An American right-wing think tank is proposing a “Pacific Charter” that advocates for a greater United States presence in the region.
The Heritage Foundation, closely associated with the ruling Republican Party, wrote that China is “covetously” looking to the Pacific nations while they are vulnerable to major security threats, such as the transnational drug trade.
The think tank holds significant influence with US President Donald Trump, best encapsulated in its “Project 2025” platform that guided conservative policy leading up to the 2024 presidental election.
Pacific countries are asked to “align” their policy agendas, while the US establishes a “Pacific Partners Commission” and installs a “Pacific Advisor” on their National Security Council.
“Broader intra-Pacific affiliations are being superseded by the interests of external actors, and the Pacific agenda is at risk of being shaped by powerful outside forces,” the report states.
Without Western involvement, it postulated that China, with its “willingness to use political leverage and intrigue to advance its narrow interest” would monopolise their hold.
‘Reaffirm fundamental ideals’ Rather than letting that happen, co-authors Allen Zhang and Brent Sadler proposed a non-binding Charter, not to “impose values and dictate outcomes” but rather to “reaffirm fundamental ideals and strengthen regional solidarity”.
It was noted this would pressure nations to resist the influence of Chinese cash, for example infrastructure deals. Further, the mood would be set for island nations and US defence forces to come closer together.
“The foregoing principles are frequently bypassed in favour of lucrative bilateral proposals … compromised when it is personally or locally expedient.
“When regional nations accede to a charter, they accept a standard of conduct beyond the mere expression of aspiration … overtime, states begin to rationalise strategic decisions against a set of baseline principles.”
The Heritage Foundation’s proposed Pacific charter published in ‘A charter of Pacific values for a prosperous Pacific future’. Image: Edited by RNZ Pacific
The White House has only recently turned its attention to Pacific countries in any public sense, hosting a business summit in Honolulu in early February.
Trump has also asserted his interest in critical minerals at the bottom of the Pacific ocean, leading to deep-sea mining talks with the Cook Islands and Tonga.
It’s one of the most important corporate governance cases in the past 20 years, involving organised crime inside Australia’s second-biggest casino.
The Federal Court ruled last week that Star Entertainment Group’s former chief executive and its general counsel both broke the law under the Corporations Act, but remaining board members had not.
The case is a disappointment for the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). It had sought to use the court case to increase the responsibilities of public company directors. ASIC is yet to decide whether it will appeal.
But even after only a partial win, ASIC’s chairman Joe Longo has since declared:
nothing in this judgement has changed our appetite to hold corporate leaders to account for their governance failures.
Longo also predicted the case “will be studied by directors, executive management, and their advisers for years to come”.
With around 2.5 million directors of large and small Australian companies, Longo is right: this case is essential reading.
has been enabling suspected money laundering, organised crime, large-scale fraud and foreign interference within its Australian casinos for years, even though its board was warned its anti-money-laundering controls were failing.
[embedded content]
Among a series of official inquiries and investigations, the NSW Independent Casino Commission found Star was unsuitable to hold a casino licence. Independent administrators were put in charge.
In 2022, corporate watchdog ASIC sued 11 former directors and executives of Star. ASIC argued they had breached their legal duty of care to the company.
At the heart of this case were two questions: can a board leave it to management to handle compliance risks, especially when running something as risky as casinos?
And do non-executive directors on boards – who aren’t employees, but are paid to offer part-time oversight – have the same responsibilities to act on “red flags” as someone like a chief executive?
so dysfunctional and unethical that senior management was tardy in preventing junket operators from behaving inappropriately, and lied to its bankers to secure an ongoing commercial advantage. Ultimately, it fell to investigative journalism and then a statutory inquiry to expose the extent of the problems.
Lee concluded Star Entertainment’s former chief executive Matt Bekier and former chief legal and risk officer, Paula Martin, were liable for breaching their duty of care under section 180 of the Corporations Act.
Lee found Bekier and Martin had credible information the company was not properly managing its money-laundering risks, yet they failed to take reasonable action to address those problems over several years.
The pair will have to appear at a future hearing, where they could face millions of dollars in potential fines. ASIC has also said it will ask for Bekier and Martin to be disqualified from managing corporations for a period of time.
But in a setback for the regulator, the court rejected ASIC’s case against the remaining non-executive directors.
The court distinguished between failures of operational management and failures of oversight by the board.
Management underplayed the significance of the risks. So it was not clear to the board that ongoing criminal behaviour was occurring.
While Lee found the non-executive directors were not “actively pressing management with difficult questions as to whether the business was being conducted ethically, lawfully, and to the highest available standard”, they were not responsible for managing day-to-day business operations. The executive management team was.
Lee also warned Australian boards were being overwhelmed with “oppressive” and “heroically vast” board packs. Lee suggested AI might be able to help directors evaluate such large volumes of information. However, he stressed AI couldn’t replace the need for each director to review what’s presented to them as “a core function of a board”.
Importantly, Lee didn’t accept ASIC’s argument that directors should be assumed to be aware of everything presented to them in the board papers. It was up to ASIC to prove their knowledge with evidence.
ASIC was unable to prove Star’s non-executive directors were fully aware of all of the risks involved in the business. This meant they couldn’t be held to be negligent for failing to act on information they didn’t have.
Key lessons for directors and managers
Responding to the court’s findings, ASIC chair Joe Longo said:
This judgement, in my view, is not a backwards step for directors’ duties – quite the opposite in fact.
However, ASIC’s argument that reasonable directors would have done more, and double-checked management decisions on key matters, has been rejected by the court.
The Star case confirms non-executive directors are entitled to rely on management to provide them with regular updates on important matters. It also reaffirms all directors need to take an active role in monitoring the management of the company.
Star’s senior management was found liable for failing to keep the board properly informed of important risks. All senior company officers, at large or small Australian companies, have been put on notice.
If there are red flags that key risks aren’t being managed properly, senior management has to act – then keep the board informed of their progress in a timely manner.
NAPLAN testing started with a technical glitch on Wednesday morning.
Schools were advised to pause the first day of assessments while a “widespread issue affecting students being able to log on to the online platform” was investigated. As at 11.30 AEDT, testing could resume.
Test administrators said there were measures to ensure students were not disadvantaged as a result of the glitch. But they also acknowledged it had “caused disruptions in a significant number of schools”.
NAPLAN has been done fully online since 2022. Why is this?
Remind me, what is NAPLAN?
NAPLAN tests Australian students’ literacy and maths skills in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. There are four tests: writing, reading, conventions of language (which involves grammar, punctuation and spelling), and numeracy.
There is a nine-day testing window for schools, that began on March 11 this year.
On the first day of testing, schools need to prioritise writing tests. Students are given an idea or topic and asked to write a response in a particular text type (narrative or persuasive writing).
Year 3 writing is the only component of the test still done on paper, so was not impacted by the IT pause.
Why are the tests online?
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (also known as “ACARA”) administers NAPLAN. On its website, the authority explains the online tests are designed to “provide precise results and be engaging for students”.
This means the tests adapt to the student taking the test, and will ask questions that will be more or less difficult depending on a student’s responses.
“This helps students remain engaged with the assessment,” the authority says.
A student’s overall NAPLAN result is based on both the number and complexity of questions they answer correctly.
Isn’t paper better?
When a major online test runs into technical difficulties, I am often asked, “would it be better to stick with paper-and-pencil tests for high-stakes tests?”
Last year, there was chaos when NSW selective entrance exams suffered technical problems.
But it is hard to make the case that important tests should be done on paper when students now do significant amounts of school work online and on devices – particularly as they progress through high school.
We currently have the bizarre situation in which some senior students have to stop working online part way through Year 12. This is to strengthen their wrists to write in their three-hour paper-and-pencil final exams.
What is useful?
Research shows online testing can produce more useful evidence than a simple paper test.
It can improve feedback, involve richer tasks, and better fit with how students learn. Although to do so, it needs clear criteria and robust design.
So good online testing is not using technology for technology’s sake. It can improve the fairness (or validity) of the evidence available to schools, systems and parents.
What about Year 12 exams?
Currently, most year 12 exams in states such as Victoria and New South Wales are conducted with pen and paper.
There has been some movement towards the online delivery of HSC examinations in NSW. For example, in 2027 Extension English will be done online.
Here the reasons for the relatively slow progress are structural rather than technological or educational.
Given the high-stakes nature of Year 12 exams, it’s not surprising school systems prioritise stability, security and equity before changing the delivery mode.
But the circumstances for NAPLAN are different. NAPLAN moved online because the focus was on quick results and providing information to improve students learning.
Year 12 exams cater for a wide range of different subjects and so are more challenging and risky to do online. Any transition would require a multi-year, carefully staged plan with extensive piloting and equity safeguards.
But whatever the challenges and the technical glitches we might face along the way, the journey towards online testing will continue. This is where our children are continuing to learn and it is also where they will work.
Since fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) began, there has been concern they could cause cancer.
Concerns have included whether aspects of treatment – such as taking hormonal medications, or puncturing the ovaries to retrieve eggs – could stimulate the growth of cancer cells.
Now, our new study, published on Wednesday, has found women who underwent fertility treatments had a comparable overall rate of cancer to similarly aged women.
However, there were some differences: they had more uterine, ovarian, and melanoma cancers, and fewer lung and cervical cancers. Let’s take a look at what this means.
What we did
Our study wanted to find out whether women who underwent fertility treatments had a different rate of cancer from the general population.
We used individual records from Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to find women who had fertility treatments between 1991 and 2018. We linked this data to the Australian Cancer Database to find cancer diagnoses.
We found 417,984 women who received fertility treatments and followed them for about a decade on average:
274,676 women had treatments where the egg was removed from the women’s body (IVF and similar treatments)
120,739 women had treatments with a specialist where the egg was not removed (mainly intrauterine insemination)
175,510 women received a prescription for clomiphene citrate (also known as Clomid), a medication that induces ovulation.
One woman could have had multiple types of treatment.
Their median age (the midpoint of their ages) was 32–34 years. Compared to the general population, fewer lived in disadvantaged areas.
We compared these women’s rates of cancers to women in the general population, by statistically matching them on factors such as age and the state they lived in.
What we found
Women who received fertility treatments, either with or without egg removal, had close to the exact total number of cancers we would expect in the general population of women.
But women who used clomiphene citrate had 1.04 times the rate of cancer, or 8.6 extra cancers for every 100,000 women treated each year.
Rates of uterine cancer, ovarian cancer (except for those who used clomiphene citrate), and melanoma were 1.07–1.83 times higher, depending on treatment type. This means about three to seven more of these cancers for every 100,000 women treated each year.
Across all treatments rates of cervical cancer and lung cancer were 1.43–1.92 times lower. This translates to around two to six fewer cancers for every 100,00 treated women each year.
These decreases could be due to women receiving fertility treatment being less likely to smoke. Women who receive fertility treatment may also be more likely to be screened for cervical cancer, as clinicians often encourage them to get screened before treatment. But this is anecdotal – we don’t yet have data on this.
What this means
Overall, these findings are reassuring for women who have received or are planning fertility treatments.
The number of people undergoing fertility treatments is increasing worldwide. These findings deepen our understanding of the types of cancers diagnosed in women who receive fertility treatment.
