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November 27, 2025

Climate action saves lives. So why do climate models ignore wellbeing?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Inge Schrijver, PhD researcher, Wellbeing Inclusivity Sustainability & the Economy, Leiden University

Photo by Hunter Scott on Unsplash, CC BY-SA

Climate change is already shaping our wellbeing. It affects mental health, spreads infectious diseases, disrupts work, damages food supplies and forces families to leave their homes because of conflict, hunger or flooding.

Wellbeing refers to everything that enables people to live healthy, safe and meaningful lives. It includes physical and mental health, access to food, clean water, hygiene and income, as well as work, leisure, culture and education.

It also involves personal safety, freedoms, trust in institutions and how people feel about their own lives. Environmental quality, biodiversity and the degree of inequality in society are part of wellbeing too. Climate change touches every one of these areas.

Our new study, written with René Kleijn of Leiden University, examined the many ways climate change affects wellbeing and assessed whether these impacts are reflected in the climate policy models that guide global decision-making.

These models are large computer simulations that explore how society and the economy might change under different climate and policy scenarios. Policymakers use them to test “what-if” questions, such as introducing a carbon price or expanding renewable energy, before making real decisions.

We found that although researchers have documented a wide range of climate-related harms, very few of these factors appear in the most influential models used by governments and international agencies. Newer experimental models do include wellbeing, but these are not the ones shaping today’s climate policies.

This gap matters because climate policy models influence real-world choices. For example, the International Energy Agency’s modelling informs energy investments. The models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s scientific advisory body, have shaped global interest in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, sometimes at the expense of rapid emissions cuts.

If wellbeing is not represented, the benefits of climate action will be undervalued because the models cannot account for them.

Research from more than one hundred institutions through the Lancet Countdown – one of the world’s leading annual assessments of how climate change is already impacting human health – shows that heat is now responsible for around 550,000 deaths each year. This is 63% more than in the 1990s. Four out of five heatwave days today would not have occurred without climate change.

Rising temperatures are changing the nature of work. In 2024, 640 billion potential working hours were lost in sectors such as agriculture and construction because conditions were too hot to work safely. This represents more than $1 trillion US dollars (£755,725,000) in lost income.

Heat and drought threaten global food systems as well. According to Lancet Countdown projections, if the planet warms by 2°C, around 500 million more people could face food insecurity within the next two decades.

If warming reaches 3.6°C by the end of the century, the number could rise to 1.1 billion. These estimates do not yet include the effects of sea-level rise, damaged infrastructure, agricultural pests or reduced nutrient content in crops.

None of these impacts – heat deaths, lost working hours, or rising food insecurity – are systematically included in the major climate policy models used today. That means decisions about climate action may be overlooking some of the most important human consequences.

Failing to cut emissions costs lives and livelihoods but climate action protects both.

Why climate models still miss wellbeing

Despite extensive research, most climate policy models ignore impacts on wellbeing. When wellbeing is included, it is often measured in narrow economic terms that miss what matters most to people.

Yet many areas have already been studied in ways that could be incorporated into models. Research has quantified the damage from diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and cardiovascular illness, as well as mental health conditions including depression and suicide.

For example, a large systematic review examined the link between extreme heat and worsening mental health, including hospitalisations for psychiatric conditions.

Other work shows how climate change affects worker productivity, leisure, conflict, migration, air quality and biodiversity. Studies have demonstrated clear connections between rising temperatures and reduced labour productivity, and between climate change and biodiversity loss, with implications for human health and food systems. These issues are central to people’s lives and should be represented in policy modelling.

Some areas have been explored in research but still cannot be included in climate policy models because they lack the numerical data needed for modelling. These areas include education, cultural heritage, subjective wellbeing (how people evaluate and feel about their own lives), and governance.

Some reviews describe how climate change affects these aspects of life. However, they also emphasise that these impacts remain difficult to quantify in consistent, comparable ways, which is why they are not yet represented in most climate models.

Inequality must be part of the picture

Climate change does not affect everyone equally. Women, children and older adults are often more exposed. Evidence from the United Nations and global health research shows that these groups face higher mortality and displacement risks during climate-related disasters.

Some people face greater risks because they do not have safe housing, live in regions already experiencing extreme heat, work outdoors or lack the financial resources to prepare for future impacts.

People who contributed least to climate change often face the most severe consequences, particularly in regions with limited means to adapt. This pattern is described extensively in literature on climate vulnerability and justice, such as the 2026 Global Climate Risk Index. Almost no climate policy model includes these inequalities.

Climate change is not only about emissions and temperature limits. It affects how people live, work, eat, breathe, learn and feel. When models ignore wellbeing, they underestimate the benefits of climate action and overlook the true costs of inaction.

To create climate policy that reflects real human lives, wellbeing needs to move from the margins to the centre of modelling efforts. Climate action is not only an environmental necessity. It is an investment in global health, safety, dignity and fairness.

Inge Schrijver’s PhD is part of the WISE Horizons project, which is funded by Horizon Europe (grant number 101095219).

Paul Behrens receives funding from The British Academy and REAPRA.

Rutger Hoekstra receives funding from the Horizon Europe “WISE Horizons” Research & Innovation Action (GA 101095219).

