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Recent reports that the H5N1 avian flu virus has been found in cow’s milk have raised questions about whether the U.S. milk supply is safe to drink. According to the federal Food and Drug Administration, the answer is yes, as long as the milk is pasteurized.

Nonetheless, raw (unpasteurized) milk sales are up, despite health experts’ warning that raw milk could contain high levels of the virus, along with many other pathogens.

As an extension food scientist in a state where raw milk sales are legal, I provide technical support to help processors produce high-quality, safe dairy foods. I also like to help people understand the confusing world of pasteurization methods on their milk labels, and why experts strongly discourage consuming raw milk and products made from it.

What can make milk unsafe

Dairy products, like many foods, have inherent risks that can cause a variety of illnesses and even death. Our milk comes from animals that graze outdoors and live in barns. Milk is picked up from the farm in tanker trucks and delivered to the processing plant. These environments offer numerous opportunities for contamination by pathogens that cause illness and organisms that make food spoil.

For example, listeria monocytogenes comes from environmental sources like soil and water. Mild infections with listeriosis cause flu-like symptoms. More serious cases are, unfortunately, too common and can cause miscarriages in pregnant women and even death in extreme cases.

Other pathogens commonly associated with dairy animals and raw milk include E. coli, which can cause severe gastrointestinal infections and may lead to kidney damage; Campylobacter, the most common cause of diarrheal illness in the U.S.; and Salmonella, which cause abdominal pain, diarrhea and other symptoms.

Washington State University students explain the process of milking cows in their school’s herd and pasteurizing the milk at the university creamery.

Keeping beverages safe with heat

In the 1860s, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered that heating wine and beer killed the organisms that caused spoilage, which then was a significant problem in France.

This heating process, which became known as pasteurization, was adopted in the U.S. prior to World War II, at a time when milk was responsible for 25% of all U.S. outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. In 1973, the federal government required that all milk sold across state lines in the U.S. had to be pasteurized, and in 1987, it banned interstate sales of raw milk.

Pasteurization heats every particle of a food to a specific temperature for a continuous length of time in order to kill the most heat-resistant pathogen associated with that product. Different organisms have different responses to heat, so controlled scientific studies are required to determine what length of time at a given temperature will kill a specific organism.

Since 1924, pasteurization in the U.S. has been guided by the Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance, a federal guidance document that is updated every two years to reflect current science and has been adopted by all 50 states. Pasteurization equipment in the U.S. must meet stringent requirements that include sanitary design, safety controls and material standards.

A farmer unloads milk cans for processing at a cooperative creamery in East Berkshire, Vt., on Jan. 1, 1941.
Jack Delano, FSA/Library of Congress

Pasteurization methods

Dairy processors can choose among several different types of pasteurization. When executed properly, all of these methods produce the same result: pathogen-free milk. Processors may treat milk beyond minimum times or temperatures to provide an extra margin of safety, or to reduce bacteria that can cause milk to spoil, thus increasing the product’s shelf life.

Vat pasteurizers, also known as batch pasteurizers, often are used by smaller-scale processors who handle limited volumes. The milk is pumped into a temperature-controlled tank with a stirrer, heated to a minimum of 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 Celsius) and held there continuously for 30 minutes. Then it is cooled and pumped out of the vat.

The most common method used for commercial milk is high-temperature short-time pasteurization, which can treat large volumes of milk. The milk is pumped through a series of thin plates at high speed to reach a minimum temperature of 161 F (71 C). Then it travels through a holding tube for 15 seconds, and the temperature is checked automatically for safety and cooled.

The most complex and expensive systems are ultra-pasteurizers and ultra-high-temperature pasteurizers, which pasteurize milk in just a few seconds at temperatures above 285 F (140 C). This approach destroys many spoilage organisms, giving the milk a significantly longer shelf life than with other methods, although sometimes products made this way have more of a “cooked” flavor.

Ultra-high-temperature products are processed in a sterile environment and packaged in sterile packaging, such as lined cartons and pouches. They can be shelf-stable for up to a year before they are opened. Ultra-high-temperature packaging makes taking milk to school for lunch safe for kids every day.

Avian flu in milk

The detection of avian flu virus fragments in milk is a new challenge for the dairy industry. Scientists do not have a full picture of the risks to humans but are learning.

Health experts are warning against consuming raw milk during the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.

