Category: Evening Report

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Trelease, Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology

If you’ve spent much time on the internet, you probably know how to yell “I was rooting for you!” The clip from “Cycle 4” (iykyk) of America’s Next Top Model which aired in 2005 went uncontrollably viral.

It became a foundational reality TV meme – an enduring moment that has fed pop culture for two decades.

Now, America’s Next Top Model is back in the headlines thanks to a three-part Netflix series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. This docuseries is supposed to offer a “look back at the reality show’s complicated legacy”.

In reality, there’s a clear self-serving intention here.

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A cultural juggernaut

Running from 2003 to 2018, each season or “cycle” of America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) follows a group of young women learning the skills of a top model. Each episode includes a task, a photoshoot and an elimination.

The series incorporated elements from other successful reality shows such as Fear Factor (with models posing in photoshoots with cockroaches, dripping in fish guts and wearing meat as clothes); Survivor (backstabbing cast mates and bitchiness) and, unfortunately, The Swan (drastic makeovers sometimes resulting in chemical burns or lengthy surgeries).

Created, produced and hosted by veteran supermodel Tyra Banks, ANTM taught millennials how to extend the neck, angle their face for the camera and “smize” (smile with the eyes).

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Who is to blame?

Those who held creative power on the show deliberately distance themselves from Banks in the documentary. Banks herself participates for seemingly no other reason than to soft launch a new season after eight years off air, and boldly justify her mistreatment of contestants.

Jay Manuel, ANTM Creative Director and judge – and consultant on this new documentary – claims “reality TV is a bitch. If it doesn’t bleed and lead it doesn’t work”. This is fundamentally untrue. There are many shows that don’t rely on the “villain edit”.

As an ex-participant on The Bachelor New Zealand, I have experienced first-hand the negative physical effects of being on such a show – as well as the fear of legal persecution and financial penalties for speaking out.

Documentaries that revisit old reality shows ought to be spaces for former contestants to share their experiences. That doesn’t happen here. There is no honest critique or reflection on the part of the production team. Instead, we see producers once again exerting their own narrative to counter contestant testimonials.

Last year’s Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser was similarly problematic. Instead of explaining, apologising and taking accountability, the crew reasserted their power by using “it was a different time” as an excuse.

Banks offers no sincere apologies in Reality Check. At one point, she describes an apology in the past tense, and it’s not clear whether it was directly given to the contestant. “I have actually apologised for the issue with Dani,” she says, regarding past behaviour that coerced 2006 contestant Dani into getting dental surgery for a tooth gap.

In another “apology”, Banks doesn’t refer to the victim, Keenyah, by name: “Boo Boo. I am so sorry.” Tyra had fat-shamed and lectured Keenyah in a 2005 episode after Keenyah politely called-out on-set sexual harassment by a male model.

Who, then, does Banks think is responsible for the harm inflicted on contestants?

Across three episodes, we hear “gen Z”, “social media”, viewers “that were demanding it”, co-creator Ken Mok, judge Janice Dickinson, UPN network President Dawn Ostroff, CW President Mark Pedowitz, CBS CEO Les Moonves, the fashion industry, the reality TV industry, “the culture at the time” and the contestants.

She blames everyone but herself.

Tyra Banks and lateral violence

In the documentary, Banks says her intention with ANTM was to respond to an industry that constantly demonstrated abuses of power throughout her career:

I wanted to fight against the fashion industry […] for this show to represent not all white, not all skinny, but just showing all the differences, and all the different types of beauties. I had a feeling that I was going to change the beauty world. This was my way to get back.

Whether it was her ethnicity, weight, forehead, or media-fueled rivalry with Naomi Campbell, only once Banks was “established” could she speak of her experiences of mistreatment.

Despite this intention, Reality Check shows us how, once Banks accrued her own cultural capital, she took her frustration out on contestants rather than the industry. As journalist Zakiya Gibbons, an independent voice within the documentary, points out:

Tyra wants to challenge the fashion industry’s ideals around what is beauty, but is also still upholding ideologies and attitudes that oppressed her.

What Gibbons captures here is an example of lateral violence: when someone directs their rage at their own minority group, rather than their oppressor.

ANTM became Banks’ own sub-industry in which to dole out her harshest verbal and emotional violence on Black contestants. Her chosen forms of violence included body shaming, fat shaming, coercion into medical surgery, and verbal and emotional abuse.

A public relations project

Social media now allows former reality TV participants an unfiltered opportunity to speak their truth, despite the threat of non-disclosure agreements.

In 2023, former Real Housewives participant Bethenny Frankle banded together with other ex-Housewives in a “reality reckoning” against American TV network Bravo – exposing how even non-eliminating shows are unethical.

That same year, we saw the launch of the UCAN Foundation, a support and advocacy foundation for people on reality TV.

These were steps in the right direction. Reality Check is an example of a major platform giving airtime and an opportunity for redemption to the perpetrators of violence: it’s a step backwards.

There are already accusations that former ANTM contestants were not compensated for appearing in the docuseries.

Live appearances, social media, and documentary exposé are the few remaining spaces where reality TV contestants can share experiences. They should not be reclaimed by producers.

– ref. Reality check: America’s Next Top Model docuseries never apologises for abuse of contestants – https://theconversation.com/reality-check-americas-next-top-model-docuseries-never-apologises-for-abuse-of-contestants-276167

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/reality-check-americas-next-top-model-docuseries-never-apologises-for-abuse-of-contestants-276167/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura de Zwaan, Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology

After just three rate cuts in 2025, interest rates have risen again in Australia this year. It’s unwelcome news for many borrowers – particularly those still struggling with the increasing cost of living.

Currently, the average new loan size for owner-occupied homes is about A$736,000. On a 30-year mortgage this size, an increase of 0.25 percentage points in the official cash rate could mean paying about $120 more each month.

When assessing home loan applications, lenders are required by law to check a borrower could still make their repayments if interest rates were to rise by a certain amount. This “serviceability buffer” is currently three percentage points.

Across the country, borrowers are showing remarkable resilience. At Commonwealth Bank, for example, Australia’s largest mortgage lender, latest results show 87% of home loan customers are ahead of their scheduled repayments.

That offers little comfort to other households already struggling to make ends meet who may not be able to find the extra money required to meet increased repayments.

So, what options are available when homeowners can’t stretch their budget any further?

Ask for help

If you’re experiencing mortgage stress, the first step should always be to talk to your lender – as soon as you realise you are not going to be able to make a payment, or if you have missed a payment.

In Australia, consumer protection laws mean you can ask your lender for financial hardship assistance, which can come in a few different forms.

It may be able to offer a pause on repayments for a short period, or negotiate reduced repayments for a few months.

However, this sort of assistance is aimed at helping with a short-term problem. If your mortgage repayments are unaffordable for the foreseeable future, you will need to look at other options.

Longer-term options

Your lender can help identify if there are other ways it can help reduce your repayments.

One option may be extending your loan term to reduce the repayments for the rest of the loan. A lender could also consider moving you into another product, such as an interest-only loan, to lower repayments.

You can also apply to access your superannuation on compassionate grounds, to prevent foreclosure or the forced sale of your home.

Further assistance may be available in certain jurisdictions. For example, if you are in Queensland or the Australian Capital Territory, you might be able to access mortgage relief through state government schemes.

Looking at the bigger picture

If your mortgage is still unaffordable, and you want to keep your home, then you will need to cut back in other places to afford your repayments in the long term.

There are many guides to help get you started on finding ways to reduce your expenses.

If a particular household bill is of concern, you can also talk to utilities providers about your financial hardship and see if you can pay these bills in instalments.

Depending on your situation, there could be other options to help keep up with repayments, such as renting out a spare bedroom or parking space.

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Read more: Shop around, take lunch, catch the bus. It is possible to ease the squeeze on your budget

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Selling a home

If you cannot manage your repayments, it might be time to consider selling. Generally, you will get a better price for your home if you sell it, rather than letting the bank take possession and selling it to recover any outstanding loan balance.

Again, it’s important to talk to your lender as it can arrange hardship assistance that allows you time to sell.

It’s important to act early

If you are struggling financially, your best bet is to talk to your lender. Ignoring your mortgage repayments will not make them go away, and will make your situation worse.

Early communication with your lender ensures it is aware of your financial hardship and can provide advice on how best to proceed.

You are not the first person to suffer financial stress, and you should know you are not alone. In 2024–25, there were more than 280,000 financial hardship notices (borrowers advising lenders they were struggling).

Lenders know your circumstances can change, so use your legal right to ask for support to help you manage your mortgage stress.

Help is available

If you or someone you know is in financial distress, support is available:

• The National Debt Helpline provides free advice on how to manage your debt, and you can talk to a financial counsellor about your situation. The counsellor can help with budgeting and can also provide advocacy services to help you manage your debts.

• For First Nations people, Mob Strong can provide legal advice and financial counselling.

• The Financial Rights Legal Centre has tools to help you manage your debts and can provide free financial counselling or legal help.

• The Australian government’s MoneySmart website has straightforward information on what to do if you are struggling with your mortgage repayments. It also has information and tips on all other aspects of personal finance, including superannuation and insurance.

– ref. What are your options if you can’t afford to repay your mortgage? – https://theconversation.com/what-are-your-options-if-you-cant-afford-to-repay-your-mortgage-275924

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/what-are-your-options-if-you-cant-afford-to-repay-your-mortgage-275924/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Kear, Sessional Lecturer, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

In the aftermath of the Bondi terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration that killed 15 people, the New South Wales government is moving toward banning phrases it argues incite hatred. The Queensland government has said it would do the same.

Chief among these are “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea”.

The meaning and intent of both of these phrases are hotly contested between the Jewish and Muslim communities and their supporters.

The main reason they are so contentious is because they form part of the broader debate over the legitimacy of Israel and Palestine, and whether they can or should exist simultaneously in a two-state solution.

On one side, proponents of these phrases say they are expressions of Palestinian nationalism and their right to equality, freedom and dignity. They indicate support for Palestinians’ right to self-determination and their right to resist Israel’s nearly 60-year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which the International Court of Justice has ruled is illegal.