Our study shows some cancers are more common in women who received fertility treatments than in the general population of women.
However, the absolute numbers of these cancers are small, similar to those observed for women using some other medical interventions (including the contraceptive pill).
It is normal to see differences in cancer risk in specific populations when compared to the general population.
So, does this mean IVF does not cause cancer?
This study design cannot determine if fertility treatments themselves cause or prevent cancer.
Though fertility treatments may contribute to cancer risk, women who receive fertility treatments have a different health and socio-demographic profile to the general population of women. These factors may affect cancer risk.
We did not have any data on why women were using fertility treatments to get pregnant and whether this is connected to their cancer risk. For example, we don’t know if they were receiving treatment for medical infertility, or for another reason (such as same-sex couples trying to conceive).
Our study also only followed women for around ten years, and the cancer risk profile may change as these women age.
The takeaway
As with every medical treatment, it is important for women and their health-care practitioners to make informed decisions before and after fertility treatment, including considering potential changes in cancer risk.
Women considering fertility treatment, and those who’ve used fertility treatment, should continue to participate in the routine cancer screening programs they’re eligible for.
If women are worried about their risk of cancer, they should consult their doctor to understand the steps they can take to reduce their risk.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Larcombe, Associate Professor and Head of Respiratory Environmental Health, The Kids Research Institute Australia; Curtin University
Humans evolved in an atmosphere containing roughly 200–300 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Today, that figure sits above 420 ppm, higher than at any point in the history of our species.
We know this extra CO₂ is contributing to climate change, but could it also be changing the chemistry of our bodies?
In our recently published research we looked at two decades of information from one of the biggest health datasets in the world to start answering this question. We found some concerning trends.
What we found
We analysed blood chemistry data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which collected samples from about 7,000 Americans every two years between 1999 and 2020. We looked at three markers: CO₂, calcium and phosphorus.
When CO₂ enters the blood, it is converted to bicarbonate. This process largely occurs inside red blood cells, and also produces hydrogen ions.
During short-term exposure to increased CO₂, this can make blood more acidic, and result in a modest increase in bicarbonate levels in the blood (to reduce acidity).
If the exposure continues for a long time the kidneys reduce the amount of bicarbonate lost in urine and also produce more bicarbonate. This has the net effect of higher bicarbonate levels in the blood, to counteract the persistent acidity.
Levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood may also be affected, as they too play a role in regulating acidity in the blood. These processes are completely normal.
Over the 21 years from 1999 to 2020, we found that average blood bicarbonate levels rose by about 7%. Over the same period, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations rose by a similar proportion.
Meanwhile, blood calcium levels dropped by about 2% and phosphorus by around 7%.
If these trends continue, blood bicarbonate levels may exceed healthy levels in around 50 years. Calcium and phosphorus levels may fall below healthy levels, too, by the end of the century.
Our hypothesis is that rising CO₂ exposure could be contributing to these trends.
What’s causing the changes?
It’s important to be clear about what this study does and doesn’t show. It identifies population-level trends in blood chemistry that parallel rising atmospheric CO₂.
But correlation is not causation. The study does not adjust for factors such as diet, kidney function, diuretic use or obesity, which can influence the measurements and should be considered in future analyses.
There are other plausible contributors. One important consideration is indoor air.
Participants in the NHANES study likely spend most of their time indoors, where CO₂ concentrations often exceed 1,000 ppm in poorly ventilated spaces. Other studies show time spent indoors has increased over the past two decades.
The NHANES dataset doesn’t capture this parameter, so we can’t directly assess this contribution. However, if more time indoors is contributing, it means total CO₂ exposure is rising even faster than atmospheric trends suggest. This arguably reinforces rather than alleviates the concern.
Other factors, such as shifting dietary patterns, changing rates of obesity, differences in physical activity and even variations in sample collection or processing across survey cycles, could also be important.
Can our bodies cope?
Some critics have argued that, based on what we know about how our bodies manage blood chemistry, we should have no trouble compensating for future increases in atmospheric CO₂, even under worst-case climate scenarios. For example, the lungs can increase ventilation and the kidneys can adjust to produce more bicarbonate.
For most healthy individuals, small long-term increases in outdoor CO₂ are not expected to meaningfully change the levels of bicarbonate, calcium or phosphorus in the blood.
This makes the population-level trends we observed puzzling. They could reflect a confounding rather than a direct CO₂ effect, but they do highlight how little data we have on long-term, real-world exposure.
A lack of long-term data
The argument that we can cope easily with higher CO₂ is based on short-term responses. Whether the same reasoning applies when CO₂ levels are higher across a person’s entire life remains largely untested.
There is, however, a growing body of evidence across many species which shows that even modest, environmentally relevant increases in CO₂ can produce subtle but measurable physiological effects.
In humans, short-term exposure at concentrations commonly found indoors (1,000–2,500 ppm) has been linked to reduced cognitive performance and changes in brain activity, though the mechanisms aren’t fully understood.
These new findings highlight a gap in evidence about long-term, real-world CO₂ exposure and human physiology. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t any studies assessing the physiological effects of breathing slightly elevated CO₂ over a lifetime.
This is particularly important for children, who will experience the longest cumulative exposure. And that’s why it’s vital to investigate this area further.
What this means
Our findings are not suggesting people will become suddenly unwell when atmospheric CO₂ reaches a certain level. What the data show is a signal that warrants attention.
If rising atmospheric CO₂ is contributing to gradual shifts in blood chemistry at a population level, then the composition of the atmosphere should be monitored alongside traditional climate indicators as a potential factor in long-term public health.
Reducing CO₂ emissions remains crucial for limiting global warming. Our findings suggest it may also be important for safeguarding aspects of human health that we’re only just beginning to understand.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natasha Hamilton-Hart, Professor in Management and International Business, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
“Dress appropriately.”
Soon after becoming General Motors’ vice president of global human resources in 2009, Mary Barra used those two words to replace a clunky employee dress code that had grown to ten pages long.
One might think that move by Barra, who now heads the company, simply signalled a return to “common sense” – meaning fewer rules and more freedom.
But in practice, “dress appropriately” actually requires something else: authority.
Employees gain more discretion, but inevitably some will get it wrong. When that happens, managers must step in and say so – a responsibility that, in General Motors’ case, some senior managers had been reportedly reluctant to exercise.
This speaks to two deeper points.
If we cede authority to people in a hierarchy – or empower them to decide what is appropriate – then we can make the rule book much shorter. And if the prospect of exercising that discretion feels uncomfortable, it suggests how unused to authority we have become.
Contemporary society, particularly in the Anglo-American world, produces rules in abundance. In this era, bosses and bossing are viewed as something of an embarrassment.
I’m far from the only observer to have identified problems with the rule-heavy approach we often see taken today.
In their 2025 book Abundance, US journalists and podcasters Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe how land-use rules can prevent homes from being built and mire infrastructure projects in delays, rising costs and litigation.
More broadly, people struggle with red tape and pervasive “sludge” – the term used by behavioural economists for obstructive paperwork and administrative burdens.
And despite the proliferation of rules, the powerful have not been effectively restrained. Corporate lobbying has flourished and market competition has declined, as well-resourced actors have learned how to bend complex rules to their advantage.
How did we get here?
Dismantling authority was meant to make organisations more efficient and accountable. Over time, hierarchies were replaced with markets and market-like systems designed to incentivise the delivery of services such as healthcare, electricity and environmental protection.
Paradoxically, the attempt to reduce hierarchy produced more red tape. Sometimes described as neoliberal, this shift ushered in what scholars call the regulatory state.
Private markets providing services such as electricity, sewage treatment and drinking water now operate under complex rules and performance targets meant to guide their behaviour.
Yet these systems have often failed spectacularly. Each failure – whether sewage leaks, leaky buildings, healthcare scandals or other disasters – tends to trigger another round of regulation: more rules, more detailed standards and ever more elaborate performance metrics.
Is more authority the antidote?
In many cases, more detailed rules are not the answer. Organisations would often function better if they made more space for the logic of hierarchy.
Nearly a century ago, pioneering British American economist Ronald Coase explained why: firms exist because it is often more efficient to organise work through authority than through contracts and rules.
The same principle applies today. Giving decision-makers greater discretion could cut through the regulatory mire that can thwart democratically made decisions.
In another American example from my book, I describe how a city government in Oregon was forced to stop construction for seven months on a water-treatment plant, even after years of planning and approvals. The city lacked authority to proceed in the face of legal objections, leading to another court hearing and increased costs.
Similar problems have appeared in New Zealand. An environmental official in Christchurch described how a popular project to rewild the city’s earthquake-affected red zone ran into difficulty.
He explained how situations like this are not uncommon, with planning mechanisms intended to protect the environment sometimes reducing the ecological benefits they are meant to achieve.
Such “stupid rules” are not just a bureaucratic phenomenon.
Many of the rules that companies work to are created by private bodies that create standards, accreditation requirements and auditing processes.
Technology giant Apple’s sustainability rules, for example, set out a detailed code of conduct for its suppliers. But Apple’s own flight from authority makes these rules cumbersome and weak.
Because Apple does not directly control the making of its products, its sustainability rules need to be imposed on suppliers outside the boundaries of Apple itself. Over the past 20 years, recurrent scandals saw Apple ratchet up these rules, while moving the cost of compliance onto its suppliers.
Some things have improved, but the rules are in conflict with the basic structure of the supply chain set up by Apple to grind down costs. It replaced the direct control – and responsibility – of hierarchy with market exchange and contractual standards.
Authority, of course, needs to be checked. But stupid rules can turn organisations into “accountability sinks” in which no one is truly responsible.
Empowering decision makers – just as in that simple “dress appropriately” rule – helps restore clear lines of responsibility.
Like many young, urban professionals, we run on coffee. We especially enjoy frequenting independently owned cafes that pride themselves on ethically sourced beverages, strong local ties and a hip aesthetic.
They’re the kinds of places that sneer at the homogenization and predictability of Tim Hortons, Second Cup, Dunkin and Starbucks.
What was up with all the exposed brick? Why did so many of the baristas look cooler than us, but also so similar to one another? And why did most menus appear on a chalkboard, as if we were still in kindergarten?
Weren’t we supposed to be in one-of-a-kind, authentic settings that make us feel unique and, let’s admit it, slightly elevated?
As it turns out, the visual patterns we noticed had never been backed up by research. So after a quick cortado, we set out to test our hunch that local coffee shops had adopted a uniform aesthetic.
Measuring homogeneity
We asked over 100 American and Canadian young professionals living in cities to share an interior image of their favorite independent coffee shop, describe why they liked the shop’s appearance, and document aspects of its interior design.
They could select these interior design features from a list of 23 common elements that we had identified in a pilot study – brick walls, marble counters, indoor plants, local art, vintage furniture and even the look of the baristas. Respondents could also write down other details they noticed.
Baristas led the pack: Two-thirds of the participants’ favorite local coffee shops had staff with tattoos or piercings. Over half had baristas with beards. Well over half of the respondents noted that their favorite shop had chalkboards, reclaimed wood features, local art, milk foam designs on beverages, local event posters and exposed brick. A large share of the shops had vintage furniture, community message boards and free books available to patrons to read. One-third of the images had indoor plants, trees or greenery.