Research so far has shown that virus particles end up in the milk of infected cows, but that pasteurization will inactivate the virus. However, the FDA is advising consumers not to drink raw milk because there is limited information about whether it may transmit avian flu.

The agency also is urging producers not to manufacture or sell raw milk or raw milk products, including cheese, made with milk from cows showing symptoms of illness.

It’s never a good time to get a foodborne illness, and this is the beginning of ice cream season. At a time when avian flu is showing up in new species and scientists are still learning about how it is transmitted, I agree with the FDA that raw milk poses risks not worth taking. Läs mer…

In June 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted: “Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.”

Fast-forward five years to May 2024, and President Biden has announced a hike in tariffs on a variety of Chinese imports, including a 100% tariff that would significantly increase the price of Chinese-made electric vehicles.

For a nation committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, efforts by the U.S. to block low-cost EVs might seem counterproductive. At a price of around US$12,000, Chinese automaker BYD’s Seagull electric car could quickly expand EV sales if it landed at that price in the U.S., where the cheapest new electric cars cost nearly three times more.

As an expert in global supply chains, however, I believe the Biden tariffs can succeed in giving the U.S. EV industry room to grow. Without the tariffs, U.S. auto sales risk being undercut by Chinese companies, which have much lower production costs due to their manufacturing methods, looser environmental and safety standards, cheaper labor and more generous government EV subsidies.

Tariffs have a troubled history

The U.S. has a long history of tariffs that have failed to achieve their economic goals.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was meant to protect American jobs by raising tariffs on imported goods. But it backfired by prompting other countries to raise their tariffs, which led to a drop in international trade and deepened the Great Depression.

President Joe Biden talks about tariffs at the United Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh on April 17, 2024.
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

President George W. Bush’s 2002 steel tariffs also led to higher steel prices, which hurt industries that use steel and cost American manufacturing an estimated 200,000 jobs. The tariffs were lifted after the World Trade Organization ruled against them.

The Obama administration’s tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels in 2012 blocked direct imports but failed to foster a domestic solar panel industry. Today, the U.S. relies heavily on imports from companies operating in Southeast Asia – primarily Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Many of those companies are linked to China.

Why EV tariffs are different this time

Biden’s EV tariffs, however, might defy historical precedent and succeed where the solar tariff failed, for a few key reasons:

1. Timing matters.

When Obama imposed tariffs on solar panels in 2012, nearly half of U.S. installations were already using Chinese-manufactured panels. In contrast, Chinese-made EVs, including models sold in the U.S. by Volvo and Polestar, have negligible U.S. market shares.

Because the U.S. market is not dependent on Chinese-made EVs, the tariffs can be implemented without significant disruption or price increases, giving the domestic industry time to grow and compete more effectively.

By imposing tariffs early, the Biden administration hopes to prevent the U.S. market from becoming saturated with low-price Chinese EVs, which could undercut domestic manufacturers and stifle innovation.

2. Global supply chains are not the same today.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, such as the risk of disruptions in the availability of critical components and delays in production and shipping. These issues prompted many countries, including the U.S., to reevaluate their dependence on foreign manufacturers for critical goods and to shift toward reshoring – bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. – and strengthening domestic supply chains.

The war in Ukraine has further intensified the separation between U.S.-led and China-led economic orders, a phenomenon I call the “Supply Chain Iron Curtain.”

In a recent McKinsey survey, 67% of executives cited geopolitical risk as the greatest threat to global growth. In this context, EVs and their components, particularly batteries, are key products identified in Biden’s supply chain reviews as critical to the nation’s supply chain resilience.

Ensuring a stable and secure supply of these components through domestic manufacturing can mitigate the risks associated with global supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions.

3. National security concerns are higher.

Unlike solar panels, EVs have direct national security implications. The Biden administration considers Chinese-made EVs a potential cybersecurity threat due to the possibility of embedded software that could be used for surveillance or cyberattacks.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has discussed espionage risks involving the potential for foreign-made EVs to collect sensitive data and transmit it outside the U.S. Officials have raised concerns about the resilience of an EV supply chain dependent on other countries in the event of a geopolitical conflict.

BYD targets EV sales in Mexico

While Biden’s EV tariffs might succeed in keeping Chinese competition out for a while, Chinese EV manufacturers could try to circumvent the tariffs by moving production to countries such as Mexico.