On the other side, those arguing against these phrases say they are antisemitic because they incite violence towards Israel and Jewish people more broadly, and are catchcries for the destruction of Israel.

Given these binary positions and the legislative moves towards banning them, it is important to understand the history and nuances of the phrases, separate from the emotive rhetoric and, at times, disinformation surrounding this debate.

Globalise the intifada

One of the first times this phrase was reportedly used was at an anti-war protest in Washington in 2002.

It has become much more commonplace after Israel’s devastating response to Hamas’ October 2023 terrorist attacks. The war has caused the deaths of more than 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza and is being investigated by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

According to the American Jewish Committee, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy groups in the United States:

The phrase is often understood by those who are saying and hearing it as encouraging violence against Israel, Jews and institutions supporting Israel. While the intent of the person saying this phrase may be different, the impact on the Jewish community remains the same.

Key to understanding this phrase is the term “intifada”. In Arabic, the word means “uprising” or “shaking off”. There have been two intifadas against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, from 1987–93 and 2000–05.

Both intifadas were spontaneous eruptions of discontent and revolt by Palestinians against the violence, harassment, and social, political and economic deprivation they experienced in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Additionally, one of the primary motivations of the First Intifada was Palestinian frustration at the inability of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to advance the cause of Palestinian statehood.

Notably, the violence of the First Intifada was confined to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and consisted mainly of stone throwing, tire burning, demonstrations and civil disobedience. According to the Jewish human rights group B’Tselem, around 1,400 Palestinians and 270 Israelis were killed.

The Second Intifada has more relevance to how the global Jewish community perceives the term “intifada” today. This is because the Palestinian groups Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched suicide attacks that deliberately targeted civilians in Israel. According to B’Tselem, more than 680 Israeli civilians and 3,300 Palestinians were killed during the violence.

These attacks caused immense fear and feelings of vulnerability among Israelis. Jews were deliberately targeted – a hallmark of antisemitism.

Indeed, the very reason Israel exists is because of the institutionalised antisemitism and political persecution of Jews in Europe, which culminated in the Holocaust. This is the reason Theodor Herzl established the Zionist movement – the realisation that the only way European Jews could be free from this rampant violence and antisemitism was to have a state where they would form the majority. To Jews, this makes Israel more than simply a state – it is an ideal, a sanctuary – a place where they can feel safe.

The memory of the attacks during the Second Intifada – in concert with this long history of persecution and the Holocaust – drives the opposition to this phrase among many Jewish people.

However, Palestinian supporters argue that both intifadas were centred on expressions of Palestinian nationalism, their demands for statehood and resistance against Israel’s occupation.

There is a growing fear among Palestinians that the increasing permanence of Israel’s occupation and creeping annexation of the territories destroys any hope of achieving a state – a place where they can be safe from Israeli violence and persecution.

Therefore, Palestinian activists argue the phrase has legitimacy. According to Ben Jamal, leader of the UK’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the phrase is used as a “call for worldwide support for an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people through all means of legitimate resistance”.

He added:

That’s not a call for violence against civilians or Jewish people – and to say that is actually, in my view, a form of anti-Palestinian racism.

From the river to the sea

A similar debate rages over the meaning of the phrase “from the river to the sea”. Again, this taps into the broader debate concerning Palestinian nationalism and advocacy for a Palestinian state, with the full phrase being “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

The geography refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea where Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories now sit.

Many Israelis and Jews around the world believe the phrase is antisemitic because of the perception that the establishment of a Palestinian state extending across this entire territory would signal the destruction of Israel. This is not just the state, but more importantly, the ideal.

The phrase was first used around 1964 by the newly formed Palestine Liberation Organisation to advocate for a unitary Palestinian state along the borders of “Mandatory Palestine” – the administrative territory ruled by the British from 1920–48 – that would include Palestinians, Jews and Christians. This would mean the elimination of the state of Israel, but not the Jewish people.

But it’s necessary to unpack how the meaning has changed over time. A key question here: what is the geography of a future Palestinian state?

The PLO accepted the two-state solution in 1988, meaning it acknowledged that any future Palestine would consist only of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, meaning the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

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Read more: Explainer: what is the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

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Hamas’ position on the phrase has also evolved over time. While its 1988 charter never mentioned the phrase specifically, it did state “[Hamas] will strive to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”

However, in its 2017 Declaration of Principles, Hamas officially tolerates the idea of a two-state solution. It states:

Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967 to be a formula of national consensus.

This refers to the ceasefire lines between Israel and the Palestinian territories before the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel captured and occupied the Palestinian Territories.

Therefore, Hamas’ position is consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) that is used by the international community as the basis for the two-state solution.

The 2017 declaration also highlights the compromise position within Hamas between those who believe Palestine should exist “from the river to the sea” and those willing to tolerate a Palestine only in the Occupied Territories. Hamas now officially treats the former as a guiding principle, not an organisational objective.

As former Hamas Chairman Khaled Meshaal explained in 2017:

Even though we accept and welcome that eventuality of [the two-state solution], this does not mean we would have to recognise Israel or surrender our principle that all of Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people.

Given this, there is an argument that the term’s use is not a call for the destruction of the Israeli state and the expulsion of Jews, but a demand that Israel dismantle its illegal occupation and allow Palestinians the freedom to establish their own state.

Adding to the phrase’s controversy is the fact that Israel’s Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, used a variation of it in its 1977 party platform:

Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

Though Likud has dropped the phrase from its current platform, it continues to vehemently oppose any Palestinian state.

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Read more: Geography and politics stand in the way of an independent Palestinian state

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Charting a way forward

This brings us back to the central questions at the heart of the debate over these phrases.

Does support for the Palestinian people and Palestinian statehood, as expressed in these phrases, equate to the threat of violence against Israel as a state and an ideal, and against the Jewish people?

Or are they part of legitimate political debate about Palestinian self-determination?

As Australians, we face a stark choice about whether to criminalise these phrases. Favouring one side will only inflame tensions with the other. It will only entrench – not resolve – societal discord.

Charting a middle course based on democratic ideals will be difficult. Finding a way forward will require a level of political and moral courage from our leaders that has been sadly lacking since the current round of violence began more than two years ago.

– ref. Why are the phrases ‘globalise the intifada’ and ‘from the river to the sea’ so contested? – https://theconversation.com/why-are-the-phrases-globalise-the-intifada-and-from-the-river-to-the-sea-so-contested-275668

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/why-are-the-phrases-globalise-the-intifada-and-from-the-river-to-the-sea-so-contested-275668/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology

One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode.

A study led by Gonzalo Muñoz-Sanchez at the National Observatory of Athens, published in Nature Astronomy today, argues that the enormous star WOH G64 has transitioned from a red supergiant to a rare yellow hypergiant – in what may be evidence of impending supernova.

The evidence suggests we may be witnessing, in real time, a massive star shedding its outer layers, shrinking as it heats up, and moving closer to the end of its short life.

A very special star

WOH G64 was first discovered in the 1970s as as star of interest in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way.

It turned out the star was not only extremely luminous, but also one of the biggest ever discovered: more than 1,500 times the radius of the Sun.

In 2024, WOH G64 was the first star beyond our galaxy ever photographed in detail, thanks to the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The image showed a clear dusty cocoon around the central giant star, which confirmed it was losing mass as it aged.

From supergiant to hypergiant, big is big

WOH G64 is a young star in the grand scheme of the cosmos, with an estimated age of less than 5 million years old. Unlike our Sun (currently about 4.6 billion years old), WOH G64 is destined to live fast and die young.

WOH G64 was born big, forming from a huge cloud of gas and dust collapsing until the pressure made it ignite. Like our Sun, it would have burned hydrogen in its core by nuclear fusion.

Later it would have expanded and burned helium, becoming what is called a red supergiant.

Not all supergiants become hypergiants. It’s been theorised that hypergiants form when very large stars quickly burn and evolve from burning hydrogen to burning helium.

During this transition, these stars start to shed their outer layers, while their cores begin to shrink inwards. Once a star becomes a hypergiant, it is destined for a quick death in the fiery explosion of a supernova.

What has caused this change seen in WOH G64?

So what happened to WOH G64 in 2014? The new study proposes that a large part of the original supergiant’s surface was ejected away from the star.

This may have been due to interactions with a companion star, which the authors have confirmed exists by looking at the spectrum of light from WOH G64.

Another theory: the star is getting ready to explode. We know stars this big will inevitably go kaboom, but exactly when it will happen can be hard to determine in advance.

One possible scenario is that the transition we’re seeing is due to a pre-supernova “superwind” phase. This in theorised to occur due to strong internal pulsations as the fuel in the core is spent quickly.

Only time will tell

Most stars live for tens of millions or even tens of billions of years. It was never a given we would witness and be able to document so much transformation in a star, let alone one outside our galaxy.

If we are lucky, we will see the death of WOH G64 in our lifetimes – not only providing an incredible intergalactic spectacle but also helping scientists complete the puzzle of this fascinating star.

– ref. One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode – https://theconversation.com/one-of-the-biggest-stars-in-the-universe-might-be-getting-ready-to-explode-276519

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/one-of-the-biggest-stars-in-the-universe-might-be-getting-ready-to-explode-276519/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James S. Crampton, Professor of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

We know Aotearoa New Zealand is home to many geographically and biologically special features. Yet few of us know it also has its very own measure of “deep time”.

Known as the New Zealand Geological Timescale, it has just undergone its most comprehensive revision in 20 years.

Like the periodic table, the geological timescale brings order to Earth’s deep history, measuring millions of years of time recorded in the rocks beneath our planet’s cities and towns, mountains and rivers.

It has been described by American writer Marcia Bjornerud as “one of the great intellectual achievements of humanity”.

For more than a century, New Zealand geologists and palaeontologists have maintained their own scale because the international timescale, developed largely in Europe and North America, has been difficult to apply elsewhere.

Even today, most boundaries in deep time are defined using fossils. Most New Zealand fossils, as with our living plants and animals, are found nowhere else.

The revised New Zealand version updates the ages of the timescale’s divisions and removes many long-standing ambiguities in how they are defined.

As a result, it will improve our understanding of both the geological gifts and the geohazards of life on the “shaky isles”.

