Category: The Conversation – Global Perspectives

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mark W. Post, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Sydney

If you are fluent in any language other than English, you have probably noticed that some things are impossible to translate exactly.

A Japanese designer marvelling at an object’s shibui (a sort of simple yet timelessly elegant beauty) may feel stymied by English’s lack of a precisely equivalent term.

Danish hygge refers to such a unique flavour of coziness that entire books seem to have been needed to explain it.

Portuguese speakers may struggle to convey their saudade, a mixture of yearning, wistfulness and melancholy. Speakers of Welsh will have an even harder time translating their hiraeth, which can carry a further sense of longing after one’s specifically Celtic culture and traditions.

Imprisoned by language

The words of different languages can divide and package their speakers’ thoughts and experiences differently, and provide support for the theory of “linguistic relativity”.

Also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this theory derives in part from the American linguist Edward Sapir’s 1929 claim that languages function to “index” their speakers’ “network of cultural patterns”: if Danish speakers experience hygge, then they should have a word to talk about it; if English speakers don’t, then we won’t.

Yet Sapir also went a step further, claiming language users “do not live in the objective world alone […] but are very much at the mercy” of their languages.

This stronger theory of “linguistic determinism” implies English speakers may be imprisoned by our language. In this, we actually cannot experience hygge – or at least, not in the same way that a Danish person might. The missing word implies a missing concept: an empty gap in our world of experience.

Competing theories

Few theories have proven as controversial. Sapir’s student Benjamin Lee Whorf famously claimed in 1940 that the Hopi language’s lack of verb tenses (past, present, future) indicated its speakers have a different “psychic experience” of time and the universe than Western physicists.

This was countered by a later study devoting nearly 400 pages to the language of time in Hopi, which included concepts such as “today”, “January” and – yes – discussions of actions happening in the present, past and future.

Even heard of “50 Inuit words for snow?” Whorf again.

Although the number he actually claimed was closer to seven, this was later said to be both too many and too few. (It depends on how you define a “word”.)

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Read more:
Do Inuit languages really have many words for snow? The most interesting finds from our study of 616 languages

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More recently, the anthropological linguist Dan Everett claimed the Amazonian Pirahã language lacks “recursion”, or the capacity to put one sentence inside another (“{I trust {you’ll come {to realise that {my theory is better.}}}}”).

If true, this would suggest that Pirahã differs in the exact property that Noam Chomsky has argued to be the principal defining property of any human language.

Once again, Everett’s claims have been argued both to go too far and not far enough. The cycle would appear to be endless, such that two excellent recent books on the topic have adopted almost diametrically opposite perspectives – even down to the opposite wording of their titles!

Language as a comfortable house

There is truth in both perspectives.

At least some aspects of human languages must be identical or nearly so, since they are all used by members of the same human species, with the same sorts of bodies, brains and patterns of communication.

Yet recent increases in understanding of the world’s Indigenous languages have taught us two important additional lessons. First, there is far more diversity among the world’s languages than previously believed. Second, differences are often related to the patterns of culture and environment in which languages are traditionally spoken.

For example, in many Himalayan languages, an expression like “that house” comes in three flavours: “that-house-upward”, “that-house-downward” and “that-house-on-the-same-level” – a reflection of the mountainous area these speakers live in.

When their speakers migrate to lower-elevation regions, the system may shift from “upward/downward” to “upriver/downriver”. If there is no large enough river present then the distinction may disappear.

In Indigenous Aslian languages of peninsular Malaysia, there are large vocabularies referring to finely-distinguished natural odours. This is an index of the richly diverse foraging environment of their speakers.

Studies of small, tightly-knit communities like the Milang of northeastern India have revealed how languages can require speakers to mark their information source: whether a statement is the general knowledge of one’s social group, or is arrived at through a different type of source – such as hearsay, or deduction from evidence.

Speakers of languages with such “evidentiality” systems can learn to speak languages – like English – without them. Yet native language habits turn out to be hard to break. One recent study showed speakers of some languages with evidentiality add words like “reportedly” or “seemingly” into their statements more often than native English speakers.

Human languages may not be a prison their speakers cannot escape from. They may be more like comfortable houses one finds it difficult to leave. Although a word from another language can always be borrowed, its unique cultural meanings may always remain just a little bit out of reach.

Mark W. Post 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. Impossible translations: why we struggle to translate words when we don’t experience the concept – https://theconversation.com/impossible-translations-why-we-struggle-to-translate-words-when-we-dont-experience-the-concept-267521

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sanam Mahoozi, Research Associate, City St George’s, University of London

Air pollution is the latest environmental crisis causing havoc across Iran. Large parts of the country are already suffering from a drought, one of the worst in decades. Its wetlands are dry, and its land is subsiding at alarming rates.

Now the fallout is also affecting the air that the country’s more than 85 million people breathe. As lakes, wetlands, and riverbeds dry out, their exposed surfaces turn into major sources of dust. Strong winds can lift this dust and transport it across cities and even distant regions.

The extremely dry conditions have worsened Iran’s already high levels of air pollution. In recent weeks, the capital Tehran was ranked as the most polluted city in the world, according to global air quality monitors. In November, its air quality index hit 200 – a level classified as “very unhealthy”.

The terrible air quality has forced authorities to close schools, universities and offices to reduce exposure. Hospitals are reporting rising numbers of cases of respiratory and cardiac complications across the country.

Local media have reported more than 350 deaths within ten days linked to worsening air quality in recent weeks. Demand for emergency services in the capital has also increased by more than 30% during November 2025, according to local statistics.

Other major Iranian cities, including Tabriz, Mashhad and Isfahan, have recorded readings above 150 in the last few weeks. These levels are considered dangerous for all age groups. In Ahvaz and Zabol, air pollution from sand and dust storms has blanketed the southern cities, putting lives and livelihoods at risk.

Studies indicate more than 59,000 Iranians die prematurely every year from air pollution-related illnesses.

As well as dust rising from dried out lakes and wetlands, ageing cars and low-quality fuel in Iran’s major cities are contributing to the air pollution.

But focusing on these causes misses the bigger picture.

Iran’s air-pollution emergency is caused by the same governance failures that have destabilised the nation’s water systems, emptied its aquifers, dried out its wetlands, and accelerated land subsidence.

