But at the same time as urban motorists see rising prices, something else often happens in rural Australia. Farmers begin filling their diesel tanks. This behaviour can look like hoarding, or even panic buying. But in many cases, it is simply practical farm management.
If we want to keep our food supplies secure, understanding what farmers need in diesel supplies now, and in coming months, will be crucial.
How farmers buy diesel – and why it matters now
On Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it was:
concerned about petrol and diesel availability in some regional and rural locations, and has heard concerns from residents, businesses and primary producers about the potential impacts of this situation.
Diesel shortages or higher prices can have a heavy impact on farmers, as I’ve seen up close.
I’m an academic expert in accounting and financial decision making. But I’ve also observed farm operations firsthand, through time spent on a family farm in regional New South Wales.
Many farms keep large diesel tanks on their properties. These tanks supply tractors, harvesters, irrigation pumps and trucks. During busy seasons such as sowing or harvesting, farms may use thousands of litres of fuel.
Because diesel is a key production input, farms treat it differently from household fuel purchases. Under the relevant Australian accounting standards for inventories, inputs used in production can be recorded as inventory until they are used. This means fuel bought today can sit on the farm’s balance sheet as an asset until it’s consumed.
If a farmer expects to use the fuel anyway, buying earlier can reduce exposure to future price increases. Research on agricultural risk management shows farmers often bring forward input purchases when they expect costs to rise or supplies to tighten.
Many farmers have fuel storage facilities on farm to help meet their needs throughout the year.Mark Stebnicki/Pexels
Winter sowing is coming, meaning diesel is vital
Farmers and other off-road industries can claim refunds for fuel excise through the Fuel Tax Credit scheme.
The program lowers the effective cost of diesel used in activities such as agriculture and mining. This makes bulk purchasing more viable for businesses that already have storage tanks.
Farm income is also seasonal. Revenue often arrives after harvest, while many costs occur months earlier during planting and preparation. Bringing forward purchases of inputs, such as diesel, can therefore help manage cash flow.
When distributors warn fuel prices may rise, many farmers will try to fill the tanks they already have. This is especially common as farms prepare for winter sowing in southern Australia – now just months away.
Prices in that wholesale market can change daily, and those changes quickly affect what Australian retailers expect to pay for their next delivery.
Across much of Australia, farmers are due to start planting a range of winter crops soon.Pixabay
This reflects a broader supply strategy used across many industries. Since the 1980s, companies around the world have adopted what is known as “just-in-time” inventory management. The system was developed by Toyota in Japan and later spread globally through manufacturing and logistics systems.
Under just-in-time systems, businesses keep inventories low and rely on frequent deliveries, rather than storing large stockpiles. The goal is to reduce storage costs and avoid tying up money in unused goods.
Research in operations management shows this approach can improve efficiency when supply chains are stable.
Australia’s fuel system works in a similar way. Rather than maintaining very large national fuel reserves, the country relies heavily on regular shipments of imported fuel through major ports. Government data shows Australia imports a large share of its petrol, diesel and jet fuel.
This system is efficient during normal times. But when geopolitical tensions push oil prices higher, price expectations can move quickly through the supply chain.
Fuelling our food future
All of this highlights a much broader issue: Australia stores relatively little fuel compared with some other developed countries.
For many years, the country struggled to meet the International Energy Agency requirement that member nations hold emergency oil reserves equal to 90 days of imports.
Most fuel storage is concentrated near major coastal ports. Australia could strengthen energy security by building more inland fuel storage.
Regional logistics hubs – such as Parkes or Dubbo in New South Wales, Toowoomba in Queensland, or Kalgoorlie in Western Australia – already sit on major freight routes.
Building new fuel storage is expensive and heavily regulated. That’s where the government could step in, funding new regional storage infrastructure through grants, low-interest loans or tax incentives.
Keeping Australia’s public emergency reserves in the same tanks used by private companies would help keep these facilities economically active, rather than sitting unused.
There’s an opportunity here – to use this experience to make Australia’s fuel and food security harder to disrupt in future.
We’ve just had an epic win for our native animals, such as owls, goannas and eagles. And after years contributing to the scientific evidence on the wildlife impact of rodent poisons, it’s a day scientists like myself feared would never come.
This means that some commonly used rat baits will be taken off the shelf at supermarkets and hardware shops. These baits can have a devastating effect on native animals, which receive lethal or crippling doses when they eat poisoned rats and mice.
Let’s look at what these rodent poisons (or rodenticides) are, why they are lethal for wildlife, and why they needed to banned.
Dr Boyd Wykes (left) and Associate Professor Rob David look at dead owls poisoned by rodenticides.Karen Majer, CC BY-ND
What’s wrong with “second generation” rodent poisons?
Rat and mouse baits are an essential part of everyday life – people use them without thinking. Most baits are anticoagulants, which stop the blood coagulating or clotting and cause animals to bleed to death.
The first over-the-counter baits (developed in the 1940s) used chemicals such as warfarin and coumatetralyl, and are the first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs). Notably, these chemicals break down relatively quickly, both in the environment and the livers of animals who consume them. For example, warfarin only lasts 35 days.
But as rats and mice developed resistance to these baits, second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGARs) were developed. The active chemicals in these baits persist much longer in the tissues of the animals who eat them. They can last up to 217 days (brodifacoum) and 248 days (bromodiolone).
This means poisoned rodents move around with these persistent chemicals in their body until they die. And when predators such as owls or goannas eat them, these chemicals accumulate in their livers. The more rodents an animal eats, the higher the concentrations of chemicals that builds up. Eventually, this makes them sick, and often leads to death from poisoning.
When our lab starting working on this issue a decade ago, the problem was well known overseas but poorly studied in Australia. In our first review of the topic, we identified the need for stronger regulation of SGARs in Australia, noting many instances of wildlife exposure here. Australia was lagging behind other countries in awareness and regulation.
My then-PhD student Mike Lohr, now an independent researcher, undertook the first dedicated study on wildlife exposure in Australia. He found 73% of 73 Australian boobook owls were poisoned. We were alarmed enough look more broadly. Sadly, our work identified high rates of exposure and lethal poisoning in native reptiles and threatened carnivores. And colleagues have documented poisoning of many of our night birds, possums, eagles and even frogs.
Rodents like rats die slowly from ingesting these poisons, which remain in their body.Rizky Panuntun/Getty Images
Endless review had disappointing outcome
The science is unequivocal but Australia fell behind many countries in refusing to withdraw these products from sale to domestic consumers. A regulatory review due in 2015 was delayed multiple times. In the meantime, faced with a lack of action from the regulator, there has been a people-led “owl-friendly” movement, in which councils took action to educate citizens and retailers on the issue and encourage them to stop using SGARs.
In July 2024, I was part of a scientific delegation to Parliament House in Canberra to meet with politicians and the federal pesticides regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, to present our scientific evidence. The review was delayed another year, and finally released just before the end of 2025.
Unfortunately, it fell short of what many of us had expected. It relied on simple label changes and the use of tamper-proof bait boxes to present wildlife from being poisoned. It even suggested removing most of the less-harmful rodent poisons from sale because they lacked required bitter-tasting ingredients to be compliant. But it proposed no regulation of the dangerous second-generation poisons.
Our own research (currently under peer review), proves native wildlife is at risk of eating bait directly from tamper-proof bait boxes. We recorded up to 21 species of native wildlife interacting with bait boxes (investigating, feeding in close proximity or even with their heads in bait boxes). Furthermore, poisoned mice and rats are still being eaten by native predators as long as SGARs are being used.
Finally, Australia goes from laggard to leader
Unexpectedly, on March 10 2026, the pesticides authority announced that after consulting with states and retailers, SGARs sales would be suspended for a year, with regulatory controls put in place to prevent sale to consumers. SGARs will still be available to licensed and trained pest controllers.
This news is very welcome, however after the year-long suspension we need SGARs to be defined as a “restricted chemical product” (RCP). This means they can be removed from sale to consumers permanently, and only be accessible to commercial providers.
The removal of these toxic rodent baits from public sale will save countless native animals from suffering, and improve the outlook for many threatened species. First-generation rodent poisons and non-coagulant baits that are better for wildlife will remain available for home users.
And there are many alternatives to try first before reaching for those baits. These include cage traps, snap traps, electric traps, good hygiene practices and rodent-proofing. The owls and goannas will thank you.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on March 13, 2026.
Why doesn’t Hobart have a Chinatown? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Imogen Wegman, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania On November 18 1909, greengrocer Claude Nam Shing was woken up by shouts of “fire”. He found his store, on the corner of Elizabeth and Melville Streets in central Hobart, ablaze. He escaped quickly. The fire brigade arrived and
Desperate to flee abuse in Cambodian scam compounds, these young Indonesians are now facing suspicion back home Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlotte Setijadi, Lecturer in Asian Studies, The University of Melbourne In the first two weeks of March, two young Indonesian women died alone in a hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The first, who Indonesian officials have identified as 22-year-old Susi Yanti Br. Sinaga died following a critical
Oil, petrol, gasoline: a chemical engineer explains how crude turns into fuel Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zachary Aman, Professor of Chemical Engineering, The University of Western Australia As the US–Israel war on Iran escalates, so too does the global oil crisis. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas flows, and the
Should I take vitamin C to ward off colds, lower blood pressure or reduce cancer risk? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Vitamin C is one of the most iconic nutrients in popular health culture, often credited with preventing colds, boosting immunity and even fighting serious diseases. But while it’s essential for our bodies to function, its benefits are often
Job performance reviews are outdated and often pointless. Why do we still use them? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danaë Anderson, Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Every year organisations roll out their refreshed strategies, new KPIs and ambitious goals for the year ahead. But despite the changing pace in work patterns, technology and workforce requirements, one thing
Is ‘period syncing’ real? Two reproductive health experts explain Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emmalee Ford, Adjunct Lecturer, Sexual and Reproductive Health, University of Sydney Have you ever heard two or more women say they’re on the same cycle? This is a common claim among women who live together, for example in a family or as housemates. This idea that people
Keith Rankin Analysis – Israel, Epstein, and Big Money Analysis by Keith Rankin. On Tuesday, I wrote UAE, Israel, And The Hexagon Alliance which illuminated Israel’s duplicity in relation to Hamas, and the understated but very strong alliance between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. And Israel’s agenda to divide and rule the ‘Middle East’ by creating its own encircling alliance; and setting
Friday essay: ‘epic fury’ – the men of MAGA might be the most emotional US leaders ever Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Kon-yu, Associate Professor, Creative Writing and Literary Studies, Victoria University In 2016 and again in 2024, Donald Trump ran against two supremely qualified presidential candidates, who both lost. Both had decades of service to government and high-ranking jobs within Democratic administrations. Both were women. Hillary Clinton
Iran’s cultural heritage in the crossfire – expert explains what has been damaged and what could be lost Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katayoun Shahandeh, Lecturer in Museum Studies, SOAS, University of London Following joint attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, the country has come under repeated strikes. These attacks, which were ostensibly supposed to target Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, have also caused
We can’t coerce our way to social cohesion. Here’s what else governments should be doing Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keiran Hardy, Associate Professor, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University Last week, Queensland followed the New South Wales and federal parliaments by passing stronger hate crime laws in response to the Bondi terror attack. The Queensland laws target two specific phrases – an approach that risks the laws
Social media has supercharged real estate marketing – and made it cheaper. But it also brings risks Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piyush Tiwari, Professor of Property, The University of Melbourne Whether using newspaper or television ads, posters or signposts on the front lawn, the mechanism for selling a home has been the same for many decades: broadcast the message to the crowd and hope the right person finds
A PhD is an apprenticeship in research – we can’t let AI take that away Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Murray, Professor of Cybersecurity, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne When OpenAI launched ChatGPT-5 in August of last year, many academics scoffed at the tech company’s claims its new artificial intelligence (AI) model possessed “PhD-level” intelligence. After all, how could systems so
Why exposing young children to AI content could have irreversible consequences Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Whitcombe-Dobbs, Senior Lecturer in Child and Family Psychology, University of Canterbury Artificial intelligence (AI) already affects many areas of daily life, including the lives of young children. Many families give screens to children younger than two, and AI-generated content is increasing on the popular YouTube Kids
Do therapies like EMDR affect memories of traumatic events? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Bryant, Professor & Director of Traumatic Stress Clinic, UNSW Sydney To recover from abuse or another traumatic experience, some people turn to a therapy called eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing, or EMDR. But this may present problems if these people pursue justice in the courts. In New
NAPLAN is being used by some schools as an entrance exam. This isn’t what it’s designed to do Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Lewis, Associate Professor of Education Policy, Australian Catholic University School students around Australia have begun their NAPLAN tests this week. Amid technical glitches during the writing component of the exam on Wednesday, there has also been confusion about the purpose of the test. Earlier this week,
A deadly strike, or Call of Duty clip? How the US government is trying to memeify the war on Iran Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Baldino, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Notre Dame Australia Millions of people recently watched a video posted by the White House showing US strikes against Iranian targets. The clip didn’t just resemble Call of Duty: it mixed real strike footage with footage
‘The world should see this’, say Papua deforestation doco filmmakers By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist For a country with a record of large deforestation projects, Indonesia’s current activities in the far southeastern corner of the republic, South Papua province, surpass all. With 2.5 million hectares of land being cleared for sugarcane and rice production for food and biofuel projects, alongside large oil palm concessions,
Four possible outcomes with the war on Iran – but only one viable Only one of these four paths protects humanity — the other three are likely destroy it. ANALYSIS: By Qasim Rashid This week Donald Trump threatened more war crimes on the people of Iran. We are now in the most dangerous phase of this crisis, and pretending otherwise is reckless. As a human rights lawyer, I
Grattan on Friday: Dennis Richardson’s exit puts antisemitism royal commissioner under more pressure Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra By personality and at his stage in life, Dennis Richardson is a man who, on occasion, stands on his dignity. Richardson, 78, has a stellar public service career behind him. As a former head of ASIO, and former secretary of
Journalist Barbara Dreaver’s memoir on three decades reporting from the Pacific RNZ Pacific The seventh narco sub in Pacific waters was discovered last week as the wave of methamphetamine becomes the latest crisis challenging the region. 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has spent decades reporting on the region from this country, including the drug battle and subsequent HIV epidemic in some countries. Dreaver has released her
In the first two weeks of March, two young Indonesian women died alone in a hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The first, who Indonesian officials have identified as 22-year-old Susi Yanti Br. Sinaga died following a critical illness, despite having no prior health conditions.
