Category: The Conversation – Global Perspectives

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Ivan Franceschini, Lecturer, Chinese Studies, The University of Melbourne

“I was running from the war, and I got to a war again.” This is how Eric, a young man from central Africa, described how he ended up at a scam compound in Cambodia – and then stranded in the country with no way out.

Eric’s story is like that of many people deceived into the scamming world. After fleeing conflict in his home country and living in extreme deprivation, Eric received an email offering a US$2,000 (A$2,800) monthly job in Cambodia. The recruiter quickly persuaded him to accept. (We are using a pseudonym and not disclosing his country of origin to protect him.)

Upon arriving in Phnom Penh late last year, he was taken directly from the airport to a notorious scam compound near the Thai border, where he was forced to defraud people through online scams.

When he tried to warn one of his targets that he was being scammed, the managers found out and savagely beat him to the point he thought he might die. In the following weeks, he witnessed others being severely abused and the disappearance of co-workers. One jumped from a window in an apparent suicide and was never seen again.

A month later, Eric managed to escape when the Thai military began bombing Cambodia in a skirmish over their shared border. His freedom was short-lived, though. He was re-trafficked to another compound and spent another month in captivity before finally fleeing in mid-January.

Government crackdown

Eric is now stranded in Cambodia, along with thousands of other foreigners who were freed from scam compounds in recent weeks as rumours spread of a massive government crackdown on the industry.

The crackdown began last month after the arrest of Chinese tycoon Chen Zhi, whom the US Justice Department called “the mastermind behind a sprawling cyberfraud empire”.

Chen’s arrest added to growing international pressure on Cambodia to finally confront its role in the booming online scam industry, which brings in billions of dollars a year in illicit revenue and has seen hundreds of thousands of workers trafficked into appalling “scam factories” in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Cambodian authorities have raided compounds before, but these operations have been limited and appeared mainly tokenistic.

The recent crackdown felt different – much broader in scope. Multiple compounds suddenly opened their doors to let people out in January, and a prominent Cambodian businessman linked to the industry and several high-ranking Cambodian officials were arrested.

Stuck in limbo

The mass exodus of workers from the compounds, many of whom lack passports, money or anywhere to go, has now led to what Amnesty International is calling a “growing humanitarian crisis”.

Two of us (Ling and Ivan) were in Cambodia to monitor scam compounds when the crackdown occurred. We saw desperate people without documents queuing in front of their embassies in Phnom Penh, trying to get help to return home.

The Indonesian embassy said more than 3,400 people have sought consular assistance. Based on our conversations with embassy officials, Uganda and Ghana have about 300 stranded nationals each, and Kenya has more than 200.

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Read more:
Scam Factories: the inside story of Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

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The Chinese and Indonesian embassies have managed to convince the Cambodian government to move their citizens into facilities while they await deportation. Kenya has obtained a waiver of any fines their citizens may face for lacking documents or overstaying their visas and stranded Kenyans are now scrambling to raise funds to pay for their flights.

Survivors from other countries, however, have been stonewalled by the Cambodian bureaucracy.

Most of the Africans we met are in dire situations. They are from countries without diplomatic representation in Cambodia and have been turned away from international agencies and their local partners because of purported “resource constraints” and limitations imposed by local regulations.

Many survivors have pooled their resources to rent rooms in guesthouses that accept undocumented people, while others are being forced to sleep on the streets or rely on the charity of good samaritans. Many live in fear of arrest because the police are conducting inspections of homes and hotels to check people’s documentation.

Eric is one of the relatively fortunate who have secured temporary shelter, but his future remains deeply uncertain. He has no passport, no family and no country to return to. When asked about his hopes, he says simply he wants a place where he can start over – it doesn’t matter where. He is also desperate to start searching for his family back home. He doesn’t even know if they are still alive.

End of an industry?

Cambodian officials have framed the operations as a decisive break with the past. They have vowed to eradicate the powerful online scam networks in the country by April.

However, it’s unclear if the raids signal a sustained policy shift or are a temporary response to heightened diplomatic scrutiny. Although this is the most comprehensive action Cambodia has taken to date, it is far from the first time the government has cracked down. The industry has always survived.

Empty compounds remain guarded, but we managed to visit one since the crackdown. While the computers, cameras and other items have largely been removed, the physical infrastructure remains intact and ready to be reactivated.

And pockets of the industry remain active. Based on our monitoring of Telegram groups used by scammers and conversations with industry insiders, many are still operating in areas such as Koh Kong and Poipet.

Moreover, scam groups are continuing to recruit workers trapped inside the country. Many of the stranded victims have told us of being approached with job offers, presented as an easy way to earn enough money for a flight home.

Job advertisements are also circulating on Telegram, targeting these same individuals with purported “opportunities” at precisely the moment when they are most vulnerable. Many have endured severe abuse and are in urgent need of psychological support.

So far, the survivors’ appeals to the international community have largely gone unanswered. Without a timely and coordinated intervention to help them, the outlook is bleak, and the advantage will once again lie with the scammers.

In 2024, Ivan co-founded EOS Collective, a non-profit organisation dedicated to investigating the dynamics of the online scam industry and the criminal networks behind it, and supporting survivors of forced criminality in these operations.

Charlotte Setijadi has previously received research funding from Singapore’s Ministry of Education and the Singapore Social Science Research Council. She is currently one of the co-convenors of the University of Melbourne’s Indonesia Forum.