Next up, we challenged the participants to identify the city where these coffee shops were located.
Using the images provided by the respondents from the initial survey, we asked 158 new and prior participants if they could match the location of the shops depicted in six photographs to Cincinnati, St. Louis or Toronto – cities chosen for their different architectural and aesthetic qualities.
Not a single participant was able to correctly identify the correct city for all the photos.
We gave respondents another chance by showing two pictures of coffee shops, one at a time. This time, the two shops were located in Chicago and San Francisco – again, places that pride themselves on their unique and recognizable design culture. They were now given the choice of these key cities to select from, as well as three wrong cities. Only 6% successfully located both coffee shops, and nearly 20% immediately gave up.
As one participant conceded: “Honestly, these aesthetics are very transferable now … they were random guesses and they could have been in any of the cities mentioned.”
In other words, independent coffee shops in North America have become so similar aesthetically that their location cannot be picked from a lineup. The purportedly unique and local feel of coffee shops has instead been homogenized into a singular, palatable, North American aesthetic.
Ironically, these shops have narrowed their aesthetics like a de facto brand franchise – exactly like the chain stores that their patrons ostensibly reject.
New Yorker cultural critic Kyle Chayka has attributed aesthetic homogenization to popular social media platforms like Instagram. He calls it the “tyranny of the algorithm”: Social media algorithms promote the visuals that users are most likely to engage with. This, in turn, causes the same types of visuals to be liked and shared, since users encounter them more often. Because the algorithm sees they’re popular, it continues to promote them, in a self-reinforcing cycle. In turn, coffee shop owners also see these online images and try to replicate them in their own establishments.
Artificial intelligence will likely accelerate the digital homogenization of visual culture, since AI models are trained on massive datasets that feature widely circulated images. Whether it’s popular fashion, architecture or interior design, idiosyncrasies are collapsing into a generic, hegemonic aesthetic – what scholars Roland Meyer and Jacob Birken call “platform realism.”
Finance plays a role as well. With the average cost of starting a new coffee shop between US$80,000 and $300,000, and with only a small share of coffee shops expected to stay open beyond five years, banks are keen to reduce their risk. Many of them will therefore ask aspiring coffee shop owners to opt for cheaper interior design choices that appeal to the broadest customer base.
The consumer also plays a role
But patrons of hip coffee shops may also be to blame.
Decades before the rise of social media, AI and financial risk management, scholars such as Sharon Zukin revealed how young urban professionals paradoxically embrace the homogenization of their environment in their quest for authenticity.
Those exposed brick walls? Zukin already described how Manhattan real estate brokers had marketed them to gentrifying SoHo yuppies in the early 1980s.
Like their predecessors, today’s hipsters, creative professionals and knowledge workers are essentially cultural and aesthetic consumers. Many of them crave visuals – from fashion to architecture – that are different enough to feel cool and authentic, yet safe enough to match their lifestyle and their social status. They want a tasty latte as much as a palatable interior to drink it in.
Businesses and developers are eager to appeal to these upwardly mobile consumers. At the same time, they want to reach the biggest number of customers. So they tend to create repeatable, homogenized environments in what Zukin describes as a “symbolic economy.”
In coffee shops, patrons want more than a good espresso. They want to immerse themselves in a “scene” that matches their lifestyle and aspirations. And the exposed brick and the vintage furniture do just that – even if they’ve been copy-and-pasted in cities, small and large, across the nation.
As we chase authenticity, we may just be finding comfort in carefully curated conformity.
Israel’s war on Iran reveals a deeper crisis: the collapse of a psychological doctrine built on fear and invincibility. The Palestine Chronicle reports.
ANALYSIS:By Ramzy Baroud
Israel’s military strategy has long relied on psychological dominance and deterrence built on overwhelming violence.
Massacres during the Nakba helped establish fear as a strategic tool to weaken Palestinian resistance.
Doctrines such as the Dahiya Doctrine and “mowing the grass” reinforced Israel’s image of invincibility.
The Gaza genocide and regional escalation have severely weakened Israel’s psychological deterrence.
The war on Iran may accelerate the collapse of Israel’s most important strategic asset: fear.
Wars are rarely fought only on battlefields. They are also fought in the minds of societies, in the perception of power and vulnerability, and in the political imagination of entire regions.
Israel understood this principle early in its history, and psychological dominance became a central component of its military doctrine.
From the earliest years of the Zionist project, the idea that power must appear overwhelming was openly articulated. In 1923, the Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote in his famous essay The Iron Wall that Zionism would only succeed once the indigenous population became convinced that resistance was hopeless.
Only when Palestinians realised they could not defeat the Zionist project, he argued, would they accept its permanence.
The Nakba reflected the logic The events surrounding the Nakba of 1947–48 reflected this logic. Between 800,000 and 900,000 Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee their homes, as hundreds of villages were destroyed or depopulated.
The expulsions occurred through a combination of direct military assault, forced displacement, and the collapse of Palestinian society under war.
Massacres played a crucial role in spreading fear. The killings at Deir Yassin in April 1948, in which more than 100 civilians were killed by Zionist militias, quickly reverberated across Palestine. But Deir Yassin was only one among many massacres that occurred during that period.
Killings in places such as Lydda, Tantura, Safsaf, and numerous other villages contributed to a climate of terror that accelerated the depopulation of Palestinian communities.
The psychological impact of these events was enormous. News of massacres spread from village to village, convincing many Palestinians that remaining in their homes meant risking annihilation.
The lesson was clear: war could function not only as a tool of conquest but as an instrument of psychological domination.
The Doctrine of Fear Over time, this approach evolved into a broader strategic culture that emphasised deterrence through overwhelming violence. Israel’s wars were designed not only to defeat enemies militarily but to reinforce a perception that resistance against Israel would always end in devastating consequences.
Israeli leaders have frequently expressed this philosophy openly. In the early years of the state, Moshe Dayan, one of Israel’s most influential military figures, famously declared that Israelis must be prepared to live by the sword.
The remark captured the belief that Israel’s survival depended on constant readiness to use force and on maintaining a reputation for military ruthlessness.
Decades later, Israeli leaders continued to frame the country’s identity in similar terms. In the mid-2000s, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak described Israel as a “villa in the jungle,” a phrase that reflected a worldview in which Israel saw itself as a fortified island of civilisation surrounded by hostile and supposedly barbaric surroundings.
This perception reinforced the idea that Israel must always project overwhelming strength. Any sign of weakness, according to this logic, would invite attack.
The doctrine took more concrete form in the early 21st century. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israeli strategists articulated what later became known as the Dahiya Doctrine, named after the Beirut suburb that was heavily bombed during the conflict.
The doctrine advocated massive and disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure associated with resistance movements.
The purpose was not only to destroy military targets but to inflict such devastation that entire societies would be deterred from supporting resistance groups.
A similar philosophy guided Israel’s repeated wars on Gaza. Israeli strategists began referring to these periodic campaigns as “mowing the grass.” The phrase suggested that Palestinian resistance could never be permanently eliminated but could be periodically weakened through short and devastating military operations designed to restore Israeli deterrence.
For decades, this strategy appeared to work. Israel’s military superiority, combined with unwavering American support, reinforced an image of invincibility that shaped political calculations across the Middle East.
But psychological dominance depends on belief, and belief can erode.
Gaza and the crisis of deterrence The first major rupture in Israel’s aura of invincibility occurred in May 2000, when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon after years of occupation and sustained resistance from Hezbollah. Across the Arab world, the withdrawal was widely interpreted as the first time Israel had been forced to retreat under military pressure.
Israel attempted to restore its dominance in the 2006 Lebanon war, but the outcome again challenged the image of decisive Israeli military superiority. Despite massive bombardment and ground operations, Hezbollah remained intact and continued to launch rockets until the final days of the conflict.
Yet the most profound blow to Israel’s psychological doctrine occurred decades later with the events surrounding October 7 and the war that followed.
Israel’s response to October 7 was the devastating Gaza genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed or wounded, and nearly the entire Strip was destroyed,
The scale of violence was unprecedented even by the standards of previous Israeli wars on Gaza. Yet the objective was not merely military retaliation or collective punishment. It was also an attempt to restore the psychological balance that Israel believed had been shattered.
This logic had been expressed years earlier by Israeli leaders. During Israel’s earlier war on Gaza in 2008–09, then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni openly suggested that Israel must respond in a way that demonstrates overwhelming force: When Israel is attacked, “it responds by going wild — and this is a good thing”.
In other words, war itself functioned as psychological theatre. But the Gaza genocide produced a very different outcome.
The myth begins to collapse Modern wars unfold not only through military operations but through images that circulate instantly across the world. During the Gaza genocide, countless videos spread across social media showing Israeli armoured vehicles — including the once-feared Merkava tanks — being struck by relatively simple Palestinian anti-tank weapons.
For generations, Israel’s military power had been associated with technological invincibility. Suddenly, millions of viewers were witnessing something entirely different: a powerful army struggling against resistance fighters operating under siege conditions.
The war on Iran has intensified this psychological transformation.
For decades, Israeli society — and much of the region — believed that Israel’s territory was protected by an almost impenetrable defensive shield. The sight of waves of Iranian missiles striking targets inside Israel has therefore carried enormous symbolic weight.
These images challenge one of the most deeply embedded assumptions in Middle Eastern politics: that Israel is militarily untouchable.
At the same time, other actors are exploiting this shift in perception. Hezbollah continues to maintain significant military capabilities despite repeated Israeli attacks. Palestinian resistance groups remain active despite the devastation of Gaza.
Meanwhile, Ansarallah in Yemen has disrupted shipping routes in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, demonstrating how even non-state actors can reshape strategic realities.
Existential frame Israeli leaders themselves increasingly frame the current confrontation as existential. Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly described the war as a struggle for Israel’s survival, echoing earlier language about living by the sword.
Yet the deeper crisis may not be purely military. Israel remains one of the most heavily armed states in the world. But the aura of invincibility that once magnified that power is fading.
Once fear begins to disappear, restoring it becomes extraordinarily difficult.
And that may be the most important consequence of the war on Iran — not the destruction it produces, but the collapse of the psychological doctrine that sustained Israeli power for decades.
Dr Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of eight books. His latest book, Before the Flood, was published by Seven Stories Press. His other books include Our Vision for Liberation, My Father was a Freedom Fighter and The Last Earth. Dr Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). This article was first published by The Palestine Chronicle and is republished here with permission. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
For years, long-range electric trucks seemed impossible. But much has changed in a short time. Rapid improvements to batteries and chargers mean battery electric trucks are already viable for urban and short-range trucks. In December, battery-electric and hybrid trucks outsold conventional trucks in China for the first time.
For trucking fleet managers, this is both crisis and opportunity. Some will wonder whether it’s time to go from trialling electric trucks to deployment. Cheaper running costs are one drawcard for going electric – but there are others. As a manager involved in a trial told the ABC:
I was sceptical at the start. I still love proper diesel trucks. But this thing was light years ahead. It was significantly faster uphill, kept up with traffic easily, and the torque delivery was immediate.
What’s wrong with diesel?