Looking beyond the human timescale

In one sense, deep time is the antithesis of the short-term view that drives political and economic cycles.

To properly understand climate change, mass extinction or ice-sheet collapse – processes that carry profound implications for humanity hundreds to thousands of years from now – we need to step beyond the limited perspective of direct human experience.

This is also important for how we think about natural hazards.

The explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in January 2022, for instance, seemed to unfold over just a few minutes. But that impression of brevity can be misleading.

For a volcano to erupt, tectonic plates must first align and magma must form deep within the Earth, rise toward the surface and evolve in underground chambers before any lava is finally released – a process that takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

Consequently, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai explosion was only a fleeting moment in a story that began long before humans settled in the Pacific, possibly before humans existed at all.

As scientists, we measure the pace of such processes using the geological timescale – and we want those measurements to be as precise as possible.

A land millions of years in the making

Why is this so important? Consider some major findings from recent studies that utilised the previous New Zealand timescale to determine the ages and rates of key events and processes.

One 2021 study mapped the widespread but largely buried volcanic system of Canterbury, characterising 185 volcanoes that have erupted at various stages over the past 100 million years.

These pulses of volcanism were shown to align with major tectonic events, including the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana and later changes in tectonic plate motion.

The study showed how volcanic activity in New Zealand has repeatedly been shaped by deep, slow-moving plate-tectonic processes – and how present-day landscapes and seascapes can conceal a dynamic geological past.

Geological elements such as the Canterbury volcanic system are the basic building blocks of our island nation; the composition, arrangement and properties of such elements determine the distribution of resources and hazards within New Zealand.

Another recent study explored how long-term tectonic processes continue to shape modern earthquake hazards.

Focusing offshore from the eastern North Island, geologists examined how rocks and fluids behave along the boundary where the Pacific Plate is being forced beneath the Australian Plate at the seismically active Hikurangi Subduction Zone.

Their modelling suggests that unusually high underground fluid pressures can strongly influence how earthquakes behave, and that these pressures are driven mainly by tectonic squeezing over the past three million years, rather than simply by the weight of sediments piling up.

In other words, earthquakes in this region are shaped by geological processes that have been building for millions of years.

Measuring the past to understand our future

Deep time is equally important for understanding life on Earth.

Recent discoveries in the fossil record show that, three million years ago, close relatives of modern emperor penguins were living in a subtropical climate in the New Zealand region.

This finding challenges the assumption that these large penguins are forced to live along the icy coasts of Antarctica today by some climatic inevitability, and suggests other factors play a decisive role in shaping where species live.

Such understanding from the fossil record is key to predicting how life and species distributions might change in response to warming climate and disturbances to Earth systems.

In further separate studies, researchers reconstructed 100 million years of geographic history of the largely submerged continent from which our home, New Zealand, emerges.

Their studies show how shifting landmasses, rising and sinking terrain and changing coastlines have shaped the iconic landscapes we see today.

Ultimately, deep time helps explain the origins of New Zealand’s distinctive plants and animals.

It frames how we think about using – and sustainably managing – the resources we depend on. And it underpins our understanding of geological hazards and what we can do to mitigate them.

Taken together, all of these studies show why having an accurate, up-to-date geological timescale matters – and why our actions today will affect the planet and our descendants for hundreds of thousands of years to come.

– ref. Delving into ‘deep time’: what NZ’s ancient past reveals about its present – https://theconversation.com/delving-into-deep-time-what-nzs-ancient-past-reveals-about-its-present-270447

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/delving-into-deep-time-what-nzs-ancient-past-reveals-about-its-present-270447/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health and Co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney

It is swimming carnival season in Australia. This typically means children from about Year 2 and up are asked to swim a distance of 50 metres or one length of an Olympic-size pool – if they say they can.

As a parent of primary school kids, I recently went to my child’s carnival to show my support.

As a drowning prevention researcher, I was already well aware of the dire state of children’s swimming abilities – and so wasn’t expecting all children to be able to compete. But I was shocked to see numerous rescues during the day. This is where children are unable to finish events and need help to get out of the pool.

What is going on?

A drop in swimming ability

We know swimming ability is declining in Australia.

One in four schools no longer holds a swimming carnival at all, citing low swimming skills at the main reason. When they run carnivals, teachers estimate 50% of eligible children do not participate.

In a 2025 report, surveyed teachers told Royal Life Saving Australia almost half of Year 6 students cannot swim 50m and tread water for two minutes – the minimum water safety requirements for their age.

Parents reported 46% of children aged 11–12 (years 5 and 6) can’t swim 50m. An estimated 46% of children aged 7–14 do not have the minimum safety skills set for children aged 6.

Teacher survey responses identified about 31% of schools no longer offer swimming skills programs due to cost, resourcing and time. Parents report similar barriers to enrolling their children in private swimming lessons.

Are parents overestimating ability?

But the rescues at our school carnival led me to wonder whether there was something else at play.

At my child’s school, parents were asked to assess their child’s swimming ability on the carnival permission note. The information was used for lane allocation with weaker swimmers to race in outer lanes, closer to lifeguards.

So perhaps some parents were overly optimistic about how well their child can swim. Research shows parents often overestimate their child’s swimming ability and therefore underestimate their drowning risk.

But in defence of parents, children rarely have the opportunity to swim 50m, non-stop. Lessons are often held in smaller, learn-to-swim pools or those that are only 25m in length.

For residents in country areas with seasonal pools (like my home town), their outdoor 50m pools are also closed for half the year.

What can parents do?

So, as a country that’s supposed to be a “nation of swimmers” with a strong lifesaving history, how can we counter this decline and avoid children needing to be rescued at their carnivals?

• Encourage parents to prioritise swimming lessons over other sports wherever possible. This recognises learning to swim is a non-negotiable life skill that both reduces drowning risk as well as opens up the joys of swimming for fitness and fun. Even if your child is in high school and you’ve let swimming lessons slide, it is not too late for them to learn and improve.

• Check your child’s ability against the national standards. If you’re not sure their ability is where it should be for their age, consider some top-up lessons or a holiday intensive program.

• Observe how your children are doing in swimming lessons. Ask for feedback from their teachers. Where are they up to in terms of water safety?

• Get in the water with your child, preferably at a 50m pool. Swim alongside them and see how they go at completing a length non-stop. Explain what to do if they feel like they can’t make it, either practising floating on their back or holding onto a lane rope.

This is vital

We don’t want the swimming carnival to disappear forever.

Nor do we want it to be just for the top swimmers. My kid’s swimming carnival was described as being for “competitive swimmers only”, which is part of a growing trend among schools.

Amid record drowning deaths in Australia, and during a summer when 79 people have lost their lives to drowning, ensuring our kids know how to swim safely has never been more important.

– ref. I’m a drowning prevention researcher – my kid’s school swimming carnival shocked me – https://theconversation.com/im-a-drowning-prevention-researcher-my-kids-school-swimming-carnival-shocked-me-276531

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/im-a-drowning-prevention-researcher-my-kids-school-swimming-carnival-shocked-me-276531/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

All animals need to eat to survive, grow and reproduce. To do so, they also need to avoid being eaten. This is a big challenge for many of Australia’s native mammals, because when they search for food, they must also escape the attention of introduced predators, namely, feral cats and red foxes.

Tragically, many have been unable to overcome this test of survival, becoming one of the 40 native mammal species driven to extinction since European colonisation.

But what happens if we reduce the numbers of introduced predators? Do our surviving native species think there is less risk of being the next meal for a cat or fox? How do they respond? And how might we tell? With peanut butter balls, of course!

A deadly game of hide and seek

Natural environments contain predators and prey engaged in a deadly game of hide and seek, and – from the prey’s perspective – a landscape of fear. The extent to which the two groups are aware of each other and able to respond (hunting vs hiding and escape) varies across time and space. Prey might perceive some areas as a riskier proposition, such as more open habitats or times when predators are most active. They therefore reduce their activity to minimise the likelihood of being eaten.

But avoiding being eaten comes at an energetic cost. It may mean preferred areas or times to feed are reduced, which in turn limits rates of growth, reproduction and survival of prey species. Prey animals are constantly weighing up this tradeoff of risk vs reward as they go about their lives.

Tasty treats can assess risk appetite

We can’t know for sure how much animals fear being eaten, but we can assess it indirectly, through their willingness to eat. In our recently published study, we measured how much food animals don’t eat as a indicator of their fear of being eaten. The more food they give up, the greater the risk of predation those animals are assumed to perceive. These experiments are made easier by the fact many mammals are mad about gobbling up peanut butter.

French Island has long been fox free, but had thousands of feral cats. In 2010, authorities began a feral cat eradication, which made it a perfect place for our research.

Importantly, we were able to start our experiment prior to an eradication program of feral cats, which began in 2010 on French Island, Victoria. This means we were able to measure changes in long-nosed potoroos and eastern barred bandicoots habitat use and foraging as cat numbers and activity fell.

So, on fox-free French Island, we placed balls of peanut butter, rolled oats and golden syrup into trays with soil and dug them into the ground, ensuring they were below the soil surface. We did this in more open grassland areas (likely riskier habitat, with less cover and protection from feral cats) and more densely vegetated areas (less risky habitat, due to increased cover).

We used camera traps to measure how often potoroos and bandicoots visited these feeding trays to dig up the tasty treats, and how much of the peanut butter balls they left behind in different habitats and at different periods throughout the ongoing feral cat eradication program.

When feral cats are away, native animals play (more)

As the number of feral cats on French Island was reduced, potoroos and bandicoots used both open and closed habitat types more frequently, and they increased their activity, giving up less food over time. This suggests bandicoots and potoroos do recognise feral cats as a threat, and are able to fairly rapidly change their habitat use and foraging accordingly.

Aside from the obvious benefits of fewer feral cats killing and eating potoroos and bandicoots on French Island, our study suggests there may be substantial benefits for native wildlife — namely increased access to habitats and foraging opportunities — even before the ultimate longer-term goal of cat eradication can be achieved.

Our study’s results are encouraging. Outside the safe havens of invasive predator-free islands and fenced sanctuaries, feral cats are notoriously hard to eradicate from large areas, and there is a constant threat of their return.