Her family said Susi left Indonesia in December 2025 with her boyfriend and a promise of a job in Malaysia. She ended up being trafficked into a scam compound in Cambodia. Within three months, she was dead.
The other woman, a 20-year-old shopkeeper from Pekanbaru, Riau province, arrived in Cambodia under similar circumstances and died only a few days after Susi. According to multiple NGO sources who assisted her in her final days, her death was linked to the physical and sexual abuse she suffered in the compound.
These women are among the thousands of young people who have found themselves stranded in Cambodia in recent months after leaving scam compounds that had opened their doors in anticipation of rumoured police raids.
Many who have made their way to the Cambodian capital are Indonesian. They began lining up outside the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh in mid-January, seeking help to return home.
By March 9, the embassy said it had received more than 5,400 requests for assistance from Indonesian citizens in less than three months. Over 1,800 have so far been repatriated with the embassy’s assistance. Most of the others are now hosted in a dedicated facility, where they wait for their turn to leave.
These numbers represent a sharp increase from 2025. They highlight the scale of trafficking of young Indonesians into “scam factories” across Southeast Asia, mostly in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.
Clearly, what is happening to these Indonesians is a complex structural problem, shaped by regional labour precarity and weak regulation.
Yet, Indonesia is largely overlooked in existing media coverage of the issue. Relatively little is known about how Indonesians are entrenched in the industry as victims, operators and stakeholders.
In March last year, the Indonesian government reported that, with the assistance of the Thai government, it had rescued and repatriated 569 of its citizens from online scam compounds in Myanmar.
This drew national attention to the issue, raising urgent questions about why and how so many young people are being lured into this work.
Spurred by limited employment opportunities, low wages and political discontent, Indonesian youths have been leaving the country in droves.
Some of these young people enter the scam economy willingly. Others go voluntarily but find themselves trapped once inside. Many more are deceived from the outset, lured into becoming so-called “cyber slaves”.
Among rescued trafficking victims, familiar stories emerge. Most are recruited through friend referrals or fake job offers on social media. Once at their destination, however, they are abducted and trafficked into scam compounds. Their passports are confiscated. They are told they owe large fees for flights, visas, accommodation or training, and must work to repay this debt.
Some of these victims eventually rise through the ranks to become scam operators, supervisors or even recruiters who lure other Indonesians, often friends or family, into the industry.
As NGOs have highlighted, however, progression in the industry often involves coercion and debt bondage. Many are compelled to recruit others as a condition for repaying imposed debts, avoiding punishment or securing improvements in their living conditions.
This contributes to the criminalisation of trafficked individuals. They should instead be recognised and protected as victims of modern slavery.
Escaped from slavery, greeted as suspects
In Indonesia, public discourse tends to frame those who end up in scam compounds either as criminals or gullible youths who fell for false promises.
Following the mass repatriation of Indonesian nationals from Myanmar scam centres last year, returnees were detained and questioned before being released.
They were processed primarily through law enforcement procedures rather than victim support mechanisms.
Indonesian police have also noted some citizens returning from Myanmar’s scam centres refused to be repatriated because of the money they were earning as scammers.
Those who have recently emerged from scam compounds in Cambodia are even more likely to be perceived as willing perpetrators. Cambodia’s growing reputation as a regional hub for cybercrime has fostered a widespread assumption that Indonesians who travel there already know what kind of work awaits them.
Recent news coverage highlighting the large number of Indonesians working in Cambodia’s online industries has further entrenched this narrative, casting them as complicit actors deliberately scamming fellow citizens.
In the wake of the reports of the recent Cambodian raids, some government officials have called for returnees to face criminal prosecution under Indonesian law.
On social media, some popular commentators have argued Indonesian scam workers should not be repatriated. Some have even called for them to be stripped of their citizenship.
Indonesian survivors of scam compounds waiting for repatriation in Cambodia.Roun Ry, Author provided (no reuse)
Who benefits from blaming trafficked workers?
Framing returnees as potential criminals is politically convenient but counterproductive. It discourages victims from seeking help from authorities.
It also makes it more difficult for civil society organisations, already strapped for funding, to mobilise support for these young Indonesians.
This ultimately benefits traffickers and industry operators.
This narrative also obscures how Indonesians are now involved at all levels of the scam industry, from recruiters and transnational operational staff to elites with financial stakes in the businesses.
The persistent focus on criminalising trafficked workers diverts attention from the deeper structures of deception and exploitation underpinning the industry.
With youth unemployment still high in Indonesia, this issue is not going away. Until trafficked workers are treated as victims rather than criminals, and the structures that feed this industry are addressed, the cost will continue to be borne by vulnerable young people like Susi and the young woman from Pekanbaru who died alone in Phnom Penh.
On November 18 1909, greengrocer Claude Nam Shing was woken up by shouts of “fire”. He found his store, on the corner of Elizabeth and Melville Streets in central Hobart, ablaze.
He escaped quickly. The fire brigade arrived and the fire was doused. Nam Shing’s stock suffered little damage, unlike his neighbour’s paint shop. Hobart’s newspapers cheered, as such damage to these old buildings would surely hasten their replacement. Today on this corner stand several buildings dating back to 1914.
It’s stories like Nam Shing’s that we’ve been chronicling as part of our research project, called Everyday Heritage. We’ve been investigating the lives of Chinese migrants and their descendants in Tasmania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After mapping 105 “Chinese” addresses across the centre of Hobart, we found these businesses were scattered across the whole city. So while Tasmania’s capital has never had a Chinatown like Melbourne or Sydney, the footprint of Chinese migration remains all over the city to this day.
White-washing the past
Claude Nam Shing was an immigrant from China who arrived in Australia in the mid-1890s, making Tasmania his home for more than 40 years. In the 1911 census, he was one of 353 men in Tasmania who reported China as their birthplace – a reduction of more than 30% from the state’s peak in 1891.
After federation, the Australian government introduced the White Australia Policy, a series of discriminatory laws and policies designed to limit non-white immigration and restrict the rights of non-white residents.
Some immigrants of colour and their families chose to leave Australia, while others sought new opportunities by joining larger communities in cities like Melbourne and Sydney.
This internal migration coincided with urban renewal that saw accidental fires tear through ramshackle wooden storefronts and investment in modernised streetscapes.
In places that never had the population density for a Chinatown, early Chinese communities might seem to leave little tangible trace. But such an absence does not necessarily mean the absence of a Chinese history.
Unearthing Hobart’s history
Our growing dataset comes from diverse historical sources including birth and marriage records, naturalisation records, newspapers and gravestones. We are extracting as many names, addresses, and dates as possible, so we can restore individuals and families of Chinese heritage to Tasmania’s history.
Chinese businesses on one city block of Hobart.Author provided
Most of the Chinese immigrants who came to Australia before the 1950s trace their heritage to the Pearl River Delta in southern Guangdong province.
In towns and cities across Australia, Chinese migrants built communities that were often based on networks of family and kinship, hometown origins and common dialects.
Those who came to Tasmania mostly came from one of two counties: Sunwui and Toishan (today known as Xinhui and Taishan in Mandarin), where the local dialects differ from the standard Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
By mapping shops and businesses we found in Tasmania’s Post Office Directories, we could see those networks in action as businesses changed hands over the years, but stayed within the Chinese community.
From fruiterers to fancy goods
On one street corner, Alfred Wood’s “fruiterer” business was sold to Peter Quon Goong in 1907, then to Kwong Hing two years later. Within three years, this shop was known as the “Chinese fruiterers”, distinguishing it from at least four other fruiterers within a few doors.
Near another corner of this block, we found one of several Chinese cabinetmakers, Ah Tye. He may have chosen this property because it placed him conveniently close to the F&E Crisp timber yards.
The block could have been dominated by these yards. They filled half of it, and it’s had such longevity that the new university building we work in is called The Forest.
Instead, we see an array of industries – bootmakers, blacksmiths and boarding houses – and retailers including those run by Chinese migrants.
Along with greengrocers and fruiterers, Chinese Tasmanians operated confectionery and gift shops, and what were known as “fancy goods” stores. These sold “exotic” imports, and personal and household items.
In the 1890s on this block was the store of Vong (or John) Boosuit, who started as a hawker of fancy goods before becoming successful enough to start a bricks-and-mortar business.
Boosuit married Selina Findon, the daughter of an English convict, and today their descendants include actor Patrick Brammall.
The only time we found Chinese businesses clustered together in Hobart was when they required specific infrastructure. There were a few small groups of laundries tucked around the city, in locations we assume had a reliable water supply and enough space for drying washing.