Until the 1960s, most of Australia’s freight was carried by train. After that, trucking started to take over.
These days, diesel trucks dominate due to their high power, long range and quick refuelling.
Diesel for many heavy trucks is even subsidised through the government’s Fuel Tax Credit Scheme. This costs the public purse more than A$10 billion a year and acts as a barrier to cleaner options.
The problem is, diesel trucks are a big contributor to transport emissions, which will soon be Australia’s largest source of emissions. Air pollution from diesel costs us around $6.2 billion a year. Australia imports almost all its liquid fuels, exposing the freight sector to volatile global oil markets.
Australian diesel prices closely follow the international benchmark of Brent crude. Diesel typically trades at a premium of A$14-28 per barrel above crude.
Are electric trucks ready for the job?
New heavy-duty electric trucks can travel 400–500 kilometres on a single charge, making them suitable for many regional freight routes and long distance corridors. Some models have battery warranties good for 1.5 million km, or aerodynamic performance much better than diesel.
The new megawatt charging standard can charge large truck batteries in roughly 30–60 minutes. This is compatible with the rest breaks long-haul drivers are required to take.
Battery swapping is also gaining traction. Instead of waiting for a truck to recharge, the depleted battery can be switched for a fully charged one in just a few minutes.
China is leading the shift to electric freight, deploying large numbers of trucks and dedicated charging infrastructure along major logistics corridors. More than 200,000 are sold each year in China.
[embedded content]
Electric truck battery swapping in less than 5 minutes.
More expensive to buy, much cheaper to run
Electric trucks are more expensive to buy. The real attraction is in their cheaper running costs. Consider a simplified example of a medium-duty delivery truck.
To drive 100km, a diesel truck would burn roughly 35 litres of diesel, depending on vehicle size, load and driving conditions. At about $2.30 per litre this week, that’s roughly $80.
To go the same distance, an equivalent electric truck uses an average of 130 kilowatt-hours. At a commercial rate of 30 cents per kWh, that’s about $39 – roughly half the cost of diesel.
For truck fleets travelling tens of thousands of kilometres each year, those savings can add up quickly – even before the lower maintenance costs that come with much simpler engines. Analyst David Leitch estimates going electric for trucks on the Melbourne-Sydney route could be financially worthwhile in 2–4 years.
What are the barriers?
Electric trucks cost roughly 1.3–2.4 times the price of a diesel equivalent, due largely to battery costs. This gap is closing. Prices have fallen 50% over the past five years.
Heavy trucks have to be charged at extremely high power – often hundreds of kilowatts or even megawatts. This means truck depots and freight corridors will need major electrical upgrades. Dedicated truck-charging hubs are starting to be announced along major freight routes.
The charging issue creates a familiar chicken-and-egg problem. Fleet operators are reluctant to commit if there aren’t enough chargers, while investors are unwilling to build large charging hubs until more trucks are on the road.
Electric trucks are only now emerging in Australia. A growing number of fleet trials are underway, while major logistics operators already use electric trucks on urban delivery routes with predictable distances and overnight depot charging.
Several manufacturers now offer electric trucks, from medium-duty city delivery vehicles to heavy-duty prime movers. Volvo is expected to begin building heavy-duty models in Brisbane this year.
State governments and industry groups have backed trials to better understand how these vehicles perform under Australian conditions – long distances, heavy loads and high temperatures.
Some heavy-duty electric trucks will be built locally at Volvo’s Wacol factory in Brisbane.Volvo
The road ahead
If the barriers are addressed, the economic case for electric trucks could become compelling. Lower running costs, less reliance on oil markets, and improved air quality all strengthen the argument for electrifying freight. Truck drivers favour them for their smoother, quieter ride.
Rising oil prices remind us of how dependent Australia and many other countries are on imported fossil fuels. Electric trucks won’t replace diesel overnight. But their advantages are getting ever clearer.
The past 48 hours in Australia has showcased the dramatic complexities of the country’s migration and asylum landscape, and the power of ministerial intervention in this federal portfolio.
On the one hand, the federal government pulled out all stops to safeguard members of the Iranian women’s soccer team from returning to Iran – after competing in Australia at the Asian Women’s Cup – by providing them with refugee status.
On the other hand, as this drama was unfolding in Queensland and then Sydney Airport, the government announced it was also introducing legislation to ban people entering Australia for set periods of time if they held temporary visas from designated countries.
So, why have authorities bent over backwards to help some people stay in Australia, while banning others from entering the country?
How the soccer players were helped
The Iranian soccer team drama started when players refused to sing the national anthem before their first match on the Gold Coast.
The silent protest sparked fury in Iran, with the athletes labelled “war traitors” on state television. It is a crime that attracts the death penalty in wartime in Iran.
Then on Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed two more people (a player and a support staffer) had sought asylum in Australia.
He said the rest of the group – with the exception of a “small number” – were given a chance to discuss their options with Department of Home Affairs officials before the flight home. Some spoke with family members but ultimately declined the chance to stay.
A toughening of immigration laws
As Australian officials were helping the Iranian soccer team, news broke the federal government was planning to toughen immigration laws by banning people from some countries travelling to Australia even if they held valid visitor visas.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship Julian Hill introduced the proposed laws to parliament only ten days after US/Israel-Iran war began.
This action could be seen as a way of future-proofing the case of the Iranian women’s soccer team being repeated on a wider scale.
No specific countries were listed but this could be applied to citizens from Iran or any other country affected by the current Middle East conflict, or future conflicts.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended the timing of the announcement on ABC’s Radio National:
I know there’s been some political criticism but it should be based on fact. It’s not legislation that targets humanitarian visas – it’s legislation which enables us to manage temporary visas. We have to work out how we manage our borders in the context of a very large-scale event.
The law, if passed, would likely be used to prevent some people from nominated countries from travelling to Australia if their visa was issued before the US and Israel struck Tehran, and if there are concerns they may overstay their visa or apply for protection while in Australia.
Power would rest with the minister for Home Affairs to determine the specific countries and visas this would apply to – for instance student, tourist or business visas.
People holding valid visitor visas would have paid their visa application fees and possibly already made travel arrangements. They might be coming to study or visit family.
[embedded content]
The federal government is concerned about a possible influx of immigrants as conflict continues in the Middle East.
Some endure long waits
Managing borders in the instance of a large-scale event was treated very differently by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke who offered asylum to about 42,000 Chinese students after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Other groups of Iranians living in Australia have not received similarly preferential treatment like the soccer players.
For instance, several hundred Iranians are in the so-called “legacy” caseload of people who claimed asylum in Australia more than a decade ago and are still waiting for permanent visas.
Iranians who have been granted postgraduate research (student) visas waiting to take up their places in Australian universities could be affected if the proposed changes go through, delaying their chance to travel.
Additionally there are Iranian students currently studying in Australia who may be unable or unwilling to return to Iran after the completion of their studies.
Migration policies should be equitable
Australia’s migration program is complex, resulting in a form of “manifactured precarity”.
Just three weeks ago, Australian women and children – families of so-called Islamic State fighters – were refused permission to return. This was despite groups like Save the Children calling for their safe and dignified return on humanitarian grounds.
Fit for purpose migration policies need comprehensive approaches that are transparent and applied equitably.
Policy on the run, as we’ve seen in the case of the legacy caseload of people on temporary visas and the Iran soccer team drama, can lead to bigger issues down the track.
French Polynesia’s President Moetai Brotherson says growing global instability is a reminder that Pacific nations must strengthen cooperation within the region.
Speaking to PMN News in an exclusive interview, Brotherson said the Pacific must focus on deeper partnerships with neighbours such as New Zealand to build resilience against external shocks.
“When we see the turmoil in the world, it’s a reminder to us, as all the Pacific Island nations, that our first and foremost vicinity is our region,” Brotherson said.
“We have to increase cooperation between ourselves to make us more resilient to outside crises.”
Brotherson has held the presidency since 2023 and previously represented French Polynesia’s third constituency in the French National Assembly from 2017.
He made the comments following discussions with New Zealand Foreign Minister Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters during Peters’ visit to French Polynesia.
Peters described the meeting as a unique opportunity to strengthen ties between Pacific neighbours.
“We had a very good, quite unique discussion,” he said.
‘Pretty special’ “Where in the world would you sit down like that, with a president, and have a friendly New Zealand-type discussion, or Pacific-type discussion? It’s pretty special.”
Peters said New Zealand must place greater importance on its relationships in the region.
“We underrate the value of this. Because when we talk about the Pacific, it’s not our backyard like we used to say decades ago,” he said.
“It’s our front yard. And the sooner we understand that, the better.”
Brotherson said the historical, cultural, and genealogical ties between the two nations provided a foundation for closer cooperation.
He said collaboration could cover areas such as climate adaptation, maritime and air connectivity, digital infrastructure, and economic development.
“We have many areas of cooperation that needed to be discussed, and these were the topics that were addressed during our meeting,” he said.
Geopolitical competition The French Polynesian leader also raised concerns about the growing geopolitical competition in the Pacific, particularly between the United States and China.
“We don’t want to align with anyone. I mean, either China or the US,” he said. “We want to be able to discuss with everyone and to have relationships, be it cultural or economic relationships with everyone.”
The Pacific has become an increasingly contested strategic region in recent years, with China expanding its economic and infrastructure partnerships with several island nations.
The United States and its allies have also increased diplomatic engagement, development funding, and security cooperation.
Climate change remains another major concern, particularly for the low-lying atolls of the Tuamotu archipelago — the world’s largest chain of coral atolls, located in French Polynesia northeast of Tahiti.
The French territory consists of 118 volcanic islands and coral atolls across five archipelagos in the South Pacific. Comprising 78 low-lying atolls (like Rangiroa and Fakarava) spread over 3.1 million sq km, this destination is renowned for its remote, pristine lagoons, world-class scuba diving, and black pearl farming
“They are facing the same issues as Tuvalu or other Pacific island nations that are at the forefront of climate change and the sea level rise,” Brotherson said.
‘Salination of water’ “What we are seeing currently is a salination of the water lentils on those atolls, rendering life very hard. It’s not impossible.
“So water management is going to be a real issue in the upcoming years related to climate change but you also have the coastal erosion that we have to tackle.”
The President of the Government of French Polynesia and the Foreign Minister of New Zealand.
For communities on these low-lying atolls, the impacts of climate change are already being felt through declining freshwater supplies, erosion, and pressure on traditional food sources.
Brotherson also reiterated his support for greater political sovereignty for French Polynesia. He said economic development and resilience must come first.
French Polynesia enjoys a high degree of autonomy under France, which retains control over defence, currency, and aspects of foreign policy.
Brotherson said the pathway toward greater sovereignty must be gradual and carefully managed.
He added that economic resilience will be key before any move toward full independence and said the territory could achieve political sovereignty within the next 10 to 15 years.
“It’s all about interdependencies, that’s how we’re going to build independence. When it comes to strengthening our economy, you know, we still have a lot of work to do on food security, on energy transition, and then we’ll be able to be more confident as a nation.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZand PMN News.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has released its much-anticipated investigation into the six people referred by the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.
The report reveals the identity of the referred people, which was previously not public knowledge: five bureaucrats and former prime minister Scott Morrison, who was social services minister at the time.