Just as Iran’s water crisis is not simply the result of drought, Iran’s polluted air is not simply the product of traffic.

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Read more:
Iran’s capital faces unprecedented water shortages and even possible evacuation. What changes could help?

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In most major cities, a key burden comes from pollutants (such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulates produced by burning low-quality fuel) as well as outdated engines, and heavy industrial fuels such as mazut.

These toxic emissions accumulate in cities and directly contribute to respiratory disease, and cardiovascular illness. Recent global satellite analyses, which are currently being reviewed by the journal Nature Cities, suggest that most mega cities (population more than 10 million) with significant levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the lower atmosphere (the layer of air we breath) have cut pollution levels in recent years.

However, Tehran is among the few large cities worldwide where these concentrations have increased between 2019 and 2024.

But combustion engines in old cars are only half the story. In many regions, a substantial share of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ (particles smaller than 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers which penetrate the lungs and bloodstream) now originates from dust and salt storms generated by shrinking lakes, rivers and wetlands. These particles can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres within hours, affecting cities far beyond their points of origin.

Our research, on Lake Urmia – once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake – shows this clearly: as the lake bed dried, salt-laden dust plumes were capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres and even crossing national borders in less than 12 hours. This is a vivid illustration of how tightly Iran’s water crisis is intertwined with its air-pollution crisis.

Key causes of Iran’s air pollution

Iran’s air-pollution problem is not just a transport problem, a technological shortfall or a meteorological misfortune. It is fundamentally the predictable outcome of decades of government priorities, distorted incentives, and institutional inertia.

First, Iran’s government priorities have shaped a foreign policy that ultimately led to international sanctions and deepened the country’s economic and international isolation.

This isolation has had direct environmental consequences. It restricts access to modern air‑quality monitoring systems, industrial filtration technologies, and low‑emission engines, while deterring the foreign investment needed to upgrade transport and industry.

As a result, while other countries have reduced NO₂ and particulate pollution through cleaner technologies and tighter standards, Iran’s options remain severely limited by the political choices that produced its isolation.

Second, Iran’s extremely low fuel prices, sustained by immense subsidies, have made the national economy dependent on cheap energy, a key driver of the country’s inefficient electricity generation and excessive consumption. Vehicles with fuel inefficiencies unimaginable elsewhere remain commercially viable.

This is not an accidental policy outcome. It is part of a broader economic cycle in which subsidised fuel sustains outdated domestic car production and high-emitting industries, some of which are tied to powerful institutions whose financial interests depend on maintaining the status quo.

Nitrogen oxide levels in Iran (tonnes):

Resetting national priorities

Many countries have cut urban pollution through stricter emissions standards, cleaner transport, and integrated city planning, but Iran cannot do this without addressing the structural forces driving its emissions.

Reversing Iran’s air-quality crisis requires a fundamental shift in government priorities, placing environmental security and public health at the centre of policymaking. Iran’s challenge is not technical capacity but distorted incentives and national priorities. Only by reducing international isolation, strengthening transparency, and dismantling subsidy-driven distortions can Iran unlock the technologies and investment needed to clean its air.

Once these structural barriers are addressed, real progress becomes possible. This would include gradually changing fuel prices to curb high-emission vehicles, restoring access to global technology and finance to modernise the vehicle fleet and public transport, and reviving wetlands, lakes, and soils through water-governance reform to cut dust pollution.

Complementing these measures with advanced satellite monitoring, AI-based analysis, air monitoring stations, and better urban planing.

The air is not polluted because Iranians drive too much – it is polluted because the system that shapes the country’s priorities and choices is broken.

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The authors 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. Iran’s record drought and cheap fuel have sparked an air pollution crisis – but the real causes run much deeper – https://theconversation.com/irans-record-drought-and-cheap-fuel-have-sparked-an-air-pollution-crisis-but-the-real-causes-run-much-deeper-270923

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Eric Lob, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University

Burkina Faso’s security minister headed to Tehran on Nov. 12, 2025, for high-level talks with Iranian officials. The visit was a fruitful one: The West African nation reopened its Iranian embassy, finalized new agreements on security cooperation and held discussions about strengthening relations in agriculture and industry.

Far from being a routine bilateral diplomatic event for both countries, the trip was part of a broader trend. Since the onset of war in Gaza in late 2023, sparked by the Tehran-aligned and -funded Palestinian group Hamas, Iran has found itself increasingly isolated and facing a number of political and economic crises. Internationally, Tehran’s network of proxy nonstate groups across the Middle East, its so-called axis of resistance, was stretched to a breaking point with Israel’s brutal campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in late 2024.

Tehran’s regional difficulties then culminated with a punishing 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, which the United States joined, and the subsequent EU-imposed U.N. “snapback” sanctions – a series of penalties against Iran that were initially lifted after it signed a deal in 2015 limiting Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the easing of sanctions.

On top of this, Iran is now facing an environmental crisis in the shape of severe drought affecting the capital.

As Iranian officials attempt to weather this rocky new reality, they have looked to advance geostrategic interests elsewhere. As an expert on Iran’s foreign policy, I believe one key emergent area for this is Africa, where Iran has increased its outreach to historically dependable and strategically significant partners such as Burkina Faso. This outreach has created important opportunities for Tehran to engage with countries on issues such as security and critical minerals, while also expanding its market for weapons and other exports while bypassing sanctions.

Security, uranium and economy in West Africa

In addition to Burkina Faso, Iran has intensified its outreach to other African countries in West Africa and the Sahel region, such as Mali and Niger.

Since the early 2020s, these countries have experienced military coups and distanced themselves from the West. They have also confronted serious security threats from rebels, militias and jihadists. Consequently, and as was the case with Ethiopia, they have looked toward Iran as a security partner and a potential supplier of arms, drones and other equipment.

For Iran, expanding relations with these African countries holds the benefit of opening up economically critical markets, including metals and minerals. For instance, Tehran has aspired to access gold from Burkina Faso and Mali, and uranium from Niger. Depending on the extent of the damage and destruction to Iran’s nuclear program during the 12-day war, the potential uranium procured from these countries could be particularly critical if Iran decides to reconstitute or weaponize its program.

After the Iranian and Malian foreign ministers met in May 2024, they did so again the following year in October to discuss reinforcing bilateral and multilateral relations.