Driving community spirit
Tasmania’s newspapers tell of the generosity of Chinese migrants towards their new home. Their shops not only served Hobart’s residents, they were also community hubs.
For nearly half a century, the fruiterers at Ah Ham & Co organised an annual fundraising drive for the main Hobart hospital, despite rarely using the hospital themselves.
Migrants and their children in a small city were comfortable moving between two of its most active cultures – British and Chinese.
Between 2011 and 2021, the population of central Hobart that speaks a language other than English at home nearly doubled, from 12.5% to 24%.
Rather than viewing this as a radical change for Australia’s island capital, it reads more as a rekindling of a history that was interrupted for more than 70 years by the White Australia Policy.
As we walk through the multicultural bustle of our inner-city university campus, we are following streets that were home to successful laundries, fancy good stores, tobacconists, fruiterers, grocers and restaurants run by immigrants well into the 20th century.
The descendants of Australia’s earliest Chinese migrants, many of whom still live in our rural and regional areas, should be proud of the central role their ancestors played in creating the towns and cities we have today. The built heritage may have gone or be hidden, but their stories linger waiting to be found in the written record.
As the US–Israel war on Iran escalates, so too does the global oil crisis.
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas flows, and the targeting of oil production facilities in the Middle East have lifted the oil price by 34%.
The price of Brent crude – the global benchmark – now sits at more than US$100 a barrel.
This means the cost of the many products derived from crude oil, such as petrol or gasoline, has also surged.
But how does crude oil become the fuel you pump into your car?
Like simmering a pasta sauce
Most consumers are transfixed when the oil price exceeds US$100 per barrel. But the economic reality is both more complex and longer-term.
That’s because the content of the barrel itself is not directly usable.
Rather, it must be broken (or “fractionated”) into the chemicals used to produce more than 6,000 everyday products.
These household items include the textiles and clothing dyes on our literal backs, electronics in our hands, flooring beneath our feet, and pharmaceuticals regulating our bodies.
Some of these products can be replaced with non-petroleum alternatives. But doing so can increase consumer prices by an order of magnitude.
The process of transforming a barrel of oil into these products is managed in the discipline of chemical engineering, through which high-temperature vessels (called “columns”) allow fluids to be split (or “fractionated”) into less- and more-dense products.
The experience is similar to simmering a pasta sauce, where the chef uses a precise temperature to boil off water (the less dense product) and concentrate the chemistry that makes tomatoes enjoyable.
Splitting in sequences
Unlike the hundreds of chemicals in the humble tomato, the tens of thousands of individual chemicals in a barrel of oil mean that between five and ten of these fractionation columns must be placed in sequence, each producing a more precise product than the last.
Most consumers would be familiar with the products of the first few columns, in which natural gas is the least dense (or “lightest”) product that typically powers the above-mentioned chef’s stove.
The next-densest product is gasoline, which accounts for around half of the volume of a traditional barrel of oil.
With additional heat and cost, the heavier products can be split into kerosene (“jet fuel”) and, with yet more heat, the diesel fuel that constitutes around one quarter of an average barrel.
Separating out the remaining products requires extremely high temperatures. This results in chemicals used to manufacture modern roads, rubbers, synthetic fabrics, plastics and cosmetics, among many others.
The final complication emerges from the geological processes that themselves “manufacture” crude oil.
Over millions of years, high pressures and temperatures degrade and liquefy (or “cook”) volumes of dead plants and animals, often deep under the ground.
As the plants, animals and geology of each biome are unique, so too is the crude oil formed under ground. This reality means that one barrel of oil cannot simply be traded for another and used in the refinery columns described above. The collection of columns requires months to reach stable operation, and they are heavily dependent on the type and properties of the oil at the inlet.
Crucially, the time lag between producing one barrel of oil and finding its chemistry in the hands of an eager shopper is typically between one and three months, depending on the complexity of the consumer product.
Gasoline prices may feel an impact within a few weeks, while consumer plastics (such as food storage containers) may require multiple quarters to demonstrate an impact.
Alongside countries heavily dependent on crude oil imports, those with limited crude oil reserves or refining capacity are further exposed, as they must also import the crude oil “products” described above.
The conflict itself involves Western and Middle Eastern forces. But it is ironically those Pacific nations that carry the greatest near- and mid-term inflationary risk as this crucial shipping lane is put in jeopardy.
Vitamin C is one of the most iconic nutrients in popular health culture, often credited with preventing colds, boosting immunity and even fighting serious diseases.
But while it’s essential for our bodies to function, its benefits are often misunderstood or overstated. Before you stock up on supplements, here’s what to consider.
What is vitamin C and why does my body need it?
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, plays several essential roles in the body.
It is a powerful antioxidant, protecting cells from damage. Vitamin C supports the immune functions of the body, aids in absorption of iron, and is involved in wound healing.
Vitamin C also helps in the synthesis of collagen, which holds together tissues and is a structural component of gums and skin. A severe deficiency of vitamin C leads to a health condition called scurvy, where the body produces insufficient collagen and can’t hold tissue together. Eventually, the gums cannot hold onto teeth and they fall out, and blood vessels break down, causing internal bleeding.
Humans cannot synthesise vitamin C. We must take it in through our diet. Most of our vitamin C comes from vegetables (about 40%), fruits (19%) and from vegetable or fruit juices (29%).
Chemically, the vitamin C in supplements is identical to the vitamin C in food. Your body cannot tell the difference.
What is missing in supplement forms of vitamin C is the fibre, flavonoids, other vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that come with food, and that may work together with vitamin C.
These other compounds help with absorption, provide complementary antioxidants, and together with vitamin C, provide health benefits that the vitamin by itself does not.
Historically, sailors often had a very limited diet and were often struck down with scurvy. But if you have a balanced diet, you don’t need vitamin C supplements.
What does vitamin C treat and not treat?
Common cold
Vitamin C has been promoted as a way to boost the immune system. It’s widely considered as a way to prevent and treat the common cold and flu.
However, results from a review of all the evidence has shown regular supplementation of 200 mg or more vitamin C does not reduce the incidence of the common cold.
Regular vitamin C supplement does reduce the duration, and at doses greater than 1,000 mg or more, could reduce the severity of common cold symptoms.
When vitamin C is used for treating common colds and only taken at the start of cold symptoms, it does not affect the duration and severity. Some studies have a shown very limited benefit when taken daily before getting sick, but the benefit was very small. Overall, the authors concluded routine supplementation with vitamin C is not worthwhile.
Heart disease and stroke
Research has shown vitamin C supplementation does not change the risk of a range of cardiovascular diseases including heart attack (myocardial infraction), stroke or angina.
One study found vitamin C supplementation at more than 200 mg daily may lower systolic blood pressure (the top number in a reading) by around 4 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by around 2 mmHg. These are very small changes.
These effects are comparable to regular aerobic exercise and may not be clinically meaningful compared to treatment with conventional medicine, which generally lowers systolic blood pressure by at least 12 mmHg.
Cancer
There are consistent results from multiple studies that show vitamin C supplementation is unable to prevent cancer, including for gastrointestinal, lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers.
Vitamin C is water-soluble and gets excreted in urine, so the body cannot store it. This means mega-dosing does not provide any benefit, and may in fact cause health problems.
At high doses (above 2,000 mg daily), vitamin C may cause mild to serious side effects. Too much is known to cause diarrhoea, nausea and abdominal cramps. It can also contribute to the formation of kidney stones in men, but not women.
For people who have chronic kidney disease, vitamin C can be especially problematic because vitamin C is flushed from the body by the kidneys. But when the kidneys don’t work properly, it can build up and cause kidney stones.
Should you take a vitamin C supplement?
For most people, a vitamin C tablet is unnecessary. You will get enough from a good balanced diet, from foods such as citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes, capsicum, broccoli and kale.
The evidence doesn’t support claims that vitamin C supplements prevent colds, heart disease or cancer. In fact, the risks may outweigh the benefits.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danaë Anderson, Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Every year organisations roll out their refreshed strategies, new KPIs and ambitious goals for the year ahead.
But despite the changing pace in work patterns, technology and workforce requirements, one thing remains stubbornly static: individual performance reviews.
Most of us will recognise how these show up in the workplace: the classic assessment form with boxes to be ticked, rating scales from one to ten, and that awkward blank space for “additional feedback”.
We know these processes are outdated. Researchers have shown for years such systems are backward‑looking, can distort worker behaviour, and overlook collaboration and learning.
We know they are retrospective assessments of narrowly defined individual “quality”. And we know they often fail to reflect the real work people do (versus what they are rewarded for).
But year after year they persist. So why keep using them?
A workplace disconnect
There is substantial research showing why conventional performance appraisal and KPI (key performance indicator) regimes disappoint. Part of the problem is the way they blur the line between pay and performance.
Management scholars have long distinguished performance measurement (for pay and promotion) from performance improvement (for learning and development).
Collapsing both aims into a single annualised process fuels an inherent tension between two quite different activities.
Even more problematic is the timing. Delayed, yearly feedback tends to be outdated and of limited use, missing crucial opportunities for improvement throughout the year.
One widely cited review concluded that formal, ratings‑heavy systems are “tedious and low‑value”. The work of improving performance, it proposed, happens through having ongoing expectations, giving real‑time feedback and offering opportunities for development – not in annual rituals.
A 2024 survey of performance management by global consultancy Betterworks echoed this. While most workplace leaders rated their performance management processes highly, it found, employees saw a very different picture: 44% said those processes were a “significant failure”.
In fact, employees were 57% less likely than leaders to believe performance management was working well. Why such a disconnect and why does it persist?
The illusion of objectivity
Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies offers some clues. Its 2025 analysis of performance management trends showed traditional systems remain in place not because they work well, but because they are:
institutionally embedded, usually tied to remuneration, promotions, compliance and human resource cycles
perceived as objective even when they are not
time-consuming to revise, making organisations reluctant to overhaul them
misaligned with what employees want, with only one in five motivated by current systems.
Conventional employee performance metrics – output per hour, number of tasks completed, sales quotas – were built for an era when work was predictable and place‑based. They fail to capture what drives organisational success today.
Social scientists have repeatedly warned that when a metric becomes a target, it stops being a good measure because people alter their behaviour to score well on the indicator itself.
In practice, “over‑optimising” to a KPI nudges people to game the numbers or incentivises the wrong behaviours. Workers take shortcuts or work too much rather than improve the actual outcome of that work.
Organisations see the same pattern on a broader scale: counting outputs and chasing quotas can depress quality, long‑term value and collaboration.
This is especially true when automation takes over routine tasks and human contributions shift toward creativity, problem‑solving and long-term value creation – things that are hard to reduce to a single metric.
Conversely, when performance metrics lack clarity, supervisors’ subjective opinions tend to substitute for actual data.
Yet many workplaces still default to old metrics simply because they are familiar, quantifiable and embedded. The irony is striking: organisations have more employee information than ever before, yet many performance systems still rely on out-of-date snapshots and reductive metrics.
As one expert notes, complex performance realities are often oversimplified into frameworks that “manufacture” quantitative data to create the illusion of objectivity.
What if we measured what really matters?
Research on modern high‑performance management approaches indicates a strong move away from inflexible annual reviews in favour of ongoing, manager‑supported performance conversations.
Changes that drive more effective employee motivation and engagement include:
continuous, real-time feedback
short-term, adaptable objectives
informal, ongoing conversations between managers and staff
“360‑degree input”, where performance insights come from multiple colleagues, giving a more balanced view of how someone works with others
These approaches better reflect how the best work actually happens: bit by bit, collaboratively and often unpredictably.