To change this, new and more effective ways to control and eradicate feral cats are needed. But until then, reducing and keeping feral cat numbers lower, while also carefully managing habitats to benefit wildlife, can still give native animals the helping hand they need to survive.

We would like to acknowledge that this work was led by former Deakin University Honours student, Te Ao Marama Eketone, and it occurred on the unceded Country of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung peoples.

– ref. When feral cats are away, potoroos and bandicoots are more likely to play – https://theconversation.com/when-feral-cats-are-away-potoroos-and-bandicoots-are-more-likely-to-play-271736

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/when-feral-cats-are-away-potoroos-and-bandicoots-are-more-likely-to-play-271736/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John (Eddie) La Marca, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

If you’re feeling worn out or have suddenly lost some weight, your doctor might send you for a blood test.

Blood tests are a common way health-care professionals detect, diagnose, and monitor a range of medical conditions.

But can they help us detect more serious conditions such as cancer? Let’s dive into the research.

How do blood tests work?

Blood tests are a technique used in the field of pathology, which is the study of the nature and causes of disease.

Blood tests assess what cells, proteins, and molecules are present in the blood. Health-care professionals use them to monitor things like organ health, nutrition levels, immune system function, and the presence of some infections.

To test for anaemia, for example, you would take a blood test and count the number of red blood cells in that blood sample. Another example is blood sugar testing, which is used to measure the glucose levels of a patient with diabetes.

What can blood tests tell us about cancer?

Currently, we can’t reliably diagnose most cancers using a blood test. One major reason is it’s often difficult to distinguish between cancer cells and normal, healthy cells. This is especially true when it comes to early-stage tumours.

But blood test results can give us clues about whether certain cancers are present in the body. So how do they do this?

1. By revealing abnormalities in your blood

Blood cancers will often cause clear changes in the number and types of cells in the bloodstream. We can measure these changes using a complete blood count, also known as a “full blood examination”.

This type of blood test counts all the different types of cells present in the blood: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and more. Blood cancers arise when your body produces an abnormal amount of any type of blood cell. White blood cells, which fight infection, are the most common example. So a high number of one or more of these cell types may suggest the presence of a blood cancer.

But complete blood counts aren’t enough to make a conclusive diagnosis of blood cancer. We need to perform other tests to confirm whether the problem is a cancer or a different disease. These tests may include a biopsy or imaging techniques such as an MRI, CT scan, or X-ray.

2. By identifying “tumour markers”

We can also use blood tests to detect specific proteins which cancer cells often produce in greater numbers. These proteins are known as “tumour markers”.

One example of a tumour marker is prostate-specific antigen. This antigen is a protein made exclusively by the prostate gland. A healthy male will have only a small amount of prostate-specific antigen in his blood. In contrast, a male with prostate cancer will often produce abnormally high levels of this antigen. In this way, the prostate-specific antigen can serve as a “marker” of prostate cancer.

There are many different tumour markers used to identify different cancers. However, measuring tumour markers is not a foolproof solution. This is because they can be influenced by other factors. For example, an injury to or inflammation of the prostate gland could cause prostate-specific antigen levels to increase. So your doctor may perform additional tests to confirm if a person has cancer.

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Read more: Do I have prostate cancer? Why a simple PSA blood test alone won’t give you the answer

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3. By locating rogue cells

For other types of cancer, blood tests can look for circulating tumour cells. Circulating tumour cells are produced when cancer cells break off from the original tumour and then enter the bloodstream. This usually only happens when a cancer reaches a more advanced stage and is metastatic, meaning it has spread to other parts of the body.

But this type of test is usually prognostic, rather than diagnostic. This means we can only use it to monitor the progression of a cancer which has already been diagnosed. So if a blood test does identify circulating tumour cells, it is best to conduct additional tests before proceeding with treatment.

So, are we close to creating a cancer-detecting blood test?

Unfortunately, we are yet to find a way to detect cancer with a single blood test. It’s a very difficult task, but researchers are making progress.

Circulating tumour DNA is a current topic of interest. These DNA molecules have mutations which distinguish them from healthy cells and can give information about the cancer they came from.

In one 2025 trial, Australian researchers measured the amount of circulating tumour DNA in 441 people with colon cancer to determine which patients would respond to chemotherapy. Another study from 2025 used circulating tumour DNA to monitor how 940 patients with lung cancer responded to different treatments.

One test did claim to successfully use circulating tumour DNA to detect more than 50 types of early-stage cancer. It’s known as the “Galleri test” and was first trialled in the UK in 2021. However, some experts have since raised concerns about the test’s effectiveness.

Researchers are also exploring other ways of using blood tests. In one 2025 study, Australian researchers adapted an existing test to use blood instead of tissue samples to identify known markers of ovarian cancer.

Another Australian study from 2025 investigated whether molecules other than proteins could serve as cancer markers. It found certain fats in blood can indicate if a patient with advanced prostate cancer will respond to treatment.

So, it looks like we’re still a while away from creating a cancer-detecting blood test. But with some time, effort, and robust research, it could be a possibility.

– ref. Can blood tests really detect cancer? – https://theconversation.com/can-blood-tests-really-detect-cancer-269906

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/can-blood-tests-really-detect-cancer-269906/

COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

If Israel and the US attack Iran, the cosy worlds of Europe, Australia and New Zealand could be swept up in an economic catastrophe.

Should the Iranians survive a terrifying onslaught, they have vowed to strike back in a way that could crash the global economy.  How they could quite possibly do this is the topic of this article.

The leaders of the Islamic Republic — love them or hate them — know that they face an existential threat; that the continued existence of a unified state called Iran is imperilled.

They also know that the collective West will not stand up for international law and the proscription on launching wars of aggression. Under these circumstances a state will sacrifice anything to survive, including hitherto unthinkable acts like sinking the USS Abraham Lincoln, the glory of the American war machine.

All the signs are pointing to a new Shock and Awe campaign by the United States.

The goal, as it was in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, is a fast knock-out. Mission Accomplished in a few weeks.

War, however, seldom goes entirely to plan — the Americans never expected they would spend 20 years in Afghanistan and waste trillions of dollars to move from the Taliban regime to . . .  the Taliban regime.

Here is a selection of options open to the Iranians if they survive the initial onslaught.

Shut down all civilian flights for the duration of the conflict
Without firing a single missile, Iran can likely bring all flights into and out of the entire Gulf region to a shuddering halt. That’s 500,000 passengers per day.

More than 180 million passengers pass through Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai every year.

Simply issuing a warning that the entire Gulf region is an air combat zone will put the brakes on all major airlines, effectively severing the primary link between Europe, Asia and Australasia for as long as Iran hangs on.

Insurance companies would issue a cancel note on all policies (for airlines, passengers, airports, provisioners) for the entire region.

No airline will defy this interdiction. Would Qantas, for example, fly one of its A380s loaded with mums, dads and kids into a potential kill zone?  The Iranians could underscore the seriousness by firing a couple of missiles onto runways or using EW (electronic warfare tools) to spoof or harass planes.

In an interview with @CBSNews , Iran’s FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi said uranium enrichment is Iran’s legal right under the NPT, reaffirming peaceful nuclear policy and commitment to diplomacy
More: https://t.co/XqHaDqxOfl https://t.co/3tGlg9SJKL

— Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (@Iran_GOV) February 22, 2026

Shut down all oil and LNG shipments
Iran will likely mine the Strait of Hormuz 33 km (21 miles) wide, making it instantly uninsurable for any oil or LNG tanker to move into or out of the Gulf.  Huge numbers of smart mines (that can recognise the acoustic signature of a tanker) will be deployed as well as hundreds of semi-submersible drone boats.

Spread out across the Gulf are thousands of short-range anti-ship missiles that will be virtually impossible to suppress.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/24/how-a-us-israeli-attack-on-iran-could-crash-uk-german-nz-and-australian-economies/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Among today’s leaders, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is notable in a couple of ways.

As a Labor leader, his views are a mix of the extremely tough and the very empathetic and compassionate. His handling of the antisemitism crisis illustrates the point.

Also, Minns usually speaks his mind, and answers questions, with a frankness many of his contemporaries shy away from.

These features were evident in Minns’ Monday comments about the cohort of 34 ISIS brides and their children that has the Albanese government tied in knots and new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor responding with a knee-jerk proposal for draconian legislation.

Minns told a Monday news conference: “I’ve got no sympathy for someone who makes a decision to go and join a dangerous ideology like Islamic State”, but “I do have sympathy and concern for the children”.

He said he’d been briefed late last year on state-federal consultations about possible arrivals from Syria.

“It’s been on an official-to-officials level, and it has to do with what happens if or when they return to New South Wales. That was a situation for previous cohorts that came back to Australia [under the Morrison and Albanese governments]. He estimates about a third of the cohort would go to NSW.

In relation to the children, Minns points out that if they stayed in their present environment, when they did return the position would likely be worse.

“I think most Australians […] would say, “well, what is going to happen to these children in the years ahead if they end up in Australia, if they are Australians? What happens to them when the media moves on and we’re two to five to ten years down the line?”

He said the NSW government would take care of the education of returning children (in a context of Australian values), while the “full force of the law” would be applied to the adults (who could face charges).

Minns’ combination of commonsense, concern and directness is in contrast to the stance of the federal government. It has toughened its rhetoric, presumably mainly to avoid being wedged by the opposition and One Nation. It may have also been less than fully transparent about federal officials’ involvement.

Minns’ views about the children are in line with comments of then home affairs minister Clare O’Neil in 2022, after a group of ISIS brides and children had been brought back. “The question for us is: is the safest thing for these 13 children to grow up in a squalid camp where they’re subjected to radical ideologies every single day and then return to Australia at some point when they’re an adult, or is it safer for us to bring them here so they can live a life around Australian values?”

Now Anthony Albanese and current Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, when referring to the children, basically say their situation is the parents’ fault and that’s that. They are more interested in keeping out the remaining cohort as long as possible – therefore pushing the problem down the track – than focusing publicly on the practicalities of when the families can no longer be stopped from returning.