In 2024, Ling Li co-founded EOS Collective, a non-profit organisation dedicated to investigating the dynamics of the online scam industry and the criminal networks behind it, and supporting survivors of forced criminality in these operations.

– ref. They escaped appalling conditions in scam factories. Now, they are living on the streets in Cambodia – https://theconversation.com/they-escaped-appalling-conditions-in-scam-factories-now-they-are-living-on-the-streets-in-cambodia-275218

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Kris Gledhill, Professor of Law, Auckland University of Technology

The New Zealand Court of Appeal is this week hearing a case that is unusual in a number of respects.

The person bringing it is Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the 35-year-old Australian man convicted and sentenced for the murder of 51 people in Christchurch in March 2019.

Tarrant – who earlier pleaded guilty to those murders, along with attempting to murder 40 others and committing the acts as terrorism – is seeking to reopen his conviction and sentence.

At first glance, this might seem baffling: how can a person who earlier admitted to serious crimes – and who was sentenced years ago – be trying to appeal? The answer lies in some important rules that illustrate how New Zealand’s legal system works.

Tarrant was sentenced five years ago. How can he appeal now?

Legal systems have to balance competing principles. One principle is that decisions by criminal courts should be final, so that those affected can move on.

At the same time, it is important the decision is the right one, since an incorrect finding by a criminal court is problematic.

As a result, those convicted have a right to appeal, but the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 gives them 20 days to file their application. Additionally, the Appeal Court can extend that time limit if there are good reasons to override the need for finality.

So, the hearing now before the court is actually an application for an extension of time. Tarrant’s notice of appeal against conviction and sentence was filed in November 2022: it should have been filed in September 2020, as he was sentenced in August 2020. So the application is to extend time by over two years.

If the Court of Appeal is not persuaded there are good reasons to extend the time limit, the judges will refuse the application to extend time. There is one final avenue then, which is an application to the Supreme Court.

But he pleaded guilty. How can he appeal that?

A second part of the application Tarrant has made is to set aside his guilty pleas. This can happen for various reasons. The central argument he has raised is that he was acting irrationally when he pleaded guilty because of mental health issues caused by prison conditions.

An admission of guilt, which in this case led to the severest sentence available in our legal system – life without parole – has to be an informed decision. The legal system has processes for when people are not fit to stand trial.

If it is a temporary problem, trials can be adjourned until the person is well enough. If it is a more long-term problem, there can be a modified trial that looks at whether the person did the acts charged without looking at whether they had a criminal state of mind.

That is why the evidence before the Court of Appeal includes him, his trial lawyers and experts. This will allow an assessment of the reliability of the pleas that were entered.

This is the real issue for the Court of Appeal. If the guilty pleas can’t be relied on, that might be a good reason to extend time. However, that is not automatic. The legal test is whether there has been a miscarriage of justice.

This allows the Court of Appeal to consider whether the evidence available showed guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in any event. An admission of guilt and a finding of guilt by a court weighing the evidence lead to the same verdict.

Why don’t we know the names of his lawyers?

Another unusual feature of this case is that we don’t know the names of Tarrant’s lawyers. This is because, in a judgment in November 2024, the Court of Appeal allowed them to be anonymous. This rested on evidence of concerns for their safety.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal against this ruling. This is why the appeal is being heard in a closed court but with a delayed video link.

This reveals that some people misunderstand the role of defence lawyers. The legal system only works if lawyers are willing to represent unpopular people and present their case in a professional manner.

This does not mean the lawyer believes in or otherwise supports the person they are representing. Rather, they are doing a job that is necessary for the legal system to work properly.

But wasn’t the evidence clear?

Most people charged by the police plead guilty or are found guilty; and most appeals are unsuccessful. But in a minority of situations, police and prosecutors or trial courts don’t get it right.

There have been past instances where people have made confessions to things they did not actually do or did not do with a criminal state of mind.

No-one benefits from an incorrect guilty verdict. That is why we have appeals, including appeals out of time, and a Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Particularly for such a uniquely horrible event, and when the sentence imposed is the most severe one our system can impose, it is important to be sure it was correct. That is what is being assessed. It is also why the Court of Appeal has appointed a lawyer to be on stand-by in case the lawyers for the defence are sacked.

Something similar happened at the sentencing hearing: the trial judge appointed a lawyer to make arguments at the sentencing hearing because Tarrant seemingly accepted the sentence of life without parole and told his lawyers not to argue against it.

The resilience of the victims and their families is again on display. For them in particular, but also for New Zealand more generally, we should remember that court judgments are also important historical records.

Judges give reasoned findings into significant events. The three judges of the Court of Appeal are playing this important role, with the assistance of all the lawyers involved.

Kris Gledhill is currently working on a criminal sentencing project funded by the Borrin Foundation, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Criminal Bar Association, which represents prosecution and defence lawyers. The views expressed here are his own.

– ref. Christchurch terror appeal: why now, and what is really being decided? – https://theconversation.com/christchurch-terror-appeal-why-now-and-what-is-really-being-decided-275541

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Panizza Allmark, Professor of Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University

In January, over the course of three days, Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and released the political protest song Streets of Minneapolis.

The song’s release was a matter of urgency and reflects Springsteen’s fury towards the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation from the United States Department of Homeland Security with around 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and agents.

Last month, Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE in separate incidents. In his lyrics, Springsteen names them as a memorial tribute, “citizens [who] stood for justice”. He refers to ICE as “King Trump’s private army”.