As organisations set their goals for the new financial year, perhaps the most meaningful metric they can adopt is one that measures the effectiveness of performance metrics themselves.
Do they inspire growth? Do they capture real value? Do they motivate? Do they reflect the actual work their employees perform?
Answering those questions offers an opportunity to identify what no longer serves us. For many workplaces, performance metrics might be the most overdue area for review.
Have you ever heard two or more women say they’re on the same cycle?
This is a common claim among women who live together, for example in a family or as housemates.
This idea that people menstruate, or have their period, at the same time is known as “menstrual synchrony”. If their menstrual periods happen to regularly align, they might describe themselves as being “in sync”.
But is menstrual synchrony possible, according to science? Let’s unpack the evidence.
The ‘menstrual synchrony’ myth
The term “menstrual synchrony” is difficult to define.
In popular culture, it’s generally thought to be the result of various unknown factors which cause two or more people to have their period at the same time. So it is supposedly due to biology, not coincidence.
Scientists also struggle to define menstrual synchrony. According to one 2023 study, it is when people’s menstrual periods start at roughly the same time, not necessarily on the same day.
But as we’ll see, research suggests being on the exact same menstrual cycle as someone else is scientifically very unlikely.
Where did this idea come from?
A psychologist named Martha McClintock likely popularised the concept of menstrual synchrony. In a 1971 study published in the journal Nature, McClintock studied 135 women aged between 17 and 22 who all lived together in a college dormitory.
Her main finding was the menstrual cycles of women who shared a room or spent lots of time together aligned over time. But this was not the case among those who lived in the same building or spent more time with men, both of which are factors that influence mating behaviour in animals.
Despite being published in a reputable and widely-read journal, today there are as many studies refuting McClintock’s 1971 study as there are supporting it. Critics mainly point to the flawed assumptions and calculations McClintock made as part of the study.
For example, when the boarders first moved in, McClintock recorded the date when each person’s period started. Several months later, she again noted the boarders’ menstrual start date. However, she did not record the length of each person’s cycle over the course of the study. That makes it hard to know whether the boarders’ periods synced purely by chance.
McClintock’s study also assumed each boarder had a standard 28-day menstrual cycle. Before the 2000s, this was widely accepted as scientific fact. But multiple landmark studies which used apps to track pregnancy and contraception show the length of a menstrual cycle can vary. We now know it commonly lasts between 28 and 35 days.
One 2017 study examined the menstrual cycles of pairs of close friends or housemates. It found three-quarters of the pairs saw the timing of their periods become less, not more, aligned. But this study was not peer-reviewed, so we must interpret it with caution.
So, why is this myth still around?
Here are three reasons.
It makes some evolutionary sense
In one 2008 study, researchers suggested menstrual synchrony could lead to greater genetic diversity among groups of primates. They argued that if multiple females are capable of reproducing at the same time, it’s less likely that one alpha male will father all offspring. In theory, this would increase the group’s long-term survival through natural selection. This is the idea that beneficial genetic mutations are passed onto the next generation through reproduction.
It’s a common misconception
Many people believe menstrual synchrony is real. This could be because they’ve noticed their period starting around the same time as a friend, housemate or family member. But they may hold onto this myth because of confirmation bias. This is the idea that people look for evidence that affirms their existing beliefs, even if they don’t do it deliberately. So confirmation bias means we’re less likely to notice the times our periods are not in sync, or to simply dismiss that possibility.
It may help women connect
One American study found 90% of women surveyed believed in menstrual synchrony. Many described it as a “magical” concept which made them feel more connected to other women. Some also said it helped them cope with the challenges of menstruation. Another study found 70% of participants said they had experienced period syncing firsthand, with most viewing menstrual synchrony as a real and positive experience.
So the evidence suggests period syncing is not scientifically supported. But it still persists in popular culture. And for some women, it may make menstruation that bit more tolerable.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
On Tuesday, I wrote UAE, Israel, And The Hexagon Alliance which illuminated Israel’s duplicity in relation to Hamas, and the understated but very strong alliance between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. And Israel’s agenda to divide and rule the ‘Middle East’ by creating its own encircling alliance; and setting up two rival Muslim axes (a Shia axis, and a Sunni axis) which Israel would like to see weaken and damage each other.
Here I begin with other candid comments, by recent Israeli leaders, from the Australian 2024 documentary The Forever War. Themes include a mix of empathy and contempt for the indigenous Palestinian population, Benjamin Netanyahu’s trustworthiness, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich as “messianic” “terrorists”, Israel’s hold over the United States, and Israel’s self-inflicted diminishing security.
Excerpts from the Australian ABC documentary
TZIPI LIVNI, FMR FOREIGN & JUSTICE MINISTER: They hate us. We saw the results. The idea of eradicating Hamas completely from Gaza is a just cause.
YEHUDA SHAUL, FMR ISRAELI ARMY COMMANDER: That the IDF is doing everything to avoid civilian casualties is a blunt lie. Straight lie.
YEHUDA SHAUL, FMR ISRAELI ARMY COMMANDER: Y’know, [in the] the beginning I was also full of rage. I also had the feeling that these are animals, we need to go there and bomb the hell out of them. But then you stop for a second and you think, you say to yourself, what did we think is going to happen after 16 years of siege.
AMIRA HASS, OCCUPIED TERRITORIES CORRESPONDENT, HAARETZ: I was surprised and not surprised because I kept warning that people cannot stand the accumulated cruelty accumulated over so many decades. And somehow there will be an explosion. Somehow there will be an outburst. I couldn’t imagine what it would be, but there it came.
…
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: You’ve spent a lot of time studying this obviously as head of Shin Bet. Could you describe what is the reality for Palestinians here?
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: It was a life of people who dream about freedom, and don’t see it. Whether we liked it or not, we control the life of millions.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: If you were a Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza, what would your view be of Israel?
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: I would fight against Israel in order to achieve my liberty.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: How would you fight? How dirty?
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: I would do everything in order to achieve my liberty. And that’s it.
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Look, I once was asked some 30 years ago what I have been doing if I were a Palestinian and 30 years ago. I was new enough in politics to tell the truth that if I were born Palestinian probably would’ve joined one of the terror organisations.
…
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Israel’s famous for its targeted assassinations. I mean you yourself dressed as a woman famously and went into Beirut and met up with Mossad and went and killed a Palestinian leader. Israel’s done that over the years. Why couldn’t they have tried to strategically target Hamas leaders rather than kill those thousands of children?
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: I never deluded myself to believe that by killing any individual you solve the problem, you give them a blow and they will recover in a way it just delayed the real decision. Real decisions at the end are not about how to kill mosquitoes more effectively. It’s about how to drain the swamp [my emphasis].
…
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Do you trust Benjamin Netanyahu?
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Can the world trust Benjamin Netanyahu?
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: I don’t think that anyone can trust him. So basically, he lies to everyone and no one trust him.
…
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: BenGvir and Smotrich, the two racist messianic guys that seems to be to very strong leverage on Bibi. They want to turn it into a major religious war between Israel and the Islam.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Are they dangerous?
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Sure, they’re dangerous.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: How powerful are BenGvir and Smotrich and what do you think of them?
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: I see them as terrorists and as Jewish messianics, they represent only a small minority within the Israel society, but they get their power because of our coalition system.*
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: But can I just check something? Are you calling the Minister for National Security and the Minister for Finance in Israel? Are you calling them terrorists?
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: Of course. They are.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Is the brutal reality that Benjamin Netanyahu wants to continue this war for his own political survival?
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Look, I cannot penetrate his soul and tell you for sure, but it’s clear that he acts as if the main objective of this whole event is his survival. He understands that if fighting will have a pause for six weeks or two times six weeks, the Israeli republic will demand accountability in spite of the fact that there is no word in Hebrew for accountability. It was not needed in our culture, but the public will demand it and he might lose his role, the prime minister.
…
excerpt from U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The state of Israel was born to be a safe place for the Jewish people.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: President Biden is a lifelong supporter of Israel.
excerpt from U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: If Israel didn’t exist we’d have to invent it.
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Israel cannot fight this regional war without having close relationship with the Americans. We need their support, not just in munitions that we do not produce in a high enough space to supply the needs of such a regional war, but we need them also to protect us in the UN Security Council. We needed them at the beginning of the crisis to deter Iran from getting involved or from activating the Hezbollah against us. And we will need them even in the Hague, to block the prospect that… Israeli commanders or even politically, they might find themselves as a criminal in the Hague or demanded to be broke. Only America can help us to avoid all this.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Pro-Israeli lobby groups in the US wield immense power.
NATHAN THRALL, FMR DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Every politician in the United States knows that they can pay a major price with their jobs for not toeing the line. And the level of devastation that we are seeing now has so horrified the world and has so horrified the American public that now we have half of the people who voted for Biden saying that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
…
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Do you now fear for the future?
TZIPI LIVNI, FMR FOREIGN & JUSTICE MINISTER: I am worried. I am worried about the future of Israel. Yes, more than ever.
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: You cannot deter a person or a group of people if they believe that they have nothing to lose. We Israelis, we shall have security only when they will have hope.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: What’s the future for Palestinians
AVI DICHTER, CURRENT ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER: Supporting death will not bring you anything. If you don’t believe that the Jewish presence here between the Mediterranean and Jordan Valley is forever, you are going to lose more than you’ve lost till now.
*Coalition System
All electoral democracies – ie with parliamentary or congressional elections – face the problem of a very close electoral result in a partisan House. And, as Keir Starmer is finding out, political parties in traditional duopoly systems (generally ‘First Past the Post’) are themselves coalitions. In 1984, under FPP, New Zealand went to the polls early, because a minority faction of two within the governing National caucus – Marilyn Waring and Mike Minogue – had (or seemed, to Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, to have had) gained the effective balance of power. In Israel today, it is BenGivr and Smotrich who have that balance of power within the parliament, the Knesset.) In the US Senate under Joe Biden’s presidency, it was Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
In the Israel case, Netanyahu is the bigger problem. The BenGivr and Smotrich tails are not wagging the Netanyahu dog.
Barak, Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001, was the most recent Labor Party leader of Israel. Labor-constituent parties led Israel from 1948 to 1977, and also for some years in the 1990s. Yitzhak Rabin, a Labor Prime Minister, was assassinated by a Zionist terrorist on 4 November 1995.
From Wikipedia: “According to Barak, they first met in 2003, and no evidence of an earlier meeting has been published to date. Barak stayed at Epstein’s apartments in New York several times over the years. … A large portion of the funds invested by Barak was supplied by Jeffrey Epstein. … In 2023, it was revealed that Barak had visited Epstein around 30 times from 2013 to 2017. … Barak said [in 2015 that] he currently earns more than $1 million a year.”
“In the last two decades of his life, American financier Jeffrey Epstein acted as an informal diplomatic bridge between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”
“Epstein’s … claim of having an intimate friendship with Sulayem is now corroborated by a flood of his emails from the House Oversight Committee, a U.S. federal court case, and the hacked inbox of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.”
It appears that much of Epstein’s correspondence with Sulayem was cc.ed to Ehud Barak; keeping Israel – if not Netanyahu – fully in the loop of UAE’s deepening links with Epstein, a man sufficiently notorious as a child sex offender to bring down the likes of the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. (The Epstein Affair has close parallels with the 1963 Profumo Affair, which brought down the British government and also came close to entangling the Royal Family; as viewers of The Crown will appreciate. I’m surprised that the Andrew-obsessed British media seems to downplay this parallel.)
