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August 27, 2025

I’m a woman approaching middle age, do I need to get my hormones checked?

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Susan Davis, Chair of Women’s Health, Monash University

If you’re a woman approaching middle age and you’re on social media, you might have been urged to get your hormones checked.

These posts often highlight troubling symptoms of perimenopause. Then they flag blood tests as a way to help you understand what’s going on and to guide treatment.

Some women are now turning to wellness providers and online services seeking these types of tests, often at substantial expense.

But these tests don’t provide any benefits. An editorial in the British medical journal BMJ has raised an alert about these tests. The authors conclude they’re unnecessary and shouldn’t guide treatment decisions.

So what hormonal changes occur in the transition to menopause? And why is hormonal testing mostly unhelpful?

What do hormones do during menstrual cycles?

The key hormones the ovaries produce before menopause are oestrogens (mostly as oestradiol, but also as oestrone) together with progesterone and testosterone.

The amount of each hormone produced changes during the menstrual cycle.

Blood oestradiol levels double around the time of ovulation. This is followed by an increase in progesterone.

Testosterone blood levels also increase around ovulation, but the increase is less than about 10%.

What’s the difference between menopause and perimenopause?

Menopause happens when the ovaries have lost the capacity to produce an egg.
After menopause, oestrogen and progesterone blood levels are dramatically lower than before menopause.

Perimenopause is the time between being pre-menopausal, through to the first 12 months after having the last menstrual bleed. But the end of perimenopause is difficult to determine if you don’t menstruate, for example after a hysterectomy or when you have a hormonal intra-uterine device (IUD).

Testosterone blood levels don’t meaningfully change at natural menopause; they slowly decline with age.

What are the symptoms of perimenopause?

During the transition to menopause, the ovaries function haphazardly. So oestrogen and progesterone blood levels can be unpredictably very high or very low.

Hot flushes and night sweats, also known as vasomotor symptoms, commonly start in early perimenopause and may persist for many years. Vasomotor symptoms occur intermittently during perimenopause and persist after menopause.

Perimenopause is identified by irregular periods (cycles closer together or further apart) or changed bleeding patterns (bleeding becoming scant or heavy), together with the onset of vasomotor and other symptoms such as:

increased abdominal fat
low mood
vaginal irritation and dryness
urinary symptoms, such as bladder irritability
memory difficulties, or “brain fog”. This seems to relate to the fluctuations in oestrogen levels and mostly resolves in the early postmenopausal years.

Our recent study shows the onset of vasomotor symptoms is the hallmark of perimenopause, and should also be used to diagnose perimenopause in women not menstruating (after hysterectomy or for other reasons).

Can a blood test tell you’re perimenopausal?

Blood oestradiol and progesterone levels are continually fluctuating during perimenopause. A blood test cannot be “timed” to any specific part of the cycle, as cycles vary in length and frequency.

So the results can’t generally be interpreted and are therefore not helpful.

However, it’s sensible to have blood tests to check for common causes of fatigue (under-active thyroid or iron deficiency) and palpitations and overheating (over-active thyroid).

How is perimenopause managed?

Treating perimenopause is not the same as treatment after menopause. Perimenopause is a time of hormonal chaos, rather than deficiency. So standard menopause hormone therapy (also called MHT) can make things worse.

Adding in an extra layer of hormones with the MHT that’s used after menopause will ease symptoms during the hormone lows, but often worsens symptoms during hormone highs (heavy bleeding, breast tenderness, fluid retention).

Instead, getting on top of perimenopause requires managing heavy and unscheduled bleeding, symptom relief, and, where needed, contraception, as the ovaries are still randomly producing eggs.

Can blood tests individualise hormone therapy?

No. Blood hormone tests can’t determine whether you might benefit from menopause hormone therapy or what dose you might need.

People’s oestrogen receptors have different levels of sensitivity and are turned up and down by other proteins and hormones in the cells. So even achieving the same blood oestradiol level with oestrogen therapy can have completely different effects in different people.

Individuals also respond differently to prescribed oestrogen, whether it’s tablet or through the skin. For transdermal patches or gels, the temperature of the skin, exercise, skin hydration and site of application affect absorption.

After absorption, oestradiol is metabolised rapidly to other oestrogens which are not measured in a standard blood test. So the total amount of oestrogen circulating is not determined by simply measuring blood oestradiol.

Do you need a blood test to check your dose?

No. There is no target blood oestradiol level that is right for everyone, and no established blood level that will prevent bone loss, heart disease or dementia.

Nor is there a perfect time of day to measure oestradiol, as the pattern of absorption of oestrogen over 24 hours varies, especially with transdermal oestradiol.

Plus, different commercial laboratories use different measurement systems so you cannot always directly compare test results between laboratories.

What about progestogen and testosterone?

Progestogens, including progesterone, are required to protect against thickening of the uterine lining by oestrogen.

The type and dose of progestogen needed can vary substantially and this cannot be predicted, or fine tuned, by a blood test.

For testosterone, there is no cut-off below which a woman can be diagnosed as having “insufficient testosterone”.

Whether hormone therapy involves oestrogen, progesterone or testosterone, for women who experience natural menopause after the age of 45, diagnosis and treatment is determined on symptoms, not blood hormone levels.

Susan Davis has served on Advisory Boards for Theramex, Astellas, Abbott Laboratories, and Besins Healthcare, and as a consultant to Besins Healthcare. She receives funding from the NHMRC, Medical research Future Fund, MS Australia and the Heart Foundation and has received research support from Lawley pharmaceuticals paid to Monash University. She is affiliated with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

– ref. I’m a woman approaching middle age, do I need to get my hormones checked? – https://theconversation.com/im-a-woman-approaching-middle-age-do-i-need-to-get-my-hormones-checked-263541

August 26, 2025

Trump’s push to fire Fed governor threatens central bank independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation)

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Ana Carolina Garriga, Professor. Department of Government, University of Essex

The fate of Lisa Cook, who is fighting attempts by President Donald Trump to remove her from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, has huge implications for a keystone of good economic policy: central bank independence.