This scenario is similar to past tactics used by Chinese solar panel manufacturers, which relocated production to other Asian countries to avoid U.S. tariffs.

Chinese automaker BYD, the world leader in EV sales, is already exploring establishing a factory in Mexico to produce its new electric truck. Nearly 10% of cars sold in Mexico in 2023 were produced by Chinese automakers.

Visitors check out a BYD ATTO 3 at the Munich auto show in 2023.
AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

Given the changing geopolitical reality, Biden’s 100% EV tariffs are likely the beginning of a broader strategy rather than an isolated measure. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai hinted at this during a recent press conference, stating that addressing vehicles made in Mexico would require “a separate pathway” and to “stay tuned” for future actions.

Is Europe next?

For now, given the near absence of Chinese-made EVs in the U.S. auto market, Biden’s EV tariffs are unlikely to have a noticeable short-term impact in the U.S. They could, however, affect decisions in Europe.

The European Union saw Chinese EV imports more than double over a seven-month period in 2023, undercutting European vehicles by offering lower prices. Manufacturers are concerned. When finance ministers from the Group of Seven advanced democracies meet in late May, tariffs will be on the agenda.

Biden’s move might encourage similar protective actions elsewhere, reinforcing the global shift toward securing supply chains and promoting domestic manufacturing. Läs mer…

The world’s largest election is currently under way in India, with more than 960 million people registered to vote over a period of six weeks. Spearheading the campaign for his Bharatiya Janata Party, incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spending that time crisscrossing the country, delivering a message he hopes will result in a landslide victory for the Hindu nationalist party.

He is a popular figure but also a divisive one. Modi’s speeches are drawing heat for their anti-Muslim rhetoric. At a campaign rally on April 21, 2024, he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators.”

He later doubled down on these remarks, suggesting that if India’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, came to power, the wealth of Hindus would be snatched and given to communities that “have too many children,” a seemingly lightly veiled reference to Indian Muslims.

Such language represents a fear that Modi and the BJP have stoked many times before: that Muslims will become a numerical threat to India’s Hindu-majority population.

Modi has since claimed that he did not explicitly target Muslims in his speech, but his words – widely recorded and disseminated – have certainly been taken that way.

To some onlookers, the rhetoric is an indication that not all is well in the BJP campaign as it seeks to secure a two-thirds supermajority in Parliament. By appealing to the party’s Hindu base, the argument goes, Modi is trying to counter voter apathy in the face of high youth unemployment and rising economic inequality.

As a historian of public health in India, I believe it is important to shed light on the specific origins of anti-Muslim rhetoric and how it fits long-standing fears of Muslim population growth and the erosion of the Hindu majority in India.

Fears of a Muslim takeover

Demographic fears in India are tied to political and administrative representation and have been since the days of British colonialism.

In 1919, the British granted Indians limited franchise; Indian legislators were allowed to create policy in certain fields, such as health care and education, but not on law and order.

After the 1931 census, Indian leaders – mostly Hindus, but also some Muslims – and British officials began to express concern about the seemingly rapid rate of population growth in India, which at the time was increasing by over 1% annually.

These leaders, in common with similar efforts around the globe, began to push new birth control methods toward Indian women.

But to successfully induce large numbers of women to embrace family planning practices, colonial officials and Indian administrators had to contend with the fact that Indians of all religions were suspicious of birth control propaganda.

These suspicions stemmed from cultural practices shared by both Hindu and Muslim communities that informed women’s status in society, including child marriage, the seclusion of women and polygamy.

Policies that tried to interfere with the traditional lives of Indian women, including birth control, were widely considered harmful instances of colonial control.

Role of British colonizers

While the British used these cultural practices and suspicions to suggest that all Indians were responsible for rapid population growth and associated poverty and hunger, Hindu nationalist groups created a different narrative. These fringe groups, which emerged as a political force in the 1930s, popularized the idea that practices encouraging population growth were particularly prevalent among the Muslim population.

At the same time, there were growing tensions between the Indian National Congress party and the Muslim League, which was founded in 1906 but began to demand a separate homeland for Indian Muslims in the late 1930s.

Divisions existed in Indian society prior to British rule. By classifying Indians into categories based on caste and religion, however, British colonial rulers made these identities and divisions more rigid, pitting various communities against one another.