NACC found that two of the six individuals (Mark Withnell and Serena Wilson) had committed serious corrupt conduct. Notably, Morrison had no findings of corruption made against him.
Why did NACC decide to investigate?
On July 6 2024, the Robodebt royal commission referred six people involved in the Robodebt scheme to the NACC.
Initially the NACC declined to investigate, stating that the issues had been fully ventilated by the royal commission.
Following hundreds of complaints from the public about this decision, the inspector of NACC conducted an investigation into NACC’s decision not to investigate. She found it was flawed due to the NACC’s commissioner’s conflict of interest with one of the referred persons.
Former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle was then appointed in December 2024 to reconsider whether and how the NACC should deal with the referrals. Nettle determined each referral raised a corruption issue under the NACC act, and it was in the public interest for the NACC to conduct a corruption investigation.
This finally prompted the NACC to decide to investigate the matter. This investigation was conducted by a deputy commissioner, Kylie Kilgour, to avoid a conflict of interest.
NACC held private hearings for this investigation, where the six referred people and 33 witnesses were called to give evidence. There were no public hearings.
What were the main findings?
The investigation found that two of the six referred people had committed serious corrupt conduct.
The commission found that Mark Withnell (previously general manager of business integrity at the Department of Human Services) engaged in corrupt conduct by intentionally misleading officers of the Department of Social Services in 2015 in preparing a submission to the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet of the Robodebt scheme proposal.
It also found that Serena Wilson (previously secretary at the Department of Social Services) engaged in corrupt conduct by intentionally misleading the ombudsman in 2017 during the ombudsman’s own investigation into the Robodebt Scheme. Wilson had concealed from the ombudsman legal advice that the Robodebt scheme was unlawful, and made misleading statements about the scheme.
However, NACC also concluded there was insufficient admissible evidence to establish the alleged offences against either Withnell or Wilson beyond reasonable doubt. It was therefore not appropriate to refer them to the director of public prosecutions.
NACC found Scott Morrison did not engage in serious corrupt conduct. This was because he was entitled to rely on departmental advice. The report lays the responsibility for misleading Cabinet on the public servants.
Is this adequate?
Key admissions and statements made during NACC investigations are not admissible in criminal proceedings.
This is because anti-corruption commissions often have extraordinary powers to abrogate fundamental privileges that normally apply to legal proceedings. These include legal professional privilege, public interest immunity and the privilege against self-incrimination. These privileges are necessary in order to allow anti-corruption commissions to uncover acts of corruption without impediment.
However, the abrogation of privileges is always twinned with “use immunity”. This prevents the compelled evidence from being used against the individual in a criminal prosecution, ensuring it is used for investigation rather than for the punishment of that person.
On the one hand, we now have a full ventilation of the truth of the matter and the role of each person in this sorry saga, both through the Royal Commission and the NACC investigation. And we have findings these two public servants have engaged in serious corrupt conduct.
However, as the public servants are not likely to be criminally prosecuted, it is unclear what other repercussions there will be beyond reputational damage.
More tellingly, the Robodebt scheme has exposed fundamental failings in our system of public administration. Public servants have lost power over the decades, with the rise of ministerial advisers and senior bureaucrats being in fixed-term contracts and in constant fear of losing their jobs. As a result, it is more difficult for public servants to provide “frank and fearless advice” – they are instead often focused on pleasing the minister. In the case of Robodebt, the public servants manoeuvred to put together this unlawful scheme that has caused significant harm to hundreds of thousands of Australians.
[embedded content]
The Robodebt royal commission lambasted the scheme as an “extraordinary saga” of “venality, incompetence and cowardice”.
We also have a situation where ministers are able to evade responsibility for these policy choices. This is because they have plausible deniability. They can simply use the phrase: “I was not advised”. As long as they are careful enough, they can simply blame their advisers when things go horribly wrong. Here, the minister who orchestrated the whole scheme is not fully held accountable.
The Robodebt scheme shows the rise of automation in government may lead to significant harm. Therefore, stronger safeguards are needed before we deploy such technologies.
The NACC’s investigation has provided us with detailed examination of the conduct of the six people who were primarily responsible for the Robodebt scheme. It has shown some of these actions have amounted to serious corrupt conduct.
But there are broader issues at stake here. If we want to avoid another Robodebt, the government needs to look at broader reform on automated government decision-making and measures to strengthen the public service.
Matt Canavan was once Barnaby Joyce’s staffer, and later his closest ally and most vociferous spruiker. Not to mention his best political friend.
Now, in selecting Canavan as their new leader, the Nationals have chosen him to spearhead the party’s life-and-death fight against One Nation. Its latest weapon is Joyce, who defected from the Nationals late last year.
Canavan can perhaps thank the surge in One Nation’s vote in recent months for his leadership victory. It’s a direct response to this threat. After the 2025 election, Canavan only received seven votes when he ran against David Littleproud, who quit the leadership unexpectedly on Tuesday.
Canavan is right wing and hard line, but not uniformly or predictably so. He’s not just anti-net zero but aggressively pro-coal. On the other hand, he openly expressed concerns about the United States-Israeli attacks on Iran, which was at odds with the Coalition’s position.
Having formerly worked for the Productivity Commission, Canavan has a good economic background, although the commission would look askance at some of the views he espouses nowadays on economic questions.
He is a strong communicator – his very direct speech cuts through, whether people agree with him or not.
Canavan doesn’t shy away from a fight, and he won’t be inhibited when the battle is against Joyce. He was appalled and outspokenly critical of Joyce’s defection.
Historically, the Nationals have always done best when they have had strong leaders. Canavan can be expected to lead from the front, and it will be interesting to see how the party room, used to Littleproud asking them their view about everything, will find the new regime.
Canavan entered the Senate from Queensland in 2014 and served as resources minister in the Coalition government. In 2020 he resigned from the cabinet to support Joyce’s attempt to dislodge Michael McCormack from the Nationals’ leadership,
Having its leader in the Senate (for the first time) will have its inconveniences for the National Party. On the other hand, Canavan will often be facing off against Pauline Hanson. At the next election he will seek to move to the lower house, especially if, as seems likely, Michelle Landry retires from her seat of Capricornia, where he lives.
What will Angus Taylor think of the choice of Canavan? He will be pleased the Nationals will have a powerful voice and a good campaigner. But Taylor is a conventional economic dry, which Canavan is not. How their differences will work out will be a test for both.
The Nationals have chosen Victorian Darren Chester as deputy. This will be another match with its potential frictions. Chester is on the left of the Nationals. His views on some issues will be a useful counterweight to Canavan’s, but their challenge will be to manage divergences.
Canavan will have to get used to the discipline leadership requires. He previously declined to serve on the opposition frontbench so he could be free to speak and act as he wished. He crossed the floor at will, including last week when he voted to censure Hanson over her anti Muslim comments while the opposition wanted to take a softer position.
Canavan hopped into Hanson at his first news conference as leader:
“Identity politics of division that we’ve seen on the left is creeping into the right now. And I was very critical of Pauline’s comments, dividing Australians into different groups, suggesting there are no good in certain groups of Australians. I totally reject that. We are all Australians.
“What unites us as a country is more than what divides us. Even when we have these robust debates, we have a wonderful country with wonderful people from all different backgrounds, religions, etc. And I’m sorry, I worry about where Pauline is.”
Meanwhile Hanson was quick to the draw, tweeting that “Canavan has joined the woke pile on, choosing to attack One Nation instead of opening the door to working together in Australia’s interests”.
Joyce had another take. In what he described as a “first volley” he told Sky News, “I think there’ll be a lot of similarities between Matt, myself, and Pauline. Not so much Darren [Chester]. The trouble is there won’t be the same similarities between Matt, myself, Pauline and the Coalition.
“I know Matt strongly believes in income splitting. […] So do you still believe in income splitting?
“I know that Matt does not believe in net zero nor the Paris agreement. But does he now believe in the Paris agreement?”
Joyce threw out a very cheeky challenge. “Are the Nationals going to be the deputy of the Coalition, or will the Liberals immediately continue to shut them down?
“Because now you’ll have the leader of the Liberal party in the house […] and then it becomes whether it’s Matt or Jane as the deputy of the Coalition in the Senate.”
Joyce says he’s looking forward to the contest with his old mate. “You know, when you play first grade, you want to play with the first graders. That’s how you judge yourself.” The Nationals had been hopeless, he said.
When it was put to him that Canavan was a potent communicator and a smart politician, Joyce quipped, “I trained him well”.
He then pulled himself up. “That’s hubris. I don’t mean that. He trained himself.
“I think the biggest issue is – I know Matt, I know him very well, and he is an exceptional guy and a good fella. But his policy beliefs are just a million miles away from where a lot of the Liberal party are. And to be quite frank, they’re quite a distance away from where Darren is.”
Right now, the United States and Israel are continuing their bombardment of Iran.
As the confirmed death toll climbs past 1330 and hospitals, schools, and residential neighborhoods are hit daily, the media apparatus that sold you the Iraq war and denied Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians for the last two years is now running the same playbook.
The Atlantic is laundering Netanyahu’s reputation as a “conflict-averse” leader while he tells the world this war lets him do what he’s “yearned for” for 40 years.
Bari Weiss is tweeting fire emojis at pro-war clips, falsely suggesting Iran has nuclear weapons, and devoting journalistic resources to tracking the Instagram likes of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife.
CNN is giving unchallenged airtime to International Criminal Court (ICC)-indicted Israeli officials claiming American soldiers have an “obligation” to die for Israel.
And that’s before the cable news network is taken over by Paramount, the Weiss operation run by the nepo-son of Larry Ellison, the single largest donor to Friends of the IDF.
The BBC, meanwhile, leads with nine dead in Israel while relegating some 180 children killed by the U.S. in a girls’ school in Minab to a footnote.
This is what the legacy media machine looks like in wartime. It has always looked like this.
And it is exactly why we launched Drop Site less than two years ago.
While Weiss and CBS were manufacturing consent for this war, Drop Site has had reporters on the ground reporting the facts.
In just the last week:
Reza Sayah reported from Tehran on a double-tap bombing that killed over 20 people at a popular square during Ramadan, connecting the tactic to US strikes in Afghanistan, and Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
Drop Site correspondent reported from Minab, where a missile struck a girls’ elementary school and killed 180 children, and from Lamerd, where a sports hall full of teenage girls was bombed during practice.
We were among the first outlets on the ground verifying the strike in Minab as US and Israeli propagandists sought to deny and deflect.
We have consistently obtained exclusive information from senior Iranian officials who have contradicted claims by Trump, claims that have just as consistently fallen apart under scrutiny.
We exposed the fabricated CIA narrative about “tracking Khamenei for months” to his “secret location” — his secret location was his office, and he had refused to relocate.
Warning: some readers might find images in this article disturbing
We all know cats represent a major threat to native animals and birds. Australia’s 5.3 million domestic cats kill a total of 546 million animals each year in Australia. What’s less well known is allowing your domestic cat to roam outside exposes them to considerable danger – and the risk of a short life.
About two-thirds of all Australian cat owners have had a cat die while out roaming. The top risks are road traffic accidents, fighting and falls.