Springsteen marches in the footsteps of protest songs from legendary artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan who raised their lyrical voices in a direct response against injustice.

The Dust Bowl migrants

On January 30 Tom Morello, the guitarist with social activist rock band Rage Against the Machine, held a benefit concert to support the families of the Minneapolis ICE shooting victims.

Morello described it as “a concert of solidarity and resistance to defend Minnesota” and against “the rising tide of the state of terror”.

Springsteen was a surprise guest artist. In addition to performing Streets of Minneapolis he played his 1995 song, The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Tom Joad is a character in John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, about the Dust Bowl migrants from Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl migrants left Oklahoma and travelled west, forced off the land by drought and the intensive farming methods. Springsteen’s song describes “the new world order” where homelessness, policing and inequality prevail.

Woody Guthrie also sang about Tom Joad on his 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads. Guthrie travelled south to California with migrants who scraped a living working in others’ fields and picking fruit in others’ orchards.

Tom Joad is a working class man who stands up to authority through the call for collective action. Guthrie’s two songs about the character featured on Guthrie’s first and most successful recording, bring national attention to the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers.

Guthrie emblazoned on his guitars the slogan “This machine kills fascists”.

The civil rights movement

When Robert Zimmerman left his parental home in Hibbing, Minnesota, to reinvent himself in New York as Bob Dylan, he achieved his desire to meet Guthrie.

One of Dylan’s very early compositions was The Death Of Emmett Till, which he performed for a Congress on Racial Equality benefit concert in 1962. It didn’t appear on an album until the compilation album Broadside Ballads, Vol.6, in 1972, under his pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt.

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally murdered in 1955 by two white brothers in Mississippi. His murder, and their acquittal by an all white jury, caused public outrage, and became a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. Emmett Till has been memorialised in many songs, but Dylan’s focus, with an accusation in the lyrics that the jury “helped the brothers”, is the most well-known tribute.

Dylan went on to write many songs for the civil rights movement and anti-war songs such as Blowin’ In The Wind, Masters of War and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, all on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963).

The Vietnam War

In 1970, Neil Young composed Ohio about the murder by Ohio National Guard of four protesters against the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University. The song was recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but the studio version only appeared on the 1974 compilation, So Far.

The activist rock song became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Young’s horror toward the killing of protestors motivated him to write and record the song quickly, with a rush to release it.

The song got radio play, but was banned by some stations for its anti-war sentiments. Within three weeks of the shooting, it reached number 14 on the Billboard charts. The opening lyrics, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own”, remarks on a heightened state of alert for ordinary people.

Trump’s America

The title of Lucinda Williams’ first overtly political album, 2025’s World’s Gone Wrong, echoes Dylan’s 1993 album, World Gone Wrong.

Music magazine Uncut called it a “compelling, compassionate, state of the nation address”.

The album focuses on the destruction of civil society in Trump’s America. Something’s Gotta Give is a song of anger and disillusionment with America. Black Tears connects present day America to its long history of injustice with the lyrics “400 years is long enough, How long will [Black tears] rain down?”.

Jesse Welles’ song Join ICE is a satirical recruitment song, adopting the tone of a recruitment pitch to expose the abuse of power “If you’re lackin’ control and authority, come with me and hunt down minorities,” he sings.

Popular music, especially in America, has always been bound up with political commentary.

But it hasn’t always been on the side of the oppressed. Written and sung by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, The Ballad Of The Green Berets, supporting the United States Army Special Forces in Vietnam, was number one on the Billboard singles charts for five weeks in 1966.

Can a Trump acolyte manage a similar feat about ICE?

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. From ‘this machine kills fascists’ to ‘King Trump’s private army’: the art of protest music – https://theconversation.com/from-this-machine-kills-fascists-to-king-trumps-private-army-the-art-of-protest-music-274974

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Bronwyn Cumbo, Lecturer, Transdisciplinary School, University of Technology Sydney

➡️ Click here to read the full interactive

Bronwyn Cumbo receives funding from the Australia Public Policy Challenge Grant for her research investigating possibilities and challenges to establishing New South Wales as a sustainable data centre hub.

Digital Storytelling Team 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. Can Australia build one of the world’s largest data centres? – https://theconversation.com/can-australia-build-one-of-the-worlds-largest-data-centres-273703

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Florian Bonnet, Démographe et économiste, spécialiste des inégalités territoriales, Ined (Institut national d’études démographiques)

For over a century and a half, life expectancy has steadily increased in the wealthiest countries. Spectacular climbs in longevity have been noted in the 20th Century, correlating with the slump in infectious illnesses and advances in cardiovascular medicine.

However, for some years now, experts have been obsessing over one question: when is this slick mechanism going to run out of steam? In several western countries, gains in life expectancy have become so slight, they are practically non-existent.

Some researchers see this as a sign that we are heading toward a ‘biological human longevity ceiling’ while others estimate that there is still room for improvement.

Looking at national figures alone cannot be a decider. Behind a country’s average life expectancy lies very contrasted, region-specific realities. This is what the findings of our study that was recently published in Nature Communications revealed. Analysing data collected between 1992 and 2019, it focuses on 450 regions in western Europe bringing together almost 400 million inhabitants.

A European study on an unprecedented scale

To complete our research project, we collected mortality and demographic data from offices for national statistics across 13 western European countries including Spain, Denmark, Portugal and Switzerland.

We began by harmonising the original data, a task that proved crucial because the regions differed in size, and data offered varying amounts of detail according to each country.