Communal tensions allowed the British to uphold the idea that without the control and surveillance of colonial rule, Indians were incapable of self-government and liberal democracy.

Though the British left the new nation-states of India and Pakistan in 1947, increasing Hindu-Muslim tensions after partition continued to inform family planning propaganda in independent India.

Hindu nationalists had expected the creation of a single nation with Hindu majority rule. As such, they saw the creation of Pakistan – a homeland and nation-state for South Asian Muslims – as a massive failure of the Indian freedom movement and a loss for India.

Additionally, post-partition leadership and administrators in India were for the most part drawn from Hindu men and some women, since the majority of educated and elite Muslim classes ended up in Pakistan.

As a result, colonial-era perceptions of Muslims continued to inform the way Indian policymakers and administrators created and implemented health care and education policy. In particular, preexisting perceptions of Muslim hyperfertility in Indian policymakers’ minds became more deeply entrenched with partition.

Population control programs

As India launched its first major population control program in 1951, administrators at all levels of governance assumed that uptake of birth control would be lower in Muslim communities than Hindu communities.

In actuality, the factors that influenced the rate of uptake of IUDs, oral contraceptives and tubectomies in postindependence India were governed more by geography – whether women lived in rural or urban areas, and were from the country’s north or south – and class status.

Since 1951, population control has been one of the major goals of Indian policymaking as part of a program to reduce poverty and improve public health. But the continued assumption that Indian Muslims are unwilling to participate in population control practices has led to the public perception of Islam as “superstitious” or “backward.”

Research has shown that Indian Muslim communities across the nation have felt the effects of this stereotyping, especially in northern India. Muslims reported being disproportionately targeted by population control initiatives. These concerns among the Muslim community intensified with the aggressive forced sterilization program carried out by the Indian state under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.

Using religion for politics

Modi’s party, the BJP, was formed in 1980 but failed to win significant elections until the 1990s.

Several people on top of the 16th century Babri Mosque five hours before the structure was completely demolished in December 1992.
Douglas E. Curran/AFP via Getty Images

The main focus of their organizing in the 1980s and 1990s was to demand the demolition of a mosque commissioned by Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya, traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama.

In tandem with this campaign, the BJP promoted fears of Muslim demographic dominance in India, tying demands for “taking back” the land on which the Babri Masjid was built with fears of a Muslim majority.

But such fears are unfounded. Despite the Muslim minority growing from 11% in the mid-1980s to 14% today, their representation in Parliament has actually declined, from 9% in the mid-1980s to 5% today.

Since the BJP came to power in India in 2014, party leaders have relied on the historic fears of imagined Muslim population growth to help them win successive elections at the state and national level and pass legislation such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, which discriminates against Muslims. BJP leaders have accused Muslim men of forcibly converting Hindu women to Islam through “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory that Muslim men deceptively seduce Hindu women to increase their demographic strength.

Modi’s latest statement referring to “those who have too many children” is the latest iteration of a long history of Hindu demographic fears – and has proven to be a lasting one. Läs mer…

Bat populations in Colorado may be headed for a decline that could cause ecological disruptions across the state.

Two bats discovered in Boulder County in late February 2024 were confirmed to have white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease. Additional bats in Larimer County also tested positive for white-nose syndrome early this spring.

The first North American bats with white fungus on their faces, ears and wings were discovered in 2006 in caves where they hibernated near Albany, New York. The fungus causes bats to lose nutrients and moisture through their skin and to wake early from hibernation in search of food and water.

The disease spread west quickly, reaching Washington state in 2015 and California four years later. It was confirmed in Montana and New Mexico by 2021. Evidence of the fungus was first reported in Colorado in the summer of 2022.

I’m a bat biologist, and most of my research has focused on the genetics of Myotis bats. Knowing which bat populations are genetically unique and where they’re found will help researchers understand how white-nose syndrome will affect them and how it moves among geographic areas.

What is white-nose syndrome?

White-nose syndrome is the result of infection by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans.

Most fungi thrive in warm, moist conditions, but Pseudogymnoascus destructans is a “cold-loving” fungus. This trait makes it well adapted to grow on bats when their body temperatures are lowered during hibernation and their immune systems are suppressed.

Bats infected with Pseudogymnoascus destructans lose nutrients and fat reserves critical to surviving winter hibernation as the fungus grows into their skin. One of the earliest signs of white-nose syndrome is when bats awake early from hibernation in search of food. The fungus also affects other metabolic factors, such as electrolyte levels.