At the heart of her firing attempt – and other moves to undermine the Fed by the Trump administration – is a power struggle. Central banks, which are public institutions that manage a country’s currency and its monetary policy, have an extraordinary amount of power. By controlling the flow of money and credit in a country, they can affect economic growth, inflation, employment and financial stability.

These are powers that many politicians would like to control or at least manipulate. That’s because monetary policy can provide governments with economic boosts at key times, such as around elections or during periods of falling popularity.

The problem is that short-lived, politically motivated moves may be detrimental to the long-term economic well-being of a nation. They may, in other words, saddle the economy with problems further down the line.

That is why central banks across the globe tend to receive significant leeway to set interest rates independently and free from the electoral wishes of politicians.

In fact, monetary policymaking that is data-driven and technocratic, rather than politically motivated, has since the early 1990s been seen as the gold standard of governance of national finances and has largely achieved its main purpose of keeping inflation relatively low and stable.

But despite independence being seen to work, central banks over the past decade have come under increased pressure from politicians.

Trump is one recent example. In his first term as president, he criticized his own choice to head the U.S. Federal Reserve and demanded lower interest rates.

Attacks on the Fed have accelerated in Trump’s second administration. In April 2025, Trump lashed out at Fed Chair Jerome Powell in an online post accusing him of being “TOO LATE AND WRONG” on interest rate cuts, while suggesting that the central banker’s “termination cannot come fast enough!” Unable to force Powell out, Trump has now brought the power struggle to a head with his firing of Cook, nominally over allegations that the Fed governor falsified records in a mortgage application. Cook has said that the president does not have the grounds or authority to fire her.

As political economists, we are not surprised to see politicians try to exert influence on central banks. For one thing, central banks remain part of the government bureaucracy, and independence granted to them can always be reversed – either by changing laws or backtracking on established practices.

Moreover, the reason politicians may want to interfere in monetary policy is that low interest rates remain a potent, quick method to boost an economy. And while politicians know that there are costs to besieging an independent central bank – financial markets may react negatively or inflation may flare up – short-term control of a powerful policy tool can prove irresistible.

Legislating independence

If monetary policy is such a coveted policy tool, how have central banks held off politicians and stayed independent? And is this independence being eroded?

Broadly, central banks are protected by laws that offer long tenures to their leadership, allow them to focus policy primarily on inflation, and severely limit lending to the rest of the government.

Of course, such legislation cannot anticipate all future contingencies, which may open the door for political interference or for practices that break the law. And sometimes central bankers are unceremoniously fired.

However, laws do keep politicians in line. For example, even in authoritarian countries, laws protecting central banks from political interference have helped reduce inflation and restricted central bank lending to the government.

In our own research, we have detailed the ways that laws have insulated central banks from the rest of the government, but also the recent trend of eroding this legal independence.

Politicizing appointees

Around the world, appointments to central bank leadership are political – elected politicians select candidates based on career credentials, political affiliation and, importantly, their dislike or tolerance of inflation.

But lawmakers in different countries exercise different degrees of political control.

A 2025 study shows that the large majority of central bank leaders – about 70% – are appointed by the head of government alone or with the intervention of other members of the executive branch. This ensures that the preferences of the central bank are closer to the government’s, which can boost the central bank’s legitimacy in democratic countries, but at the risk of permeability to political influence.

Alternatively, appointments can involve the legislative power or even the central bank’s own board. In the U.S., while the president nominates members of the Federal Reserve Board, the Senate can and has rejected unconventional or incompetent candidates.

Moreover, even if appointments are political, many central bankers stay in office long after the people who appointed them have been voted out. By the end of 2023, the most common length of the governors’ appointment is five years, and in 41 countries the legal mandate was six years or longer. Powell is set to stay on as Fed chair until his term expires in 2026. The Fed chair position has traditionally been protected by law, as Powell himself acknowledged in November 2024: “We’re not removable except for cause. We serve very long terms, seemingly endless terms. So we’re protected into law. Congress could change that law, but I don’t think there’s any danger of that.”

In the 2000s, several countries shortened the tenure of their central banks’ governors to four or five years. Sometimes, this was part of broader restrictions in central bank independence, as was the case in Iceland in 2001, Ghana in 2002 and Romania in 2004.

The low inflation objective

As of 2023, all but six central banks globally had low inflation as their main goal. Yet many central banks are required by law to try to achieve additional and sometimes conflicting goals, such as financial stability, full employment or support for the government’s policies.

This is the case for 38 central banks that either have the explicit dual mandate of price stability and employment or more complex goals. In Argentina, for example, the central bank’s mandate is to provide “employment and economic development with social equity.”

A shirtless man stands in front of a variety of vegetables. — Poor monetary policy can lead to rising prices in Argentina.
AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

Conflicting objectives can open central banks to politicization. In the U.S. the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of stable prices and maximum sustainable employment. These goals are often complementary, and economists have argued that low inflation is a prerequisite for sustainable high levels of employment.

But in times of overlapping high inflation and high unemployment, such as in the late 1970s or when the COVID-19 crisis was winding down in 2022, the Fed’s dual mandate has become active territory for political wrangling.

Since 2000, at least 23 countries have expanded the focus of their central banks beyond just inflation.

Limits on government lending

The first central banks were created to help secure finance for governments fighting wars. But today, limiting lending to governments is at the core of protecting price stability from unsustainable fiscal spending.

History is dotted with the consequences of not doing so. In the 1960s and 1970s, for example, central banks in Latin America printed money to support their governments’ spending goals. But it resulted in massive inflation while not securing growth or political stability.

Today, limits on lending are strongly associated with lower inflation in the developing world. And central banks with high levels of independence can reject a government’s financing requests or dictate the terms of loans.

Yet over the past two decades, almost 40 countries have made their central banks less able to limit central government funding. In the more extreme examples – such as in Belarus, Ecuador or even New Zealand – they have turned the central bank into a potential financier for the government.

Scapegoating central bankers

In recent years, governments have tried to influence central banks by pushing for lower interest rates, making statements criticizing bank policy or calling for meetings with central bank leadership.

At the same time, politicians have blamed the same central bankers for a number of perceived failings: not anticipating economic shocks such as the 2007-09 financial crisis; exceeding their authority with quantitative easing; or creating massive inequality or instability while trying to save the financial sector.