To this end, both nations agreed to hold a joint economic commission and to show solidarity and support at meetings of international organizations such as the U.N. and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Meanwhile, in April and May 2025, Iran and Niger signed economic and security agreements after earlier inking a deal by which Tehran would acquire 300 tons of uranium for US$56 million.

From February to October, Iran also looked to deepen diplomatic relations with Sierra Leone by holding bilateral meetings with the West African nation. Apart from attempting to access uranium, Tehran sought Sierra Leone’s support in multilateral institutions such as the U.N. and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

That said, Sierra Leone, while serving as a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council, voted against lifting sanctions on Iran in September, due in part to the African nation’s dependence on British aid.

Outreach opportunities in Africa

In addition to its engagement with countries in West Africa, Iran has also looked elsewhere on the continent for areas of strategic significance.

Between October and November 2025, Tehran coordinated with Malawi on circumventing sanctions and importing aircraft.

In August, Iran sought to strengthen security ties with South Africa – its largest trading partner on the continent by far. At the time, the South African army chief, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya, made statements supporting Iran and criticizing Israel that created controversy. Between April and October, Iran held meetings and signed agreements with Zimbabwe in the areas of economy, the environment and medical tourism.

While attending the Non-Aligned Movement’s meeting of foreign ministers in Kampala in October, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and thanked him for Uganda’s condemnation of the U.S. and Israel during the 12-day war, during which Uganda evacuated 41 students from Iran. Araghchi also expressed Tehran’s interest and intent on strengthening cooperation with Kampala in agriculture, the economy and commerce.

For Iran, Uganda is strategically important because it possesses not only uranium but also cobalt, which is used to manufacture lithium batteries, superalloys and other industrial products.

How Iran is still constrained

While Iran has increased its outreach to reliable and significant African partners across the continent, it has encountered a number of consequential constraints.

For one, there continues to be extensive trade competition from Iran’s Middle East rivals. As recently as 2023, the United Arab Emirates was a top export partner for Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as a top import partner of Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe. As it had done with several countries in the Horn of Africa in 2016, the UAE, alongside Saudi Arabia, could pressure others on the continent to reduce or eliminate their engagement with Tehran.

Particularly with the U.N. snapback sanctions now back in place, the ongoing reality of global economic pressure on Iran could also give African countries pause when considering stronger bilateral ties with Tehran. Yet before then, and even with the U.S. reimposing sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, these countries did not simply stop engaging with Tehran.

The final constraint is the transactional nature of Iran’s outreach. This could create distrust among its African partners. In November 2025, for instance, Tehran reportedly supplied drones to Eritrea as tensions escalated between it and Ethiopia. Such a move by Iran could complicate its relationship with Ethiopia and put Tehran in the middle of another conflict between those countries.

Time will tell whether the opportunities outweigh the constraints as Iran attempts to forge closer relations with the continent. Yet for government officials in Tehran weathering sundry crises at home and abroad, it will feel like they have few alternatives than to seek opportunities where they can find them.

Eric Lob receives funding from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is affiliated with the organization as a non-resident scholar in its Middle East Program.

– ref. Facing myriad global pressures, Iran intensifies outreach to African partners for critical needs – https://theconversation.com/facing-myriad-global-pressures-iran-intensifies-outreach-to-african-partners-for-critical-needs-270603

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Charles Barbour, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Western Sydney University

Remember when Twitter used to be good? I reckon it peaked somewhere around the first COVID lockdowns.

In those days, there was a running gag on the site where everyone would refer to it as a “hellscape”. And it did invite some of the worst that humanity has to offer. Opinions, as the old joke goes, are like assholes: everybody has one.

But if you curated your Twitter feed effectively, you could have immediate scrolling access to the best journalism and cultural commentary, excellent podcasts and comedians, film criticism and book reviews, the latest trends in food, music or clothing, decent information about public health, live stream feeds of smart people on the ground at the most pressing events of the day, not to mention the wisecracks and insights of your friends.

It was like being perpetually part of an in-crowd. The promise of a world where potentially anyone could feel connected, in touch, popular.

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Review: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It – Cory Doctorow (Verso)

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Then came the rumours that the increasingly fascist-curious Elon Musk was scheming to buy the platform. Not possible, we thought at first. It would be a terrible business decision. And anyone interesting or important would flee overnight.

Then Musk did buy Twitter, horribly rebranding it as X. Then we speculated (or hoped) it would drive him bankrupt. Then it didn’t. Then, through deliberate and explicit effort, it went to shit.

Musk decided he would raise money by selling the coveted blue-checks, a form of authentication previously reserved for those who had developed their influence organically. He changed the algorithm to reflect his own views and fired moderators tasked with weeding out misinformation and hate speech. As a result, the platform formerly known as Twitter was soon full of ads, gore, porn, toxicity, AI slop and scams of all variety.

Yet, as if trapped by their established followings or perhaps some contagious fear of missing out, people stayed. Calls to migrate en masse to other liberal-coded platforms largely failed.

For some reason, this logic seems to be taking over all social media, even the internet itself. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, Google, Apple, Uber, Spotify: everything turns to shit. And no one is able to escape.

To paraphrase a song about another way we get trapped by misplaced desires: welcome to the Hotel Crapifornia. You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.

An inhuman nightmare

In 2022, Canadian journalist, novelist and activist Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to describe the degeneration of the internet.

Back when the internet was good, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Doctorow was every hipster’s hero. His blog Boing Boing was required reading for anyone interested in emerging technologies. If you wanted to be recognised as cool, you entered the coffee shop conspicuously carrying a copy of his latest book. It seemed that no one knew more about where technology had come from, and where it was likely to go. He was our prophet.

His 2003 novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, for example, was a dystopian story of a post-scarcity world where monetary currency had been replaced with what Doctorow called “whuffie” – essentially a measure of how much others respect you.

This was just before social media stormed into all our lives, with its vertiginous economy of likes and followers, attention and influence.

All these years later, Doctorow’s Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It is an attempt to explain how the great dream of the internet – its powerful democratising potential, its incredible capacity to generate human communities and circulate human knowledge – turned into an inhuman nightmare.

We were offered a world of connection and cooperation – an open-source paradise of instant and free access, liberated from the fetters of both corporate ownership and state control.