– ref. Climate action saves lives. So why do climate models ignore wellbeing? – https://theconversation.com/climate-action-saves-lives-so-why-do-climate-models-ignore-wellbeing-269879

November 27, 2025

Could a national, public ‘CanGPT’ be Canada’s answer to ChatGPT?

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Fenwick McKelvey, Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy, Concordia University

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and others reshape the digital landscape, much of the conversation in Canada has focused on commercial innovation.

But what if AI were developed as a public utility rather than as a commercial service? Canada’s long history with public service media — namely the CBC and Radio-Canada — offers a useful model for thinking about how AI could serve the public amid growing calls for a public interest approach to AI policy.

Commercial AI has largely been built on the assumption that user-generated content posted online is available to train commercial AI. Focusing so much on the technical success of generative AI ignores that its innovations depend on access to global cultural knowledge — the result of treating the internet as a “knowledge commons.”

AI would have been impossible without public data, and much of that data was taken without contributing back to the public system. Canada, in fact, has a historical link to AI innovation.

Early work in automated translation involved a tape reel that was anonymously sent to IBM in the 1980s containing Canadian parliamentary transcripts. The multilingual material helped train early translation algorithms. What if Canada intentionally trained the future of AI in the same way?

CanGPT: a Canadian public-service AI

A growing number of countries are experimenting with national or publicly governed AI models. Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands are all building AI systems with the goal of creating public AI services. The Canadian federal service has some of its own experiments with its own alternative to ChatGPT, CanChat, but it’s only an internal tool.

In Montréal, many arts-based organizations have begun discussing creating their own commons-based AI infrastructure and tools, but they lack infrastructure and resources to advance their mission. A national initiative could help.

There is precedent for this approach. When radio and television first emerged, many countries created public broadcasters — like the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) in the United Kingdom and the CBC in Canada — to ensure new communication technologies served democratic needs.

A similar approach could work for AI. Instead of letting companies build the future of AI, Canadian Parliament could sponsor the creation of its own AI model and expand the mandate of an organization like the CBC to deliver better access to AI. Such a public model could draw on materials in the public domain, government datasets and publicly licensed cultural resources.

CBC/Radio-Canada also has an enormous, multilingual archive of audio, video and text going back decades. That corpus could become a foundational dataset for a Canadian public-service AI, if treated as a public good.

A national model could become an open-source system available either as an online service or as a locally run application. Beyond providing public access, CanGPT could anchor a broader national AI strategy rooted in public values rather than commercial incentives.

Setting democratic boundaries for AI

Developing CanGPT would force a needed debate about what AI should and should not be able to do. Generative AI is already implicated in deepfake pornography and other forms of technology-assisted violence.

Today, the guardrails governing these harms are set privately by tech companies. Some platforms impose minimal moderation; others, like OpenAI, ban politicians and lobbyists from using ChatGPT for official campaign business. These decisions have profound political implications that shape content moderation and social media governance.

Content moderation and acceptable-use policies could be solved through normative principals embedded in CanGPT. A publicly governed AI model could allow Canadians to debate and define these boundaries through democratic institutions rather than through technology firms.

Why a public AI model matters

Public AI is a different tack than government’s infrastructure-heavy approach to AI. The federal government — despite growing concerns that we are in an AI bubble — has invested billions in a big, costly AI Sovereign Compute Strategy.

The policy might be ineffective, end up going largely to American firms and dismantle Canada’s capacity to build public-interest AI.

Canada’s AI agenda has a big environmental impact. A public-good framework could encourage the opposite: frugal, energy-efficient models that run on smaller, local machines and prioritize targeted tasks rather than massive, multi-billion parameter models like ChatGPT. A smaller public model could contribute to this by having a lower environmental footprint.

This approach could stand in direct contrast to the federal government’s efforts to build large-scale AI, as reflected in the massive data centre investments outlined in recent federal budgets. Canada has made major investments in big AI projects. If the bubble bursts, however, smaller-scale AI initiatives may offer a less risky future.

Imagining a public future for AI

Building CanGPT would not be simple. Questions remain about how to fund it, how to update it and how to maintain competitive performance compared with commercial AI.

But it would open a national conversation about AI’s social purpose, regulatory standards and the role of public institutions in digital infrastructure. CanGPT is, admittedly, a strange idea, but it might be precisely what is lacking in Canada’s approach to public service media and digital sovereignty.

At minimum, imagining a public AI model opens the possibilities of new ways to deliver on the promises of AI other than another subscription sold to us by Big Tech.

Fenwick McKelvey receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Fonds de recherche du Québec.

– ref. Could a national, public ‘CanGPT’ be Canada’s answer to ChatGPT? – https://theconversation.com/could-a-national-public-cangpt-be-canadas-answer-to-chatgpt-231170

November 27, 2025

Beyond Zohran Mamdani: Social media amplifies the politics of feelings

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor has spurred global celebrations and pride. Scores of social media users worldwide celebrate and claim him as one of their own.

Muslims across the globe, including in Indonesia — home to the world’s largest Muslim population, where I was born and raised — rejoice that he is Muslim. Indians take pride in Mamdani’s Indian roots. Ugandans cheer his victory because Kampala is his birthplace.

Representation does matter. It can be deeply affirming to see someone whose identity resonates with you succeed in a foreign political landscape.