And since mid-2021, major central banks have struggled to keep inflation low, raising questions from populist and antidemocratic politicians about the merits of an arm’s-length relationship.

But chipping away at central bank independence, as Trump appears to be doing with his open criticism of the Fed chair and his removal of a member of the bank’s Board of Governors, is a historically sure way to high inflation.

This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on June 14, 2024.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Trump’s push to fire Fed governor threatens central bank independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation) – https://theconversation.com/trumps-push-to-fire-fed-governor-threatens-central-bank-independence-and-that-isnt-good-news-for-sound-economic-stewardship-or-battling-inflation-263970

August 26, 2025

Trump’s attempted firing of Fed governor threatens central bank independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation)

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ana Carolina Garriga, Professor. Department of Government, University of Essex

That is why central banks across the globe tend to receive significant leeway to set interest rates independently and free from the electoral wishes of politicians.

But despite independence being seen to work, central banks over the past decade have come under increased pressure from politicians.

Trump is one recent example. In his first term as president, he criticized his own choice to head the U.S. Federal Reserve and demanded lower interest rates.

Legislating independence

If monetary policy is such a coveted policy tool, how have central banks held off politicians and stayed independent? And is this independence being eroded?

Broadly, central banks are protected by laws that offer long tenures to their leadership, allow them to focus policy primarily on inflation, and severely limit lending to the rest of the government.

In our own research, we have detailed the ways that laws have insulated central banks from the rest of the government, but also the recent trend of eroding this legal independence.

Politicizing appointees

But lawmakers in different countries exercise different degrees of political control.

The low inflation objective

Since 2000, at least 23 countries have expanded the focus of their central banks beyond just inflation.

Limits on government lending

Scapegoating central bankers

In recent years, governments have tried to influence central banks by pushing for lower interest rates, making statements criticizing bank policy or calling for meetings with central bank leadership.

And since mid-2021, major central banks have struggled to keep inflation low, raising questions from populist and antidemocratic politicians about the merits of an arm’s-length relationship.

This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on June 14, 2024.

– ref. Trump’s attempted firing of Fed governor threatens central bank independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation) – https://theconversation.com/trumps-attempted-firing-of-fed-governor-threatens-central-bank-independence-and-that-isnt-good-news-for-sound-economic-stewardship-or-battling-inflation-263970

August 26, 2025

US and Israel push to end UN peacekeeping mandate in south Lebanon risks regional chaos

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Vanessa Newby, Senior Lecturer, Politics & International Relations, Monash University

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is seen by many as an essential peacekeeping buffer between Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. But Israeli pressure, US doubts over Unifil’s cost-effectiveness and the fragile state of Lebanon’s politics means there is a risk that instead of being renewed on August 31 the mission could be ended. The stakes are high: an abrupt withdrawal could create a dangerous security vacuum along the Israeli-Lebanese border and this could have broader implications for stability in the Middle East.

The US is keen to reduce its financial commitments to UN peacekeeping, with Washington arguing that expensive and longstanding missions should be downsized or wound down to cut costs. This makes it more receptive to Israeli insistence that the mission has been ineffective in addressing the existential threat posed by Hezbollah.

But Unifil’s mandate has never been to directly disarm Hezbollah. Instead, the mission is tasked with creating and maintaining a space free of armed groups in southern Lebanon by supporting the Lebanese armed forces (LAF). Central to the Israeli narrative is the claim that Unifil failed to uncover Hezbollah’s tunnel network in south Lebanon. This criticism obscures the fact that Israeli intelligence also overlooked the same tunnels for more than a decade — despite the fact that they crossed into Israeli territory.

As part of the agreements it made after the war in 2024, Lebanon has made concrete attempts to confront the military dominance of Hezbollah in the region. The LAF has expanded its deployment in the south, dismantled Hezbollah fortifications, and begun consolidating weapons under state control.

In August 2025, the Lebanese cabinet instructed the LAF to devise a national plan aimed at ensuring a state monopoly on the use of armed force. This step has sparked fierce resistance from Hezbollah and its political allies, underscoring the risks involved in challenging the group’s armed status.

The process remains precarious. Deadly incidents, such as an explosion that killed six LAF troops removing weapons from a Hezbollah arms depot on August 9, highlight how volatile the disarmament effort is. Still, these steps mark the most serious attempt in years by Beirut to assert control over Hezbollah’s armed status. It’s a development that makes Unifil’s continued presence even more significant as a stabilising buffer while this process plays out.

Security Council wrangling

Despite these positive moves, wrangling continues at the UN headquarters in New York. The security council vote scheduled for Monday has been postponed, even though the mission’s mandate expires on August 31, adding urgency to the negotiations.

Fourteen of the 15 security council members are agreed on the need to renew Unifil’s mandate, with the US the only holdout. France, as the security council penholder for the Unifil mandate – the country which will write up the decision – has successively proposed a variety of options that might be palatable to the US, but divisions in Washington remain. Some officials, such as the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, acknowledge Unifil’s importance, but the US has yet to agree to vote for a mandate renewal that extends beyond a year.

A recent draft resolution proposed a strategic review by March 2026 to assess the conditions for Unifil’s withdrawal. This called for Unifil to pull out no later than August 31, 2026. But currently the US is unwilling to link any withdrawal timeline to conditions on the ground and is insisting on a firm endpoint.

Israel’s political manoeuvring

Israel’s posture toward Unifil reflects a longstanding strategy of delegitimising the mission. During the 2024 war, the Israel Defense Forces obstructed peacekeepers’ attempts to rescue civilians and even targeted Unifil positions. Despite the November 27 ceasefire, Israel continues to occupy five positions inside Lebanese territory and is reinforcing them in direct violation of the agreement.

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recently commended the Lebanese government’s steps to disarm Hezbollah. He also promised that Israel would reciprocate by gradually reducing its presence in south Lebanon. It’s a statement that appears conciliatory – yet, by praising Lebanese efforts, Netanyahu risks casting the Lebanese government and LAF as collaborators, which would inflame political tensions inside Lebanon.

At the same time, the gesture functions as a diplomatic sleight of hand, giving Washington cover in the security council debates. It gives an impression that Israel is open to conciliation and compromise, while in reality reinforcing Israel’s determination for Unifil’s mission to be curtailed.