What we got was a world of ruthless monopolies and oligarchs who control a colossal surveillance apparatus capable of tracking our most private behaviours, producing a population of powerless, compliant consumers – people who have no choice but to keep using their abysmally bad products, because there is nowhere else to go.

Prisoners of our own devices

“Enshittification” is not just a clever term for the grumpy complaint of an ageing Gen-X tech-head. Doctorow wants to develop it as a formal concept that explains the process by which internet platforms, applications and innovations go from being loved by their users to being despised.

Beginning with the case studies of Facebook, Amazon and the iPhone, then expanding out to more or less every platform on the internet, Doctorow proposes that enshittification has three basic stages.

First, platforms are good to their users. People genuinely want to participate. A community develops, but not much profit is made.

Second, in an effort to monetise this new community, platforms are good to companies. They offer them access to markets through advertising or shipping or proprietary arrangements.

Finally, they find a way to screw over those business customers as well as their users to claw all excess value back for themselves.

That is how we arrived at what Doctorow calls “a giant pile of shit”.

Amazon is the easiest example to explain. It started by providing a service that people wanted: fast cheap delivery of products. It then attracted business customers by providing a means to increase profit and market share.

But then, like a medieval warlord, it crushed all competition and used its market dominance to compel tributes from its business customers, in the form of fees that absorbed and exceeded whatever extra profit they may have made in the first place.

At this point, Amazon has absolutely no reason to improve its service. In fact, in order to siphon off even more value by cutting costs, it has every reason to make its service worse.

For Doctorow, the problem is not that some or many internet platforms follow this kind of enshittifying procedure; it is that almost all of them do. And given the ubiquity of the internet in our daily lives, particularly with the advent of the smartphone, our entire world has become enshittified.

We are now in what Doctorow calls the “enshittoscene”. To return to the musical reference mentioned above: we are all just prisoners here, of our own devices.

Make the internet good again

As Doctorow notes, it is easy to predict how the tiny handful of ghouls who benefit from this situation are likely to respond. Well, they are going to say, it might not be great, but that’s capitalism. And as everyone knows, capitalism is the worst system, except for all the others.

But Doctorow refuses to accept the familiar neoliberal logic of “there is no alternative”, because members of his generation (which also happens to be mine) know this is a sham. We know there is an alternative, because we have seen it with our own eyes. The internet was not always shit. It used to be good. And it could be good again.

Doctorow’s proposals for recreating a good internet – one that combines the autonomy and choice of the old internet with the mass scale of the current shit internet – are fourfold: competition, regulation, interoperability and tech-worker power.

In the first instance, Doctorow insists that the internet today is not capitalist at all. Following the economist Yanis Varoufakis, he calls it “technofeudalist”. Like medieval landlords, the tech overlords don’t make money in the enshittoscene by creating or circulating new products. They make it by owning the platforms for the creation or circulation of products and compelling everyone else to rent space on those platforms.

Smashing these rentier monopolies and opening spaces for healthy competition is step one. But doing so will require robust antitrust regulations, which can break the near-monopolies enjoyed by tech companies like Google and prevent anti-competitive corporate mergers. Avenues for enshittification must be shut down by law and this must be coordinated at an international level.

These laws must guarantee the interoperability of all technological systems. Currently, one of the most expensive fluids on planet earth is HP printer ink. HP sets the price unilaterally, because they construct their printers so that no other ink cartridges will work.

In the enshittoscene, the principle of anti-interoperability spreads across nearly all platforms and products. But regulation could ensure that all technological operating systems are compatible with one another, just as regulation ensures that household electronic devices are compatible with uniform powerpoints.

Finally, and most importantly, the people who work in tech industries can be empowered to realise the ethos of collaboration and innovation that, by and large, they share. For the truth is, Doctorow suggests, that most of the people who actually do the work in the enshittoscene – those who build and manage the platforms – hate it as much as the users do. And empowering them would go a long way towards empowering all of us.

Charles Barbour 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. How the internet became enshittified – and how we might be able to deshittify it – https://theconversation.com/how-the-internet-became-enshittified-and-how-we-might-be-able-to-deshittify-it-269376

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By David Marshall, Emeritus Professor, New Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Deakin University

The first half of Stranger Things’ (2016–) final season has received almost 60 million views in five days – making it Netflix’s largest ever English language debut. But the reception has been marred by controversies surrounding actor David Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper, an ex-police chief in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.

Harbour has been the subject of pop culture news for several weeks now, following the release of ex-partner Lily Allen’s new album. The pair separated in December, 2024, after four years together.

A little over a month ago, Allen released West End Girl – her first full-length album in seven years. It’s a blistering critique of her former partner, and accuses him of cheating during their marriage.

It has been lapped up by critics and – although Harbour has yet to directly address the claims – has clearly left an impression on the public.

Online, Stranger Things viewers have pointed out they can no longer view Hopper – one of the “good guys” on the show – the way they did before Allen’s accusations surfaced.

The line between public and private

The public’s reaction to the couple’s highly-publicised separation is an interesting case study into how social media platforms now shape celebrity culture.

Both Allen and Harbour are successful in their respective fields and have large online followings. They are connected to fans who appreciate their work – many of whom are invested in their personal lives.

And while such parasocial relationships between stars and fans have existed since the dawn of Hollywood, social media platforms are reconstructing what can be defined as “public” and “publicity” – as well as the counterpoints of “private” and “privacy”.

Today’s platforms use algorithms to amplify subtle behaviours, interactions and personal qualities in celebrities that may have once flown under the radar. Putting the magnifying glass on stars in this way helps us feel “closer” to them – further blurring the line between the person and their onscreen personas.

And this inability to separate both explains why numerous stars through the decades have opted to keep certain aspects of their identity (such as their sexuality) hidden.

A social media golden girl

Allen has used Instagram (where she has about two million followers) and TikTok (420,000 followers) to get word of her new album out. It’s clear from her promotional material – and her history with social media – that she knows how to leverage an online audience.

Allen was already a hit on MySpace back in 2006. She had tens of thousands of “friends” on the then-ubiquitous platform, and sold about four million copies of her album Alright, Still (2006) in the first week of its release.

Harbour also has a huge online presence, including some 8.4 million Instagram followers. Interestingly, though, he has been relatively silent about the breakdown of his marriage.

He is now also the subject of headlines focused on allegations, first published in a Daily Mail report, that Stranger Things co-star Millie Bobby Brown filed a bullying and harassment complaint against him before filming began in 2024.