After the discovery of Pseudogymnoascus destructans in North America, scientists searched for the fungus around the globe and found it in European and Asian caves, where they believe it is native. Bats in those areas don’t seem to be negatively affected by the fungus, likely because they co-evolved with the fungus and developed some immunity.

Pseudogymnoascus destructans was probably brought to the U.S. by travelers who explored caves in Europe and returned with contaminated equipment.

Myotis species could face declines

Among the species most affected by white-nose syndrome are members of the diverse group of Myotis bats that I study. The majority of North American Myotis bats are found in Western states, including Colorado.

Sixteen of North America’s 45 bat species are Myotis bats. Of those 16, 11 live only in Western North America and seven live in Colorado.

All of those Myotis bats could face massive population declines if exposed to white-nose syndrome.

Some North American bat species have lost more than 90% of their population to white-nose syndrome since 2006, including two found in Colorado:

Little brown bats, Myotis lucifugus, which are being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for listing as endangered but are not listed yet.
Tricolored bats, Perimyotis subflavus, which are proposed as endangered, a status which indicates that the species is in danger of extinction and is awaiting a final determination to be on the endangered species list.

Colorado testing for white-nose syndrome

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been testing for Pseudogymnoascus destructans since 2019.

In the summer of 2022, 25 bats at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in Otero County were tested. Only one, a Yuma bat (Myotis yumanensis) was positive for the fungus, though it showed no signs of disease.

A year later, in July 2023, a second Yuma bat at Bent’s Old Fort had signs of the fungus on its wings and was euthanized by the National Park Service. It was the first bat in Colorado confirmed with the disease.

A long-eared bat in Illinois is swabbed to test for white-nose syndrome.
Steve Taylor/University of Illinois/U.S. Fish and Wildlife, CC BY

Preventing further spread

Since the disease is highly infectious in Eastern bats, finding even one Colorado bat with white-nose syndrome rings alarm bells. But biologists know little about population structure, hibernation sites and hibernation behaviors of most Western Myotis species. This is a major barrier to understanding the potential impact of white-nose syndrome on bats in Colorado.

Researchers think Western Myotis bats might hibernate at smaller sites, unlike many Eastern bats that hibernate in large mines and dams. This behavior might mitigate the impact of the disease in the West, since groups that hibernate together may be smaller, resulting in limited opportunities for disease spread.

Researchers also lack information on the genetic structure of Western populations of Myotis bats, which is a critically important aspect of management and conservation strategies.

Genetic research I published with a group of colleagues shows strong evidence that biologists are underestimating the number of Western Myotis species because of a phenomenon called “cryptic,” or hidden, species. This research suggests there are Myotis bats that are similar in size and shape but genetically different. Since most species are identified by morphological characteristics, the number of species recognized by science is likely too low.

For instance, little brown bats are currently considered a single species, though research has found five independent lineages within this species.

The cryptic species most affected by white-nose syndrome in the East is Myotis lucifugus lucifugus.

Two of these cryptic species – M. l. lucifugus and M. l. carissima – live along the Front Range in Wyoming and Colorado, so it is possible that bat-to-bat contact between them is happening there and spreading the disease.

Researchers administer the white-nose syndrome vaccine to a bat during a field trial.
Public Domain

What’s next for bats in Colorado?

Biologist John Demboski at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and I are teaming up to analyze genetic samples from across Colorado. We will analyze tissues from sick bats in Boulder and Larimer counties along with a large genetic dataset of Myotis bats from across the state.

The results of our DNA analyses will help predict how white-nose syndrome may spread through Colorado bat populations and where to target efforts to protect them. Specifically, the results will clarify where the two cryptic species occur in the state and, therefore, where disease transmission could be occurring.

A few promising developments:

The U.S. Geological Survey recently developed a vaccine against white-nose syndrome and is currently assessing its efficacy. Its promise is currently limited, however, because using the vaccine requires all bats to be captured and given an oral dose of the medication, a nearly impossible task for wild-ranging, nocturnal animal populations.

Some preliminary studies on Eastern populations of little brown bats suggest that they may be building a resistance to the fungus. A small number survive.