Israel’s persistent efforts to weaken Unifil are part of its current doctrine of privileging military solutions over diplomacy and political negotiation in south Lebanon. By predominantly using force against Hezbollah, Israel has generated retaliation. These flare-ups are then used as evidence by Israel that it is under constant threat and must act in self-defence. In this way, military action produces the very instability that is then invoked to justify further escalation. It’s a cycle of chaos that sidelines diplomacy, privileges military action and perpetuates conflict.

Why Unifil still matters

Amid these political manoeuvres, one core issue remains: Unifil remains crucial to regional stability. Dismantling the peacekeeping force now would strip away one of the last stabilising buffers in an increasingly fragile region. The mission provides an international spotlight on south Lebanon. Its presence, while imperfect, has prevented numerous flare-ups from spiralling into war.

Lebanon’s army remains weak. So a sudden Unifil withdrawal would create multiple risks – including the possibility of a surge in Hezbollah activity in the south. This increases the prospect of another direct conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and another Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon.

Chiara Ruffa receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the Fulbright Commission and the European Commission

Vanessa Newby 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. US and Israel push to end UN peacekeeping mandate in south Lebanon risks regional chaos – https://theconversation.com/us-and-israel-push-to-end-un-peacekeeping-mandate-in-south-lebanon-risks-regional-chaos-263927

August 26, 2025

Droughts don’t just dry up water — they drain livelihoods and weaken local economies

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By S. Mehmet Ozsoy, Assistant Professor of Finance, Concordia University

Unlike hurricanes and floods, which arrive suddenly and tend to dominate headlines with dramatic images of wrecked homes and submerged towns, droughts are often overlooked by media, governments and markets because they unfold more slowly.

Their gradual toll on fields, reservoirs and rural communities tends to be overshadowed by flashier disasters, but their consequences are no less severe.

A drought is a shortage of precipitation — typically lasting a season or longer — that results in insufficient water availability for ecosystems, agriculture and human use.

As climate change accelerates, droughts are projected to become more frequent and intense, especially in dry regions. This makes it increasingly urgent to understand their complex impact on agriculture, water supplies and regional economies.

Droughts don’t just hurt farmers

Droughts barely register in financial markets, despite their widespread consequences. Yet research shows that droughts can slash food industry profits by increasing farming costs, disrupting supply chains and tightening profit margins.

Droughts hit utilities and agriculture hardest. Shrinking water supplies wilt crops and strain water providers. But the impact extends far beyond them: low river levels can stall hydropower production, pushing up electricity costs and affecting water-heavy industries like textiles and chemicals.

Shallow waterways can also delay or block barges carrying goods, which hikes shipping costs. These disruptions ripple outward, affecting everyone from factory workers to shoppers.

Yet markets often ignore these risks until damage becomes impossible to overlook. With climate change poised to make droughts more frequent and severe, this blind spot could pose growing risks to investors and the stability of food supply chains.

Banks reveal the economic toll of droughts

Climate shocks like droughts hit local economies hardest — especially small, private businesses. While researchers can access financial data for public companies, the finances of private firms are far more opaque, making it difficult to understand the local impact of droughts.

To address this gap, we studied how prolonged droughts affect the financial stability and loan performance of regional banks across the United States. The stability, or fragility, of these banks can sway the economy, as seen in the 2008-09 crisis.

By examining bank balance sheets, we traced the broader economic ripples of droughts and found that a two-year drought can have the same economic impact on a region as a one-percentage point increase in the unemployment rate.

Communities suffer when banks do

Smaller banks are closely tied to their communities and often lend locally — often within just five miles — making them especially vulnerable when droughts strike. As small firms struggle to repay loans in the wake of such disasters, banks see an increase in missed payments.

Our data shows that droughts disrupt entire communities as job losses and tight budgets create a domino effect throughout local economies.

Banks in drought-hit areas see lower profits and rising risks. Unpaid loans, or “non-performing loans,” spike not just for farmers but for homeowners, businesses and commercial properties.

When farm workers lose income from unplanted or failed crops, they may fall behind on mortgage payments, even if farms themselves are insured.

Missed mortgage payments signal household distress, while defaulted business loans hit farms, food producers and service providers like caterers as customer demand dries up. Reduced wages also means less spending at local restaurants, equipment stores and other small businesses.

Unlike hurricanes or floods — which are designated disasters by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency — droughts receive no such status.

Once a flood or hurricane is declared a federal disaster, U.S. federal agencies provide financial assistance to eligible households and businesses. FEMA offers several programs, including financial assistance for temporary housing, home repairs and the replacement of personal property.

FEMA also supports the Disaster Unemployment Assistance and the Dislocated Worker Grant program. In addition, the Small Business Administration provides long-term, low-interest loans to eligible businesses and some homeowners, while the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) offers administrative disaster-related tax relief.

Because droughts don’t have access to the same resources, banks and local economies are left to cope on their own instead of receiving emergency aid from FEMA. As a result, our research found that banks are more likely to close branches in drought-hit areas. These closures can make recovery even harder for local businesses left reeling from droughts as they lose vital loan access.

Diversification offers some protection

From banks reeling with unpaid loans to families struggling to make ends meet, the fallout from droughts is real and far-reaching. Droughts don’t just dry up water — they drain livelihoods and destabilize economies.

Larger banks and firms with operations across multiple states are better able to weather climate shocks. This diversification acts as a form of self-insurance, helping them absorb losses in one region while staying afloat in others.

This might explain why stock markets often ignore the risks posed by droughts. Large players are less exposed to local downturns. But smaller, more vulnerable businesses that are reliant on local stability don’t have the same buffer.

As these crises grow more common, markets, regulators and policymakers need to rethink how droughts are measured and mitigated before entire communities are left behind.

Regulators have begun to take some notice. Climate risks are now formally recognized as threats to financial stability by the Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors the global financial system.

Still, recognition is only the first step. Without concrete action, droughts will continue to destabilize communities.

Erkan Yonder receives funding from Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ).