Then we recalculated the annual gain in life expectancy at birth for each region between 1992 and 2019, an indicator, which reflects mortality across all ages. Sophisticated statistical methods allowed us to pick out the main underlying trends, regardless of short-term fluctuations caused by the heatwave in 2003, or virulent, seasonal flu outbreaks between 2014-2015, for instance. 2019 is the cut-off date for our analyses because it is still too early to know whether the coronavirus pandemic has a long term effect on these trends or if it was limited to 2020-2022.

The results we obtained provide us with an unprecedented panorama of regional longevity trajectories across Europe over an almost 30-year period, from which we draw three findings.

First finding: Human longevity has not hit its limits

The first message to emerge from the study is that: the limits of human longevity have still not been reached. If we concentrate on regions that are life expectancy champions (indicated in blue on the chart below), we note that there is no indication of progress decelerating.

These regions continue to demonstrate around a two and half month gain in life expectancy per year for men, and approximately one and a half month gain in life expectancy for women, at an equivalent rate to those observed in previous decades. In 2019, they include regions in Northern Italy, Switzerland and some Spanish provinces.

For France, Paris and its surrounding Hauts-de-Seine or Yvelines areas (pertaining to both men and women), featured alongside the Anjou region and areas bordering with Switzerland (only applicable to women). In 2019, life expectancy reached 83 for men, and 87 for women.

In other words, despite recurrent concerns nothing presently indicates that lifespan progression has hit a glass ceiling; prolonging life expectancy remains possible. This is a fundamental result which counters sweeping, alarmist statements: there is room for improvement.

Second finding: regional diversity since the mid 2000s

The picture looks bleaker when considering regions with ‘lagging’ life expectancy rates, indicated in red on the chart. In the 1990s and in the early 2000s, these regions saw rapid gains in life expectancy. Progress was much faster here than anywhere else, leading to a convergence in regional life expectancy across Europe.

This golden age, accumulating a fast rise in life expectancy in Europe and a reduction in regional disparities came to an end towards 2005. In the most challenged regions, whether it be East Germany, Wallonia in Belgium or certain parts of the United Kingdom, life expectancy gains significantly dropped, practically reaching a standstill. In women, no regions in France featured among them, but in men, they included some departments in the Hauts-de-France.

Longevity in Europe is ultimately divided into vanguard regions that continue to progress on one side, and on the other side, lagging regions where the dynamic is running out of steam and is even reversed. We are experiencing a regional discrepancy that contrasts with the catch-up momentum in the 1990s.

Third finding: the decisive role of mortality at ages 55-74

Why such a shift? Beyond age-specific life expectancy, we sought to gain a better understanding of this spectacular change by analysing how mortality rates have evolved for each age bracket.

We can state that regional divergence can neither be explained by the rise in infantile mortality (which remains very slight) nor by the rise in mortality in the over 75 age range (which continues to decelerate everywhere). It mainly stems from mortality around age 65.

In the 1990s this demonstrated a rapid drop, thanks to access to cardiovascular treatments and changes in risk-taking behaviour. But since the 2000s, this upturn has slowed. In some regions, in the last few years, the risk of dying between 55 and 74 years old is on the rise, as shown in the maps below.

This is particularly true for women living in France’s Mediterranean coastal regions (indicated in pale pink). It’s also the case for most of Germany. However, these intermediary ages are crucial for the life expectancy gain dynamic, because a large number of deaths occur here. Stagnation or a leap in mortality between ages 55 and 74 is enough to break the overall trend.

Even though our study does not allow us to pinpoint the precise causes explaining such preoccupying progress, recent documentation provides us with some leads which should be scientifically tested in the future. Among these are risk-taking behaviour, particularly smoking, drinking alcohol and poor nutrition, or a lack of physical exercise, which are all factors that manifest at these ages.

Incidentally, the economic crash in 2008 accentuated regional variations across Europe. Some regions suffered durably seeing the health of their populations compromised, while further growth was recorded in other regions with a concentration of highly qualified employment. These factors remind us that longevity isn’t just about advances in medicine; it can also be explained by social and economic factors.

What’s next?

Our report offers a dual message. Yes, it’s possible to increase life expectancy. Europe’s regional champions are proof of this, as they continue to demonstrate steady growth without showing any signs of plateauing. However, this progress does not apply to everyone. For fifteen years, part of Europe has been lagging behind, largely due to a rise in mortality around 65 years.

Even today, the future of human longevity seems to depend less on the existence of a hypothetical biological ceiling than on our collective ability to reduce gaps in life expectancy. Recent trends lead us to believe that Europe could well end up as a two-tier system, setting apart a minority of areas that keep pushing the boundaries of longevity and a majority of areas where gains dwindle.

In actual fact, the question is not only how far can we extend life expectancy, but which parts of Europe are eligible.

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For further reading

Our detailed results, region by region, are available in our interactive online application.

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Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.

– ref. Where are Europe’s oldest people living? What geography tells us about a fragmenting continent – https://theconversation.com/where-are-europes-oldest-people-living-what-geography-tells-us-about-a-fragmenting-continent-274550

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer in International Studies in the School of Society and Culture, Adelaide University

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has delivered her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections she called shortly after taking office.

Now that she has consolidated her power in Japan’s legislature (called the Diet), the big question is what she will do with it.

Since her ascent to the prime ministership in a parliamentary vote in October, the ultra conservative Takaichi has upended the normally staid Japanese political system.