Our recent research review found keeping your cat at home at all times isn’t just good for wildlife – it’s much safer for your cat.
Losing a cat is tragic. But there are other risks too. Many owners rack up large veterinary bills while their cats are left with lifelong health conditions. Our review also found this situation is not unique to Australia, but reflects the global risk faced by free-roaming cats.
A suspected bird of prey attack on a cat’s cheek.Claire Sharp, CC BY-ND
What are the risks?
Cameras mounted on collars provide a cat’s-eye view of the hazards roaming cats face. In one study of 55 free-roaming felines in the United States, 25% risked poisoning by eating or drinking while away from home – any substance could be hazardous. Nearly half (45%) crossed roads, 25% encountered other cats, 20% crawled under houses and 20% explored storm drains.
This isn’t just American feline bravado. When cameras were fitted to 37 cats in New Zealand, 59% drank away from home, 40% ate away from home, 32% crossed roads and 21% risked falling by climbing onto roofs.
Australian cats are no exception. In one study, 428 radio-tracked cats averaged 4.8 road crossings per day.
Jaw and dental injuries caused when the cat was hit by a car.Claire Sharp, CC BY-ND
What are the outcomes?
If you’re a fan of The Simpsons you might recall the fate of their family cats: Snowball I and Snowball II died on the road, Snowball III drowned, Coltrane (AKA Snowball IV) fell to his death, and Snowball V is still with us. The reality is uncomfortably similar. Our review found that trauma – mainly road traffic accidents, fighting and falls – kills or injures many free-roaming cats globally.
In a recent UK study, road traffic accidents were the leading cause of death for cats aged less than one year old all the way to eight-year-old cats.
This aligns with European estimates, which suggest 18–24% of cats are struck by a car during their lifetime, with around 70% of those incidents proving fatal. Victims are often under five years old and predominantly male. Risks are higher for those not desexed, as they tend to roam wider and more frequently.
Love and status offer no protection. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s cat, Paddles, colloquially known as New Zealand’s first cat, died after being hit by a car in 2017.
While it’s hard to quantify the instances of deliberate human cruelty to cats, there is global evidence for deliberate poisoning and injury to roaming cats, many of which die before receiving medical intervention.
In one study tracking 55 roaming cats in Western Australia over just eight months, two were poisoned, one lost a front leg in a traffic accident, one fractured two canine teeth in a fall, and two required veterinary treatment for fight-related injuries.
Drawing all these factors together, we estimated outdoor pet cats have lives at least 2–3 years shorter than the population of contained pet cats. Those that survive accidents or disease may have lifelong disabilities.
The simplest way to protect your cats is to contain them on your property, just as Australians do with other domestic animals. Extensive advice is available on how to keep cats happy and healthy while contained.
Importantly, containment doesn’t mean keeping your cat indoors at all times. Backyards can be modified with fence-top rollers to prevent escape. Some owners enclose part of the yard to create a “catio” – an outdoor cat enclosure – allowing their cats to enjoy fresh air and sunshine while remaining secure.
Many cats can also be trained to walk on a harness or leash, making it possible to take them for supervised outings. A recent report from Norway found providing controlled outdoor access is often important for maintaining cat wellbeing.
Cats need to be entertained when in the house. They enjoy outside views, toys, scratching surfaces, above-ground climbing and sitting spaces, and opportunities for play. They are naturally solitary animals, so places to hide are useful.
If cats can’t go outside to toilet, they will need two indoor litter trays. Because cats are fastidious, trays must be cleaned frequently. In multi-cat households, provide one litter tray per cat, plus an extra. Place the trays in separate, quiet locations, and never beside the food bowl.
Responsible cat ownership
Australians love their cats. In 2019, roughly a quarter of Australian households owned a cat. By 2025, that figure had risen to a third. Over the same period, households reporting they kept their cats indoors rose from 36% to 48%.
Perhaps we are finally valuing our cats as we do our dogs and listening to Aussie songwriter and singer Eric Bogle’s sage advice:
Oh you who love your pussy be sure to keep him in. Don’t let him argue with a truck, the truck is bound to win. And upon the busy road don’t let him play or frolic. If you do I’m warning you it could be CAT-astrophic.
Have you visited a petrol station recently? You might have been in for a shock – and not just because the price on display was probably over A$2 a litre.
As the world grapples with one of the most severe energy shocks in decades, Australians have flocked to the fuel pump in their thousands, filling up cars, trailer-mounted fuel tanks and even jerry cans. In response, some stations have begun rationing fuel and closing pumps.
But many Australians will be feeling a sense of déjà vu. In early 2020, as the COVID pandemic sent shockwaves through global supply chains, consumers rushed to stock up on essentials from pasta to toilet paper, leaving shelves bare around the world.
So, why do some people rush out to stockpile, and why does simply telling them not to often not work? Our previousresearch has explored these questions in detail. To get people to stop, we need to give them a smarter message.
Who panic buys – and why?
Panic buying doesn’t help anyone. When many people do this at once, the sudden intense spike in demand creates new supply chain problems that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Back in 2020, in the wake of lockdown-driven panic buying, we surveyed almost 800 Australians to try and understand the psychological factors that drive panic buying.
We looked at three key categories: non-perishable foods (such as canned food), cleaning products, and hygiene products (including toilet paper).
Nearly empty shelves at a Sydney supermarket in March 2020.Kate Trifo/Unsplash
Our research drew on well-established psychological theories that describe how our perceptions of the world and internal beliefs influence the way we act.
What we found
Across all three product categories, we found people’s attitudes and risk perceptions were linked with how much they bought.
Put simply, when people believed stocking up was sensible or wise, they were more likely to buy extra. Similarly, if people felt there was a risk in not stocking up, they tended to purchase more.
We found social influences also played a role, but only for non-perishable food items. People were more likely to stock up if they felt others approved of doing so, or that people like them were doing the same.
Interestingly, a number of important factors were not linked to increased panic buying in our study. For example, differences in age, gender, income and household size did not predict whether people would buy more.
On top of this, people’s personality traits – such as tolerance for distress and uncertainty, and even past hoarding tendencies – did not consistently predict stockpiling.
This suggests panic buying behaviour is largely driven by how everyday people interpret risk and decide what feels reasonable in uncertain situations.
Crafting better messages
Based on these findings, we conducted a follow-up study. This time, we used our research to design an intervention that would stop panic buying, then tested its effectiveness on a sample of Australian community members.
We showed them a video that described supply chains as stable and emphasised why buying normally helps the community and protects vulnerable people. It also highlighted the fact most people were behaving responsibly and appealed to shared values about doing the right thing.
This successfully reduced people’s intentions to stockpile. It also measurably shifted their attitudes and perceptions of social norms. And they saw choosing not to stockpile as less risky.
Fuel prices have surged as a result of conflict in the Middle East.William West/Getty
Lessons we can learn
So, what can we learn as a community to help us curb panic buying this time around?
Back in the early part of the pandemic, some politicians framed panic buying as “selfish” or even “un-Australian”.
However, to actually reduce panic buying, smart messaging needs to respect people’s intelligence and acknowledge their fears. It can do that by providing reassurance while still acknowledging the disruptions they’re seeing are real. People can then reassess whether stockpiling is truly necessary.
There are reasons this time might be different. For one, early COVID panic buying was mostly about shortages. There weren’t immediate sharp price rises for many consumer products in early 2020.
The current oil shock has flowed through to prices at the fuel pump almost immediately. This could exacerbate some of the psychological factors driving panic buying.
That makes how the situation is communicated even more important. Our research suggests panic buying is driven less by selfishness and more by how people perceive risk and decide what feels reasonable during uncertainty.
With fuel shortages and visible price rises likely amplifying these perceptions, the focus should be on reassurance, normalising responsible behaviour, and appealing to people’s sense of responsibility to their community.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
There is a widespread perception in Aotearoa New Zealand that the ‘Gulf States’ are similar, and closely aligned to each other. The States most familiar to New Zealanders are United Arab Emirates (‘Dubai’ to the many New Zealanders who do not appreciate that Dubai is just one of six Emirates) and Qatar.
Further we’ve long-forgotten the dispute which, not-so-long-ago, led to Qatar being isolated by the Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other Sunni Arab countries (noting Egypt in particular). This started with the Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict, which in 2017 escalated into the Qatar diplomatic crisis. This conflict related to allegations of inappropriate financial connections between Qatar and Hamas. While apparent resolution took place in 2021, there is now a new division; a division even more opaque to casual western observers, and noting that western observations of other parts of the world are rarely anything other than casual.
In October 2021, the popular government of Sudan (the result of a popular revolution in 2019) was overthrown by the Sudanese Armed Forces. On the eve of the coup, ‘Protestors held signs stating, “the Emirates will not govern us, nor the implementation of Sisi”.’ For Sisi, read Egypt.
Essentially the anti-Qatar nations were developing their interests in the military and economic exploitation of Sudan. Then, in April 2023, the two parties to the 2021 coup – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces – split in spectacular fashion, creating the present Sudanese Civil War. The UAE backed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while Egypt and Saudi Arabia backed the SAF. This is a hideous civil war (see my War in Sudan), with most of the reported atrocities allegedly being committed by the RSF.
This present division of civil-war-sponsorship is compounded by the diverging relationships of these three Arab states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE – with Israel. The Trump-sponsored 2020 Abraham Accords brought Saudi Arabia and UAE (and Bahrain) into line with Egypt as an ally-of-sorts with Israel. According to this Wikipedia account:
“On August 14, 2021, the Associated Press reported that a secret oil deal between Israel and the Emirates, struck in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, had turned the Israeli resort town of Eilat into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets. It was expected to endanger the Red Sea reefs, which host some of the greatest coral diversity on the planet. As Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia also share the gulf’s waters, an ecological disaster was likely to impact their ecosystems.”
Since then, relations between UAE (and Bahrain) and Israel became particularly close. Relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia (and Egypt), on the other hand have soured since the outbreak of the present Sudan war. At the same time, as revealed by Sudan, relations between UAE and these two large Red Sea nations have substantially deteriorated.
That is the backdrop to Iran’s greater hostility, at present, towards the UAE than towards Qatar. Western reports of the present conflict tend to equate Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait as ‘peas in a pod’. The reality is that UAE is a substantial – albeit understated – ally of Israel. (There has been suspicion that UAE has provided substantial secret support for Israel in its recent wars, especially Israel’s genocidal war against Hamas in Gaza. Iran will be well aware of the extent of this UAE-Israel alliance.)
UAE is now in an antagonist relationship with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. (Indeed, it’s now UAE rather than Qatar which is the isolate on the Arabian Peninsula.) In Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia back the SAF. The RSF, on the other hand, is funded and supplied through an opaque deal with UAE; which means that Israel – through its UAE proxy – may in fact be the most important backer of the RSF. And we should note that Israel is, formally, the most important global proxy of the United States; though it may now be that the United States has become Israel’s most important proxy.
(For security reasons, and as a protest against the UAE’s geopolitical cynicism, I decided that I would never again fly to London via the Emirates. Tip for Air New Zealand: put on more flights to Vancouver, and publicise the route to London via Canada.)