The article adds:
‘In a November 2022 interview about the Abraham Accords, Epstein’s close friend Ehud Barak told journalist Afshin Rattansi, “I’m glad that the Emirates and Bahrain went ‘out of the closet’ and are ready to formalize relationships with us [Israel], and I hope that others will follow. It’s a positive development; of course, it’s not a real peace, it’s not a major breakthrough. We know these people for 25 years, and we have a very intensive relationship with them in many arenas”.
‘The relationship between Israel and the UAE has only deepened in the years since, even as the Israeli genocide in Gaza has provoked global outrage. In December 2025, the UAE signed a $2.3 billion defense deal with Elbit Systems, one of the largest arms sales in Israeli history.’ [What are the odds that the RSF in Sudan are now using some of those weapons?]
‘Although Epstein did not live to see these agreements come to fruition, the private channels he helped cultivate between Emirati and Israeli elites helped make them possible.’
Epstein’s Ponzi Scheme
How did Epstein make his massive fortune and become so influential and entitled? The whole story is of course murky, especially in the years of the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the information we have today relates to the post-2008 period, after Epstein’s conviction for ‘procuring for prostitution’.
I discovered a very interesting story relating to an earlier part of Epstein’s life, when he was working closely with Steven Hoffenberg. From Epstein’s Wikipedia page: “In 1993, [Hoffenberg’s] Towers Financial Corporation imploded when it was exposed as one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history, losing over US$450 million of its investors’ money (equivalent to $1 billion in 2025). In court documents, Hoffenberg claimed that Epstein was intimately involved in the scheme.” Epstein worked with Towers Financial Corporation, which perpetrated that Ponzi scheme in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
From CBS (Jeffrey Epstein worked at financial firm that engaged in massive Ponzi scheme in 1980s and 1990s, by Brian Pascus and Mola Lenghi, 13 Aug 2019): ‘Hoffenberg’s financial crimes in the 1990s drew major public attention, as the Towers Financial Ponzi scheme was the largest financial fraud in American history prior to Bernie Madoff’s crimes a decade later, according to The New York Times. … “Jeffrey was my partner in what we did raising the billion dollars. He worked with me every day, seven days a week and he was in the mix with everything that I did,” Hoffenberg told CBS News. “I was the CEO of Towers Financial Corporation, a public company, and Jeffrey was my main assistant, associate, or partner. And the company did do a billion dollars in raising money. And it was criminal”.’
By focussing on Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes, we may be letting him and his contacts off lightly.
Epstein was a money man; a miner of money, paying minors while playing majors. An Israel man. A scholar, majoring in influence, with particularly strong links to politicians and businessmen on the right of the political left; people like Peter Mandelson and Ehud Barak. A Hexagon Alliance man, who died ignominiously before his work came to its present fruition. A man trading in big guns and little women. A man serving what has become the world’s most lucrative and secretive industry; the high-tech high-chat world of asymmetric warfare, geopolitics, and draining swamps. Many of Epstein’s many contacts, now distancing themselves from him, will have imbibed the same Kool-Aid.
Epstein was a man who did much towards creating the new circum-Arabia circular economy, whereby Israel facilitates the UAE to supply military tech to the RSF to extract gold and materials from Sudan so that Israel (and its proxies, big and small) can devise, manufacture, and test more military tech to sell to the UAE to supply RSF terrorists …
*******
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
In 2016 and again in 2024, Donald Trump ran against two supremely qualified presidential candidates, who both lost. Both had decades of service to government and high-ranking jobs within Democratic administrations. Both were women.
Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris’ losses have prompted a thousand think pieces on whether or not the United States is ready to elect a female president. The old adage, dating back to the Cold War, is that women are too emotional to be trusted with the nuclear button.
But the men in the current White House might be the most emotional leadership group the US has ever had. And while their outbursts often seem spontaneous and even silly, we should take them seriously.
War and fury
Trump chronicler Michael Wolff shared his belief this week that “nothing” Trump says is ever “related to meaning” but it’s “all related to what he is feeling” – which, he says, informs Trump’s behaviour around the Iran war. The Daily Beast, which reported Wolff’s comments, approached the White House for comment.
Communications director Steven Cheung responded by calling Wolff “a lying sack of s–t” who has “been proven to be a fraud”. (Wolff has been criticised for his casual approach to fact-checking, including in his Trump biography.) Cheung continued:
He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.
This in itself is unusually emotional (and colloquial) language for an official White House communication, but is not surprising in the era of Trump 2.0.
Those big feelings are also reflected in the Trump administration’s policies. What is ICE but an agency dedicated to the irrational fear of foreigners? Greed, envy, anger, lust, fear: they are all on constant display in Trump’s White House. They come from his chief of staff Stephen Miller, former DOGE head Elon Musk, Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.
Even the name for the current war on Iran, Operation Epic Fury, is emotional. Compare it to the names of the initial wars on Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom).
This comes after Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War last year, to make it sound more aggressive. “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” Hegseth said of the change, which is reflected in his language about Iran this week:
Death and destruction from the sky all day long […] This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.
‘Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,’ Hegseth said of his department’s name change, to Department of War.Mark Schiefelbein/AAP
Fear, anger and MAGA
Sociology professor Thomas Henricks explains how fear, a negative emotion “that feels bad to possess”, is often converted to anger, “an emotion that restores agency, direction, and self-esteem”.
Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild has long focused her research on feelings. She was studying MAGA supporters before they had a name. For her latest book, she looked at how shame and pride motivated this cohort in Kentucky. Many of those she spoke to “saw Trump as a bully — but a bully who stood up for them, against what they perceived as urban liberal elites”.
Giving loyalty to a dynamic leader, writes Henricks, can seem “the surest route to regaining” personal power that feels like it is “slipping away”.
English professor Lauren Berlant believes Trump supporters are attracted to the president’s performance of freedom, through saying whatever he feels. When expression is policed in the name of civil rights and feminism, she observes, it rejects “what feels like people’s spontaneous, ingrained responses”.
But the “Trump Emotion Machine” delivers “feeling ok” and “acting free”. It means “being ok with one’s internal noise, and saying it, and demanding that it matter”.
The ‘Trump Emotion Machine’ delivers ‘feeling ok’ and ‘acting free’ to his supporters.Evan Vucci/AAP
Gender and emotion
For centuries, political philosophy has noted that much social power is “affective”, relating to moods, feelings and attitudes. Whatever you think of Trump, his policy and style make him exactly the kind of case study political affect theorists have been waiting for.
He is the most conspicuous proponent yet of what we call aesthetarchy – or rule by feelings.
Many feminists and other writers have critiqued the gendered inequity of displays of emotion. Explaining the politics of sex roles, feminist philosopher Marilyn Frye says we all internalise and monitor ourselves to adapt to outside expectations – or “the needs and tastes and tyrannies of others”.
For example, “women’s cramped postures and attenuated strides and men’s restraint of emotional self-expression (except for anger)”.
The crying man was once mocked as womanly and the athletic or politically powerful woman was seen as manly. Both transgressions maintain positive valuations of the masculine and negative valuations of the feminine. Sex roles were once a stronger form of control than they are now.
Yet in MAGA, we have something different happening.
Tantrums and explosions: MAGA men
Hegseth has been criticised, even ridiculed by some media outlets, for his emotional outbursts in media briefings. A Pentagon briefing on US strikes on Iran last June, during which he lashed out at reporters, was labelled a “tantrum” by The Daily Beast.
Miller, too, has been criticised for on-air “temper tantrums”. Insiders revealed his daily conference calls “routinely descend into him loudly berating staff and launching into full-on meltdowns”.
Vance, who made headlines for leading a verbal attack on Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last year, wrote in his memoir about his struggles to control his anger: “Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion.”
It is hard to imagine Democrat women getting away with such behaviour. Just this week, Fox News titled an article: “Hillary Clinton storms out of Epstein deposition after House lawmaker leaks photo from inside.” It described a “stunning moment” when Clinton was made aware of the fact that Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert violated House rules by taking and sending a photo of her during her deposition.
JD Vance made headlines last year for leading a verbal attack on Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.Jim Lo Scalzo/AAP
Caricatures of femininity: MAGA women
What about the women of MAGA? How does emotion drive their involvement?
In 1983, Andrea Dworkin published Right-Wing Women, a confronting study of Republican women’s active participation in conservative politics in the US. She proposed that right-wing activist women submit to men and the patriarchy in exchange for structure to their lives: shelter, safety, rules and love from men.
As these rewards are conditional on their ongoing obedience to men, right-wing activist women become not just complicit, but enthusiastic perpetrators of violence and discrimination against other women.
What motivates the trade? Fear of vulnerability to men and male violence, which they believe naturally finds a target in “an independent woman”.
The “hates” Dworkin documents are just as relevant now, more than 40 years later: anti-abortion, antisemitism, homophobia, anti-feminism, disregard for female poverty, and more. The tirades of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt against diversity, equity and inclusion are prime examples of a woman attacking feminine solidarity to strengthen her quest for power.
MAGA women can be emotional – but we only see them unleashing emotions that serve the needs of the most powerful men.
Instead of embodying soft emotions such as empathy, care and kindness (like New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Adern), the women of MAGA strive to be as tough as the men in their administration.
Look at Kristi Noem, who was secretary of homeland security – until she was ousted last week. A new book reports Trump saw Noem’s pre-election admission of shooting her own dog as a reason to appoint her to implement his mass-deportation agenda.
And she did play this hard-nosed role. She responded to the murders of mother Renee Nicole Good and intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents by saying the victims were involved in “domestic terrorism”.
Kristi Noem’s account of shooting her own dog was seen as a strength by Trump.J. Scott Applewhite/AAP
MAGA women often nod to conventional femininity with their hyper-feminine looks. Both Noem and Leavitt have been described as having what commentators dub “Mar-a-Lago Face”. This “caricature of femininity”, often achieved through surgery, Botox or fillers, not only signals wealth, but is a form of submission.
“The unspoken message Mar-a-Lago face gives to men in power,” HuffPost reporter Brittany Wong suggests, “is that the woman is willing to tear into their flesh and change their entire individual appearance to gain approval.” (Admittedly, a few men, such as Matt Gaetz, have also been accused of having Mar-a-Lago face: a masculine, rather than feminine, caricature.)
Yet, as we have seen, power for MAGA women is always conditional. Noem’s “toughness” was not enough to save her. Many possible reasons have been cited for Noem’s firing, including the US$220 million advertising campaign for ICE featuring her on horseback, and alleged misuse of public funds.
But on Truth Social, X and other MAGA forums, emotional outbursts no longer need rational underpinning to be positively valued. They can be seen as perfectly masculine. As Berlant says, unleashed emotion by MAGA types on social media is seen as anti-political-correctness: “being ok with one’s internal noise, and saying it, and demanding that it matter”.
Trump’s actions, such as his threat to sue comedian Trevor Noah for a joke at the Grammys, are seen as another example of strongly anti-woke, pro-white leadership, rather than thin-skinned emotional hysteria. So is Trump calling Robert De Niro “another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ” last month, in response to the actor calling him an “idiot”.
Behind the machismo there is a strange vulnerabilty, a heightened sensitivity to the slightest criticism or perceived threat to the white, male order.
Last month, Daily Show host Jon Stewart pointed out the hypocrisy, after MAGA complaints about Bad Bunny performing in Spanish at the Super Bowl. “When did the right become such fucking pussies?” he said. “Remember 2017? Remember what you hated about liberals? Perpetually offended, safe spaces, censoring free speech, culture of victimhood. Remind you of anyone?”