However, Mamdani didn’t win simply because of who he is. He won because of what he did, the politics that his campaigns were based on — a platform that focuses on the cost of living, from utility bills to grocery bills to bus fares to child care to rent — and, more importantly, the feelings, the trust and cohesion generated in the network of people who organized with and for him.

As a scholar who examines digital media and information technology in relation to citizen participation and democracy, I know that political behaviour research has long observed that voters don’t choose based on policy alone: they vote based on identity, group belonging, emotional attachments and symbolic cues, all of which speak to “the politics of feelings.”

This refers to politics that mobilize and build power through shared feelings and emotional bonds.

Identity, platform, visibility

That Mamdani is Muslim — the son of a South Asian African Muslim father and a Hindu Indian mother, born in Uganda — and that he has lived an immigrant community experience in New York is a formidable part of his story.

This profoundly matters in a political landscape that often marginalizes such identities — and helps explain why he has become so visible online and globally.

Viral videos, algorithmically boosted content and his public persona amplified this visibility. Online, the Zohran Mamdani phenomenon illustrates the power of emotion-driven mobilization, the process through which emotional currents bring people into alignment or connection with a cause, figure or community.

Identity and emotion have always been central to politics. Social media didn’t invent the politics of feelings; it accelerated and amplified them.

Branding a politician

Social media political participation doesn’t operate within a deliberative civic culture, but within an algorithmic marketing culture where algorithmic targeting and data-driven marketing principles shape how persuasion, visibility and emotion circulate.

Branding shapes the way content looks and feels. Algorithms push what’s likely to grab attention, and human users — naturally drawn to emotion — interact with it, feeding the system in return. Together, they produce a self-reinforcing loop where high-arousal content dominates, as a consequence of the interplay of marketing logic, machine learning and user behaviour.

The algorithm rewards emotion, not analysis. It privileges what’s instantly legible — a name, a face, a faith — over the collective labour and work behind a political movement.

Hope, pride as well as fear, outrage

Posts highlighting Mamdani’s Muslim, immigrant or brown identity, whether in celebration or attack, elicit emotions — hope, pride, fear or outrage. These emotions fuel engagement, which algorithms amplify, generating cycles of visibility which can simultaneously mobilize support and provoke backlash.

Indeed, the same identity categories that make him so celebrated abroad have also been weaponized against him at home in the United States.

Through social media disinformation fuelled by racism and Islamophobia, Mamdani’s opponents have framed him as a “Muslim extremist,” “communist,” “jihadi terrorist,” “brown” and “dirty” or a “threat” to American values.

The flattening happens from both sides: he is either attacked for his identity or adored because of it.

The irony is sharp. For example, some Indonesians embrace a man named Mamdani — Mamdanis are part of the Khoja Shia community — while turning a blind eye to anti-Shia persecution at home.

Similarly, some Modi supporters claim Mamdani’s Indian heritage without acknowledging that he is a vocal critic of Modi.

Identity becomes politicized

We can see similar dynamics elsewhere. Sadiq Khan’s visibility as a Muslim mayor of London generated both celebration and Islamophobic backlash on social media, amplified through viral videos, memes and algorithmically boosted news cycles.

In Canada, former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s youthful, multicultural and photogenic persona generated strong emotional attachment and global circulation while overshadowing his substantive political work.

This is how identity becomes politicized. By focusing the debate on who someone is, attention is diverted from what they stand for. It’s easier to categorize than to engage with structural critique.

In an algorithmic age, we consume politics in byte sizes, where visibility often displaces understanding and emotional attachment overshadows knowledge-seeking. It’s easier to celebrate a face than to join a struggle.

Emotion meets lived experience

But visibility is not the same as electoral power. We learn from Mamdani’s case that, for local politics, symbolism is rarely enough. It operates in a different register from national or global scales.

While Mamdani’s online persona benefited from algorithmic amplification, his campaign was also built on grassroots, volunteer-based mobilization combining door-knocking and neighbourhood conversations across the city of New York.

In local elections, voters aren’t distant algorithmic audiences. They’re neighbours, co-workers and community members who experience the effects of policy in their daily lives. A candidate’s identity, promises and track record must resonate with the residents’ tangible needs. Branding and emotional attachment help, but they cannot replace direct knowledge of local realities and persistent organizing work.

Mamdani platform

To cast a ballot for Mamdani in New York, voters needed to not only embrace his identities, but also his platform and the fact that, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he’s unapologetically a democratic socialist.

The word “socialism” is not widely accepted in the United States, as it’s often conflated with “communism” — the remnant of Cold War anti-communism propaganda. It’s not popular in Indonesia, India and Uganda either.

Whether Mamdani will fulfil his voters’ expectations is too early to tell. What is clear is that his story isn’t just about Muslim pride or immigrant success. It’s about what’s possible when people organize across differences for a common cause. It’s about choosing to see beyond who someone is to what they stand for.

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

– ref. Beyond Zohran Mamdani: Social media amplifies the politics of feelings – https://theconversation.com/beyond-zohran-mamdani-social-media-amplifies-the-politics-of-feelings-269792

November 27, 2025

New Zealand’s biggest navy ship made transit through sensitive Taiwan Strait this month

Source: Radio New Zealand

HMNZS Aotearoa leaves Auckland for Tonga.