The opposition’s proposal to make it a criminal offence “to facilitate the re-entry of individuals linked to terrorist hotspots or terrorist organisations, or who have committed terror related offences” is preformative politics.

These people are Australian citizens and have a right to return to Australia (with some qualifications – the government applied for an exclusion order against one person on security grounds). To make it a crime for an individual or organisation to assist them in some presently lawful manner would seem highly dubious in principle.

When we come to the practicalities: those helping have been Save the Children and respected Muslim figure Jamal Rifi. Rifi was a prominent supporter of Burke in last year’s election. In earlier years he has defended Scott Morrison against accusations of racism and is much respected by Morrison.

But home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said: “This is not about targeting a particular group or individual or organisations. It is about targeting anyone who breaks the law”.

The opposition says the private member’s bill, to be introduced in the coming sitting fortnight but destined to go nowhere, will provide that “humanitarian or security-based repatriation could continue with the express permission of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Home Affairs”.

It is about keeping repatriation formally in the hands of government, attempting to stymie self-managed returns and those who might assist them.

But we don’t have any detail, leaving exactly who would be hit as clear as mud.

Mat Tinkler, CEO Save the Children Australia, told the ABC his organisation had done two main things: provided humanitarian relief for the cohort, and advocated for the government to get them home.

“What we haven’t done is engage in any extraction or operation on the ground – that is not within our mandate and not something we would do.

“But I’m really concerned about the sentiment that this seems to express, that somehow supporting women who haven’t been charged, they haven’t been put on trial, they haven’t been convicted of any crime, and their children, who by nature and definition are innocent, trying to criminalise conduct of people seeking to bring those Australian citizens back to Australia – I think it’s a very slippery slope if we go down that path.”

– ref. View from The Hill: Chris Minns makes sense on ISIS brides’ children, while opposition adds to scaremongering – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-chris-minns-makes-sense-on-isis-brides-children-while-opposition-adds-to-scaremongering-275913

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/view-from-the-hill-chris-minns-makes-sense-on-isis-brides-children-while-opposition-adds-to-scaremongering-275913/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Austin, Senior Lecturer in Theatre, The University of Melbourne

In the shadow of Franz Kafka’s visionary dystopian fiction, the faceless, hierarchical machinery of bureaucracy has long served as a symbol of quiet, grinding despair. Kafka’s institutions are at once impenetrable and absurd, systems that trap individuals in a perpetual tension between resignation and the faint, flickering hope of change.

Playwright Jean Tong’s Do Not Pass Go sits in this tradition, offering a sharp, often darkly comic examination of conformity and resistance within the modern corporate structure.

Penny (Belinda McClory) and Flux (Ella Prince) are an unlikely duo thrown together on a surreal production line. Flux is a new recruit, still learning the rhythms and unspoken rules of the nameless organisation. Penny is a seasoned employee who has survived the most recent round of redundancies.

From the outset, they appear mismatched, an odd couple divided by age, temperament and philosophy. Penny embodies corporate compliance. She has internalised the company’s expectations so completely they seem to govern her every action. She has never taken a day off, faithfully performs the recommended workplace exercises during her breaks and refuses to take personal calls on company time. For Penny, survival depends on obedience.

Flux, by contrast, views employment as transactional, a means to an end. They are unafraid to take a mental health day and openly question procedures Penny accepts without hesitation. Their early exchanges crackle with tension, shaped by suspicion and incomprehension and the differences that seem to define them.

A sterile environment

The set (from Jacob Battista) reinforces this emotional and ideological divide. The action unfolds almost entirely within a stark white room bathed in fluorescent overhead light (lighting by Harrie Hogan), a space hovering ambiguously between factory floor and science laboratory.

It is clinical, anonymous and faintly menacing.

In this sterile environment, Penny is aghast to learn Flux did not complete the online training modules before their official start date. Flux, perplexed, asks why they would work before being paid. This small but telling disagreement encapsulates the broader philosophical gulf between them.

Tong allows the narrative to unfold at a deliberate, contemplative pace. Katy Maudlin’s direction is considered and deft. Time stretches and folds in on itself; days and months blur together in the purgatory of workplace monotony. Boxes arrive through a mysterious “box door”. Penny and Flux methodically open, catalogue and repack their contents. Pool floaties are inflated and deflated. Ribbons are measured and cut. Plastic fir tree Christmas ornaments are checked and counted.

There is no rationale or meaning to this work. As the play progresses, the boxes accumulate, slowly encroaching upon the white space. The endless stocktake becomes both a literal task and metaphor for existential stasis and ultimately reveal how difficult the rhythm of the workplace can be to resist.

Building a friendship

Initially their exchanges are stilted; Penny’s clipped, interrogative responses set against Flux’s fluid, stream-of-consciousness reflections. But the dialogue gradually softens. Each begins to absorb something of the other.

Flux helps Penny navigate her teenage daughter’s climate anxiety, gently introducing language and empathy where Penny once defaulted to confusion. In turn, Penny becomes an almost maternal figure to Flux, offering reassurance, steadiness and concern beneath her rigid exterior, specifically in relation to Flux obtaining a credit card to support their desire for costly gender affirmation surgery.

Although Penny is confused about Flux’s desire to change their body, Penny’s concern is more about Flux finding themselves in a difficult financial position. Penny and Flux’s bond becomes an act of quiet rebellion against the isolating logic of the institution.

The unseen corporate overlords loom throughout. A performance review instructs Flux to increase their productivity. At one point, a cake arrives unannounced through the box door. Penny reacts with alarm: cake preceded the last wave of redundancies, and so she promptly throws it in the bin, despite Flux’s delight. The gesture captures the atmosphere of paranoia cultivated by opaque management practices.

Beneath the humour lies a deeper inquiry into institutional oppression. As Flux encourages Penny to pursue an ADHD diagnosis, the play probes the tension between social and medical models of disability. Penny muses her suburb reportedly has a high proportion of neurodiverse residents. Is the environment producing neurodivergence, she wonders, or do neurodivergent people gravitate there because it offers belonging? The question lingers, unresolved. Flux convinces Penny to ask for workplace adjustments; Penny is unsurprised when management denies her requests.

In a powerful scene toward the end of the play, Flux offers a monologue: a compelling metaphor on difference, desire and longing, deciding not to go ahead with their surgery… yet.

The moment marks a shift in the sterile surrounds. The characters move outside of the tight confines of their workplace and a warm orange glow envelopes them. Their shared humanity – the messiness, chaos, care and connection troubling the corporate machine – is highlighted.

Do Not Pass Go is a quietly devastating meditation on labour, conformity and the fragile human connections persisting, despite them.

No easy solution is offered. Instead, the suggestion is resistance may begin in smaller, subtler acts: questioning a rule, taking a longer break, making an offer of solidarity or care to a work colleague, choosing compassion over compliance. In doing so, the play honours Kafka’s legacy while speaking urgently to the anxieties of the modern workplace.

Do Not Pass Go is at Melbourne Theatre Company until March 28.

– ref. Jean Tong’s Do Not Pass Go is Kafka for the modern corporate age – https://theconversation.com/jean-tongs-do-not-pass-go-is-kafka-for-the-modern-corporate-age-274979

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/jean-tongs-do-not-pass-go-is-kafka-for-the-modern-corporate-age-274979/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia

On average, Australia’s driest town, Oodnadatta, gets just 172mm of rain a year. But the small town in inland South Australia is likely to get two years’ worth of rain in a single week.

Rainfall records are likely to topple across inland areas, as rains of 150–300mm are predicted this week, following heavy rains in recent days.

Heavy rains are lashing swathes of arid central Australia, as intensely humid tropical air from the Top End is pushed south. Alice Springs is on flood watch. The Trans-Australian rail line is cut amid track washouts. The Northern Territory’s main highway is closed.

More is to come as extreme rains continue over the driest parts of Australia this week. Severe weather warnings for heavy rain have been issued for parts of Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Intense rainfall and damaging winds from localised severe thunderstorms will lead to flash flooding. Flood warnings have been issued for rivers and streams across the entire Lake Eyre Basin. The sheer scale of this event is remarkable – and concerning.

Many remote communities will be cut off for weeks and stock losses are likely to be significant. Western Queensland is already reeling after major floods earlier this year. In coming weeks, floodwaters will engorge rivers flowing to Australia’s lowest point, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, which could fill for the second year in a row – a rare occurrence. There’s even a possibility the lake could top its 1974 depth record of 6 metres.

What’s causing this?

In recent days, a very slow-moving tropical low has intensified as it moved southeast through the NT.

On the northern and eastern flanks of this weather system lies an incredibly humid airmass from the oceans off Indonesia. As this saturated air moves south, an upper trough extending into northwest New South Wales is forecast to deepen on Tuesday, increasing the risk of heavy falls.

This combination is a recipe for intense rain. As the strengthening upper trough intersects with the humid tropical airmass, it will push saturated air higher up in the atmosphere. Once high enough, the water vapour will condense and fall as heavy rain.

The warmer the air, the more water it can hold. The tropical low is likely to stay almost stationary over central Australia all week, which means it will dump most of its water before eventually weakening.

Two fillings of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre?

Since European colonisation, Australia’s largest salt lake has only filled to near or full capacity four times – most recently in 2025.

There’s still water in many parts of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre from last year’s floodwaters. At last year’s peak, the ephemeral lake covered about 80% of its maximum extent and was just over 2 metres deep in the two deepest parts of the lake, Belt Bay and Madigan Gulf.

As of February 10, many parts of the lake still hold water. These waters came from the torrential rains that hit western Queensland almost a year ago.

Floodwaters typically take months to snake through the lake’s often-dry inland tributaries. If the lake fills again this year, it will be highly unusual.

That’s because the La Niña climate driver in the Pacific Ocean is rapidly weakening and an El Niño is likely. La Niña years tend to bring colder, wetter conditions to Australia, while El Niño years tend to be hotter and drier.

Until now, every filling of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre recorded has been linked to strong La Niña years. Last year’s partial filling took place during a moderate La Niña.

It’s getting harder to project what’s likely to happen based on past experience. When the lake filled to a record depth of 6m in 1974, widespread falls of 300–600mm fell on dry catchments. This year, many northern rivers and streams in the Lake Eyre basin were already at minor or moderate flood level before this huge rain-bearing system formed.