S. Mehmet Ozsoy 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. Droughts don’t just dry up water — they drain livelihoods and weaken local economies – https://theconversation.com/droughts-dont-just-dry-up-water-they-drain-livelihoods-and-weaken-local-economies-261140

August 26, 2025

Can you be aware of nothing? The rare sleep experience scientists are trying to understand

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez, Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh

For some people, sleep brings a peculiar kind of wakefulness. Not a dream, but a quiet awareness with no content. This lesser-known state of consciousness may hold clues to one of science’s biggest mysteries: what it means to be conscious.

The state of conscious sleep has been widely described for centuries by different Eastern contemplative traditions. For instance, the Indian philosophical school of the Advaita Vedanta, grounded in the interpretation of the Vedas – one of the oldest texts in Hinduism – understands deep sleep or “sushupti” as a state of “just awareness” in which we merely remain conscious.

Similar interpretations of deep sleep are made by the Dzogchen lineage in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. According to their teachings, different meditative practices can be followed during wakefulness and sleep to acknowledge the “essence” of consciousness. One of those meditative practices is that of dream yoga or luminosity yoga, which enables the practitioner to recognise the states of dream and sleep. This aims to bring them to a state of “pure awareness”, a state of being awake inside sleep without thoughts, images or even a sense of self.

For western science, this state poses a conundrum. How can you be aware without being aware of something? If these reports are accurate, they challenge mainstream theories that treat consciousness as always about an object. For example, my awareness of the laptop in front of me, or the blue sky rising above my window, or my own breathing. The existence of this state pushes us to reconsider what consciousness is.

Objectless sleep experiences

My colleagues and I set out to explore what a content-free state during sleep feels like in a series of studies. We first surveyed 573 people online about unusual forms of sleep experiences, including forms of sleep consciousness that might be simpler or more minimal. For example, an awareness following the dissolution of a dream, or a bare awareness of the fact that you are sound asleep.

We then conducted in-depth interviews with 18 participants, who reported they had experienced some form of objectless sleep experiences, using a protocol inspired by the micro-phenomenological interview. This is a research tool designed to help people recall and describe subtle aspects of their experience in fine detail.

In those studies, we found a spectrum of experiences we called “objectless sleep experiences” – conscious states that appear to lack an object of awareness. In all cases, participants who alluded to an objectless sleep experience reported having had an episode during sleep that lacked sensory content and that merely involved a feeling of knowing that they were aware.

Woman asleep half in yellow light half in blue — Some people report a kind of conscious but objectless state while asleep.
Yuri A/Shutterstock

Some of our participants’ experiences matched descriptions of conscious sleep as described in Eastern philosophical traditions; objectless and selfless, with no sense of “I” remaining. Participants reported that their selves seemed to have vanished or dissolved, a state reminiscent to that of “drug-induced ego-dissolution”, reported after the ingestion of psychedelic drug DMT, and in deep-meditative states.

Other reports from the participants in our study included a faint feeling of being “there” in an undefined state, or an awareness of “nothingness” or a “void”. A few people’s experiences involved traces of rudimentary forms of dreaming, the experience of being in a world, even if such a world appeared to be missing.

Although objectless sleep experiences like conscious sleep have mainly been linked to contemplative practices, such as dream yoga, our results indicate that people without knowledge of those practices also experienced this phenomenon. In fact, the results of our online survey did not indicate an association between engagement in meditative practices and objectless sleep experiences.

However the survey results did find that experience of lucid dreaming – which is when you realise you are dreaming but stay asleep – seemed to be correlated with objectless sleep experiences. It should be noted, though, that many participants who could lucid dream did not report objectless sleep experiences.

Training for lucid sleep

The rarity of objectless sleep experiences make them difficult to study. We need training methods to induce these experiences so we can better understand them.

In our recent study, my colleagues and I tested a new induction protocol that combined meditation, visualisation and lucid dreaming techniques. Four participants learned to stay aware as they drifted into sleep and to signal that they were lucid with a pre-agreed eye movement. Portable EEG recordings, which measure the brain’s electrical activity, confirmed that some objectless states occurred during non-REM (slow-wave) sleep. Researchers believe non-REM sleep lacks the sort of complex conscious states we have while dreaming, although some other forms of sleep experiences, including simpler forms of dreaming, might occur.

Dreamless sleep and consciousness research

Currently, there is a lack of agreement among scientists about what the basis of consciousness is. Some popular views assert that consciousness arises when information is broadcast in the brain. Yet, there are still debates about which sort of information the brain needs for cognitive processing.

Objectless sleep experiences expand our picture of what it is like to be conscious during sleep. Sleep consciousness has traditionally been widely studied in relation to dreams and dream-like experiences, but recently there has been a shift in this trend.

Minimal forms of consciousness, like that displayed by objectless sleep experiences, can pave the way to refine our theories of consciousness. Their existence hints at a form of awareness stripped of content altogether. Moreover, studying these sort of experiences can help us understand altered conscious states, including deep meditation, sensory deprivation, or even mind blanking – episodes in which our mind seems to go blank or go “nowhere”.

The fact people can be aware of “nothing” while asleep might tell us more about the mind than any dream ever could.

Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez has received research funding from the following organisations: Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities (SGSAH), European Research Council (ERC), International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD), Graduate School of the University of Glasgow, and the Institute for the Advanced Studies in Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh

– ref. Can you be aware of nothing? The rare sleep experience scientists are trying to understand – https://theconversation.com/can-you-be-aware-of-nothing-the-rare-sleep-experience-scientists-are-trying-to-understand-263142

August 26, 2025

Japan’s problem with women’s equality is getting worse, not better

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ming Gao, Research Fellow of East Asia Studies, Lund University

In the 2025 global gender gap index (GGGI), Japan ranks 118th out of 148 countries – still the lowest among the G7 nations and among the poorest performers globally. This is largely because of limited political participation by women. The current cabinet of prime minister Ishiba Shigeru says it all. In October 2024, Japan’s new prime minister appointed only two women to a 20-member cabinet – down from five in the previous lineup.

The decision was widely criticised as a setback for advancing female political representation and a clear sign that gender-equality policies were not a priority.

But the country has continued to take backward steps on gender. In January, Japan announced it would halt funding for the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw). The decision followed Cedaw’s recommendation that Japan revise its male-only imperial succession law to ensure gender equality in the line to the throne.