She has connected with younger voters like no other Japanese leader in recent history with her savvy social media presence, iconic fashion sense and diplomatic flair. (In a literal rock-star moment, she showed off her drumming skills in a jam session with South Korea’s leader.)

Takaichi has cannily taken advantage of the honeymoon phase of her leadership by calling a snap election to gain more power in the Diet before there’s a dip in her popularity.

However, voters will now expect to see a return on their investment, and Takaichi faces the much more daunting task of delivering on her promises. Improving living standards in a country with a rapidly shrinking workforce and ageing population without mass immigration will test her political skills much more than winning an election.

An unlikely election victory

Although Takaichi’s LDP has been in government for most of Japan’s post-war history, it has recently experienced a string of poor election results.

In 2024, it lost the lower house majority it held with its then-coalition partner, Komeito, after a series of corruption scandals. Then, last year, the coalition lost its majority in the upper house, leaving the government hanging by a thread.

The party began its remarkable turnaround following then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation in September in the wake of those electoral setbacks.

Many pre-election polls predicted a sizeable victory for the LDP and its new coalition partner, Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party). Takaichi also received a boost with an endorsement from US President Donald Trump. Although the Japanese public views Trump unfavourably, they also know the US is their ultimate security guarantor against China, in addition to Japan’s largest export destination.

Nevertheless, there were some doubts about whether Takaichi’s popularity, particularly among younger voters, would translate into votes.

In the end, her electoral gold dust rubbed off on the rest of her party. Despite freezing temperatures and record snow in places, the LDP has been comfortably returned to office with a vastly increased majority in the lower house. The coalition now has a two-thirds super-majority, which means she can override the upper house to push through her legislative agenda.

A more assertive posture on China?

Since becoming prime minister, the hawkish Takaichi has taken an assertive position towards China.

In November, she angered Beijing by saying Japan could intervene militarily to help protect Taiwan in the face of a potential Chinese invasion. This resulted in vicious Chinese attacks on Takaichi that continued into the new year.

While the Japanese public is divided over whether to come to Taiwan’s aid in any conflict with China, there is now strong support for Takaichi’s pledge to increase the defence budget to 2% of GDP by this March, two years ahead of schedule.

In December, the Cabinet approved a 9.4% increase in defence spending to achieve this objective, focusing on domestic production and advanced capabilities (cyber, space, long-range strikes).

In response to rising threats from China, North Korea and Russia, Takaichi’s government also plans to revise Japan’s core security and defence strategies this year.

Economic woes front and centre

As much as defence matters, Takaichi will ultimately be judged by the public when it comes to economic policy.

The public is increasingly concerned about rising inflation and stagnant wages leading to falling living standards.

A vivid illustration of this: the price of rice has doubled since 2024, hitting a new high last month. Public anger over rising rice prices even brought down the farm minister last year.

Inflation has been above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for 45 straight months. And though nominal wages have recently picked up, real incomes have been decreasing for the last four years.

Takaichi has made tackling the cost of living a priority. She has vowed to suspend Japan’s 8% food tax for two years. And last year, her government announced a massive US$135 billion (A$192 billion) stimulus package, including subsidies for electricity and gas bills.

However, these policies will increase the government’s budget deficit, adding to the country’s already sky-high public debt levels.

And last month, Japanese government bond prices collapsed after Takaichi called the election, with the markets predicting a LDP win would result in looser fiscal policy and higher government debt.

The Bank of Japan is unlikely to intervene to support the bond market in any future crisis, which will leave the government with higher borrowing costs, further increasing public debt.

Japan also faces enormous challenges related to its shrinking population and workforce.

It is too early to know whether Takaichi has the answers to these challenges. But she now has the power, authority and freedom to boldly pursue her policy agenda. Now she will need to deliver the kind of change the electorate expects.

Adam Simpson 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. Japan’s rock star leader now has the political backing to push a bold agenda. Will she deliver? – https://theconversation.com/japans-rock-star-leader-now-has-the-political-backing-to-push-a-bold-agenda-will-she-deliver-274015

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Rebecca Van Amber, Senior Lecturer in Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University

There’s a peculiar ritual in many kitchens: reaching past the crisp, pristine tea towel hanging on the oven door to grab the threadbare, slightly greying one shoved in the drawer.

We all know that old faithful dries dishes better, even if we can’t quite explain why. It seems counter-intuitive – shouldn’t brand new towels, fresh from the packaging, outperform their worn-out predecessors?

Yet here we are, instinctively choosing the frayed over the fresh.

This isn’t just kitchen superstition. There’s genuine science behind why your tea towels actually improve with age, and understanding it might change how you think about all your household textiles.

The science of soaking it up

Tea towels are typically made from cotton or linen fibres, chosen specifically because these natural cellulose fibres are inherently hygroscopic, or water-loving.

But fibre type alone doesn’t determine how well your towel performs. A textile’s absorption is the result of a complex interplay between fibre, yarn, fabric structure, and any finishes applied during manufacturing.

Textiles absorb and hold water in two key places: within the fibre structure itself, and in the spaces between fibres and yarns. This is why fabric structure matters so much.

Think about bath towels – when was the last time you used a smooth, thin one? Bath towels are typically thick terry pile construction with lots of small loops on the surface. These loops dramatically increase surface area, allowing water to be easily wicked into the fabric.

Tea towels come in various constructions: plain weave, twill weave, waffle cloth, or terry. Plain weave towels – the kind you see with printed designs – require a smooth surface for clean, crisp screen printing.