Is there a climate change link?

One of the most visible and devastating changes from global heating is what’s happening to the global water cycle, which moves water from lakes and oceans to clouds to rivers, lakes, snow and ice and back again.

Burning fossil fuels and other emissions have made the world 1.48°C hotter than the pre-industrial period. This is already supercharging the water cycle. This is why we’re witnessing extreme rainfall hitting more often and more intensely across the globe.

There’s a clear link between climate change and more extreme rains and floods. For every 1°C of warming, the atmosphere holds 7% more water vapour. But this figure could be even higher for short-duration rainfall, such as during severe thunderstorms.

Without attribution studies, we can’t say this week’s extreme rains have a direct climate change influence. But the overall trends are very clear.

For the dryland and desert towns, communities and stations bracing for impact, this will be small comfort. It’s crucial we don’t underestimate these rains. They are packing a punch.

– ref. Severe flooding – in central Australia? How a vast humid air mass could soak the desert – https://theconversation.com/severe-flooding-in-central-australia-how-a-vast-humid-air-mass-could-soak-the-desert-276618

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/severe-flooding-in-central-australia-how-a-vast-humid-air-mass-could-soak-the-desert-276618/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlotte Gupta, Sleep Researcher, Appleton Institute, HealthWise Research Group, CQUniversity Australia

It’s nighttime and you’re exhausted. But the hotel bed feels wrong. The mini fridge won’t stop making that low, irritating hum. The power outlet lights feel brighter than the sun. Outside, random car honks and noises make sleep feel like a distant possibility.

Many of us struggle to sleep in new environments, even when we’re physically tired. But why? The short answer: a mix of biology and psychology.

Broken routines and missing sleep cues

Your brain is wired for predictability, especially at night, during our most vulnerable behaviour: sleep.

A combination of internal and external cues work together to create the right conditions for rest.

Internally, your body signals that it’s time to sleep by decreasing core body temperature and increasing the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. This makes you less alert.

Externally, your environment needs to support these signals, not compete with it. At home, your typical pre-sleep wind-down habits and familiar surroundings tell your body it is safe to sleep.

But sleeping somewhere new often disrupts these sights, sounds and sensations your body relies on.

There may be different light levels (for example, from hotel room clocks or street lights), unfamiliar noises (such as elevators, traffic and neighbours) and different bedding (for instance, a firmer mattress or softer pillows).

And you may be doing different activities, such as eating out late or working on a laptop on your bed.

An alert brain in a new place

From an evolutionary perspective, lighter sleep or more frequent awakenings when we’re somewhere new may be protective, allowing us to detect potential threats more quickly and respond to danger.

This is known as the “first-night effect”. It means when we sleep somewhere new, our brains don’t fully switch off.

Brain activity recordings have shown that during the first night in a new environment, the left side of the brain remains more responsive to unfamiliar sounds, even during deep sleep, compared to the second night. Once we become familiar with the space, this vigilance usually fades.

But even when we start to get used to a new environment, other factors can still interfere with our sleep.

Stress, travel and emotions

Sleeping in a new environment can also be stressful.

Your brain may be running through logistics and to-do lists, thinking about your early flight, or scenarios where you forget important belongings. Maybe you’re also experiencing jet lag.

Emotions such as homesickness, excitement, anticipation or anxiety can disrupt sleep as well. Even positive stress – for example, feeling excited about a big trip – activates the same arousal systems in the brain as negative stress. The brain doesn’t distinguish why those systems are switched on.

Unfortunately, a heightened arousal system and sleep are competitors. When your stress response is active, it directly interferes with the brain’s ability to disengage and transition into sleep, even when you’re physically exhausted.

But some people actually sleep better away from home

For some of us, being away from home can actually remove everyday distractions: there are no household responsibilities, no unfinished tasks competing for attention, and clearer boundaries between “work time” and “rest time”.

The change of environment may also reduce bedtime rumination, which is often triggered by familiar home environments tied to stress, deadlines or to-do lists.

Better sleep when we are away may be to do with the amount of sleep we usually get at home. Research shows that individuals who are not getting enough sleep at home are likely to get better sleep when travelling.

If your sleep improves when you’re away, it might be an opportunity to consider how stimulating or busy your usual sleep environment has become – and what you can do to make it calmer.

Tips for sweet dreams at home or away

Reassure yourself. If you have a rough night of sleep in a new place it doesn’t mean something is “wrong” with you. It’s a normal, protective response from a brain that’s tuned to safety and familiarity. You might need a night or two to settle in.

Choose sleep-friendly accommodation when you can. Many hotels are deliberately designed to support good sleep and these features, such as pillow menus, melatonin-rich foods on the room-service menu, or even a personal sleep butler, can make a real difference.

Plan for a slower first day. If you know you’re sleeping somewhere new, expect that the first night might not be your best. Where possible, avoid scheduling demanding tasks the next morning and give yourself time to adjust.

Pack your sleep routine in your suitcase. Just as parents might do for their small child, pack your sleep routine with you. If you have a particular pillow case or a sleep mask, or a certain scent that helps you sleep at home, try bringing these with you so your brain has some familiar cues in an unfamiliar environment.

If you notice you sleep better away from home, take a look at your home sleep routine and environment. Keep your room cool and dark and make your bed comfortable with supportive pillows and fresh bedding. Establish a relaxing wind-down routine: dim lights and limit screens in the evening, and stick to consistent bed and wake times, even on weekends.

– ref. The ‘first-night effect’: why it’s hard to sleep when you’re somewhere new – https://theconversation.com/the-first-night-effect-why-its-hard-to-sleep-when-youre-somewhere-new-270299

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/the-first-night-effect-why-its-hard-to-sleep-when-youre-somewhere-new-270299/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodie Avery, Research Co-Lead, Chronic Reproductive Health Conditions, Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide University

If you live with pelvic pain, period pain, sex or bowel symptoms, you may have been told you could have endometriosis, and that surgery is the “gold standard” for diagnosis and treatment.

But over the past few weeks, questions have been raised about whether surgery is actually necessary for women to detect and treat endometriosis.

This week’s ABC Four Corners highlights stories of women undergoing repeated unnecessary surgeries for endometriosis which caused significant harm and left some women unable to have have children.

So where does that leave people who have or suspect they have endometriosis?

Surgery is not always necessary but can be helpful in some instances. But it’s never a simple yes-or-no decision. Let’s look at what the evidence says about who might benefit from surgery and when it’s unnecessary.

What is endometriosis and what is surgery for?

Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (womb) grows outside the uterus – usually in the pelvis or other areas. It affects about one in seven women and those presumed female at birth.

Surgery for endometriosis has two roles:

• diagnosis: seeing whether endometriosis lesions are present

• treatment: removing or destroying visible disease.

Surgery is no longer needed for diagnosis

Historically, laparoscopy (keyhole surgery) with biopsy was considered best to diagnose endometriosis. If tissue removed at surgery showed endometrial-type cells under the microscope (histology), diagnosis was confirmed.

However, endometriosis care is evolving with imaging and our understanding of pain science is improving. Australian and international guidelines now allow clinicians to diagnose endometriosis based on symptoms.

Deep and ovarian endometriosis can often be diagnosed with specialised ultrasound or MRI. This imaging can also help guide decisions about whether or not to undergo surgery.

So surgery is no longer required to “prove” a person has the condition.

When else might surgery be unnecessary?

Surgery shouldn’t be the first and only treatment option for endometriosis.

Surgery may not be needed if symptoms are manageable with hormonal therapy, allied and complementary health therapies, and lifestyle modification, or the risks of surgery outweigh the benefits.

Just because endometriosis is there, does not mean it causes the symptoms. Adenomyosis (a condition where endometrial-like tissue grows in the muscle wall of the uterus), irritable bowel syndrome, pelvic floor dysfunction and bladder pain syndrome can coexist with endometriosis.

Sometimes treating these other conditions can improve quality of life without surgery.

When might you consider surgery?

Surgery may an appropriate treatment when:

• pain is severe and persistent, and medical therapies have not helped

• imaging suggests deep endometriosis is affecting key organs such as the bowel, bladder or ureters, which can cause complications

• fertility is affected and other options have been explored.

In these cases, surgery is considered for treatment, not diagnosis, and should be performed by an expert clinician – especially for deep or complex disease.

Early surgery may provide symptom relief, but there is little evidence lesions rapidly worsen over time or that urgent surgery improves long-term outcomes.

Although laparoscopies are generally safe, they’re still performed under general anaesthesia, which comes with risks. Other risks from surgery include:

• bleeding or infections
• damage to bowel, bladder or ureters
• adhesion formation, where scar tissue forms and fuses to other parts of the pelvis.

Even after successful surgery, pain may return over time. This doesn’t mean surgery failed or was inappropriate. It means endometriosis and pelvic pain are chronic, complex conditions.

What if the surgeon doesn’t find anything?

Sometimes a surgeon looks inside the pelvis and doesn’t see endometriosis, or histopathology (the tissue taken for analysis in a laboratory) is negative.

This may mean the disease isn’t there, but sometimes it’s not that straightforward. Surgeons may miss a lesion that is microscopic or hidden in difficult-to-access areas such as the bowel.

Histopathology accuracy also depends on many factors. The diseased part of the lesion may be missed during analysis. If the lesions are surgically burnt away (ablated), or very tiny endometriosis lesions are cut out (excised), they may be destroyed by the surgical instruments, making pathology review impossible.

Other times, abnormal-looking areas are removed, when these are in fact not endometriosis.

Questions to help you decide

If you are considering surgery for endometriosis, it can help to ask your doctor:

• what is the goal of surgery?
• what does my imaging show?
• what are the alternatives?
• what other conditions do I have that may contribute to my symptoms?
• how might surgery alleviate these symptoms?
• what is your experience with complex endometriosis?
• what improvements in pain can I realistically expect?
• what are potential complications in my case?

A good surgical consultation should discuss your symptoms, priorities, past experiences and treatments, discuss benefits, limitations and uncertainties around diagnostic tests, and treatment options.