In the recent press tour, Brown told outlets she “felt safe” and has a “great relationship” with Harbour. Still, the initial Daily Mail report seems to have taken root in coverage surrounding the tour.

A new age of celebrity

Stardom has been transformed in the era of social media.

One question now is figuring out the extent to which scandals that are amplified by social media actually impact celebrities’ careers, and how this compares to coverage in the pre-social media age. If fans start to see Harbour as a “bad guy” because of the press and social media chatter, will this affect the quantity or types of roles he gets in the future?

And is it acceptable for social media platforms and influential users to have such outsized power in driving pop culture narratives?

On one hand, fans arguably deserve to know the character of the artists they choose to support. On the other, it’s concerning to think tabloids such as the Daily Mail could potentially derail someone’s career using unverified reports and unnamed sources.

David Marshall is an emeritus professor at Deakin University. He is also an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham – Ningbo China and Co-chair of the Power of Prestige (PoP) research conference. In addition, he is one of the founders/editors of the journal Persona Studies and M/C Journal: Media and Culture.

– ref. Struggling to believe Stranger Things’ Jim Hopper as the ‘good guy’? You’re not alone – https://theconversation.com/struggling-to-believe-stranger-things-jim-hopper-as-the-good-guy-youre-not-alone-270951

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Nicholas Coppel, Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Myanmar’s military regime has announced elections will be held in three phases, starting on December 28 and concluding in January.

Two outcomes are certain: first, the military-aligned party will be recorded as winning and, second, the government in exile – the National Unity Government – will fade even further into the background.

In the close to five years since the military seized power in February 2021, the country has been engulfed in a civil war, with the military pitted against People’s Defence Forces and numerous ethnic armed organisations. Thousands of resistance protestors, fighters and politicians, including President Win Myint and the ever-popular leader Aung San Suu Kyi, remain imprisoned.

The military controls the levers of government and holds all the major population centres. But its brutal air, artillery and drone attacks have failed to crush the resistance. The resistance has captured large swathes of territory, restricting the upcoming elections to only 274 of the nation’s 330 townships (constituencies).

Inside and outside the country, the elections are seen as a sham. The military-stacked Union Election Commission has deregistered political parties for failing to meet criteria it has set, such as having a certain number of party members or offices. It has also dissolved Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.

The elections will be held in the context of a state-controlled media landscape in which criticism of them is prohibited under the newly-minted Law on the Prevention of Disruption and Sabotage of Multi-Party Democratic General Elections.

Citizens criticising the election on social media have been sentenced for up to seven years in prison with hard labour. For some offences, the death penalty applies.

The elections are an attempt to gain the legitimacy, at home and abroad, that currently eludes the military regime. They are designed to demonstrate authority and give an impression of effective control. By simulating compliance with international democratic norms, the regime hopes to promote a sense of normalcy, consolidate power and open the door to greater international engagement, all the while preserving the status quo.

The National Unity Government living in exile and a myriad of its international supporters are calling on the international community to not send election observers. Instead, they want the world to denounce the sham election.

ASEAN leaders are insisting that a cessation of violence and inclusive political dialogue precede elections. They have rebuffed an invitation to send observers.

The best the regime could hope for is that some individual ASEAN member states join Russia and Belarus in sending observers. However Thailand, the most ambivalent ASEAN member, which has argued the election should serve as a foundation for a sustainable peace process, is now saying it will be difficult for ASEAN re-engage with Myanmar. China is believed to be supportive of elections, but has not committed publicly to sending observers.

Continued Western ostracism won’t matter to the junta, for whom regional legitimacy is more important than either domestic or Western legitimacy.

Neighbouring countries are concerned about peace and stability on their borders, high levels of irregular migration, the impact of unregulated mining that pollutes rivers flowing through their countries, the flourishing production and trade in heroin and methamphetamine, and the proliferation of cyber scam centres enslaving and defrauding their citizens.

Citizens of these countries demand their governments address these issues, and the elections will make contact with the regime more defensible. It won’t be a case, as it was before, of competing views on whether engagement or isolation is the better way to bring about reform in Myanmar.

This time, there will be no delusions about reform. Rather, neighbours will be concerned with their national interest agenda, and will ride out any accusations of appeasement and complicity in atrocity crimes. After all, authoritarian elections and dealing with authoritarian regimes is not unusual in Southeast Asia.

It would be a mistake to see the elections in 2025–26 as a re-run of the 2010 elections. Those elections were held under the 2008 constitution, which ushered in a reformist government led by a former general.

The elections will not be a transition to civilian or parliamentary rule. Nor will they be an exit ramp for coup leader Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing. To ensure his own safety, he will want to remain in a role where the apparatus of the state will protect, not prosecute, him.

The elections will be a sham, but they will usher in changes to the military line-up. The current commander will no doubt become president and choose a compliant military officer as his replacement as commander-in-chief. The parliament will be dominated by the military and military-aligned parties.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, it will be hard to see any change in the fear and violence that are the tools of choice for regime survival.

However, under Myanmar’s tattered constitution, the military commander is not answerable to any civilian authority, even the president. Min Aung Hlaing’s replacement might at some point become his own man and favour a negotiated end to the conflict.

That is, the elections open the possibility of some diffusion of power. Although this seems unlikely now, it may be better to have this (albeit remote) possibility rather than no election and a continuation of the status quo – a brutal military dictatorship and relentless war of attrition.

The National Unity Government in exile needs to engage with the reality that elections will be held, bringing the junta greater regional engagement, rather than wishing for some imagined day of meaningful international support. Otherwise, it could fade even further into the background.

Nicholas Coppel is affiliated with the Australia Myanmar Institute, a not-for-profit group, and is a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.

– ref. Myanmar’s military will no doubt win this month’s sham elections. But could a shake-up follow? – https://theconversation.com/myanmars-military-will-no-doubt-win-this-months-sham-elections-but-could-a-shake-up-follow-269793

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Peter J. Quaranto, Visiting Professor of the Practice, University of Notre Dame

Start-and-stop negotiations for a deal to end the war in Ukraine have been injected with new intensity after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled a 28-point peace proposal.

It is far from clear whether the latest flurry of diplomacy, which on Dec. 2, 2025, saw Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, will force the warring parties any closer to a resolution in the grinding, nearly four-year-long conflict.

