an unlikely life philosophy on TikTok, as countless users track their journey towards “being” or “becoming Chinese”.

All of this is part of a broader social media trend dubbed “Chinamaxxing”.

Out of context it may seem strange: thousands of Chinamaxxing videos – often with the caption “you’ve met me at a very Chinese time in my life” – show users of various backgrounds partaking in traditional Chinese practices and wellness rituals. This may look like going to bed early, wearing slippers indoors, eating congee, or doing traditional stretches to improve energy flow.

The Chinamaxxing trend is a unique example of digitally mediated cross-cultural admiration. It reflects the West’s general growing interest in traditional Chinese medicine and culture – and more broadly shows us how social media can reshape the way we think about and engage with other cultures.

Ideas of wellbeing in China

Digital spaces are increasingly shaping how cultures are understood and shared.

Recent articles have documented this shift. Journalist Zoey Zhang’s reporting on the “becoming Chinese” TikTok trend describes how non-Chinese are experimenting with wellness habits rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. This holistic framework, developed over centuries, is grounded in theories of qi (vital energy), yin and yang (complementary forces), and the five elements.

Some videos are tongue–in-cheek – akin to parody. But as Zhang and others note, many represent a genuine attempt to engage thoughtfully with Chinese culture. And in most cases, even the humorous videos aren’t making fun at the expense of Chinese people or culture.

Global Times reporter Xu Liuliu suggests the trend signals a move from a surface-level fascination to a more reflective form of engagement with Chinese culture. For instance, many users point out how Chinese practices associated with moderation, balance and longevity can function as antidotes to burnout culture.

Viral trends as soft power

Viral memes such as “you’ve met me at a very Chinese time in my life” aren’t just trivial; they can be viewed as cultural vehicles. Memes help condense complex cultural narratives and practices into an engaging and shareable format.

For example, a short TikTok video about refusing iced water stands in for a centuries-old medical philosophy tied to concepts of bodily balance and internal heat.

Through repetition, these kinds of visual narratives can become familiar, or even desirable, to audiences far removed from their original context.

It’s an example of “soft power”, which refers to a country’s ability to shape global perceptions of it through its portrayal of culture and values.

In the age of TikTok, Xiaohongsu (RedNote) and Instagram, soft power no longer flows only through film studios or state-sponsored media. It also moves through influencers’ kitchens, aesthetic vlogs and comment sections.

This latest wave of content promoting Chinese culture feels intimate, domestic and desirable.

Is it appropriation?

The Chinamaxxing trend has led many to ask an important question: are we seeing cultural appreciation, appropriation, or something in between?

Many users adapt and remix the practices to fit their own lives, and may lose important context or histories in doing so. On TikTok and Instagram, traditional Chinese medicine may be reduced to a checklist of habits: avoid cold drinks, boil ginger, prioritise rest. These kinds of oversimplifications risk detaching practices from the important philosophies underpinning them.

At the same time, it would be reductive to dismiss the entire trend as mere appropriation. Many creators credit their sources, share family stories and collaborate across cultures. And many are themselves members of the Chinese diaspora living in the West.

Rather, we might view the trend as a kind of trans-cultural renaissance, mediated by algorithms.

Why this moment matters

The Chinamaxxing trend has largely been driven by Gen Z users based in the United States. Although it’s hard to know for sure, some commentators think it may stem from this group’s growing disenchantment towards its own government.

The popularity of this content speaks to several contemporary Western anxieties. Burnout culture, climate uncertainty and economic precarity have made the West’s hyper-optimised self-care culture feel hollow.

This trend of celebrating Chinese culture comes at a time when some Western ideological structures are coming under intense scrutiny. Perhaps this is making Western audiences question whether the anti-Chinese sentiment they’ve been exposed to through their own institutions ought to be questioned.

The challenge is to remain reflective. Engagement can deepen cross-cultural understanding – but only if curiosity extends beyond memes. Drinking hot water may be simple, but understanding the worldview behind it requires more sustained inquiry.

As digital user-generated content continues to dissolve distances between cultures, it is in our collective interest to connect with one another beyond the algorithm.

Read more: Will drinking hot water help me lose weight, clear my skin or treat cramps?

– ref. TikTokers are ‘becoming Chinese’ in a new trend that’s part parody and part politics – https://theconversation.com/tiktokers-are-becoming-chinese-in-a-new-trend-thats-part-parody-and-part-politics-276279