The HMNZS Aotearoa. (File photo) Photo: Supplied / NZDF

New Zealand’s biggest navy ship HMNZS Aotearoa has made a trip through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

The Strait is part of the South China Sea, over which several countries, including China and the Philippines, have contested territorial claims.

Reuters reported Chinese forces tracked and followed the ship.

Defence Minister Judith Collins said the supply vessel had been on deployment since September after having maintenance done in Singapore.

It sailed through the Strait on 5 November on its way to the North Asian region to take part in UN monitoring of sanctions against North Korea.

Collins said all actions during the transit had been safe, professional and consistent with international law.

That included exercising the right to freedom of navigation, as guaranteed under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.

“The NZDF conducts all activities in accordance with international law and best practice. By doing this, we are demonstrating our commitment to the international rules-based system in our near region – the Indo-Pacific”.

The Aotearoa also sailed through the Strait last year in September. The minister said at the time it was with an Australian ship as part of routine activity.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 27, 2025

Marshall Islands introduces world first crypto-based universal income scheme

Source: Radio New Zealand

Commemorative bitcoin coins are in Yichang, Hubei province, China, on December 5, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto) (Photo by CFOTO / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP)

Paul confirmed that several Pacific Island nations (though he would not say which) had approached him to understand more about the scheme – and whether they could do it themselves. Photo: CFOTO / NurPhoto via AFP

The Marshall Islands is giving away free cash to its more than 33,000 citizens.

The government announced its universal basic income (UBI) system on Wednesday, with blockchain as its main mode of delivery.

It marks the first system of its kind in the world, where each citizen is periodically paid an equal sum regardless of how much they are making, it said.

Marshall Islands will give their citizens US$800 per year, per person, paid out quarterly. Citizens will have the option of receiving their payment via a stablecoin called USDM1, by cheque, or by bank deposit.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency pegged to a real-world asset or group of assets – in this case, US Treasury bonds, tethering it to the ever-changing value of the US Dollar.

Citizens can now access payments on a digital wallet called Lomalo, bypassing the need for bank account and thus, the RMI said, reaching the remotest parts of the nation where access to banking may not be a guarantee.

Alongside the lump-sum payment, the programme offers larger payments to those in extraordinary circumstances for issues such as food and housing.

The Marshall Islands government announced its universal basic income system on Wednesday, with blockchain as its main mode of delivery. Photo: RNZ Pacific

Spreading the wealth

The Marshall Islands is one of three Pacific Island countries (alongside the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau) in a Compact of Free Association with the US.

The nation receives around $67 million from the US each year in development assistance to run their government, an arrangement thus far untouched by the Trump administration.

Since 2004, the US has also paid into a trust fund for the nation, alongside Taiwan and the Marhsall Islands themselves. As of the 2024-25 fiscal year, that fund sits at a value of $1.042 billion with an weighted investment return of 20.66 percent.

An agreement signed in 2023 has committed the US to front-loading around $700 million into the fund over five years, ending in 2027 with no further commitments from there. The government has since been trying to figure out for a while now the best way to take the extra cash and do the most good with it.

Finance Minister David Paul told RNZ Pacific citizens have been asking for social investments out of the fund for some time.

“We didn’t see the impact of it, as far as the majority of the Marshallese are concerned,” Paul said.

“All this money goes into financiing the government, infrastructure development and ohter things, but people continue to see that their lives are not improving, their economic situations are not improving.”

Paul described an “opportunity” to introduce a UBI without introducing any new taxes or transfers, thanks to their expectation that the trust fund would continue to grow.

The USDM1 stablecoin, essentially pegged to the wellbeing of the US government, reflected that confidence.

“What is the purpose of having a huge trust fund when you know we have all these ongoing issues, that we need assistance for?”

Trouble in paradise

A UBI has been on the Marshall Islands agenda for years now. When the government changed, the new President Hilda Heine promised to implement a UBI of at least $800 per year by October 2024.

Though they missed their cutoff date by more than a year, the proposal survived a change in US Administrations, and significant scrutiny from the International Monetary Fund.

The policy is designed to make consumer spending on basic necessities, such as food, education, transport and shelter, more predictable and secure at the household budget level. With a GDP per capita of approximately $5813.51 as of 2024, that payment would mean a bump in average annual incomes of around 13-14 percent.

At that point, Marshall Islands was growing by around 3 percent with inflation hovering at around 5.2 percent, according to the IMF. To them, it would boost consumer spending massively, driving up prices while potentially bringing workers out of the labour force, depending on the makeup of their household.

“Fiscal policy support in FY2025-FY2026 is appropriate, but its scale is excessive,” the IMF reported in September.

“The authorities should replace the UBI at the first available and feasible opportunity with a more targeted scheme to ensure more effective uses of the CTF resources.”

Paul stood by the commitment to make the payments universal.

“We’re working with the likes of the IMF to also help track this in real time. And also we’re working with also the likes of the ADB and the World Bank to track the social impact of this in real time,” he said.

“So of course, there is going to be fresh data coming out for us soon to be able to understand fully the impact of a program like this.”

Paul rejected the notion that the UBI would contribute to inflation.

Even if it would, it mattered far less to Paul than the unrelenting tidal force of global prices. The RMIs size and relative dependence on imports, like all Pacific Island states, made it more vulnerable to shocks, he said.