Yet even if negotiators can broker a welcome deal to stop the current fighting, they will immediately be faced with the challenges of sustaining and implementing it.

And many peace accords fall apart quickly and are followed by new waves of violence.

Our research as scholars focusing on peace monitoring and Ukraine suggests that one thing is key in managing mistrust between parties involved in any peace plan: multifaceted third-party monitoring.

The University of Notre Dame’s Peace Accords Matrix, – the largest collection of implementation data on intrastate peace agreements – shows clear evidence that built-in safeguards, such as monitoring and verification by third parties, can increase success rates in peace agreements by more than 29% – meaning no resumption of fighting in the first five years of an accord.

Peace Accords Matrix team members regularly provide support to ongoing peace processes and in the design and implementation of agreements. We believe the program’s research could be applied to the challenges facing future peace in Ukraine.

Lessons from Colombia

The Peace Accords Matrix team’s work in Colombia is instructive on how an effective monitoring mechanism could be shaped in Ukraine.

Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies was tasked with carrying out on-the-ground and real-time monitoring of the 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC.

The Peace Accords Matrix’s 30-staffer team in Colombia has served as an independent body monitoring 578 peace accord commitments in areas such as rural reform, political participation and securing justice for victims. These staffers have, for example, traveled to reintegration camps to speak to former combatants in verifying United Nations data on the number of weapons surrendered and destroyed, among other accord targets.

Armed with quantitative and qualitative data, matrix members regularly meet with stakeholders – including victims, former guerrillas and politicians – to assess the status of implementation and to identify areas that need to be prioritized.

Over the past decade, the work has highlighted when and where there has been insufficient progress in boosting livelihoods and leadership opportunities for women and ethnic minorities.

This reporting has prompted new attention toward implementing these obligations laid out in the accord.

What does Ukraine need?

Our experience shows that when it comes to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine, it is imperative that a mandate for robust monitoring is spelled out clearly and realistically. To be effective, a monitoring body must have the independence to fully report and document violations.

That’s just the first step. Consider the failure of the Minsk agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015 to end fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists.

Those accords failed in part because the monitoring mission, led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, lacked any defined mechanism to press for any action or change once violations – and there were many – had been established.

While the organization’s Special Monitoring Mission may have contributed to some temporary de-escalation in the Donbas conflict, ultimately Russia was able to exploit the weaknesses of the Minsk agreements and commit hostile acts, laying the groundwork for the current war.

Research suggests that monitoring works best when it extends beyond physical ceasefire lines to encompass the cyber domain, too. Moscow has carried out extensive cyberattacks on Ukrainian infrastructure throughout the conflict. Such aggression could continue invisibly despite a ceasefire, allowing one party to pre-position capabilities for future attacks or to conduct espionage without triggering traditional monitoring mechanisms.

Unlike conventional military activities, such cyber hostilities are inherently difficult to monitor and verify. A comprehensive monitoring arrangement will need to grapple with these threats, requiring carefully designed information-sharing protocols with the few international actors capable of monitoring the online activities of both sides.

A bigger tent

A key element of ensuring a durable peace is building trust between conflict parties over time. With the right mandate and authority, monitoring bodies can create space and structure for follow-on dialogue as implementation obstacles emerge. Durable peace processes require fine-tuning to adapt to changing political realities on the ground.

Involving public stakeholders in the implementation of a peace agreement is another key element, our research shows. Third-party monitoring can provide the framework for soliciting outside perspectives and participation.

Over the past decade, Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations have steadily developed expertise in monitoring and accountability in areas including elections, procurement, humanitarian operations and potential war crime activity.

Building on this experience by involving broader segments of civil society – including the country’s highly trusted faith-based communities – would strengthen the legitimacy of third-party monitoring in the eyes of the domestic public and assuage uneasy acceptance of any peace accord.

Ready on Day 1

While the United Nations and other multinational bodies are well placed to support some core monitoring tasks, those planning for peace now should, we believe, consider the benefits of involving a wider range of third-party actors. Indeed, many Ukrainians are skeptical that institutions of which Russia is a member can carry out their work with the needed independence.

As we have seen with the Peace Accords Matrix’s experience, the involvement of an independent research institution can open up new possibilities for monitoring.

And ideally, monitoring missions should be ready to go from Day 1, or as close to that as possible.

Comparative research has shown that the speed at which a monitoring mission starts its work can affect its relevance. Yet, many monitoring bodies are wracked by delays due to lack of planning, support and resources.

The current 28-point peace plan being mulled by Russia and Ukraine makes only a brief mention of monitoring, by a “Peace Council, headed by President Donald J. Trump.”

But our experience shows that prioritizing third-party monitoring and delving into the details of how it would be carried out – even as ceasefire negotiations are ongoing – can help ensure the success of a future deal.

It would serve as a vital signal to Ukrainians that, unlike the aftermath of the Minsk agreements, this time the international community will continue to engage and act to ensure their country’s peace.

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. Lasting peace in Ukraine may hinge on independent monitors – yet Trump’s 28-point plan barely mentions them – https://theconversation.com/lasting-peace-in-ukraine-may-hinge-on-independent-monitors-yet-trumps-28-point-plan-barely-mentions-them-268469

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sara Kells, Director of Program Management at IE Digital Learning and Adjunct Professor of Humanities, IE University

In ancient Athens, the agora was a public forum where citizens could gather to deliberate, disagree and decide together. It was governed by deep-rooted social principles that ensured lively, inclusive, healthy debate.

Today, our public squares have moved online to the digital feeds and forums of social media. These spaces mostly lack communal rules and codes – instead, algorithms decide which voices rise above the clamour, and which are buried beneath it.

The optimistic idea of the internet being a radically democratic space feels like a distant memory. Our conversations are now shaped by opaque systems designed to maximise engagement, not understanding. Algorithmic popularity, not accuracy or fairness, determines reach.

This has created a paradox. We enjoy unprecedented freedom to speak, yet our speech is constrained by forces beyond our control. Loud voices dominate. Nuanced voices fade. Outrage travels faster than reflection. In this landscape, equal participation is all but unattainable, and honest speech can carry a very genuine risk.