Qatar, Hamas, and Israel
The matter of Qatar’s financial connections with Hamas are distinctly murky. I quote here from the ABC (Australian) 60 Minutes documentary Gaza, the Forever War (11 March 2024). The programme features interviews with former senior Israeli political and military personnel.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: It now appears that Netanyahu wanted to sow seeds of division between the hardliners who ruled Gaza and the more conciliatory Palestinian Authority, running the West Bank.
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: We did something very, very simple. We did everything in order to make sure that Hamas will go on controlling Gaza and Palestinian Authority will control the West Bank so they will fight each other.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Netanyahu allowed Qatar to give massive amounts of cash to Hamas in Gaza.
AMI AYALON, FMR HEAD OF SHIN BET: So what we did with the permission of our prime Minister is to let Qatar to transfer a huge amount of money in cash, probably more than $1.4 billion, and to make sure that they will be able to send people to work in Israel and to achieve or to get intelligence if they need. By doing it, we increase the power of Hamas.
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: That served Netanyahu who wanted to avoid any discussion of two state solution.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: So, are you saying Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately boosted Hamas to try to prevent a Palestinian state?
EHUD BARAK, FMR PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Yeah, sure. He deliberately and systematically even told on record, whoever wants to avoid the threat of a two-state solution has to support my policy of paying protection money to the Hamas.
JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Netanyahu maintains the Qatar money was to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. Having helped build up Hamas, Netanyahu has vowed to destroy it.
YEHUDA SHAUL, FMR ISRAELI ARMY COMMANDER: He fed the beast and it exploded in our face.
The Hexagon Alliance
From Netanyahu says Israel will forge regional alliance to rival ‘radical axes’ (Al Jazeera, 22 Feb 2026) we have: ‘Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, also referred to Greece, Cyprus and other unnamed Arab, African and Asian countries. “In the vision I see before me, we will create an entire system, essentially a hexagon of alliances around or within the Middle East,” Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel. “The intention here is to create an axis of nations that see eye to eye on the reality, challenges, and goals against the radical axes, both the radical Shia axis, which we have struck very hard, and the emerging radical Sunni axis”.’
In Will Ethiopia be part of Israel’s ‘hexagon’ alliance rivalling its enemies? (Al Jazeera, 25 Feb 2026): “In December, Israel recognised Somaliland’s statehood, becoming the first country to do so. Months before, there were unconfirmed talks about plans to move displaced Palestinians to Somaliland or to South Sudan, another key Israeli ally in the region. Analysts speculate that countries like South Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, another close friend of Israel, may also recognise Somaliland.”
So the hexagon would appear to be Greece, Cyprus, India, UAE, Somaliland, and Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a Judeo-Christian heritage, in sharp contract to most of its regional neighbours. (See my reference to Judeo-Christian techno-supremacism in The Greater Evil, Scoop, 2 March 2026.)
Re the “emerging radical Sunni axis”, this article from India – The Hexagon Alliance, by Ayaan Ahmad and Arjun Dev Singh, 26 Feb 2026 – suggests “Sunni-majority states such as Türkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, alongside Jordan and Iraq”. You would have to add Egypt to that.
And from Is Türkiye Israel’s next target in the Middle East? (Al Jazeera, 21 Sep 2025): “In Washington, Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, suggested that Türkiye could be Israel’s next target and warned that it should not rely on its NATO membership for protection.”
This reflects the significance of Greece and Cyprus within the hexagon. It also points to the United Kingdom, indirectly. Part of the island of Cyprus is British sovereign territory; ie not at all a ‘foreign airbase’. And another part of the island of Cyprus has been a Turkish realm state, albeit unrecognised by the international community (as Somaliland – formally British Somaliland – is also unrecognised).
We may note that the tension between UAE and Saudi Arabia is revealed in Google Maps. Despite there being a long border between the two countries, there is only one road crossing, to the far west of Abu Dhabi. Indeed, Doha in Qatar is closer to that border crossing than is either Dubai or the city of Abu Dhabi. 95% of UAE’s population lives in that country’s northeast corner. Along most of the border, there are parallel roads, but no crossing points. In Saudi Arabia that road is Highway 95. In UAE, its road is labelled ‘Boarder [sic] Patrol Road CIVILIAN VEHICLE PROHIBITED’.
The Yemen and Somaliland affairs
As noted by Al Jazeera: ‘Saudi Arabia is embroiled in an ongoing rift with the United Arab Emirates over how to deal with the conflict in Yemen.’
Yemen is one of those many places that are geopolitically important, but completely off New Zealand’s media radar. Historically Yemen was host to an important Jewish population (Yemenite Jews). Southern Yemen – especially Aden – was, for a century, a critical cog in the British Empire. Post-colonially, Southern Yemen became a ‘radical’ country in the world order, whereas Northern Yemen was a religiously conservative society, the Shia Zaydi Imamate until 1962 and then the Yemen Arab Republic.
In more recent years, that conservative north has become a Shia ‘Iranian proxy’, the ‘Houthis’. And the internationally recognised government of Yemen – operative in the south – has become, in that same sense, a Saudi Arabian proxy regime.
On 2 December 2025, the failed 2025–2026 Southern Yemen campaign began, essentially an attempt by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) to overthrow the Saudi-backed government. It was in the midst of this Israeli-backed campaign that Israel became the first country to recognise Somaliland – close to the geographical Horn of Africa’, and juxtaposed to Aden – as a sovereign state.
This has to be understood in the context of Israel’s Hexagon Alliance; indeed, an attempt to impose UAE/Israeli control over the geopolitically sensitive southern coastline of the Arabian peninsula. From Why Israel’s recognition of Somaliland backfired, (16 Jun 2026) by Abdi Aynte, former minister of planning and international cooperation of Somalia: “By empowering breakaway regions, Israel, with the backing of key regional partners, especially the United Arab Emirates, has sought to reshape the regional order.”
Aynte: “What some experts describe as an ‘Axis of Secession’ is already visible in Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Syria. Led by Israel and supported by a network of regional partners, this axis targets countries whose central governments, hollowed out by conflict, exercise only partial control over their territory. The logic is simple: weaken central authority, bolster breakaway regions, and cultivate dependent entities willing to align with Israel and sign onto the Abraham Accords.” Aynte calls these nations “emerging client polities” of Israel, though resistance remains strong in Somalia, Yemen and Sudan.
Beyond these smaller fractured nation states, there are several large nation states in the region which Israel is trying to fracture. While these attempts in Iran are all too visible, a literal smokescreen, quietly Israel is adding Ethiopia – a country with 100,000 people – to its client list. We note that Ethiopia is hosting RSF training camps, further undermining Sudan’s sovereignty. See Reuters: Ethiopia builds secret camp to train Sudan RSF fighters, sources say, 10 Feb 2026.
This is not regional geopolitics which New Zealand can naively pretend-away. Aynte adds: “Somaliland’s decision to cultivate ties with Taiwan inevitably drew Beijing’s attention”. “The result [of Israel’s meddling through client third parties] is an increasingly crowded and volatile theatre, where global power rivalries intersect with unresolved local aspirations.” “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, once close partners, are now increasingly at odds, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt have begun coordinating to counter what they view as a destabilising ‘Axis of Secession’.”
And we note “widespread claims that Israel is exploring resettlement of Palestinian refugees from Gaza in Somaliland”. (An echo of Britain’s former plan to settle European Jews in Uganda!)
If we look at a map of the so-called ‘Middle East’ (nobody refers to Near East or Far East anymore!) and paint the hexagon countries in ‘Star-of-David’ blue – including Israel itself and its occupied territories, and including the RSF-controlled parts of Sudan – the obvious missing links are Egypt, Türkiye, and Iran. Hence the present war in Iran, and the concerns already noted re Türkiye. But what about Egypt?
Egypt, Iran and the Bible
Even today, Israel’s reference point is the Old Testament of The Bible. Note Al Jazeera’s Inside Story episode of 2 March 2026, What dangers does the Iran war pose for Israel?, featuring Mitchell Barak, “former speech writer for Israeli PM Ariel Sharon”, noting that Sharon was nicknamed Butcher of Beirut on account of his responsibility for the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Interviewer: “Mitchell, I’m going to start things off with you. Please give us a broad brushstroke of how you see things unfolding.”
Barak: “First of all, I’d like to wish a Ramadan Kareem to all of the people watching who are celebrating and commemorating this holiday. It is also a fast day in Israel, the Fast of Esther, which commemorates ironically and interestingly enough the victory of the Jewish people over an evil Persian empire 2,500 years ago.”
He is referring to the Purim holiday. Note, in these Wikipedia references, the references to Amalek, the word that Benjamin Netanyahu invoked to justify the subsequent genocide of Gaza. Refer The Biblical story of Amalek evoked by Netanyahu, ABC24 Jan 2024.
Barak did not go on to answer the “broad brushstroke” question.
Two polities which feature strongly in that biblical narrative are Egypt and (in the guise of Babylon) Persia aka Iran. To fully understand Israel’s agenda today, we really need to see that regime and its cultural acolytes as playing a long game; a very long game. Israel is trying to reverse the wrongs that it believed it suffered, around 2½ to 3 thousand years ago, at the hands of those two ancient civilisations. (The irony is that Israel denied that there was any historical context – not even a day’s historical context – to the ‘blue-sky’ shock events of 7 October 2023.)
Seen in this context, it is credible that the principal target of the Hexagon Alliance is Egypt, not Türkiye.
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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Cook, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne
When English author J.R.R. Tolkien crafted his fantasy world Middle-earth, he argued storytellers are essentially “sub-creators” – they build fictional realms with internally consistent laws.
For a world to be truly immersive and believable, readers apply what is known as the “principle of minimal departure”. This assumes anything not explicitly magical, such as a planet’s weather or gravity, must adhere to the laws of the real world.
We used complex computer programs – the same ones used to forecast Earth’s future warming scenarios – to simulate the climates of famous fantasy settings such as Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the continents of Westeros in the Game of Thrones, and the far-future Earth in The Wheel of Time series. We also built a model for a fictional world developed by one of us.
It’s a seemingly whimsical exercise, but it serves serious purposes.
For starters, it provides new details on fictional worlds beyond what the author shared, “filling the gaps” with science.
More importantly, it offers a new way for us to communicate the fundamental physics of climate science to a broad, general audience. And exploring climate model behaviour under fantastical settings helps our understanding of model physics.
Why the Misty Mountains are so misty
Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, was known for his extraordinary attention to detail. He meticulously calculated distances, times, and even phenomena such as the direction of the wind at every step along the characters’ journey.
Working from Tolkien’s own detailed maps, we fed Middle-earth’s topography (land height) and bathymetry (ocean depth) into an advanced climate model.
Since Tolkien intended Middle-earth to be our own Earth at a distant point in the past, we assumed its physical parameters – such as the planetary radius, rotation rate, and distance from the Sun – were identical to ours. We then simulated the world’s climate.
The results were a remarkable confirmation of Tolkien’s intuitive worldbuilding.
The model predicted a climate similar to Western Europe and North Africa – unsurprising, given Tolkien’s geographical inspiration.
The highest precipitation fell on and to the west of the Misty Mountains, with a drier “rain-shadow” effect to the east. This effect is caused by prevailing westerly winds forcing moist air to rise and cool over the mountains, condensing water vapour into rain or snow before it reaches the eastern side.