Waffle cloth, which looks exactly as its name suggests, has a three-dimensional texture that makes it incredibly effective. Like with terry towels, this structure increases surface area and enhances water absorption.

Why old beats new

So what makes your battered old tea towel superior to its pristine replacement? Three key factors are at play.

Silicone finishes. Many brand-new textiles arrive coated in silicone softeners that provide softness and wrinkle resistance, making them appealing on store shelves.

But here’s the catch: these same finishes are often water resistant. Your brand new tea towel may literally have a water-repellent coating. The fix is simple – always wash new tea towels in hot water before first use.

The impact of laundering. Fabrics undergo significant changes during their first several washes – typically up to six cycles. During manufacturing, whether knitted or woven, fabrics are held under tension. Washing causes the yarns to relax in what’s called “relaxation shrinkage”, reverting to their natural, tension-free state. Industry typically tolerates up to 5% shrinkage.

Here’s where it gets interesting: while your tea towel’s dimensions may shrink slightly, its mass stays the same, meaning the fabric becomes thicker and denser. In waffle weave towels, this shrinkage can make the three-dimensional texture more pronounced, increasing surface geometry and absorption. This phenomenon has been documented in terry bath towels, as well.

Fabric ageing. Repeated washing and drying causes minor surface damage that actually improves performance. Small fibres gradually raise up from the fabric surface, creating a fluffier, “hairier” texture.

Really smooth tea towels aren’t very absorbent because water struggles to wet the surface – it can almost bead up due to the contact angle between water and the smooth fabric.

But as washing raises more fibres off the surface making a “rougher” textile, the contact angle decreases, making the fabric easier to wet. Waffle fabrics, with their irregular surfaces, are inherently more absorbent from the start due to favourable contact angles.

In short: washing leads to more surface texture, leading to better absorption.

Not just tea towels

The real revelation here isn’t just about tea towels – it’s about how we think about textiles in general.

That “worn in” feeling we associate with our favourite bath towels, tea towels and even bed linens isn’t just nostalgia. Many of our home textiles are genuinely performing better after repeated laundering, having shed their factory finishes and relaxed into their true structure.

So before you send your old tea towels off for recycling to replace with new ones, remember: those frayed edges and faded patterns represent months of your towel becoming exactly what it was meant to be.

And when you do buy new household textiles, wash them at least once before using to remove any residual finishes.

Rebecca Van Amber is a chartered member of The Textile Institute.

– ref. Why are new tea towels worse at drying dishes than older ones? – https://theconversation.com/why-are-new-tea-towels-worse-at-drying-dishes-than-older-ones-271852

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Larissa Hjorth, Professor of Mobile Media and Games., RMIT University

The recent murders of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good are drawing renewed attention to the activities of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

While they are not the only people to have been killed by ICE agents, first-hand videos of the events of their death have made us all witness to the extreme violence being carried out in the US.

Multiple versions of the footage went viral globally, capturing the world’s palpable sense of injustice. These videos demonstrate how mobile media is transforming each of us into a new kind of witness to suffering.

We need to find new ways to process such collective trauma and channel it toward meaningful action.

Why some deaths grip the world

Every day, we are exposed to loss, grief and death through our mobile phones. The distance between the participant and the observer – between the mourner and the witness – collapses. This is what scholars call “affective witnessing”. The rise of social media, body cam technology and surveillance media have all driven this phenomenon.

As we watch viral footage of tragic events, the boundaries between the emotions of the recording witness and our own merge. We feel their grief in our bodies, and become witnesses by extension.

All witnessing is “affective” – meaning it stays in our bodies, hearts and minds. But there is a particular intensity that comes with mobile media witnessing, since our phones live in our pockets, in an especially intimate space we can’t always distance ourselves from.

Cultural studies scholar Judith Butler notes that in the case of war and violence, grief is not just personal – it’s social, cultural and political. Butler argues that when grief goes public (such as through social media), inequalities are magnified. Some losses become more visible and “grievable” than others.

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Read more:
Images from Gaza have shocked the world – but the ‘spectacle of suffering’ is a double-edged sword

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In recent years, we have increasingly witnessed through social media what death researcher Darcy Harris calls “political grief”.

Political grief encompasses the collective loss and mourning felt by communities facing systemic injustice (including non-death related). It can take the form of emotional, psychological and spiritual distress arising from certain events, policies, and ideologies.

All of the violent ICE incidents reported in the US are deeply embedded in a sense of political grief being felt across the world. They prompt the lingering question: “Is this the future of the world?”

From text messages to TikTok

From its outset, mobile media has played an important role in making political grief visible and providing systems for collective action.

From its 2G beginnings, mobile media has been used in “people power” political revolutions. For instance in 2001, text messaging was used in the Philippines to mobilise protesters to demand the removal of then president Joseph Estrada.

More recently, footage of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police had global ramifications. As cultural studies scholars Andrew Brooks and Michael Richardson note, the affected body of the Floyd witness who filmed the video represents

both the intensity of the event and the embodied experience of the witness, establishing a relation between the two.

Brooks and Richardson call this “embodied affective witnessing”, whereby the victim, the first-hand witness and their online audience all become implicated.

At the same time, mobile media can be a weapon when used by a state as a form of surveillance technology.

What do we do with what we can’t unsee?

In a space where the distance between mourner and witness is vanishing, digital “grief literacy” is needed.