In some ways, perhaps this public outpouring of emotion from the predominantly white men in Trump’s government should not be surprising. A former high-school acquaintance of Miller told Vanity Fair that, even as a student, he was “all about this victimhood idea, that he was this lonely soldier crusading”.
Stephen Miller and Pete Hegseth have both been accused of ‘tantrums’.Rebecca Blackwell/AAP
The rise of the alt-right, which contributed to Trump’s arrival in office, coalesced through movements such as GamerGate: the online social harassment campaign against female video-game journalists by predominantly white men on 4chan, who felt both victimised and infuriated by calls for more inclusive casts in video games.
Stewing in the same digital sewers were the incels: single men who consider themselves hard-done by women who have not deigned to have sex with them. The number of lives this cohort has claimed through violent attacks is comparable to those killed by Islamic State terrorists in the same period. They are particularly known for their appetite for violence.
These acts are, in part, fuelled by the irreconcilable shame and humiliation they feel at the wounding of their masculinity, along with a desire for retribution against women and any men who provoke their jealousy.
Trump’s administration, and indeed his own emotionally volatile behaviour, validates these hurt feelings through his slashing of funding support for diversity and inclusion initiatives, and violent roundups of people deemed “un-American” — even some US citizens. In this way, the current administration is a GamerGate fantasy brought to life.
Power through feeling
Political philosophy tells us social power often manifests primarily through aesthetics, or how things feel, rather than logic. The rise of totalitarianism in Europe during the 1920s and ‘30s motivated many journalists and commentators to pay close attention to this problem. Much of the work was published after 1945, some of it posthumously, by well-known writers such as Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Primo Levi and Simone Weil.
Emotions – particularly anger and fear – are classic tools used by authoritarian leaders. But anger can work the other way, too. Political science professor Bryn Rosenfeld argues it can power action against repressive regimes, fuelling resistance and encouraging risk.
Either way, Trump’s electoral success and political power – helped by his supporters’ deep emotional identification with him – show that the philosophers are onto something important.
Following joint attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, the country has come under repeated strikes. These attacks, which were ostensibly supposed to target Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, have also caused civilian casualties and damage to cultural sites.
Airstrikes near historic districts in Tehran and Isfahan have damaged monuments that have survived for centuries. The losses highlight how war can endanger not only lives but also the historical memory embedded in cities and landscapes. As an Iranian art historian, watching these events unfold in my country is deeply and doubly painful.
Iran contains one of the world’s richest concentrations of historic architecture and urban heritage. The country has 29 Unesco world heritage sites, spanning more than two millennia, from ancient imperial capitals to Islamic urban ensembles and desert cities. Yet monuments that have survived centuries of invasions, political upheaval and regime change remain vulnerable in modern conflict. Even when heritage sites are not deliberately targeted, nearby explosions, fires and shockwaves can damage fragile masonry, glazed tiles and decorative interiors.
Cultural sites affected
In the capital, Tehran, airstrikes have damaged two important historic sites: Golestan Palace and the Grand Bazaar.
Golestan Palace, a Unesco world heritage site, served as the ceremonial residence of the Qajar dynasty in the 19th century. Its halls feature elaborate mirror mosaics, painted tiles and an architectural style blending Persian traditions with European influences, reflecting a moment when Iran was engaging more directly with global artistic currents.
The damage inside Golestan Palace in Tehran, Iran.Xinhua/Alamy
The Tehran bazaar, meanwhile, is far more than a commercial district. Like many historic bazaars across the Middle East, it functions as a living urban organism linking trade, religious institutions and social life. Historically it has also played an important role in Iran’s political movements (being influential in the Iranian Revolution of 1978/79 with the support of the bazaar merchants for the eventual leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) and economic networks.
Damage to such spaces therefore affects not only historic architecture but also the social and urban structures that shape everyday life.
Strikes have also affected Isfahan, one of Iran’s most important historic cities and the Safavid capital during a golden age of art, architecture and trade. Under Shah Abbas I, the city was transformed into an imperial centre of culture and urban planning, anchored by Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the monumental complex of mosques, palaces and bazaars that earned the nickname Nesf-e Jahan – “half the world”.
According to cultural heritage officials, blast waves affected several historic buildings including Timuri Hall, the Jebe-Khaneh building, the Rakib-Khaneh (Isfahan Museum of Decorative Arts), Ashraf Hall and the Chehel Sotoun palace complex. Damage reportedly included collapsed ceilings, broken doors and windows, and shattered glass at nearby monuments such as Ali Qapu Palace.
The damage in Isfahan is especially concerning because the city occupies a central place in Iran’s architectural and cultural history. The city flourished as the Safavid capital in the 17th century and remains one of the most important historic cities in the Islamic world. Even limited damage in this historic city raises serious concerns. Decorative elements such as tile work, murals and mirror mosaics are among the most fragile components of Safavid architecture and are extremely difficult to restore once lost.
International heritage organisations have also expressed alarm. The US committee of Blue Shield, an international NGO that works to protect cultural heritage during war and disasters, warned that disregarding international conventions protecting cultural property in wartime could lead to violations of international law. Blue Shield also referred to recent damage at sites including Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan and Golestan Palace in Tehran.
The vulnerability of Isfahan also highlights broader risks facing Iran’s cultural heritage. Sites such as Persepolis, the Achaemenid ceremonial capital; Pasargadae, home to the tomb of Cyrus the Great and the historic desert city of Yazd represent different layers of Iranian civilisation, from ancient imperial history to Islamic urban culture.
Why cultural heritage matters to Iranians
Iran’s historic monuments are not simply archaeological sites or tourist attractions. They form part of a cultural identity shaped by thousands of years of artistic, literary and architectural traditions. Cities such as Shiraz, Isfahan and Yazd are closely intertwined with the poetry of figures such as Hafez and Ferdowsi. Their works continue to shape Iranian cultural life today.
For many Iranians, historic monuments symbolise a sense of continuity linking the ancient Persian past, the Islamic period and the modern nation.
At the same time, concern for damaged monuments has provoked strong reactions online. On social media, posts lamenting the destruction of historic sites often draw angry responses arguing that human lives are more important than buildings. For many Iranians, already angered by war and years of internal repression – including the killing of protesters during waves of unrest – this contrast raises difficult questions about whose losses receive attention.
A man walks past the damaged site of one of the judiciary buildings in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.Sipa US/Alamy Live News
Some have also asked why the international community showed little concern when Iran’s ecosystems were being damaged over many years through environmental mismanagement. Lake Urmia, for example, which was once one of the world’s largest salt lakes, has lost most of its surface area due to dam construction and agricultural water diversion.
For many Iranians, these overlapping crises – environmental degradation, political repression and war – form part of a broader landscape of loss affecting both people and cultural memory.
When war damages historic monuments, more than architecture is lost. Fragments of cultural memory that have endured for centuries disappear with them.
Many of Iran’s historic sites have survived invasions, revolutions and political upheaval, yet today’s conflicts pose new risks when historic cities lie close to strategic targets. Once destroyed, these monuments cannot truly be replaced.
Protecting cultural heritage in times of conflict is therefore not only about preserving buildings, but about safeguarding the memories and histories that connect societies across generations.
Whether using newspaper or television ads, posters or signposts on the front lawn, the mechanism for selling a home has been the same for many decades: broadcast the message to the crowd and hope the right person finds it.
Even the rise of modern online listing platforms, such as Domain and realestate.com.au, did not change this basic approach. But social media has revolutionised the scene.
Algorithms can actively find prospective buyers based on user behaviour and serve them content, sometimes before they intend to buy a house. Social media has even allowed some home sellers to advertise properties all by themselves, and circumvent real estate agents altogether.
So, how has social media changed the real estate game? And for agents or individual sellers thinking about using it, what are some pros and cons?
Selling in the social era
In 2015, Nic Fren, a Sydney-based real estate agent, reportedly became the first Australian real estate agent to list and sell a property exclusively on Facebook. That makes the use of social media for home sales relatively new.
To advertise a house the traditional way, you have to deal with a gatekeeper. Listing on a site such as Domain or realestate.com.au is permission-based. Not only do you have to follow certain rules, it typically costs a significant amount of money.
But social media is decentralised, with no gatekeepers or major fees. Combined with the potential to reach a broader market, this makes it highly attractive to many agents and sellers.
Social media doesn’t just offer a new way to advertise properties. It also lets real estate agents foster personal relationships and build trust with potential clients. This is part of agents’ social capital. Instead of just selling homes, they also educate and entertain.
By doing so, many have captured more market share by building “celebrity-like” personal brands through their social media engagement with audiences. This is without having to wait until they have properties to sell.
This content can catch people’s eye even when they’re just scrolling for fun. That means if they are later looking to buy, they can feel like they already “know” a particular agent.
Amplifying exposure
There has been some international research on the impact of social media on property sales.
A study from the United States found total Facebook likes, total links posted or shared, and total Facebook stories shared were positively related to real estate sales in Orange County, California.
Most brokers are not yet replacing traditional platforms such as Domain or realestate.com.au with social media. For now, they are complementary.
Over time, however, they could gradually become competing platforms – just as Facebook Marketplace has become to eBay and Gumtree. There are reports of some homes being sold after being advertised only on social media.
On TikTok, the algorithm means you don’t need a huge following to go viral. Even small accounts can reach a huge audience.
TikTok’s demographic is typically younger. For this younger generation of consumers, social media is becoming the first point of exposure to real estate listings.
What are the risks?
Because social media decentralises marketing and removes a centralised real estate platform, some safeguards disappear. Prospective buyers may have to do more work to verify listing details and avoid property scams.
Social media may have heightened these risks of exposing buyers to misleading ads and non-existent properties.
Australians lost A$43.2 million to property scams in 2024, up from $13 million in 2021.
Fake listings and fraudulent settlement schemes (which trick buyers into transferring money to impersonated accounts) are some of the most common ways people are scammed.
Navigating AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) adds a new layer of complexity to real estate marketing. This technology is increasingly being used to generate content, such as listing descriptions.
In the US, nearly half (46%) of realtors who are members of the National Association of Realtors use AI for this purpose.
But there are ongoing concerns about how best to use it without introducing new risks to buyers. “Hallucinations” are one concern, where AI-generated descriptions may contain serious errors.
Despite its limited use, an emerging trend is the use of AI to generate hyper-realistic images for marketing. This is another major concern, as these pictures can seriously misrepresent the property. Whether this influences buyer behaviour and impacts buyers is untested territory.
According to the governments introducing them, these laws will not only make our communities safer, they will also enhance our social cohesion. In introducing the national laws, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said “the passage of this bill will give us hope that Australia will continue to be a place of tolerance and that our diversity can be displayed with pride”.
Since the Bondi attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for “social cohesion” at least 35 times. Former opposition leader Sussan Ley invoked the phrase nearly as much. The words are used by politicians and commentators across the political spectrum to justify everything from banning Swastikas to halting migration.
Can we really create more cohesive societies by banning everything we deem to be not cohesive? Has social cohesion become just another buzzword, or can governments still achieve it through meaningful reform?
What is social cohesion, anyway?
There is no single, agreed definition, but social cohesion typically includes various markers of a “good society”. This includes high levels of:
trust, both in government and each other
social mobility: the capacity to change one’s position in society, either economically, socially or through improved health and education
economic equality, including perceptions of economic fairness and opportunity
and participation in democratic and community processes.
A socially cohesive society is one in which people feel a sense of belonging, worth and connectedness. Different groups feel accepted as part of the same overall community.