If you feel pressured into surgery, or your surgeon quickly suggests booking surgery without offering other options, seek a second opinion.

If you decide on surgery to manage pelvic pain, your clinician should offer other treatments, such as pelvic physiotherapy and/or medication, which can be used in conjunction.

For those who aren’t planning a pregnancy, evidence shows people who use a hormonal medication to suppress oestrogen after surgery have lower rates of recurrence than those who do not.

For some, surgery is transformative. For others, it offers limited relief. Individualised care is key. The goal is to improve quality of life, not simply to find endometriosis. That decision should be made with you, not for you.

Thanks to Adelaide University Adjunct Lecturer in Gynaecology Mathew Leonardi and Endometriosis Group Leader at Adelaide University’s Robinson Research Institute Louise Hull for their input into this article.

– ref. Is surgery necessary for my endometriosis or ‘suspected’ endo? – https://theconversation.com/is-surgery-necessary-for-my-endometriosis-or-suspected-endo-276365

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/is-surgery-necessary-for-my-endometriosis-or-suspected-endo-276365/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Victoria Whitington, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct), Adelaide University

The federal Coalition has proposed an alternative to the universal child care system involving vouchers that could be used for long daycare, family daycare, nannies or a combination of these.

Senator Leah Blyth argues in an opinion article in The Australian Financial Review that a voucher system would provide families with choice and flexibility to better meet their needs.

This would be in contrast to the current system, in which the federal government directly funds long day childcare and family day care with subsidies to the service provider. Blyth argues the subsidised system distorts the workforce.

So what are the actual problems the vouchers would address? And how would they address the current shortcomings in the system?

The child care system has bigger problems

The most recent and well publicised issues in long daycare, used by 47% of Australian families with children under five, include:

1. child safety (including abuse)

2. insufficient appropriately qualified educators and teachers

3. high educator and teacher turnover rates – educators and teachers must be able to engage with children and families over time, building relationships of trust

4. the predominance of for-profit services (75% nationally that by their structure are very likely to put profit ahead of quality of care for children

5. the undersupply of places, also called “child care deserts” – these are geographical areas where there are either insufficient or no services to meet demand.

Surely, any proposal for reform needs to address at least some of these challenges.

Would a voucher change the choices available?

The voucher proposition raises several concerns.

Choice of service implies that such services exist. Many families live in areas where there is little choice. In rural, remote and regional areas, or on the outskirts of cities, there may be just one service. Or there may be insufficient demand for a centre to be financially viable.

A focus on choice also implies parents know what childcare services are available and what they offer, and can make an informed choice.

A sparkling new building or frequent media advertising, for example, may not inform parents about staff retention rates, qualifications, or the centre’s Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority quality rating.

The Coalition argues that over-regulation strangles supply. Currently, state-based regulators are working to improve quality by shutting down consistently underperforming centres. Centres are carefully assessing educator qualifications. Reducing regulation will not address safety and quality issues.

Extending the vouchers to in-home care, such as nannies, would ignore safety issues. Measures are underway to address the employment of abusers in long daycare. But a voucher system that includes in-home nanny care could give abusers unsupervised and long day access to young children.

Given the staffing crisis, it is difficult to see how making the system less financially stable due to dependency on vouchers would encourage potential educators to consider a career in the sector.

How would centres plan for the future?

As in any organisation, whether for profit or not-for-profit, financial viability is critical. Centres must have reliable funding sources to operate a continuing service.

Salaries are the biggest cost in any service, followed by running costs. Under the current model, centres are able to plan for these costs because they know the numbers of children, their age and attendance, well in advance.

Under the proposed voucher model, funding would be more likely to fluctuate, which could make service planning difficult due to financial instability. It would also increase the administrative burden.

Vouchers would need to set the cost of care for each child per hour and per day. Because costs vary between cities and regions, it would be difficult to calculate a uniform cost per child that could apply across Australia.

Families with children with special needs often experience difficulty in finding a service. These children require costly additional support that services claim they cannot provide. Currently, an additional childcare subsidy is only available under certain conditions such as temporary financial hardship. A voucher system would need to consider this particular challenge.

Why do we put our children in early years education and care?

As a nation, we need to decide on the primary purpose of early years education and care.

Is to provide care for children so that their parents can be part of the workforce, increasing overall productivity?

Or is its purpose to provide children and families with access to high quality early childhood education and care, which is their right? If we choose the second, we need to consider whether the provision of a voucher system would align with that goal.

– ref. The Coalition has proposed vouchers for nannies or child care. It raises more questions than answers – https://theconversation.com/the-coalition-has-proposed-vouchers-for-nannies-or-child-care-it-raises-more-questions-than-answers-276268

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/the-coalition-has-proposed-vouchers-for-nannies-or-child-care-it-raises-more-questions-than-answers-276268/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Nielsen, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland

A baby macaque monkey named Punch has gone viral for his heart-wrenching pursuit of companionship.

After being abandoned by his mother and rejected by the rest of his troop, his zookeepers at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan provided Punch with an orangutan plushie as a stand-in mother. Videos of the monkey clinging to the toy have gone viral worldwide.

But Punch’s attachment to his inanimate companion is not just the subject of a heartbreaking video. It also harks back to the story of a famous set of psychology experiments conducted in the 1950s by US researcher Harry Harlow.

The findings from his experiments underpin many of the central tenets of attachment theory, which positions the bond between parent and child as crucial in child development.

What were Harlow’s experiments?

Harlow took rhesus monkeys from birth, and removed them from their mothers. These monkeys were raised in an enclosure in which they had access to two surrogate “mothers”.

One was a wire cage shaped into the form of a “mother” monkey, which could provide food and drink via a small feeder.

The other was a monkey-shaped doll wrapped in terry towelling. This doll was soft and comfortable, but it didn’t provide food or drink; it was little more than a furry figure the baby monkey could cling to.

So, we have one option that provides comfort, but no food or drink, and one that’s cold, hard and wiry but which provides dietary sustenance.

These experiments were a response to behaviourism, which was the prevailing theoretical view at the time.

Behaviourists suggested babies form attachments to those who provide them with their biological needs, such as food and shelter.

Harlow challenged this theory by suggesting babies need care, love and kindness to form attachments, rather than just physical nourishment.

A behaviourist would have expected the infant monkeys to spend all their time with the wire “mother” that fed them.

In fact, that’s not what happened. The monkeys spent significantly more time each day clinging to the terry towelling “mother”.

Harlow’s 1950s experiments established the importance of softness, care and kindness as the basis for attachment. Given the opportunity, Harlow showed, babies prefer emotional nourishment over physical nourishment.

How did this influence modern attachment theory?

Harlow’s discovery was significant because it completely reoriented the dominant behaviourist view of the time. This dominant view suggested primates, including humans, function in reward and punishment cycles, and form attachments to whoever fulfils physical needs such as hunger and thirst.

Emotional nourishment was not a part of the behaviourist paradigm. So when Harlow did his experiments, he flipped the prevailing theory on its head.

The monkeys’ preference towards emotional nourishment, in the form of cuddling the furry terry towel-covered surrogate “mother”, formed the foundation for the development of attachment theory.

Attachment theory posits that healthy child development occurs when a child is “securely attached” to its caregiver. This is achieved by the parent or caregiver providing emotional nourishment, care, kindness and attentiveness to the child. Insecure attachment occurs when the parent or caregiver is cold, distant, abusive or neglectful.

Much like the rhesus monkeys, you can feed a human baby all they need, give them all the dietary nourishment they require, but if you don’t provide them with warmth and love, they’re not going to form an attachment to you.

What can we learn from Punch?

The zoo was not conducting an experiment, but Punch’s situation inadvertently reflects the controlled experiment Harlow did. So, the experimental setup was mimicked in a more natural setting, but the outcomes look very similar.

Just as Harlow’s monkeys favoured their terry towelling mother, Punch has formed an attachment to his IKEA plushie companion.

Now, what we don’t have with the zoo situation is the comparison to a harsh, physically nourishing option provided.

But clearly, that’s not what the monkey was looking for. He wanted a comforting and soft safe place, and that’s what the doll provided.

Were Harlow’s experiments ethical?

Most of the world now recognises primates as having rights that are, in some cases, equivalent to human rights.

Today, we would see Harlow’s experiments as a cruel and unkind thing to do. You wouldn’t take a human baby away from its mother and do this experiment, so we shouldn’t do this to primates.

It’s interesting to see people so fascinated by this parallel to an experiment conducted more than 70 years ago.

Punch the monkey is not just the internet’s latest animal celebrity – he’s a reminder of the importance of emotional nourishment.

We all need soft spaces. We all need safe spaces. Love and warmth are far more important for our wellbeing and functioning than physical nourishment alone.

– ref. A viral monkey, his plushie, and a 70-year-old experiment: what Punch tells us about attachment theory – https://theconversation.com/a-viral-monkey-his-plushie-and-a-70-year-old-experiment-what-punch-tells-us-about-attachment-theory-276625

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/a-viral-monkey-his-plushie-and-a-70-year-old-experiment-what-punch-tells-us-about-attachment-theory-276625/

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 23, 2026.

PODCAST: A View from Afar – Defining a Way Forward When the World is in Chaos
PODCAST: A View from Afar – Paul G. Buchanan: “The sad fact, though, is that the US is the center of our earthly geopolitical universe, serving as the first rock to drop in the global pond whose ripple effects are extensive, negative, and washing up in unexpected and unforeseen ways. That rock, in fact, is a black hole sucking the remnants of the rule based order into oblivion, or if not oblivion, irrelevance in a new age of power politics (might makes right, etc.). It is a dark force from which things as they exist cannot return.”