As such, the UBI would form the basis of a safety net for Marshallese citizens in tough times out of their own control. In other words, it would stop them from having to leave.

“In the years prior, (inflation) was in the double digits… Marshallese wouldn’t be able to make a living and be able to stay in the Marshalls, and we would eventually be priced out of paradise.”

But it isn’t a foolproof strategy – a poor global economy would negatively impact the trust fund that the RMI relies on to pay out the UBI in the first place.

Paul said that the $800 per year was not a fixed figure – it would increase or decrease based on the performance of the fund, and for wider economic reasons.

“No one has a crystal ball, but we’re confident that based on the way our portfolio has performed over the years, the money is going to grow.”

So long as it only represented a fraction of the typical Marshallese income, Paul said the negative effects of a potential cut in UBI would not be too painful.

“You have to have a frame of reference.. if you look at last year there was zero, no assistance as such.”

Will it work?

Paul confirmed that several Pacific Island nations (though he would not say which) had approached him to understand more about the scheme – and whether they could do it themselves.

“This is something that each government will have to navigate, I believe it’s going to help sustain communities and societies going forward,” Paul said.

The role of crypto as an “enabler” for Pacific Island countries, in terms of access to finance in the remotest parts of the region, has been top-of-mind for policymakers for some time. Countries are beginning to roll out regulatory frameworks, and explore it’s usefulness for aid and trade.

Australian academic Monique Taylor has written extensively on the uptake of crypto in small island developing states. She told RNZ Pacific that banks are retreating from the region.

“Basic services like branches, ATMs and remittance channels are thin, expensive and unreliable,” she said.

“As banking networks continue to recede, more Pacific governments are likely to look at digital wallets and stablecoin-like instruments as practical ways to move money to citizens who don’t have bank accounts and who live in remote areas.”

Taylor said the Marshall Islands is in a unique position with a vast pool of American cash to draw down on, an advtange that other Pacific island countries lack.

“Other Pacific countries with similar banking constraints but without a comparable trust fund might still adopt digital payment rails for more targeted welfare schemes or social transfers, but replicating a fully universal, permanently funded UBI of this kind would be harder.”

However, in terms of how robust the system will prove, Taylor expressed doubts.

“The reliability question is less about “blockchain” as a technology and more about governance and supervision,” Taylor said.

“Where reliability becomes an issue is in the surrounding system: the strength of supervision, the quality of anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer frameworks, operational risks in digital infrastructure, and the fiscal pressures that can arise if liabilities grow faster than the state can manage.”

Paul said that when it comes to technical issues, they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

“We’re working with the likes of the IMF to also help track this in real time,” he said.

“Universal basic income is really going to be a norm of the future.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 27, 2025

Beyond Zohran Mamdani: Social media amplifes the politics of feelings

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor has spurred global celebrations and pride. Scores of social media users worldwide celebrate and claim him as one of their own.

Representation does matter. It can be deeply affirming to see someone whose identity resonates with you succeed in a foreign political landscape.

This refers to politics that mobilize and build power through shared feelings and emotional bonds.

Identity, platform, visibility

This profoundly matters in a political landscape that often marginalizes such identities — and helps explain why he has become so visible online and globally.

Identity and emotion have always been central to politics. Social media didn’t invent the politics of feelings; it accelerated and amplified them.

Branding a politician

The algorithm rewards emotion, not analysis. It privileges what’s instantly legible — a name, a face, a faith — over the collective labour and work behind a political movement.

Hope, pride as well as fear, outrage

Indeed, the same identity categories that make him so celebrated abroad have also been weaponized against him at home in the United States.

The flattening happens from both sides: he is either attacked for his identity or adored because of it.

The irony is sharp. For example, some Indonesians embrace a man named Mamdani — Mamdanis are part of the Khoja Shia community — while turning a blind eye to anti-Shia persecution at home.

Similarly, some Modi supporters claim Mamdani’s Indian heritage without acknowledging that he is a vocal critic of Modi.

Identity becomes politicized

Emotion meets lived experience

Mamdani platform

– ref. Beyond Zohran Mamdani: Social media amplifes the politics of feelings – https://theconversation.com/beyond-zohran-mamdani-social-media-amplifes-the-politics-of-feelings-269792

November 27, 2025

Flu shots: how scientists around the world cooperate to choose the strains to vaccinate against each year

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

Twice a year, 40 scientists gather together for five days to decide what strains of influenza to vaccinate against for the next flu season. It takes around six months to prepare the vaccine – which usually includes protection against three different strains of flu. So in February, the group’s decision affects the northern hemisphere’s flu season, and in September, it’s about the southern hemisphere.

Europe and the US are heading into a flu season that some are warning could be particularly severe this winter. While even as summer approaches in Australia, the country is still registering high numbers of cases after a record-breaking flu season earlier in the year.

So how does the process of deciding on a flu vaccine each year actually work? And does what happens in the southern hemisphere influence the way the virus circulates in the northern hemisphere?

In this episode ofThe Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Ian Barr, deputy director for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, part of the University of Melbourne. Barr is one of those 40 scientists who attend the meetings to decide what strains to focus vaccination efforts on.