As political scientists Nicholas Biddle and Matthew Gray write, many definitions of social cohesion emphasise “positive social relationships”. This means:
not simply the absence of conflict, but the presence of social bonds and shared norms that enable cooperation within a nation or some other community.
Protecting social cohesion, but not building it
Understood in this way, social cohesion cannot be achieved through laws that ban hate speech, symbols or other criminal behaviour. These laws might reduce some threats to social cohesion or deficits in it, but they do little to boost positive markers.
The laws might improve some perceptions of trust and inclusion. If governments are seen to be taking decisive action, targeted groups may feel safer to participate in society and there is stronger national consensus on democratic norms.
But their coercive, problematic nature risks undermining the very goals they aim to achieve. Anti-democratic laws that clamp down on free speech and are rushed through parliament without proper scrutiny are not markers of a healthy democracy.
It’s also important to remember that threats to social cohesion go far beyond hate crime and extremism. These are only part of a much bigger picture. Socioeconomic segregation, political polarisation, environmental hazards, misinformation and regional/rural inequalities all strain Australia’s current wellbeing.
These laws are not the only government initiatives for improving social cohesion, but they take up airtime at the expense of longer-term efforts to improve markers of a good society.
Substantial long-term investment in localised, place-based approaches is crucial. For these efforts to have real impact, we need to know more about what works to improve social cohesion, both locally and nationally.
New and revitalised government programs must be supported by investments in research that monitors cohesion across different levels of society. We need to understand more about how social cohesion can best be measured and which factors influence it to the greatest degree.
These programs need recurring funding, monitoring and evaluation. Piecemeal or one-off community grants are not enough.
Governments should target several priority areas. One is economic inequality and insecurity. Grievances arising from a sense of relative deprivation – that others in society have more than us, and we can’t get what we deserve – fuel discontent and violence.
We also need to improve belonging and connectedness. That could be through hosting cultural and multi-faith events, reinvigorating local clubs and institutions, or any similar strategies that connect people across diverse social, economic and religious groups. These approaches could also address loneliness and social isolation.
Then there’s enhancing democratic participation. One way to do this is through local council and citizen forums that allow for robust deliberation and decision-making.
And strengthening civics education, especially in schools, would ensure future generations have the best chance of contributing to a healthy democracy.
Social cohesion is not something we can say as a society we have ever finally achieved. It is a social process that emerges from policies and programs, information flows and everyday interactions. It’s a social good that requires intentional investment from all levels of society. And it can always be improved.
Coercive laws targeting threats to social cohesion can be one part of an overall strategy, provided they do not undermine other investments. The focus, always, should be on making our communities better places to live while improving our democratic health.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Baldino, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Notre Dame Australia
Millions of people recently watched a video posted by the White House showing US strikes against Iranian targets. The clip didn’t just resemble Call of Duty: it mixed real strike footage with footage from the game itself, complete with “killstreak” animations designed to reward performance and simulate achievement.
Governments are increasingly communicating war using the visual language of video games and internet memes. In doing so, they don’t just trivialise violence – they make it harder to grieve the victims of the violence, by anaesthetising our responses to the suffering.
It’s a tactic that shapes how we interpret violence, and which quietly determines whose deaths register as deaths at all.
War as memes and viral content
United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly celebrated the strikes and wider military campaign, dubbed Operation Epic Fury – collapsing the distance between military spokesperson and combat enthusiast.
The White House video is not an isolated case. Across social media, videos with military footage are circulating as gaming clips or memes: drone strikes with cross-hair graphics, explosions set to pulse-pounding music. One Department of Homeland Security video of ICE raids was set to the Pokémon theme song.
But the same features that make the content go viral also flatten the reality behind the footage. Important context often disappears. Who was targeted? Were civilians harmed? Was the strike legal? These questions are rarely addressed in a 20-second clip.
War’s visual language is never innocent. It carries instructions about how to feel. A huge problem arises when governments deliberately adopt the visual language of gaming to present real military operations. What this language doesn’t carry is consequence.
Meme culture compounds this. Irony and humour are structurally anti-grief. They create distance as their primary function. When violence circulates as a joke or a highlight reel, the emotional reality of it becomes difficult to access.
War is still seen, but it is no longer felt in the same way.
From CNN to Call of Duty
The so-called “CNN effect”, associated with television coverage of conflicts from Vietnam to Somalia, was premised on proximity. Footage of suffering brought distant wars into living rooms and generated moral pressure on governments.
While imperfect and selective, the underlying logic was that “seeing” produced “feeling”, and feeling produced accountability. The camera lingered. The correspondent named the dead. Viewers were given time to register what they were witnessing.
That model was already fracturing before social media. The 1991 Gulf War introduced a new aesthetic: precision strikes filmed from above, in which targets were rendered as abstract geometries on green-tinged screens.
The human body disappeared from the frame, replaced by the seductive promise of technological accuracy: the “smart” bomb or the “surgical” strike. American critic Susan Sontag noted how this outcome trained audiences to see military technology rather than military consequences.
The ungrievable
The philosopher Judith Butler has written about “grievability” as the condition that makes some lives recognisable as worth mourning. Not all deaths are grieved equally. Some bodies are rendered, by culture and politics, outside the frame of moral concern.
The visual grammar being used by the White House frames people as game avatars. And game avatars, by definition, are not grievable. They are targets – kills to be celebrated.
On February 28, more than 160 girls, most under 12, were killed by a US air strike at the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab. They did not appear in the White House’s content at all.
When pressed, President Trump suggested Iran may have struck the school itself using a Tomahawk missile and then said: “I just don’t know enough about it. Whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that”.
A protester holds a photograph of victims killed in the bombing of a primary school in Minab, Iran, during a solidarity rally in Serbia, held on March 10. 026.Epa/Anjdrec Cukic
Hegseth, meanwhile, has already dissolved the Pentagon’s civilian protection mission and fired the military’s lawyers responsible for keeping operations within international law, describing them as “roadblocks”.
Democratic scrutiny of war depends not just on information but on moral response: the capacity to feel that what is happening matters.
What can be done?
Memes will continue to circulate. Governments will continue to compete for attention in crowded digital spaces.
But the starting point is recognising what is actually at stake. The problem is not simply that viral clips lack context (although they do). It is that the visual grammar they deploy actively forecloses the emotional responses that serious public debate requires.
Wes J. Bryant, a former US special operations targeting specialist (who worked on civilian harm prevention) puts it plainly:
We’re departing from the rules and norms that we’ve tried to establish as a global community since at least World War II. There’s zero accountability.
Audiences, too, can learn to pause. Not just to ask what happened, but what the format in front of them is preventing them from feeling, and about whom. That question, taken seriously, is the beginning of accountability.
War is not experienced as a highlight reel. It is experienced as loss, uncertainty, grief and irreversible destruction. Restoring that understanding is not a media literacy problem. It is a moral one.
School students around Australia have begun their NAPLAN tests this week.
Amid technical glitches during the writing component of the exam on Wednesday, there has also been confusion about the purpose of the test.
Earlier this week, NAPLAN boss Stephen Gneil told the Sydney Morning Herald he was worried about how the test results are being used.
He said some private and select-entry government schools were using the NAPLAN results as part of enrolment applications.
I think it is horrendous, and it’s a complete misuse of the assessment. It’s not one of the purposes and therefore the test is not designed as an entrance exam and shouldn’t be used as such.
So, what is NAPLAN designed to do?
What is NAPLAN?
NAPLAN is held every year for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It measures how Australian students are performing in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation), and numeracy.
There are four proficiency levels for each area: exceeding, strong, developing and needs additional support.
Students at “exceeding” and “strong” are at or above performance expectations for their year level. Those who are deemed “developing” and “needs additional support” are below expectations.
Students receive an individual report, schools get a school-wide report, and data is published at national and state levels, including via the My School website.
What’s going on?
NAPLAN was introduced in 2008 and originally designed as a “low-stakes” measure to diagnose system-level performance. This means individual students’ NAPLAN scores were intended to be aggregated.
Since it is a “census test” that all students complete, the results can be used to track national progress, compare states and territories, and compare student populations.
This can help policymakers and education departments identify areas of need in certain locations (for example, rural and regional areas versus cities) and student groups (for example, those from high versus low socio-economic groups).
But the purpose of NAPLAN has since been expanded. Since 2010, it also provides school-level data to publicly rate schools’ performance and compare them.
This was not part of the original plan for NAPLAN. As a 2019 review noted, this reflects a move towards more “high-stakes” uses and interpretations of NAPLAN data.
How is it being used today?
Because all students complete NAPLAN and receive individualised reports, it has become a common – if highly imperfect – yardstick for student and school performance.
We now have a situation in which individual NAPLAN results have become, among other things, a proxy “entrance exam”.
Test designers refer to validity to describe whether an exam tests what it claims to measure and whether it is being used for its intended purposes. So, it is problem if NAPLAN results are being used by schools to determine entrance into Year 7, given it was designed to test population-level progress.
This is not just a theoretical issue.
Using NAPLAN scores for school entrance runs counter to students, parents and teachers being told the test is “low-stakes” (or does not matter to individual kids). This is both disingenuous and risks students experiencing yet more test anxiety, since the purpose of NAPLAN is not being consistently and transparently communicated.
NAPLAN is also specifically limited literacy and numeracy skills. This is only a small proportion of what a student might reasonably be expected to learn during their time at school. At best, it is a partial snapshot of student performance.
Meanwhile, using NAPLAN scores to determine high school entrance is likely to see more parents seek out private tutoring or exam preparation for their child. This risks unfairly disadvantaging students whose parents cannot afford or arrange expensive and time-consuming tutoring.
What other measures of school performance are there?
NAPLAN’s administrator has been at pains to remind people NAPLAN is only one test. It does not and should not “replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance”.
Student report cards, school-based assessments and teacher judgements can provide a far more nuanced, balanced and individualised measure of student learning.
This is why any reliance on NAPLAN scores to decide school entry is flawed and unfair.
To recover from abuse or another traumatic experience, some people turn to a therapy called eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing, or EMDR.
But this may present problems if these people pursue justice in the courts. In New South Wales, for instance, evidence obtained using EMDR can’t be used in a case unless it has been approved by the director (or deputy) of public prosecutions.
Prosecutors are concerned that after EMDR, trauma memories can’t be relied on as valid testimony. This has resulted in court cases not proceeding.
This group of therapies – which encompass prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, EMDR and other variants – all ask a patient to recall their trauma. The therapists integrates this information and aims to correct unhelpful thought patterns that may be prolonging their distress.
EMDR is different from the other exposure-based therapies because the therapist also asks the patient to move their eyes in a rapid side-to-side movement. This will typically involve following the therapist’s fingers move back and forth.
Proponents of EMDR initially proposed eye movements triggered neural processes that help people better adjust to or process trauma memories. However, the actual role of eye movements has been subject to much debate.
Although the mechanism isn’t yet fully understood, the weight of evidence suggests eye movements may reduce distress while recounting trauma memories because it depletes our working memory capacity. This results in less focus on the negative emotions associated with the memory.
Where did concerns about EMDR affecting memories come from?
EMDR has been criticised for potentially distorting people’s memories of traumatic events dates since the 1990s when the treatment increased in popularity.
This was also a period when when a controversial movement of “recovered memory therapies” emerged. These were used to guide people to reconstruct memories that were purportedly “hidden” or “repressed”.
This involved therapists directing patients to focus attention on internal states, suspend reality and allow themselves to be guided by the therapist to recover so-called “repressed memories”, often of satanic or ritual abuse.
In the wake of this movement, many studies showed this sort of guided intervention could lead to false, or even implanted, memories.