Psychologist Lauren Breen and colleagues describe this as finding ways to identify and normalise respectful conversations about grief, mourning and loss that connect to hope and social change.

In the context of distressing ICE footage, this could look like

• pausing before re-sharing graphic material, and considering who might be affected
• seeking out safe spaces for processing political grief
• channelling distress into tangible real-world action, such as contacting politicians, or supporting affected families.

We also need to understand that we all grieve differently. For two years, we have been investigating how everyday Australians explore grief, loss and mourning via mobile media.

Through interviews with mourners and field experts, we’ve encountered stories ranging from personal bereavement to collective non-death loss, such as ecological grief and political grief.

Many of the people we interviewed developed their own social media strategies to cope with loss on personal and collective scales.

Some chose not to share footage out of concern for their own wellbeing, respect for victims’ dignity, or due to scepticism over what positive real-world impact re-sharing would have.

Others engaged in thoughtful sharing to create spaces for understanding, hope and activism.

But sorting through these feelings shouldn’t fall entirely on individuals. Ultimately, we need better media grief literacy, and ways to hold complex public discussions that address how grief may be dealt with on both an individual and collective level.

Larissa Hjorth is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (The Mourning After: Grief, witnessing and mobile media practices, FT220100552).

This research is funded by Larissa Hjorth’s Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, The Mourning After. Katrin Gerber is a Research Fellow on this study.

– ref. How watching videos of ICE violence affects our mental health – https://theconversation.com/how-watching-videos-of-ice-violence-affects-our-mental-health-275217

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Emma Palmer, Lecturer in International Law, Griffith University

Just four months ago, Timor-Leste formally became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN).

This week, the tiny country took an unprecedented step: its judicial authorities appointed a prosecutor to examine the Myanmar military’s responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s believed to be the first time an ASEAN state has taken such an action against another member.

The case resulted from the persistence of a victims’ group, the Chin Human Rights Organisation, in pursuing justice for the Chin people, a minority group in Myanmar. In submitting the complaint, the head of the organisation expressed solidarity with Timor-Leste’s own historic efforts to secure justice and independence.

Timor-Leste authorities will now assess whether to bring charges against Myanmar’s military leaders, including junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Any prosecutions would be on the basis of “universal jurisdiction”. This is a legal principle that allows domestic courts to hear cases alleging international crimes, regardless of where the crimes occurred, or the nationality of the victims or perpetrators.

Limitations of international courts

This week, a major study of 23 conflicts around the globe said the international legal system designed to protect civilians is at a “breaking point”. Observers are also asking whether the United Nations has any future at all.

It has long been clear that international courts have limited efficacy in prosecuting cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Critics argue the International Criminal Court (ICC) has engaged in selective prosecutions, is too slow and has weak enforcement powers. In the past 20 years, the court has heard 34 cases and issued just 13 convictions.

However, proponents of the court say it has been unfairly maligned and targeted, including by the Trump administration, which imposed sanctions on it last year.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), meanwhile, can hold states accountable for crimes, but not individuals.

Both the ICC and ICJ have investigations underway on Myanmar, but they deal with crimes allegedly committed against the Rohingya minority group before the coup. The ICC case covers incidents committed partly in Bangladesh.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor asked the court’s judges to issue an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlang in November 2024. More than a year later, a decision has yet to be made.

Challenges for domestic courts

In this environment, universal jurisdiction could play a more important role. The United Nations has implicitly recognised this by establishing investigative mechanisms for Syria and Myanmar that gather evidence for future prosecutions in domestic, regional or international courts.

Many states have laws that allow them to prosecute international crimes like torture, genocide or war crimes. What is lacking are resources to fund investigations and transparent criteria or guidelines for how to undertake them.

There are other challenges once cases are underway, too. For one, domestic courts have limited reach. Arrests are difficult, as high-level officials can rely on diplomatic immunity or just avoid the countries where they believe they could face prosecution or extradition.

Prosecuting even lower-level or mid-level perpetrators can be politically awkward. Cases can be expensive and practically difficult, especially when witnesses and evidence are mostly overseas.

The scale and complex nature of these crimes can also be challenging for domestic criminal courts that have limited experience with them.

And if trials go ahead, victims can still find justice elusive, even if the cases have broader strategic or symbolic aims.

Still, there have been successes. Nearly 10 years ago, the former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, was convicted of international crimes in Senegal. The case was tried using universal jurisdiction, driven by civil society networks.

More countries need to step up

This latest initiative in Timor-Leste comes after victim groups have tried many different countries to seek justice for the people of Myanmar. This includes Argentina, where arrest warrants were issued for Myanmar’s leaders, Turkey, and Germany.

In the Asia-Pacific, lawyers have also attempted to bring cases in Indonesia and the Philippines.

While European countries are increasingly using universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes, other countries have been less keen to take these cases on. For instance, some suggest Canada and Australia could do more to investigate war crimes cases, even though they both have the laws in place to do so.

This just leaves the heavy lifting of prosecutions to others, possibly in courts with more limited resources.

With atrocities continuing to be committed around the world, it’s become more vital than ever for governments to not just back international justice with strong words, but show a real commitment to investigating them at home.

Associate Professor Emma Palmer is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Australian Discovery Early Career Award (project number DE250100597) funded by the Australian Government. The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. She is also affiliated with the Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars.