The funding halt sparked a strong backlash from rights advocates, who viewed it as further evidence of Japan’s resistance to addressing structural discrimination against women.

The debate over Japan’s imperial succession has surfaced periodically for decades. Since 1947, the Imperial Household Law has stipulated that only men from the patrilineal line can ascend what is known as the Chrysanthemum throne. This rule has led to concerns over the future of the imperial family, given the shrinking number of male heirs.

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito turned 65 on February 23 and has only three male heirs. These are his uncle Prince Hitachi (aged 89), his younger brother Crown Prince Fumihito (59), and his nephew Prince Hisahito, who is 18.

A poll of around 2,000 people taken in April 2024 by Kyodo News found 90% of respondents support allowing female emperors. Yet successive governments have remained steadfast in resisting change, with some citing the so-called unbroken imperial lineage (bansei ikkei).

Ishiba is known to favour allowing a female succession. But his administration’s financial retaliation against Cedaw signals otherwise. The decision is not merely a reaction to a non-binding recommendation – it reflects deeper discomfort with external scrutiny over Japan’s gender policies, which the current government has deprioritised.

Cedaw’s recommendation to Japan that it might reconsider its imperial succession system was not an isolated critique. The UN committee has regularly called on Japan to improve gender equality in multiple areas. These include workplace discrimination, representation in politics and legal protections against gender-based violence.

Cedaw’s recommendation on inclusive succession is neither legally binding nor “within the purview of the Committee’s competence”, as the committee itself acknowledges. As a result the government’s response – cutting funding – is more than just a reaction to Cedaw’s recommendation. It raises concerns about Japan’s commitment to gender equality full stop.

The United Nations has clashed with successive Japanese governments over a range of gender-related issues. These have included the refusal of Japan to allow brides to retain their maiden names. Cedaw has recommended that Japan amend the Civil Code over the surname requirement in 2003, 2009 and 2016. The most recent occasion is marked the recommendation as having high importance.

But the most important issue is over Japan’s treatment of what it called “comfort women” – the system of military sexual slavery before and during the second world war. Cedaw and other UN bodies have repeatedly urged Japan to resolve the issue by firstly recognising the gravity of the crimes involved and dealing with reparations for survivors and strengthen education on the issue.

Japan has frequently been accused of downplaying this issue. While official apologies have been made, they have frequently been coupled with denials or diplomatic efforts to dilute past statements. In its last report in 2016, Cedaw called on Japan to ensure its leaders and public officials “desist from making disparaging statements regarding responsibility, which have the effect of retraumatising victims”.

Poor track record

Japan’s relationship with international organisations addressing gender issues has long been uneasy and its domestic policies frequently lag behind international expectations. Reports from the committee have criticised Japan’s inadequate legal definitions of discrimination against women, limited access to justice for women, and the persistence of deep-seated gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes.

This year holds special significance for the UN, marking two major anniversaries. It’s the 30th anniversary of the United Nations fourth world conference on women. This produced the Beijing declaration and platform for action – the most widely endorsed global agenda for women’s rights. And it’s the 25th anniversary of the UN’s adoption of Resolution 1325. This established the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. WPS is now recognised as a key pillar of international peace and security, regarded by the European Parliament’s committee on women’s rights and gender equality as “central to contemporary global peace and security challenges”.

Amid increasing global support for women-led initiatives, Japan’s decision to halt funding for Cedaw in 2025 risks damaging its status as a responsible and respected nation on the world stage. It also risks alienating allies that prioritise gender equality in diplomacy.

In distancing itself from global norms, Japan risks not just falling behind, but falling out of step with most of its G7 peers.

Ming Gao receives funding from the Swedish Research Council. This research was produced with support from the Swedish Research Council grant “Moved Apart” (nr. 2022-01864). Ming Gao is a member of Lund University Profile Area: Human Rights.

– ref. Japan’s problem with women’s equality is getting worse, not better – https://theconversation.com/japans-problem-with-womens-equality-is-getting-worse-not-better-249762

August 26, 2025

Lessons from the Incas: how llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alex Chepstow-Lusty, Research Associate, Geography, University of Sussex

The Inca lived more sustainable lives in the Andes than anyone since. David Ionut / shutterstock

Many tropical glaciers in the Andes are expected to disappear in the next few decades. Their meltwater sustains millions of people, feeding crops in the dry season, supplying Peru’s capital Lima and other big cities, and even boosting the Amazon river. As glaciers vanish, floods and droughts are becoming more extreme.

But my new research with colleagues suggests solutions may lie in environmental knowledge that the Incas and their predecessors developed centuries ago.

In January 2010, record rainfall caused massive flooding in the Cusco region of Peru. Bridges were washed away, 25,000 people were left homeless and 80% of harvests were destroyed. The railway to Machu Picchu was cut off. Losses were estimated at US$230 million (£170m).

This disaster took place in the heart of what was the Inca Empire, which once spanned an area from what is today near the Colombian border down to central Chile. The Incas’ efficient storage systems, sophisticated road network and ecological management supported up to 14 million people before European conquest and colonisation.

So could some of this modern-day catastrophe have been avoided if the landscape still retained its natural tree cover – forests and high-altitude vegetation that slow water and reduce erosion?

A new paper in the journal Ambio offers a long-term perspective. I was part of a team of researchers from the University of Sussex, the International Potato Center in Lima and Cusco-based NGO Ecoan, who examined microfossils such as pollen in sediment cores from Lake Marcacocha, near Cusco. These act as an environmental archive, recording shifts in vegetation, farming and climate over centuries.

The evidence shows that from around the year 1100, during a period of global warming known as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, Andean communities moved higher up into the mountains. They built terraces, irrigated slopes, and planted trees such as alder to make the soil more fertile and provide wood.

Llamas and their cousins alpacas were vital as they were hardy, light-footed, and supplied wool, fuel and fertiliser. Their communal dung heaps even show up in the lake sediments, revealed by spikes in fossils of certain dung-eating mites that thrived when llama caravans were pastured nearby.

Together, these practices stabilised soils, reduced erosion, and allowed large populations to thrive in the Andes.