Somewhere between the stone steps of Athens and the screens of today, we have lost something essential to our democratic life and dialogue: the balance between equality of voice and the courage to speak the truth, even when it is dangerous. Two ancient Athenian ideals of free speech, isegoria and parrhesia, can help us find it again.

Ancient ideas that still guide us

In Athens, isegoria referred to the right to speak, but it did not stop at mere entitlement or access. It signalled a shared responsibility, a commitment to fairness, and the idea that public life should not be governed by the powerful alone.

The term parrhesia can be defined as boldness or freedom in speaking. Again, there is nuance; parrhesia is not reckless candour, but ethical courage. It referred to the duty to speak truthfully, even when that truth provoked discomfort or danger.

These ideals were not abstract principles. They were civic practices, learned and reinforced through participation. Athenians understood that democratic speech was both a right and a responsibility, and that the quality of public life depended on the character of its citizens.

The digital sphere has changed the context but not the importance of these virtues. Access alone is insufficient. Without norms that support equality of voice and encourage truth-telling, free speech becomes vulnerable to distortion, intimidation and manipulation.

The emergence of AI-generated content intensifies these pressures. Citizens must now navigate not only human voices, but also machine-produced ones that blur the boundaries of credibility and intent.

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Leer más:
The ancient Greeks invented democracy – and warned us how it could go horribly wrong

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When being heard becomes a privilege

On contemporary platforms, visibility is distributed unequally and often unpredictably. Algorithms tend to amplify ideas that trigger strong emotions, regardless of their value. Communities that already face marginalisation can find themselves unheard, while those who thrive on provocation can dominate the conversation.

On the internet, isegoria is challenged in a new way. Few people are formally excluded from it, but many are structurally invisible. The right to speak remains, but the opportunity to be heard is uneven.

At the same time, parrhesia becomes more precarious. Speaking with honesty, especially about contested issues, may expose individuals to harassment, misrepresentation or reputational harm. The cost of courage has increased, while the incentives to remain silent, or to retreat into echo chambers, have grown.

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Building citizens, not audiences

The Athenians understood that democratic virtues do not emerge on their own. Isegoria and parrhesia were sustained through habits learned over time: listening as a civic duty, speaking as a shared responsibility, and recognising that public life depended on the character of its participants. In our era, the closest equivalent is civic education, the space where citizens practise the dispositions that democratic speech requires.

By making classrooms into small-scale agoras, students can learn to inhabit the ethical tension between equality of voice and integrity in speech. Activities that invite shared dialogue, equitable turn-taking and attention to quieter voices help them experience isegoria, not as an abstract right but as a lived practice of fairness.

In practice, this means holding discussions and debates where students have to verify information, articulate and justify arguments, revise their views publicly, or engage respectfully with opposing arguments. These skills all cultivate the intellectual courage associated with parrhesia.

Importantly, these experiences do not prescribe what students should believe. Instead, they rehearse the habits that make belief accountable to others: the discipline of listening, the willingness to offer reasons, and the readiness to refine a position in light of new understanding. Such practices restore a sense that democratic participation is not merely expressive, but relational and built through shared effort.

What civic education ultimately offers is practice. It creates miniature agoras where students rehearse the skills they need as citizens: speaking clearly, listening generously, questioning assumptions and engaging with those who think differently.

These habits counter the pressures of the digital world. They slow down conversation in spaces designed for speed. They introduce reflection into environments engineered for reaction. They remind us that democratic discourse is not a performance, but a shared responsibility.

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Returning to the spirit of the agora

The challenge of our era is not only technological but educational. No algorithm can teach responsibility, courage or fairness. These are qualities formed through experience, reflection and practice. Athenians understood this intuitively, because their democracy relied on ordinary citizens learning how to speak as equals and with integrity.

We face the same challenge today. If we want digital public squares that support democratic life, we must prepare citizens who know how to inhabit them wisely. Civic education is not optional enrichment – it is the training ground for the habits that sustain freedom.

The agora may have changed form, but its purpose endures. To speak and listen as equals, with honesty, courage and care, is still the heart of democracy. And this is something we can teach.

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Sara Kells no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.

– ref. What ancient Athens teaches us about debate – and dissent – in the social media age – https://theconversation.com/what-ancient-athens-teaches-us-about-debate-and-dissent-in-the-social-media-age-270100

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania

Cricket’s first Test match was played between Australia and England in 1877.

The next Ashes match, starting at the Gabba in Brisbane on Thursday, will be Test number 2,611.

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It will also be the 25th day-night Test.

Many people criticised the introduction of day-night Tests – including challenges posted by the pink ball (not red, as used in day clashes), visibility issues during twilight, and concerns that cricket is putting commercial interests ahead of the sport’s integrity.

But just how are day-night Tests different from traditional day matches?

History of day-night Tests

Australia and New Zealand played the first official day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval in 2015.

Day-night matches were introduced to increase the popularity of Test cricket and to play it at a time when it could attract larger crowds and a greater primetime audience on television.

From a commercial angle, the move has worked. Evening sessions draw larger crowds and television audiences.

Australia has embraced day-night Tests more than any other country, playing in 14 of the 24 completed day-night Tests. England is next with seven.

Australia has also hosted 13 of the day-night Tests, eight of them in Adelaide. India is next with three.

Cricket Australia and various state governments negotiate summer schedules and venues, with only Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart hosting day-night Tests so far.

Australian dominance

The Australian team’s familiarity with day-night cricket may partly explain its outstanding record of 13 wins and one loss.

In contrast, England has only won two of its seven day-night Tests, losing all three against Australia.

Familiarity and more opportunities have contributed to Australian dominance of day-night Tests. The top four leading wicket-takers in day-night Tests are Australian.

Mitchell Starc leads (81 wickets in 14 Tests) while the best by an English player is the now-retired James Anderson with 24 wickets in seven Tests.

Australia also has the top five run scorers in day-night Tests.

Marnus Labuschagne (958 runs in nine Tests) is the current leader and has the chance to be the first player to score 1,000 runs in day-night encounters. Joe Root (501 runs in seven games) is the top Englishman at sixth on the list.

How things change under lights

Day-night games have several key differences to day Tests, such as the ball, the conditions and tactics used.

To make day-night Tests work, manufacturers had to develop a ball that’s visible under floodlights, yet durable enough for Test conditions.

Traditional red balls are too difficult to see at night, whereas white balls (used in shorter cricket formats) become dirty and discoloured too quickly.