After a tour around his lab, Barr explains how the different parts of the global flu monitoring system cooperate – and why it can be misleading to think that what happens in the southern hemisphere influences the northern hemisphere, and vice versa. Barr says that might be the case in some years – including in 2025 – but in “other years, I think it’s less clear that the viruses are coming from south to north … they may come from other places that have had unseasonable outbreaks during the summer or autumn.”

Listen to the interview with Ian Barr on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl.

Newsclip in this episode from 7News Australia.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.

Ian Barr owns shares in an influenza vaccine producing company, and his centre receives funding from commercial groups for ongoing activities.

– ref. Flu shots: how scientists around the world cooperate to choose the strains to vaccinate against each year – https://theconversation.com/flu-shots-how-scientists-around-the-world-cooperate-to-choose-the-strains-to-vaccinate-against-each-year-270621

November 27, 2025

Will the budget save Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer? Experts give their views

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Thomas Caygill, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Nottingham Trent University

Simon Dawson/Number 10/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Rachel Reeves’s budget was seen as a “make or break” moment for the chancellor and the government, which is suffering from low approval ratings and rapidly fading public confidence. At the same time, threats of a leadership challenge and the impending May elections mean Keir Starmer has a tricky path to navigate.

Can this budget save the chancellor and the prime minister’s careers? Here’s what our panel of politics experts has to say.

Breathing room before tough May elections

Thomas Caygill, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Nottingham Trent University

The two main audiences for this budget were backbench Labour MPs and the financial markets. The morning after, both appeared broadly content. This gives Starmer and Reeves some short-term breathing space.

But local elections in England and Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections in May mean this won’t last long. The current polling for Labour is not pretty, particularly in Wales. This is where the longer-term impact of the budget will be key.

The scrapping of the two-child benefit cap is popular with Labour MPs and will be popular with Labour members and their core voters. However, across the electorate overall, retaining the cap was popular.

Reeves announced a £150 cut to fuel bills, which will give Labour something to campaign on, along with a financial boost to both the Scottish (£820 million) and Welsh (£505 million) governments, and the freeze in rail fares. But some of these measures will not come into effect until April. This means that voters will not really have felt the benefit of them by the time they go to the polls.

It remains to be seen whether these measures can improve the party’s fortunes in time for May’s election and save the prime minister and chancellor beyond next summer (another key moment of danger, if May’s election results are as bad as feared).

Stability now, spending later

Despina Alexiadou, Reader at the School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde

The budget delivered by Rachel Reeves prioritises income redistribution over business incentives and macroeconomic stability over ambitious public investments.

But it fails in two central promises made during the election: first, to not raise income tax, and second (I think even more importantly) to kickstart the economy through large public investment in ambitious projects, such as the now seemingly abandoned green prosperity plan to invest billions in transitioning the economy to net zero. UK public investment lags behind most OECD countries
and the new budget does not address this.

The government cannot achieve its goals for economic growth unless it survives. And being still early in the legislative cycle, Reeves had to prioritise the government’s popularity in parliament rather than in the polls.

Democratically-elected governments time policies to stabilise themselves early in the electoral cycle, hoping to deliver a stronger economy closer to the elections.

If Reeves’s plans work out, she will be able to moderately grow the economy through economic stability and the improvement of public services. If the government brings public debt down, she might be able to cut taxes during the next election, though this is probably too optimistic as many of the new tax rises do not kick-in until 2029, (an election year).

This budget has saved the government for now and should mute backbenchers’ demands. But for her to deliver a more ambitious budget next year, she will have to grow the economy, against the meagre projections.

Reeves delivering her budget statement — Can this budget bring the chancellor back from a rocky first year?
House of Commons/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

The government still needs a narrative

Alex Prior, Lecturer in Politics with International Relations, London South Bank University

Even before the budget was delivered, there was an impending sense of doom. At best, it was seen as a “last chance” for the chancellor. At worst, there was an assumption of it already being over for Labour before it had begun. One Labour MP told the BBC that they were “on a four-year walk to the guillotine”.

If the narrative of doom has set in, it’s because Starmer and Reeves haven’t supplied a more convincing one. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s leak of its budget analysis ahead of Reeves’s speech also meant that the information was in the public domain before the chancellor could “set the scene”.

The budget itself did little to salve the feeling that this Labour government is sorely lacked a uniting narrative – a reason why we should all get behind higher taxes to rescue our stagnating public services.

Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein argues that “so powerful is a feeling of purpose that support for difficult decisions can even go up the harder people are being hit” because of “our ability to rationalise the sacrifices we make”.

Similarly, economist Jo Michell concludes: “With a clear understanding of the destination, Labour could articulate a narrative that balances pain … with gain, by explaining how peoples’ lives will improve.”

Budgets can work when leaders convey purpose, and rationalise sacrifices in a narrative that people believe and feel part of. If Starmer and Reeves want saving, their narrative and destination need to be made clear, for themselves and for citizens.

They might regret not taking more risks

Colm Murphy, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, Queen Mary University of London

This was a survival budget, not a salvation budget.

In a sulphurous political atmosphere, Reeves needed to satisfy three audiences: mutinous Labour MPs, markets and target voters. This explains, respectively, the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, the £26 billion of tax rises (largely through threshold freezes), and the choice of symbolic taxes on the wealthy and energy bill reductions.