An ecological and social transformation

When the Spanish arrived in the 1530s, this balance was upended. New livestock – cattle, sheep and goats – trampled vegetation and eroded soils. Their free-ranging herds left waste across the landscape, unlike llamas and their easily-collectible dung.

At the same time, the Spaniards cut down forests for timber and charcoal, in contrast to the Inca who had imposed harsh penalties to protect their woodland resources. The 17th century Spanish pastor and chronicler, Bernabé Cobo, remarked that a Spanish household used as much fuel in one day as a native household would in an entire month.

The lake sediments record the ecological damage of the era: excess nutrients from dung, more erosion, and a collapse of the Inca’s sustainable land management.

This isn’t a simple story in which the Inca were perfect for the environment and the Spaniards entirely negative, but there are clear lessons to be learned. The indigenous people, normally pushed to poorer lands at high altitude, adapted to what pragmatically works.

In the Andes, many highland communities still support each other through deep-rooted traditions, involving collaboration and reciprocity. Some of the most promising climate solutions today build on this heritage.

Communities restoring Andean vegetation

One co-author of the paper, Cusco biologist Tino Aucca Chutas, founded the NGO Ecoan in 2000, to protect rare high-altitude Polylepis cloud forests. These gnarled, moss-covered trees capture water from clouds and release it slowly, making them vital for downstream water supply. Only small fragments of the original forests remain.

Gnarled, moss-covered trees. — Polylepis forest soak up moisture and release it slowly.
Ammit Jack / shutterstock

Through the regional movement Accion Andina, founded by Ecoan and non-profit organisation Global Forest Generation, 12 million Polylepis trees have been planted across the Andes. In 2023, Accion Andina was awarded the prestigious global Earthshot Prize. The ultimate goal is to fully restore the forests over the next century.

Another co-author, Graham Thiele of the International Potato Center in Lima, argues that native agroforestry – combining traditional crops, trees and llamas – should be part of a “second climate-smart agricultural revolution” in the Andes.

The Andes are at the sharp end of climate change. The glaciers are retreating, rainfall is becoming more erratic, and disasters like the Cusco floods will happen more often. But history shows societies have adapted before.

Inca-style terraces, cloud forests and llamas aren’t relics of the past – they are the tools required now, particularly vital with the glaciers soon gone. As South America faces a looming water crisis, the clock is ticking, and the lessons of the Inca may be more urgent than ever.

Alex Chepstow-Lusty has received funding from NERC, CNRS and the French Institute of Andean Studies.

– ref. Lessons from the Incas: how llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change – https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-the-incas-how-llamas-terraces-and-trees-could-help-the-andes-survive-climate-change-258148

August 26, 2025

Our medieval murder maps reveal the surprising geography of violence in 14th-century English cities

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Hull

Bodyguard and queen kill King of Lydia. Illuminated manuscript of Cité de Dieu by Maître François (circa 1475). Author provided, CC BY-SA

A recent YouGov poll found that the word that Americans most associate with the middle ages is “violent”. Medieval towns may appear to be full of random violence, every alleyway a potential crime scene, every tavern brawl ending in bloodshed. But our recent research reveals a more complex, and in some ways familiar, reality.

In 14th-century London, York and Oxford, lethal violence clustered in a small number of hotspots, often no more than 200 or 300 metres long. Just as in modern cities, crime was not evenly spread but concentrated in certain streets and intersections where people, goods and status converged. The surprising difference is that in the middle ages, the busiest and wealthiest areas were often the most dangerous.

Stained glass showing Cain killing Abel — Cain Killing Abel, stained glass from York Minster’s great east window.
Author provided, CC BY-SA

Our Medieval Murder Map project uses coroners’ inquests (jury investigations into suspicious deaths) to pinpoint the locations of 355 homicides between 1296 and 1398. These records detail where the body was found, when the attack happened, the weapon used, and sometimes the quarrels, rivalries or insults that triggered it.

The cases from the coroners’ records were geocoded (turning a description of a place, like an address, into a pair of numbers, latitude and longitude, to show its exact position) using thematic maps provided by the scientific team of the Historic Towns Trust. What emerges is a vivid street-level picture of urban violence seven centuries ago.

The patterns are striking. Homicides clustered in markets, major thoroughfares, waterfronts and ceremonial spaces. These were areas of intense activity, where economic and social life intersected and where conflicts could be played out before a public audience.

Sundays were particularly deadly. After a morning of churchgoing, the afternoon often brought drinking, games and arguments. Violence peaked around curfew in the early evening.

A tale of three cities

The three cities we looked at differed sharply in their overall levels of violence. Oxford’s homicide rate was three to four times higher than that of London or York.

This was not random. The medieval university attracted young men aged between 14 and 21, many living far from home, armed and steeped in a culture of honour and group loyalty. Students organised themselves into “nations” based on their regional origins and quarrels between northerners and southerners regularly erupted into street battles.

Legal privileges for clerics, which included students, meant that they were often immune from prosecution under common law, creating a climate in which serious violence could flourish with little fear of punishment.

Each city’s hot-spots had their own character. In London, Westcheap, the commercial and ceremonial heart of the city, saw murders linked to guild rivalries, professional feuds and public revenge attacks. The bustling Thames Street waterfront, by contrast, was home to sudden quarrels among sailors and merchants, sometimes escalating from petty disputes into fatal encounters.

In York, one of the most dangerous spots was the main southern approach through Micklegate to Ouse Bridge. This was more than just a gateway into the town – it was a commercial and civic hub, lined with shops and inns, and the site of processions and public gatherings. Such a space naturally drew travellers, traders, and townspeople into close contact and into conflict.

Another York hot-spot was Stonegate, a prestigious street that formed part of the ceremonial route to York Minster. These patterns reflect York’s particular blend of commerce, ceremony and civic life, where spaces of wealth and display doubled as stages for rivalry, revenge and the public assertion of honour.

In Oxford, the concentration of killings in and around the university quarter reflected the constant tensions between students and townspeople and the factionalism within the student body itself. Clashes were often fuelled by drink, insults and a readiness to defend group honour with swords or knives.