After years of experimentation with orange and yellow versions, the pink ball emerged as the best compromise. It was trialled in domestic competitions and one-day internationals before being used in Tests.

Batting and bowling under lights is very different from daytime play because the pink ball behaves differently.

Its thicker coating keeps it shiny for longer, which gives fast bowlers more swing and seam movement.

This is most obvious when the ball is new and also during the twilight session, when dew can add extra moisture to the pitch.

Additionally, more grass is often left on the pitch to help reduce damage to the ball.

This all makes life more difficult for batters.

Spinners, though, often struggle because the ball’s harder coating and extra dew reduce grip and turn.

Players have also spoken about the difficulty of adjusting their eyes as daylight fades and floodlights take over. Fielders can also lose sight of the ball against the dusky sky.

In day Tests, the average runs per wicket increases slightly from session one to session three, with scoring rates also increasing slightly across the day. This pattern suggests batting becomes easier as the ball softens and the pitch flattens, while bowlers tire and conditions remain stable across daylight hours.

In contrast, session two is the easiest to bat in during day-night Tests. Batting is much harder in session one (when the ball is often new) and in session three under lights.

Pink ball scoring rates are similar to daytime matches but bowlers strike more often.

What about tactics?

Teams have learned to plan around the evening session (session three), when the fading light and cooling air can make batting harder.

Captains often time their declarations or new-ball spells to coincide with the twilight period and choose to bat first.

Fast bowlers in particular relish the chance to attack under lights and many batters say adapting footwork and timing against the moving pink ball is more difficult.

Comparing results

In short, day-night Tests are harder for batters. Fewer runs are scored, wickets fall more quickly, and games generally finish earlier.

When comparing all Tests from the past ten years, teams in day-night matches score about 150 fewer runs per game and bowlers need ten fewer balls to take each wicket.

Day-night Tests also tend to end with a result sooner, with matches on average being around 50 overs shorter. Notably, none of the 24 day-night Tests played so far has ended in a draw, compared with 14% of day Tests.

Thursday’s second Ashes Test at the Gabba will be the fourth day-night Test at the Queensland ground.

The Australians lost the previous day-night Gabba Test, to the West Indies last summer, which will give England some hope after their disastrous loss in the opening Ashes clash in Perth.

The authors 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. Like night and day: why Test cricket changes so much under lights – https://theconversation.com/like-night-and-day-why-test-cricket-changes-so-much-under-lights-267320

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sarah Hellewell, Senior Research Fellow, The Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, and Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University

A recent episode of the The Kardashians shared some startling news about Kim Kardashian’s brain.

Discussing Kim’s recent brain scan, her doctor pointed out “holes” on her brain scan he said were related to “low activity”.

While this sounds incredibly sad and concerning, doctors and scientists have doubts about the technology used and its growing commercialisation.

I study brain health, including imaging the brain to look for early signs of disease.

Here’s what I think about this technology, whether it can really find holes in our brains, and if should we be getting these scans to check our own.

What can imaging really tell you?

Earlier this year, Kim was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, or widening of an artery, after an MRI.

The type and extent of this aneurysm is unclear. And there doesn’t seem to be a clear link between her aneurysm and this recent news.

But we do know the latest announcement came after a different type of imaging, known as single-photon emission tomography (known as SPECT).

This involves injecting radioactive chemicals into the blood and using a special camera which creates 3D images of organs, including the brain. This type of imaging was developed in 1976 and was first used in the brain in 1990.

SPECT scans can be used to track and measure blood flow in organs, and are used by doctors to diagnose and guide treatment for conditions affecting the brain, heart and bones.

While SPECT does has some clinical use under limited circumstances, there is not good evidence for SPECT scans outside these purposes.

Enter the world of celebrities and private clinics

The clinic featured in The Kardashian episode offers
SPECT to its clients, including the Kardashian-Jenners.

SPECT images have mass appeal due to their aesthetically pleasing pastel colours, widespread promotion on social media, and claims these scans can be used to diagnose any number of conditions. These include stress (as in Kim’s case), Alzheimer’s, ADHD, brain injury, eating disorders, sleep problems, anger and even marital problems.

But the scientific evidence to support the use of SPECT as a diagnostic tool for an individual and for so many conditions has led many doctors, scientists and former patients to criticise the work of such clinics as scientifically unfounded and “snake oil”.

Scans could potentially show changes in blood flow, though these may be common across conditions. Blood flow can also vary depending on the area of the brain examined, time of day, and even how well-rested a person is.

Areas in which blood flow is reduced have been described as “holes”, “dents” or “dings” on such SPECT scans.

In Kim’s case, this reduced blood flow was explained as “low activity” of the brain. Her doctor suggested the frontal lobes of her brain were not working as they should be, due to chronic stress.

But there is no scientific evidence to link these changes in blood flow to stress or functional outcomes. In fact, there is no single technique with scientific support to link changes in brain function to symptoms or outcomes for an individual.

These scans aren’t cheap

Doctors have several concerns about people without symptoms seeking SPECT as a diagnostic tool. First, people are injected with radioactive materials without a defined clinical reason.

Patients may also undergo treatment, or be recommended to take particular supplements, based on a diagnosis from SPECT that is scientifically unfounded.

And as SPECT scans are not recognised as a medical requirement, patients pay upwards of US$3,000 for a SPECT scan, with dietary supplements costing extra.

Do I need a scan like this?

While imaging tools such as SPECT and MRI may be genuinely used to diagnose many conditions, there is no medical need for healthy people to have them.

Such scans for healthy people are often described as “opportunistic”, with a double meaning: they may possibly find something in a person with no symptoms, but at several thousand dollars a scan, they take advantage of people’s health anxieties and can lead to unnecessary use of the health-care system.

It can be tempting to follow in the footsteps of the stars and look for diagnoses via popularised and widely advertised scans. But it’s important to remember the best medical care is based on solid scientific evidence, provided by experts who use best-practice tools based on decades of research.

Sarah Hellewell receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund for MRI-based research.

– ref. Kim Kardashian’s brain scan shows ‘low activity’ and holes. I’m a brain expert and I have questions – https://theconversation.com/kim-kardashians-brain-scan-shows-low-activity-and-holes-im-a-brain-expert-and-i-have-questions-271083