The political narrative accompanying each decision could unravel. Lifting the two-child cap will give over half a million families an extra £5,000 a year on average. But Labour MPs might baulk at implied later cuts, for example to special needs provision.

Markets reacted positively, but the fiscal consolidation is backdated to the end of forecast. If there is another shock, the headroom could vanish.

The government’s political opponents will claim that, through freezing tax thresholds, it has effectively killed its manifesto pledge not to tax “working people” through a back-alley assassination.

Reeves and Starmer swerved the alternative of a righteous public execution: breaking the letter of their pledge by openly raising tax rates to enable a fast delivery of “change” in public services. This is therefore a defensive budget, and their caution is understandable.

But if global and domestic conditions do not improve, it may be remembered as a missed opportunity to take a greater political risk – with bigger potential costs, but also rewards.

Thomas Caygill has previously received funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council.

Alex Prior, Colm Murphy, and Despina Alexiadou do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Will the budget save Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer? Experts give their views – https://theconversation.com/will-the-budget-save-rachel-reeves-and-keir-starmer-experts-give-their-views-270519

November 27, 2025

Distance learning changes lives, but comes with its own challenges

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ashley Gunter, Professor, University of South Africa

For students outside cities, participation in distance learning can be a lonely struggle. Tobi Oshinnaike via Unsplash

Across Africa, distance education has become one of the most powerful forces for expanding access to higher learning. Open and distance learning institutions such as the Open University of Tanzania, the Zimbabwe Open University and the National Open University of Nigeria have joined long-standing providers like the University of South Africa in offering flexible study opportunities to millions of students who would otherwise be excluded from higher education.

These institutions are reimagining what it means to go to university in contexts where geography, cost and social responsibilities often keep young people out of the classroom.

The value of distance education is undeniable. It allows working adults to continue their studies without leaving employment, gives rural youth the chance to stay in their communities while earning qualifications, and provides people with opportunities to balance learning alongside family responsibilities. During crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education proved to be a lifeline when face-to-face teaching was impossible.

Across the continent, it is not simply an alternative to traditional universities; for many, it is the only route into higher education.

The World Bank has reported that only 9% of the African population in the five years after secondary school is enrolled in tertiary education – the lowest rate in the world.

My own research takes the University of South Africa (Unisa) as a case study to dig deeper into how geography and inequality shape students’ experiences of distance learning: their access, participation, and outcomes. With over 370,000 students in South Africa and other countries, Unisa is the continent’s largest provider. It’s an ideal lens through which to understand both the promise and the challenges of this educational model.

I’m a geographer with an interest in international education and economic development. For the Unisa case study, I took a qualitative research approach, interviewing 28 Unisa postgraduate students from different regions of Africa. I chose them to reflect the diversity of students enrolled at Unisa and because they already had experience of studying.

The study found that although distance education can meet educational needs where people can’t access face-to-face learning, it’s not a perfect solution. There are still challenges which make it hard for some people to study, like inadequate infrastructure (poor internet connectivity and electricity supply), financial constraints, and language and cultural barriers. There’s a need for interventions to improve the effectiveness and equity of distance education.

Experiences of distance education

My interviews with postgraduate students across Africa showed a complex picture. For the 18 students based in cities, distance education can be genuinely empowering. Internet connections, though costly, are usually accessible in cities. Electricity supply is more stable, and digital platforms are within reach. Students in urban areas spoke of the freedom and flexibility they gained, describing distance education as the only way to balance work, family life and study.

But geography matters. For students in rural or marginalised regions, participation in distance learning can become a daily struggle.

Downloading a file may take hours. Travelling long distances to internet cafés eats into scarce time and resources. A student in Zimbabwe explained how he missed deadlines simply because the university portal would not load in his village. Another said:

Some days I feel like I’m learning less and figuring out how to connect more.

Another, in Kenya, described travelling to Nairobi every two weeks to collect academic materials. She felt the sacrifice was worth it because she knew education could change her life. For others:

I begin to wonder if it’s really worth it.

These obstacles, however, underline rather than diminish the value of distance education. Students are willing to endure enormous effort and cost to access learning because they believe in its power to transform their futures. Their determination is itself evidence of the demand for and importance of this model of education.

Still, the barriers are real. High data prices, unstable internet, and unreliable electricity continue to limit access. Women in rural areas often face additional responsibilities that leave them with little time or energy to study.

It’s hard to keep up with my guy classmates who don’t face the same rules at home.

And the flexibility that makes distance education attractive can sometimes turn into a sense of isolation when students don’t have peer support.

I feel alone a lot. Even when I try to share, they don’t seem to understand what I’m facing.

Persistent inequities in distance education

Distance education can actually keep existing inequities in place, because students from wealthier, urban backgrounds are better positioned to succeed than rural students are.

My study also revealed how the realities of students’ lives not only affect their ability to use digital tools but also their sense of belonging to the academic community. There is a growing digital divide within distance education itself.

The task ahead is to make sure that these challenges do not undercut the progress distance education has already made. Over the past decade, distance education has expanded access, increased enrolment far beyond the capacity of traditional campuses, and improved the quality of digital teaching, learner support, and flexible study pathways.