At the same time, researchers were concerned about hypnotic techniques. During hypnosis, people could reconstruct false memories. They were particularly susceptible to misleading information and had stronger confidence in these memories.
For this reason, authorities around the world cautioned against using hypnosis in cases that may involve the person subsequently needing to give testimony in legal proceedings.
Some likened EMDR to hypnosis, others were sceptical of its claims
Some agencies and experts considered EMDR a hypnosis-like intervention because it focused the person’s attention on their internal state, promoted increased absorption in memories and actively guided memories.
Because EMDR guided patients to process memories in a way that made them less distressing, some concluded EMDR-elicited memories were comparably susceptible to distortion as hypnotically-induced memories.
This perception of EMDR at the time may also have been influenced by much initial scepticism of the therapy.
In the early period of its popularity, EMDR proponents made excessive claims of its success, such as being able to completely resolve trauma memories in a single session, despite the lack of evidence.
What does the evidence actually say?
It’s difficult to test the claim that EMDR increases the likelihood of false memories because you can’t readily study this in clinical settings.
Instead, researchers have used experimental designs in people without PTSD to determine if eye movements themselves are likely to lead to false memories. The results are mixed.
Multiple studies have shown eye movements can lead to false memories. One study showed healthy research participants a video of a car accident. Half the sample then used eye movements. Then all participants were read an eye-witness narrative that involved false information about the video.
This study found those who used eye movements were more susceptible to the misinformation. It seems this effect may occur because eye movements reduce the vividness and intensity of emotions in memories, thereby making them more susceptible to false memories.
However, other laboratory-based studies have not replicated this effect. One study using the same design found using eye movements didn’t make memory more likely, reduce correct memory details, or affect the vividness or emotional intensity of the memory.
What does this all mean?
EMDR is one of a suite of exposure-based treatments for PTSD that involve recounting trauma memories and integrating new information about the trauma. These appear to be key in helping people resolve their traumatic stress. Although EMDR is not better than other exposure-based treatment, it is as effective as the others.
Although some evidence points to eye movements making a person more susceptible to false memories, other studies do not find this. Importantly, these studies are not actually testing EMDR.
There is no direct evidence that EMDR leads to false memories, just as there is no evidence that prolonged exposure or other exposure-based treatments do. Singling EMDR out as being particularly susceptible to memory distortion doesn’t appear to be supported by the scientific evidence.
The position of legal authorities to not accept testimony following EMDR is therefore not justified and may deny trauma survivors the right to legal proceedings.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is also available 24/7 for any Australian who has experienced family violence or sexual assault.
Most parents are not able to monitor everything their child sees online. Some AI-generated content can be both frightening and attractive to young children, including violence and sexual content using engaging animals and characters.
Early childhood education centres are also using AI to support learning, particularly for children with developmental differences. This includes those who do not learn to speak easily or who have other communication problems related to autism or intellectual disability.
In the US, many parents report their children are using AI for school work. The encouragement for early childhood centres, schools and parents to use AI with children is based on short-term studies, but the long-term impacts are unknown.
The only way to know how AI may affect young children would be through well-designed longitudinal studies. But by the time robust evidence emerged, a whole generation would have grown up exposed – and if there are indeed harmful effects, these may be irreversible.
Many children love to use screens, and AI is likely to be similarly rewarding because AI models are endlessly patient and instantly responsive to the topics of your choosing and do not seem to demand anything.
Human development during early childhood
Like all mammals, human infants are bound by biological processes and have evolved to develop in social groups in close physical connection with others. Everything we know about child development highlights the importance of face-to-face connection.
Children learn about themselves and the world through all their senses. They learn to communicate through “serve-and-return” interactions – responsive, back-and-forth exchanges between them and their caregiver. This includes physical touch, emotion and play. Collectively, these interactions help shape brain architecture.
Based on their experiences during the first few years of life, children form models, or templates, of how intimate relationships work. These relational templates endure throughout their lives and influence close relationships in adulthood.
We do not yet know what the impact will be on children’s capacity for human relationships if they are exposed to AI while their physiological, neurological and emotional regulatory systems are developing. It is unclear how longer-term AI exposure may affect children’s understanding of other people and their development of empathy.
Normal social interactions in childhood include conflict, negotiation, resolution and play with other children. These interactions involve non-verbal communication, risk estimation, relational repair and decision making.
It’s unclear how instantly responsive and engaging AI will affect these aspects of childhood. It is possible that children experiencing many AI-mediated social interactions may find it more difficult to navigate real-world relationships, especially when there is conflict.
It is also possible that children will develop a preference for AI engagement over real-life engagement with family or friends.
Young children find it harder to distinguish fantasy from reality. This quality is delightful for adults and children alike, involving imaginary play, silliness and amusement. Yet AI-generated fantasy may be persuasive to an overwhelming degree, potentially leading to children being confused about reality and the consciousness of others.
Potential for both harm and help
If infants and children don’t have sufficient real-world experiences, their emerging cognitive capacities for detecting reality and interpreting sensory inputs may be affected.
There is much excitement about the potential for AI-assisted tools to aid children with disabilities in their development of social communication. This seems likely to have benefits such as earlier detection of neuro-developmental differences. There may also be risks if these interventions replace real-life interactions with other children and adults.
What will be the daily experiences for children with extra learning needs? Parents may be happy with AI-enhanced learning, but less happy if this is provided in lieu of a real teacher aide.
The introduction of AI seems inevitable and it is already affecting our children. We know that connection, touch, reciprocal and language-rich environments, and unstructured play are important during early childhood development.
To adopt AI into our children’s spaces without knowing the consequences is an experiment with outcomes that may not be reversible. Given the uncertainty, families should at least have the freedom to choose an AI-free environment for their children.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Murray, Professor of Cybersecurity, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT-5 in August of last year, many academicsscoffed at the tech company’s claims its new artificial intelligence (AI) model possessed “PhD-level” intelligence.
Yet academics are now routinely using tools such as ChatGPT to assist them in their research in much the same way they might once have relied on PhD students. Perhaps the most famous example is the world’s best-known mathematician, Terence Tao, who reports using generative AI as a mathematical collaborator.
I myself was recently turned from a skeptic into a believer when, over the course of a few months, I carried out a research project using a range of generative AI tools to perform tasks which I’d normally carry out in collaboration with my PhD students.
But this experience also highlighted a hidden danger of AI – one that shows why it would be unwise for anybody, whether they’re an academic or not, to substitute AI for actual apprentices.
The engine-room of research production
PhD students are the engine-room of research production that underpins much scientific progress. Under guidance from their supervisors, they devise hypotheses and experiments, theorise mathematical models, write proofs, and draft research papers.
But doing a PhD is much more than cheap research labour. A PhD degree is an apprenticeship in research. Today’s students are tomorrow’s research leaders. To get there, students learn how to ask the right questions, how to critique findings and, ultimately, how to take responsibility for the science they produce.
Much of my own research develops mathematical models to explain why computer systems and programs are and – just as often – are not secure. This involves developing mathematical definitions and theories, stating theorems and writing logical proofs, but also implementing defensive programs that embody and validate the ideas of all of that mathematics.
Normally, each of these steps would be done in collaboration with a PhD student, with the student carrying out the bulk of the proof-writing and programming work under my supervision.
Using AI as a tool
In my recent project, however, I developed the key mathematical ideas in conversation with ChatGPT.
I used ChatGPT to state and refine the key mathematical definitions and theorems at the level of “pen-and-paper” mathematics, which I carefully checked for errors. I used Anthropic’s Claude Code tool to translate all the pen-and-paper mathematics into a computerised format, in which a very old-fashioned proof checking program could check the consistency of each logical reasoning step.
I even used Claude Code and ChatGPT to implement Python programs to show that the mathematical ideas could be applied in practice. I checked these programs to make sure they did indeed conform to the mathematics, just as I would if they had been written by a new PhD student.
All up, I’d estimate that in the equivalent of six weeks of full-time work with the help of generative AI, I was able to produce the kind of research that might otherwise have taken at least a year of work by a PhD student working under my supervision.
This is remarkable progress. And perhaps a little frightening.
A hidden danger
Many people have warned that overuse of generative AI might reduce research quality. I agree that AI needs to be used with care and that, ultimately, authors need to remain responsible for the research they produce at all stages throughout the research process.
However, there is another danger.
In my research project, the extra benefits in terms of productivity came at a significant cost to learning. Not my own; I think I learned just as much working with generative AI as I would had I been working with a PhD student on this project.
I’m talking about the student learning that was sacrificed.
At no stage during this project did I teach a student how to discern a worthwhile research problem from a mere intellectual curiosity, nor what it means to rigorously test a hypothesis, place a piece of research within its proper scientific context, or even how to convey one’s thoughts cogently or manage their time efficiently.
Good researchers are ones who are aware of the gaps in their knowledge, who view their own hypotheses with appropriate suspicion, and take intellectual responsibility for the work they carry out.
AI is poorly placed to do any of these things well.
University academics must approach the adoption of generative AI with caution, lest it upend the apprentice training model that has served it so well for generations.
For a country with a record of large deforestation projects, Indonesia’s current activities in the far southeastern corner of the republic, South Papua province, surpass all.
With 2.5 million hectares of land being cleared for sugarcane and rice production for food and biofuel projects, alongside large oil palm concessions, Indonesia’s government has created a hugely consequential project right on Papua New Guinea and Australia’s doorsteps.
It is transforming the shape of an otherwise forest and swamp-dominated region, as well as the environment, culture and health of local Papuan communities.
New film on West Papua highlights ‘ecocide’. Video: RNZ
“The world should notice this. It’s not the Amazon, it’s just in our front door, in the Pacific here,” said Dandhy Dwi Laksono, director of Pesta Babi (Pig Feast): Colonialism in our Time, a new documentary film about the impacts of the deforestation in South Papua, the agri-business schemes behind it and the role Indonesia’s military plays in it all.
Laksono has been in New Zealand this week promoting the film with its producer, West Papuan journalist Victor Mambor, who said few people in other parts of the world know about what’s going on there.
“Maybe they only know [of] the conflict, military conflict, armed conflict in West Papua. But they never know the conflict like that,” he said.
The film sheds new light on the response by local Papuans in the wider Merauke region and its remote bush communities to an agri-business master plan attempted by several Indonesian presidents now.
Papua has some of the world’s largest remaining tracts of native rainforest — and clearing this large region of forest and swamp systems is likely to add to carbon emissions, pollution haze and biodiversity loss. Image: Mighty Earth/RNZ Pacific
Prabowo accelerated project The current president, Prabowo Subianto, has accelerated the project and committed military support for it, saying the military is needed to secure the agri-business projects in Papua because of their scale and importance to Indonesia’s national food and energy security.
However, Mambor said the presence of Indonesian troops in Papua had long been problematic for Papuans, and was growing.
“This is the problem in West Papua. There will be more troops, and then of course because of more troops there will be more conflict. More troops, more conflict, more problem.”
Given the ongoing armed conflict between West Papuan independence fighters and Indonesia’s military in other parts of Papua region (known internationally as West Papua), this film offers a useful insight into a struggle that is less known, but no less concerning.
Papua has some of the world’s largest remaining tracts of native rainforest — and clearing this large region of forest and swamp systems is likely to add to carbon emissions, pollution haze and biodiversity loss.
According to the NGO Mighty Earth, estimates of the CO2 emissions from so much land clearance range from 315 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Indonesia’s first state-owned inspection, testing, certification, and consultancy company) to more than double that, according to a report by the Indonesian independent research institute.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