– ref. With international law at a ‘breaking point’, a tiny country goes after Myanmar’s junta on its own – https://theconversation.com/with-international-law-at-a-breaking-point-a-tiny-country-goes-after-myanmars-junta-on-its-own-275089

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Beatriz Carbajal-Carrera, Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Sydney

Bad Bunny is on a roll. Among the three wins at the 68th Grammy Awards, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (I should have taken more pictures) became the first Spanish-language record to win Album of the Year. On Sunday, Bad Bunny will be the first Latino and Spanish speaking artist to perform as solo headliner at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and raised in Borinquen (the Taíno-language name for Puerto Rico), Bad Bunny’s life and music has been marked by political, social and economic crises affecting the archipelago: government corruption, failing infrastructure and debt.

Bad Bunny has used his voice to protest in both his music and public statements against national crises and the ongoing effects of colonialism, while celebrating Latinx and Puerto Rican identities.

Bad Bunny started posting songs on SoundCloud in 2016. In 2018, he released his first album, X 100PRE. Sung in Spanish, the album reached number 11 on the Billboard charts.

His third album, 2020’s El último tour del mundo (The Last World Tour), became the first Spanish-language album to reach number one in the Billboard charts. His fourth record, 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You) also topped this chart, this time for 13 weeks.

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS stands out against Bad Bunny’s previous albums for its focus on Puerto Rican identity and ongoing fight against colonisation. This is reflected in the album through national symbols, genres and, of course, language. Bad Bunny addresses these themes through companion videos explaining central aspects to the collective memory of Puerto Rico.

In the current climate in the United States of interventionism and mass deportations, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS has made the domestic Puerto Rican experience resonate among global audiences.

Language and genre

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory that belongs to the US, and Puerto Ricans are US citizens, but the territory is not counted as one of the country’s states. The US exerts control over the military, politics and economy of the archipelago.

Spanish plays a complex role in Puerto Rico, as a colonial language that was imposed in the archipelago. More recently, Spanish has been embraced as a resistance to English dominance.

Bad Bunny speaks Puerto Rican Spanish, which combines influences from indigenous Taíno language, African languages, Spanish and English. Studies have found Spanish speakers may consider this variety as incorrect because its characteristics are seen as distant from the Castilian Spanish norm: perceptions anchored in colonial ideologies that privilege Castilian Spanish.

Among other genres, Bad Bunny sings reggaeton, a Caribbean genre that draws on Jamaican dancehall, American hip-hop and Dominican Republic dembow.

Reggaeton is popular music with underground roots and explicit lyrics. In the 1990s, Puerto Rican reggaeton was subject to government prosecution (including confiscation, fines and negative media campaigns) due to its alleged obscenity. That did not stop its increasing popularity among young audiences in the Caribbean, and beyond.

The international popularity of reggeaton artists such as Don Omar, Daddy Yankee, Young Miko, Ozuna and Bad Bunny has changed the perception of Puerto Rican Spanish from a history of deficit views to more social prestige. In the past, the distance from the Castilian Spanish norm was considered something negative, but there is now a strong interest among students of Spanish to learn this variety.

Fluid use of language

Bad Bunny’s language does not reflect a purist vision of language with rigid boundaries. Instead, he embraces a creative use of language with fluid boundaries.

The Puerto Rican slang Bad Bunny uses on DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS features numerous Anglicisms, or words borrowed from English – a feature of Puerto Rican Spanish.

He uses unadapted borrowings – such as the words shot, pitcher, flashback, follow, blondie, glossy, brother, bestie, eyelash, underwater and movie. And he also uses hybrid realisations, compound words that combine English and Spanish components such as janguear (adapted from the English “hang out”), girla (girl), ghosteó (ghosted), stalkeándote (stalking) and kloufrens (close friends).

Bad Bunny embraces his Puerto Rican identity in the pronunciation of lyrics and in public commentary. For example, he pronounces the letter “r” as the letter “l” in songs like NUEVAYoL (New York) and VeLDÁ (Truth).

The letter “l” becomes a strong identity feature of NUEVAYoL when compared to other iconic renditions to the city, such as from Frank Sinatra.

By using his voice to celebrate characteristics of Puerto Rican Spanish previously not perceived as prestigious, Bad Bunny is contributing to the values of linguistic diversity and fighting language ideologies inherited from colonialism.

Music as defiance

The way Bad Bunny uses language has been described as an act of defiance and survival. Bad Bunny does not break down language and make it easier for listeners. Rather, listeners have to make the effort of decoding it.

Notably, the lexicographer Maia Sherwood Droz created a Spanish dictionary for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, including definitions of words, phrases and cultural references to decode the meanings in the album.

In an album loaded with references to the ongoing fight to preserve Puerto Rican identity, he evokes community symbols of “pitorro de coco” (homemade clandestine rum) to “la bandera azul clarito” (the light blue flag, referring to a 1895 Puerto Rican emblem.

When accepting an award at the Grammys, Bad Bunny said:

We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.

Bad Bunny’s acceptance speech is explicitly rejecting dehumanisation in a ceremony where, finally, music in language other than English and, importantly, in Puerto Rican Spanish, was honoured and celebrated as the best album of the year.

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Read more:
The backlash to Bad Bunny’s halftime show reveals how MAGA defines who belongs in America

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Beatriz Carbajal-Carrera 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. Who is Bad Bunny? Why the biggest music star in the world sings in Puerto Rican Spanish – https://theconversation.com/who-is-bad-bunny-why-the-biggest-music-star-in-the-world-sings-in-puerto-rican-spanish-274965