Investment in affordable broadband and electricity is essential, particularly in rural and underserved regions. Financial aid needs to cover the hidden costs of learning, from devices to data. Outreach centres should be located closer to marginalised communities, and policies must explicitly address the gendered realities that shape women’s access to higher education.

Across Africa, open universities have already demonstrated how distance education can widen participation and build inclusive futures. Unisa’s story, and the experiences of its students, highlight both the opportunities and the work still to be done.

Geography continues to shape who can learn, but it does not have to decide who gets left behind. With the right investments and policies, distance education can move closer to fulfilling its full promise: to provide equitable, life-changing access to higher learning for all.

Ashley Gunter receives funding from, The Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, British Academy UK, National Research Foundation, Newton Fund UK.

– ref. Distance learning changes lives, but comes with its own challenges – https://theconversation.com/distance-learning-changes-lives-but-comes-with-its-own-challenges-266431

November 27, 2025

New study finds Pacific Northwest birds are becoming more common in the mountains as the climate warms

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Benjamin Freeman, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

We know that climate change is affecting animals and habitats across our world, but figuring out how isn’t always easy. In fact, for years, I told audiences we simply could not know how mountain birds in the Pacific Northwest were responding to climate change. But as my recent research proves, I was mistaken.

It wasn’t for lack of scientific interest — biologists worry that mountain species are vulnerable to warming temperatures. It wasn’t for lack of personal interest — I grew up among the snow-capped mountains of the region and wanted to know what was happening in my own backyard. It was because we lacked the data.

Specifically, I thought there was no historical data describing where Pacific Northwest birds lived along mountain slopes prior to recent climate change. Historical data provides a crucial baseline. With good historical data in hand, researchers can compare where species live now to where they used to live. In protected landscapes where people aren’t directly changing the habitat, climate change is the main force that could impact where birds live.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, I had found historical datasets and conducted resurveys in far-flung locations from Peru to Papua New Guinea. Yet I did not know what was happening to the birds living in the mountains visible from campus.

The city of Vancouver is visible in the distance from nearby mountain peaks — Researchers conducted surveys in the mountains near Vancouver, B.C. to find out how climate change is impacting birds that live in the area.
(Benjamin Freeman)

Then, one day I found a scientific paper describing an impressive bird survey from the early 1990s from these nearby mountains. I contacted the lead author, wildlife ecologist Louise Waterhouse, who told me she still had the original data and was interested in a resurvey.

The expectation is that mountain species should respond to hotter temperatures. Some species like the warmer areas at the base of the mountain, while others require cold areas near the mountain top.

Bird surveys

The general prediction is that plants and animals will move to higher elevations where temperatures remain cool, as if they are riding a slow-motion escalator. This spells trouble for mountaintop species, which have nowhere higher to move to. For them, climate change can set in motion an “escalator to extinction.”

To determine whether this was true, I first had to relocate the locations that Waterhouse and her colleagues had surveyed. Global positioning system units did not exist at the time, so they marked their survey locations on maps. I spent days in the forest, tracing my finger along the map as I walked through the woods.

Luckily for me, Waterhouse conducted her surveys in old-growth forests. With their towering trees and massive decaying logs on the forest floor, it was easy to tell when I stepped from the surrounding younger forest into one of these ancient groves.

Then I had to do the modern surveys. This required waking up at 4 a.m. for a month. Birds are most active in the early morning, so that’s the best time to conduct research.

While it’s never fun to set an early alarm, it was glorious to spend dawn among giant trees listening for birds. One morning a bobcat padded along a mossy log just a couple of metres from where I stood.

Another day a barred owl swooped noiselessly past me like a forest ghost. And every morning I conducted survey after survey, scribbling the species I encountered in my notebook.

What we found

After the survey work was completed, our team analyzed the data. We found that temperatures have increased by around 1 C in southwestern British Columbia since the early 1990s.

We wondered whether this warming would set the escalator to extinction in motion. But the main response we found was that species still live in the same slices of mountainside but have become more abundant at higher elevations. That suggests most species living in old-growth forests in this region are resilient to climate change so far.

Our resurvey is kind of like going to your doctor for a routine physical exam, but for an entire bird community. We found most species are doing well, akin to a general good report from your doctor. But we also identified problems.

Most notably, the Canada jay has dramatically declined and is on the escalator to extinction. This grey-and-white bird, also known as “whiskey jack,” is well-loved for its bold behaviour and intelligence and is considered by some to be Canada’s national bird. Follow-up research is urgently needed to help these charismatic jays persist in this region.

Our study provides a clear picture of how birds are responding to climate change in the mountains near Vancouver. This information is directly useful to land managers and conservationists.

I think back to the years when I said this study was impossible. If I hadn’t come across Waterhouse’s study that one grey afternoon, the hard-won data that she and her team collected might have been lost.

Now, as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, I have created the Mountain Bird Network to save and share such legacy datasets from mountains across the globe. Who knows what other mountains have high-quality historical data?

Thinking about mountain birds, I realize my toes are tapping as I look to the alarm clock and decide that maybe I need more 4 a.m. wake-ups in my life.

Benjamin Freeman receives funding from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

– ref. New study finds Pacific Northwest birds are becoming more common in the mountains as the climate warms – https://theconversation.com/new-study-finds-pacific-northwest-birds-are-becoming-more-common-in-the-mountains-as-the-climate-warms-270041