The model’s prediction of extensive forest cover across much of Middle-earth was consistent with Elrond’s claim that in the past, squirrels could travel from the Shire to Dunland without touching the ground.
A simulation of precipitation in Middle-earth, with fictional references to author and journal publication included for fun.Dan Lunt
Climate scientist Dan Lunt first released this climate simulation in a fictional paper in 2013, and it became an unexpected success in the classroom. Educators used the exotic setting of Middle-earth to explain complex concepts underpinning weather and climate. They were able to relate this to the physical laws that govern why climate changes in the real world.
The unstable seasons of Westeros
One of the defining features of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is the unpredictable and prolonged seasons of Westeros. This unique climatic feature is not just backstory. It’s a crucial plot device, allowing the White Walkers to move southward across an ice-covered world.
Astrophysicists and climatologists have long nerded out over the possible cause. Theories have ranged from binary star systems to volcanic activity, but all have struggled to create a viable, habitable world.
We focused on the idea of a chaotically-varying axial tilt. On Earth, the stable tilt of our axis is what gives us regular seasons. We used a real-world climate model where the planet’s axis “tumbled” throughout the year, like a wobbly spinning top.
The result was striking: if the planet tumbled exactly once per orbit, one hemisphere would constantly face the sun in a fixed season, creating a permanent summer or winter.
How axial tilt affects a planet’s seasons. If the tilt stays the same, the northern hemisphere changes from summer to winter. If the axial tilt shifts, winter can stay throughout the year.Cook et al. 2026, CC BY-NC-ND
But what causes the season to suddenly flip from a long summer to a long winter? The tilt of our planet’s axis is stabilised by the gravitational influence of its moon.
Martin’s world has only one moon, but legend says it once had two, until the second moon “wandered too close to the sun and it cracked from the heat”. The loss of a second moon may have caused the planet’s axis to become unstable, providing a plausible, physics-based explanation for the world’s greatest mysteries.
Building new worlds with climate science
The benefits of climate modelling are not limited to just filling gaps in classic stories.
Our models can also inform the worldbuilding of new fantasy realms. The work now published in our new paper started when climate communicator John Cook was developing an allegorical, speculative story exploring the denialist response to environmental damage.
He worked with climate scientists to simulate the climate of his fantasy world, Terrios. The subsequent model output provided concrete details such as temperature, precipitation, and wind conditions at every step along the characters’ journey through a variety of biomes.
This ensured the world was internally consistent and richly detailed, enhancing verisimilitude and creating a more immersive experience for the reader.
How simulated biomes from a climate model inform the design of a map of a new fantasy world.Cook et al. 2026
Ultimately, applying physics to fictional lands provides an engaging way to connect general audiences with complex environmental science.
By using climate models, scientists honour Tolkien’s demand that even the most fantastical worlds must maintain a credible, finely-tuned balance between the familiar laws of realism and the fantastic.
The enduring legacy of these simulated worlds proves that when science and art collide, the resulting discoveries can be just as compelling as the stories themselves.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on March 11, 2026.
Do Middle-earth and Westeros make sense? Climate scientists modelled them to find out Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Cook, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne When English author J.R.R. Tolkien crafted his fantasy world Middle-earth, he argued storytellers are essentially “sub-creators” – they build fictional realms with internally consistent laws. For a world to be truly immersive and
Commercial space technology is shaping the Iran war – the law can’t keep up Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato When the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran nearly two weeks ago, the first confirmation didn’t come from governments. It came from commercial satellites. Images from US companies Planet Labs and Vantor captured
My mind keeps on going blank. How worried should I be? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Andrews, Associate Professor and Lead, Healthy Brain Ageing Research Program, Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast We’ve all been there. Whether it’s at a crucial moment of an exam, walking into a room for a specific purpose, or making an impromptu speech, your mind goes
‘We’re the good guys’: why moral storytelling doesn’t make the war on Iran necessary or legal Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tamer Morris, Senior Lecturer, International Law, University of Sydney Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, most international law experts appear to be speaking with one voice on the legality of the attacks. Legal experts have said the attacks violated Article 2(4) of
What’s it like to be a bat? Scientists develop new solution to the puzzle of animal minds Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cristina Luz Wilkins, PhD Candidate, Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England In 1974, philosopher Thomas Nagel posed a deceptively simple question: “what is it like to be a bat?”. His point wasn’t really about bats. He was offering a provocative challenge about the limits of
Can exercise reduce period pain? And what kind is best? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Armour, Associate Professor at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University Having your period can be a painful experience. Period pain, also known as dysmenorrhea, is a very common condition with around nine in ten young women aged 13 to 25 in Australia having regular period
The Oscars are usually a mess, but this year’s Best Picture nominees are strong. Here’s who should win Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Film critics – myself included – love to bemoan the death of high-quality cinema in the age of streaming, pointing to mediocre Best Picture Oscar nominees as evidence that the production of great (or even
Tucker Carlson helped make Donald Trump and JD Vance. Could he be the next president? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University It’s well known that Donald Trump consumes television broadcasts and often makes policy based more on Fox News punditry than advice from political or government advisors. So it’s unsurprising
Iran oil shock: the EU has very few options to limit the war’s economic impact – and prevent a recession Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sergi Basco, Profesor Agregado de Economia, Universitat de Barcelona After the US and Israel began their military strikes on Iran on February 28, oil and gas markets were plunged into chaos and energy prices shot up. As of today, Brent Crude Oil prices are 20% higher than
Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Walldorf, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University It’s clear that regime change is among the biggest objectives of the U.S. war in Iran. “I have to be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader, President Donald Trump said on March 5, 2026.
Who profits from war with Iran? Understanding that will be key to resolving the conflict Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Kingston University When US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran, the shock waves were felt far beyond the region. As the conflict escalates, understanding who benefits from this crisis might be as important as counting its costs. The timing could
Animals can talk over huge distances – but humans might be changing their range Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben JJ Walker, Researcher, UNSW Sydney Animals are noisy. And their noises can travel a long way. But making sounds can be a double-edged sword: it can help them communicate, sometimes over long distances, but it can also reveal them to predators. In new research published in
Sex, pink and empowerment are used to sell alcohol to women. They don’t always like it Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristen Foley, Research Fellow, Centre for Public Health, Equity and Human Flourishing, Torrens University Australia Ellidy pops into the bottle shop on her way out to dinner with friends. She’s faced with rows of evocative labels – using artwork, imagery and symbols to help portray the essence
All it takes is paint and pancakes. How to boost your preschooler’s science skills Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Goutam Roy, PhD Candidate in STEM education, Charles Sturt University Parents of young children will be aware of the need to encourage early reading and maths skills in their kids. They know it’s important to make time to read with their children. Or point out that “cat”
Amid a surge in energy prices, a windfall tax on gas profits could be the best way to protect households Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Locky Xianglong Liu, Research fellow, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University The war in Iran has once again exposed how vulnerable the world’s energy markets are to geopolitical disruption. In wild swings, benchmark crude oil prices spiked as high as US$120 per barrel, roughly 50% higher than
Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere exposes the business model of misogyny Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Roberts, Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Over the past two years, viral clips, news headlines and TV series such as Adolescence have ensured much of the public has encountered the “manosphere” – an online ecosystem that repackages misogyny, anti-feminism and male grievance
Taking the wealth – the plunder and impoverishment of West Papua REVIEW: By Lee Duffield Declining population in West Papua, and critical loss of life through clashes with the Indonesia military raise the question of genocide in a new book by Brisbane writer Dr Greg Poulgrain. This work, Curse of Gold, published in English by Kompas, as the title indicates traces the roots of subjugation going
View from The Hill: David Littleproud quits as Nationals leader, declaring ‘I’m buggered’ Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals leader David Littleproud has unexpectedly quit his post, declaring he is “buggered” and “out on my feet”. His announcement came as a shock to colleagues and follows a period of extreme turbulence for his party and the Coalition, which
Australia is sending an aircraft and personnel to the Middle East. Does this mean we are entering the war? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is off to another Middle Eastern war, which is likely a surprise to many given how contentious the country’s involvement in the Iraq war was. The Albanese government has decided to send a
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Andrews, Associate Professor and Lead, Healthy Brain Ageing Research Program, Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast
We’ve all been there. Whether it’s at a crucial moment of an exam, walking into a room for a specific purpose, or making an impromptu speech, your mind goes blank.
It can be frustrating, stressful or worrying.
But what’s really going on in your brain? And when should you go to your GP for a check-up?
What is mind blanking?
One of the earliest observations in psychology is that our thoughts usually produce a stream of consciousness, flowing almost constantly.
Often our attention and thoughts are focused. Other times, our mind wanders.
Mind blanking can happen when we intend to retrieve a memory, and find it gone. This could be completely forgetting the answers to questions in an exam, or forgetting why we walked into a room.
It can also happen when we are not aware of thinking at all. Someone might ask us a question, and we realise we had “zoned out”.
Sometimes this zoning out is due to our mind wandering, and we are aware of our thoughts. However, at other times, when we’re not sure where our mind went, this is mind blanking.
Some people are much more likely than others to say their mind goes blank. These include people with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or anxiety.
These brain areas are connected to regions in the outer layer of the brain, the frontal and parietal cortex, which support our planning, decision-making and sensory integration.
This executive attention network is used both for passing information to our memory systems for storage, and then later retrieving those memories when we need them.
One of the key brain chemicals that supports this network is noradrenaline, also known as norepinephrine. This controls our alertness and readiness for action.
So what happens when our mind goes blank?
Disruption in any part of the executive attention network can impact the brain’s ability to pay attention and retrieve memories, leading to a blank mind.
When we’re sleep-deprived
Fatigue caused by sleep deprivation or sleep disorders can impact the alerting part of the network.
When we are very tired, we can experience “local sleep”. This is where the activity in parts of our brains is sleep-like even if we are awake. This can cause the attention system to temporarily shut off, which researchers think may lead to mind blanks.
Neuroimaging research shows parts of the executive attention network are “deactivated” during mind blanking.
This likely explains what causes the “zoning out” kind of mind blank.
When we’re stressed
High levels of stress or anxiety, such as what we might experience in an exam room, can result in high levels of noradrenaline. This puts the body in “fight or flight mode”.
This focuses our attention on immediate threats, reducing its ability to retrieve what it sees as non-essential memories, such as information you’ve been revising the day before.
When we’re multi-tasking
If the executive attention network doesn’t encode a memory efficiently in the first place – because for example, we were multi-tasking or distracted – then it might not be easily retrieved later on. This can also lead to a mind blank.
When is it time to see your GP?
While mind blanking is common and usually no cause for concern, frequent mind blanking can be a sign of a medical condition.
So, generally speaking, if you’ve noticed mind blanking becoming more common, if there has been a sudden onset of symptoms, or if your friends or family have raised concerns, see your GP for a check-up.
If you’ve noticed any changes to your ability to undertake your daily activities, or you find yourself confused or disorientated, you should also see your GP.
If you go to your GP for a check-up, they may take a medical history, and ask you some questions to assess your thinking and memory skills.
They may also refer you for neuropsychological or neurological assessment, or request a brain scan (like a CT or MRI scan) to check for any brain changes caused by stroke or dementia.