The geography of medieval violence was shaped by visibility as much as opportunity. Busy streets and central markets offered the greatest number of potential rivals and bystanders and so were ideal stages for settling disputes in ways that preserved or enhanced reputation. Public killings could send a powerful message, whether to a rival guild, a hostile faction or the wider community.

In this sense, the urban logic of violence in the middle ages echoes patterns found in modern cities, where certain micro-locations consistently generate higher crime rates. The difference is that in medieval England, poverty was not the main driver. Poorer, peripheral neighbourhoods saw fewer homicide inquests, while affluent and prestigious districts often drew the most danger.

The Medieval Murder Map offers a rare opportunity to see the medieval city as its inhabitants experienced it: a landscape where the streets themselves shaped the rhythms of danger, and where wealth, power and proximity could be as deadly as poverty and neglect. Far from being random, medieval violence followed rules – and those rules were written in the geography of the city.

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Stephanie Brown has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Manuel Eisner 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. Our medieval murder maps reveal the surprising geography of violence in 14th-century English cities – https://theconversation.com/our-medieval-murder-maps-reveal-the-surprising-geography-of-violence-in-14th-century-english-cities-263380

August 26, 2025

What makes Lake Iro in Chad so special? It’s not just a viral sunglint photo

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Pierre Rochette, Emeritus professor in geophysics, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)

Lake Iro in Chad was in the news in early August 2025 after a picture taken by a NASA astronaut was published showing it looking like a large, circular silver mirror as sunlight reflected off its surface and into space. The phenomenon is known as a sunglint and can happen to any water surface under the right conditions. The startling picture led The Conversation Africa to find out more about the lake. Pierre Rochette is an emeritus professor in geophysics from Aix-Marseille University in France. He has studied the lake, and navigated it too for a geophysical study. He answers questions about its properties as an impact crater from an ancient meteor.

What’s there to know about Lake Iro?

The lake is in south-eastern Chad, about 120 km from the border with the Central African Republic.

Lake Iro lies in the middle of an “inland delta”, which was formed by river waters diverging from the Bahr Salamat, a river which flows in the wet season, with very limited flow in the dry season.

It has a semi-circular shape and is about 12 km in diameter. A number of rivers meander around it.

Iro Lake is a vital resource for people living in the area. It provides permanent water and fodder for the large herds of cattle migrating from the Sahelian zone when it’s too dry to keep the animals up north.

People there also produce dried smoked fish, which is exported.

What’s unique about the lake?

Iro may be the largest extraterrestrial impact crater lake in Africa. Volcanic or karstic (where rock has dissolved) crater lakes are much more abundant on Earth.

When an asteroid or comet strikes the Earth’s surface at a speed of about 10km per second, it excavates a crater about ten times larger than itself. So the extraterrestrial body must have been 1km wide in the case of Iro Lake.

My research shows several examples of such impact craters in Chad. Their age is unknown, but likely older than ten million years.

The crater that is home to Lake Iro is a bit larger than the better known Bosumtwi Lake in Ghana. Bosumtwi crater was also excavated by an asteroid strike, but more recently, about one million years ago.

Africa has only 20 proven impact craters (among which seven have a diameter larger than 10km). That corresponds to one tenth of the total proven craters on Earth.

Since 2014, no new crater has been discovered in Africa. A large number (around 49, according to some studies) and a few other potential impact structures have been proposed in Africa, mostly based on satellite imagery and topography.

But solid proof for impact in these proposed structures, including Iro lake, is lacking due to limited or non-existent field studies.

As a group of scientists we have been heavily involved in tracking down impact craters on the continent. Our most recent work involves an ongoing study of the 40km diameter Velingara structure in Senegal.

Studying large impact craters is important to better evaluate the future threat of asteroid impacts. They also provide potential resources (like water, petrol and metals) and a record of ancient climates in the sediments accumulated in the crater lake.

How do you know it started off as a meteor crater?

Proving the impact nature of a circular structure requires traces of either extraterrestrial matter or of very high pressures endured by the target material.

Due to the likely old age and thus strong erosion of Iro’s circular depression, hardly any rock can be found on the surface. Only drilling for several hundred metres can reach the impacted rocks and thus provide definitive proof. This is a very hard task in such a remote area.

Nevertheless, the known geological features of the area provide no other explanation for the presence of this circular depression, apart from an impact.

That’s why we consider Iro Lake as a potential impact structure. It’s still unproven, but likely.

What are its distinctive geological features?

The area around Iro is extremely flat, as demonstrated by the slope of the Bahr Salamat river, south of the lake, of the order of 0.2 metres per kilometre. This explains the meandering nature of the river, highlighted by the published sunglint image.

Bahr Salamat’s altitude south of Iro is 396 metres, higher by only 40 metres from its altitude 160km to the west-south-west. In fact the Bahr (“river” in the local language) seems to go around the Iro lake depression (the average altitude of the lake is 387 metres).

This is odd as the river should have been attracted towards the depression, but can be explained by the fact that the impact generated a regional uplift that resulted in the Bahr changing its course to the south, to avoid the uplifted region.

What is a sunglint?

Depending on the angle of view, any body of water can behave as a mirror for a light source, such as the sun.

Completely still water just reproduces the object emitting the light, like a perfectly still mountain lake reproduces the rocky landscape above it.

But if the water surface is disturbed by wavelets, the perfect reflection vanishes, and is replaced by blurred light – in this case from the sun. This is the sunglint.

Anybody can experience it in clear weather from an aeroplane or from the top of a mountain, looking at a landscape containing water surfaces riddled by a breeze, in the direction of the sun.

Spectacular examples of sunglints, especially when the sun is not at its highest point (at noon), are reported from satellite imagery, as can be seen here.

The visual phenomenon is not limited to satellite imagery. The term sunglint has been in use since the 1960s. Earlier mentions of the phenomenon used the term “sun glitter”.

Pierre Rochette receives funding from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French ministry of Science), ET-Megafire grant ANR-21-CE49-0014-03. His mission to Iro lake was supported by the University of N’Djamena in Chad, as well as the Institut de Recherche et Développement (IRD)

– ref. What makes Lake Iro in Chad so special? It’s not just a viral sunglint photo – https://theconversation.com/what-makes-lake-iro-in-chad-so-special-its-not-just-a-viral-sunglint-photo-263228