250 million-year-old amphibian fossils from Australia reveal global spread of ‘sea-salamanders’
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lachlan Hart, Lecturer, School of Education, UNSW Sydney The Kimberley region in the north-west corner of Western Australia is full of rugged ranges and gorges, and long stretches of red soil and rocky ground. The dry seasons are long, and the wet seasons often flood the Martuwarra

The work women do has changed. The case for pay equity in NZ hasn’t
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Meehan, Director, NZ Policy Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology Pay equity is back in the spotlight in New Zealand, with an unofficial “people’s select committee” about to report on last year’s legislative changes that overhauled the process and cancelled existing claims. As we await its

After the Milan Cortina medals, what comes next for Australian winter sports?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Milan Cortina 2026 was Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics. From 1936-2022, Australia won 19 medals, including six golds. This year, Australia has added another six medals, including three golds. How has this happened and what

As war in Ukraine enters a 5th year, will the ‘Putin consensus’ among Russians hold?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Rutland, Professor of Government, Wesleyan University Perceived wisdom has it that the longer a war goes on, the less enthusiastic a public becomes for continuing the conflict. After all, it is ordinary citizens who tend to bear the economic and human costs. And yet, as the

In Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights, domestic abuse has been recast as consensual kink
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Drury, PhD Candidate in History, Lancaster University Much has been done, by way of interviews and Instagram reels, to market Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights as a tale of ferocious passion and untameable desire. The question of precisely whose passion we see play out onscreen is a

How can unis balance academic freedom with the need to protect against antisemitism?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pnina Levine, Senior Lecturer, Curtin Law School, Curtin University Australian students are returning to university campuses for the start of the academic year. They do so amid highly charged debates around racism and antisemitism. Australian universities have been accused both of failing to protect freedom of speech

The ground beneath Sydney emits radiation. But it’s nothing to worry about
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Manenti, Experimental particle physicist, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney When most people hear the word radiation, their mind jumps straight to nuclear disasters, such as at Chernobyl or Fukushima. But radiation is everywhere. In fact, right now, as you read this, you are being exposed

Gaza’s cultural sites have been decimated. UNESCO’s muted response sets a dangerous precedent
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Isakhan, Professor of International Politics, Deakin University Since October 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has caused mass human suffering. But it has also brought devastation to the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people. In our recent article in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, we documented

Planning a face lift? Why asking about your mental health doesn’t always hit the mark
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Pikoos, Adjunct Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology; Federation University Australia If you walk into a cosmetic surgeon’s office, you probably wouldn’t expect to be asked about your recent break-up or how you cope with stress. But in Australia, that has been standard practice for nearly

Good fungus may one day help save plants from bad fungus like deadly myrtle rust disease
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Moffitt, Associate Professor in Microbiology, Western Sydney University What do coffee, sugar, wheat, soy, eucalypts and paperbarks all have in common? They are all susceptible to parasitic rust diseases caused by fungi. Plant rust disease can easily be spotted by the characteristic orange or yellow spores

Satellite imaging is now vital for disaster management. But there are dangerous gaps in our systems
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato The extreme weather events and resulting destruction that have hit New Zealand this summer are not only signs of a changing climate. They also highlight the now indispensable role of remote sensing satellite technology. Broadly, remote sensing

Beyond Gaza, Israel pushes to occupy more of the West Bank
While the world has focused on the atrocities in Gaza, Israel continues its support of illegal settlements, hostility and apartheid in the West Bank. Asia-Pacific specialist journalist Ben Bohane reports from Bethlehem for Michael West Media. SPECIAL REPORT: By Ben Bohane We are no more than 5 minutes out of Bethlehem on a crisp December

Roger Fowler, a legend of the Aotearoa solidarity movement, dies at 77
OBITUARY: By David Robie Roger Norman Fowler: 12 September 1948 – 21 February 2026 Roger Fowler, an activist legend of social justice solidarity movements from Bastion Point to resisting apartheid and racist rugby tours and freedom for Palestine, has died after a long illness. He was 77. Described by some as a “true Tāne Toa”,

Climate-related migration: Is New Zealand living up to the ‘Pacific family’ rhetoric?
SPECIAL REPORT: By Coco Lance, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Last week, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said Aotearoa’s immigration settings were “no way to treat our Pacific cousins”. “All Pacific people want is a fair go, equivalent to what other nations are getting, and they’re not getting it,” he said outside Parliament. While Peters’

How could Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor be removed from the line of succession to the throne?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor Emerita in Constitutional Law, University of Sydney The place of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former prince and brother of the king, in the line of succession to the British throne appears to be under threat in the United Kingdom. Currently, Mountbatten-Windsor is eighth in line (after

The Epstein scandal has battered Britain’s political establishment. Can the radical-right Reform party benefit?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Wellings, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, Monash University The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office will heap yet more pressure on the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest over allegations he passed government documents to sex

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for February 22, 2026
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 22, 2026.

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/er-report-a-roundup-of-significant-articles-on-eveningreport-nz-for-february-23-2026/

Tena Koutou Katoa welcome to a new series of A View from Afar.

For this, the sixth series of A View from Afar, political scientist and former Pentagon analyst Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning deep-dive into geopolitical issues and trends to unpick relevancy from a world experiencing rapid and significant change.

And, in this episode, the topic will be: How to Define A Way Forward When the World is in Chaos.

Since the re-election of the US President Donald Trump, Paul has been doing a lot of work… a lot of reading… and a huge amount of thinking.

Today we hear from Paul about:

1. The US Trump Administration’s “Authoritarianism at home, Imperialism abroad” currency.
2. How to deconstruct the entire “spheres of Influence” nonsense.
3. About United States fears of the rise of the Global South in a poly-centric world.
4. And Paul and I will lean-forward and consider; what to expect in the medium and longterm.

If listeners enjoy interaction in a LIVE recording environment, you can comment and question the hosts while they record this podcast. And, when you do so, the hosts can include your comments and questions in future programmes.

With this in mind, Paul and Selwyn especially encourage you to join them via YouTube, as on YouTube live interaction is especially efficient.

You can join the podcast here (and remember to subscribe and get notifications too by clicking the bell):

OK, let us know what you think about this discussion. Let the debate begin!

*******

SIGNIFICANT QUOTE PAUL G. BUCHANAN: “The sad fact, though, is that the US is the center of our earthly geopolitical universe, serving as the first rock to drop in the global pond whose ripple effects are extensive, negative, and washing up in unexpected and unforeseen ways. That rock, in fact, is a black hole sucking the remnants of the rule based order into oblivion, or if not oblivion, irrelevance in a new age of power politics (might makes right, etc.). It is a dark force from which things as they exist cannot return.”

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/podcast-a-view-from-afar-defining-a-way-forward-when-the-world-is-in-chaos/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lachlan Hart, Lecturer, School of Education, UNSW Sydney

The Kimberley region in the north-west corner of Western Australia is full of rugged ranges and gorges, and long stretches of red soil and rocky ground. The dry seasons are long, and the wet seasons often flood the Martuwarra Fitzroy River – an artery to the Indian Ocean – in the region’s south.

But if you were to travel back to the Early Triassic period, 250 million years ago, you would see a very different landscape. Back then, the land was covered in brackish water and was more like a mudflat, on the shore of a shallow bay.

Inhabiting this area were creatures a far stretch from the dingoes, rock wallabies and livestock that populate the region today. Strange amphibians, called temnospondyls, which looked like a cross between a salamander and a crocodile, dominated this era, feeding on fish and other small animals.

A new study colleagues and I have just published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology sheds new light on these animals. It shows for the first time how they were able to become an evolutionary success story.

Lost – then found

Palaeontologists uncovered fossils of these weird animals in rocks (known as the Blina shale) on Noonkanbah station, roughly 250 kilometres inland of Broome, during field expeditions in the 1960s.

Temnospondyls are an incredibly long and diverse lineage of vertebrates. Their fossil record extends some 210 million years, from the Carboniferous period through to the Cretaceous. They include prehistoric animals such as Eryops and Koolasuchus. Their story is one of great survival – one of the few vertebrate groups that persisted through the two mass extinctions at the end of the Permian and Triassic periods.

The temnospondyl discovered on Noonkanbah station was called Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis. It was named in 1972 by Cosgriff and Garbutt based on three fossil skull pieces that were retrieved on those field expeditions in the 1960s.

The specimens were sent to several museum collections in Australia and the United States. And some time in the following 50 years or so, they were lost.

Luckily, the Western Australian Museum retained a high quality plaster cast of one of the pieces. But our team was determined to find out more about these enigmatic fossils. We were completely blown away when one of the lost pieces turned up in a museum collection at Berkeley, in the US.

One species becomes two

Once we could look at these two pieces of Erythrobatrachus, we could see that they actually belonged to two different species of temnospondyl.

One of the original fossils was definitely unique enough to maintain the Erythrobatrachus name. The other one was more like a previously described, and well-known temnospondyl called Aphaneramma.

While both animals would have been roughly the same size (with skulls of about 40 centimetres long when complete), the shape of their skulls indicated different diets and hunting strategies.

Erythrobatrachus had a broader, more robust head and would have been a top predator in its environment.

Aphaneramma, on the other hand, had a long, thin snout probably adapted for catching small fish. They both lived in the same habitat, coexisting by hunting different prey.

A global spread

Modern amphibians are extremely sensitive to salt levels in water. This is why marine environments which have high salinity are generally not a place where amphibians like to live.

Temnospondyls of the family Trematosauria, to which both Erythrobatrachus and Aphaneramma belong, were apparently unbothered by salt water, as trematosaurid fossils are found in marine deposits around the world.

In fact, fossils of Aphaneramma have been found in localities of similar age to the Blina Shale – in Svalbard, Russia, Pakistan and Madagascar.

Trematosaurs are particularly notable as their fossils are found in rocks which date less than 1 million years after the mass extinction event at the end of the Permian period, also known as the Great Dying. This was the most catastrophic mass extinction in Earth’s history.

Confirmation that Aphaneramma’s range also included Australia shows these animals were dispersing worldwide during the earliest parts of the Mesozoic era.

Our research adds an exclamation point to just how adaptable temnospondyls were. They had an amazing ability to utilise a plethora of ecological niches to survive, even in the face of extreme global change – proving they were definitely one of evolution’s success stories.

– ref. 250 million-year-old amphibian fossils from Australia reveal global spread of ‘sea-salamanders’ – https://theconversation.com/250-million-year-old-amphibian-fossils-from-australia-reveal-global-spread-of-sea-salamanders-276162

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/250-million-year-old-amphibian-fossils-from-australia-reveal-global-spread-of-sea-salamanders-276162/