Even if bats do recover, rebuilding populations will take a long time. Most female bats produce just one offspring per year over their life spans, which can range from 10 to more than 30 years. And most bat populations face other threats to survival, such as habitat destruction, threats to prey populations and persecution. Läs mer…

The journalism industry has been under immense economic pressure over the past two decades, so it makes sense that journalists have started experimenting with generative AI to boost their productivity.

An Associated Press survey published in April 2024 asked journalists about the use of generative artificial intelligence in their work. Nearly 70% of those who responded said they had used these tools to generate text, whether it was composing article drafts, crafting headlines or writing social media posts.

A May 2024 global survey conducted by the public relations firm Cision found the slice to be somewhat smaller – 47% of journalists said they’d used generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard in their work.

But does the adoption of the technology pose any moral questions? After all, this is a business where professional ethics and public trust are especially important – so much so that there are fields of study devoted to it.

Over the past few years, my colleagues and I at UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center have been researching the ethics of AI.

I think that if journalists are not careful about its deployment, the use of generative AI could undermine the integrity of their work.

How much time is really saved?

Let’s start with an obvious concern: AI tools are still unreliable.

Using them to research background for a story will often result in confident-sounding nonsense. During a 2023 demo, Google’s chatbot, Bard, famously spit out the wrong answer to a question about new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope.

It’s easy to imagine a journalist using the technology for background, only to end up with false information.

Therefore, journalists who use these tools for research will need to fact-check the outputs. The time spent doing that may offset any purported gains in productivity.

But to me, the more interesting questions have to do with using the technology to generate content. A reporter may have a good sense of what they want to compose, so they will ask an AI model to produce a first draft.

This may be efficient, but it also turns reporters from writers into editors, thus fundamentally altering the nature of what they do.

Plus, there’s something to be said for struggling to write a first draft from scratch and figuring out, along the way, whether the original idea that inspired it has merit. That’s what I am doing right now as I write this piece. And I’m sad to report that I discarded quite a few of the original arguments I wanted to make, because as I tried to articulate them, I realized that they didn’t work.

In journalism, as in art, generative AI emphasizes – indeed fetishizes – the moment in which an idea is conceived. It focuses on the original creative thought and relegates the tedious process of turning that thought into a finished product – whether it’s through outlining, writing or drawing – to a machine.

But the process of writing out a story is inseparable from the ideas that give rise to it. Ideas change and take shape as they are written out. They are not preexisting entities patiently floating around, perfectly formed, simply waiting to be translated into words and sentences.

AI’s undermining of a special relationship

To be fair, only a portion of the journalists in both surveys were using generative AI to compose drafts of articles. Instead, they were using these tools to accomplish other tasks, such as writing newsletters, translating text, coming up with headlines or crafting social media posts.

Once journalists see that the AI is quite talented at writing – and it is getting better and better at it – how many of them will resist the temptation?

The fundamental question here is whether journalism involves anything more than simply conveying information to the public.

Does journalism also entail a kind of relationship between writers and their readers?

I think it does.

When a reader regularly follows the analysis of someone writing about the Middle East or about Silicon Valley, it is because they trust that writer, because they like that writer’s voice, because they have come to appreciate that writer’s thought process.

Now if journalism involves that kind of relationship, does the use of AI undermine it? Would I want to read journalism created by what amounts to an anonymized aggregation of the internet any more than I would want to read a novel created by an AI or listen to music composed by one?

Or, stated differently, if I read a piece of journalism or a novel or listened to a musical piece, which I thought was created by a human being, only to find out that it was largely generated by an AI, wouldn’t my appreciation or trust of the piece change?

If the practice of journalism is based on having this kind of relationship with the public, the increased use of AI may well undermine the integrity of the practice, particularly at a time when the industry is already dealing with trust issues.

Being a journalist is a noble calling that, at its best, helps sustain democratic institutions. I assume that this nobility still matters to journalists. But most readers probably would not trust AI to uphold the social role that journalism plays.

AI does not care that “democracy dies in darkness”; it does not care about speaking truth to power.

Yes, those are cliches. But they are also widely held precepts that sustain the trade. Journalists neglect them at their peril. Läs mer…

The 2024 commencement season has been one of the most contentious in recent memory. Amid pro-Palestinian protests at campuses nationwide over the war in the Gaza Strip, some universities – such as Columbia University and the University of Southern California – have canceled their commencement ceremonies. Others, such as Duke University, have drawn sharp rebukes and condemnations from students due to their university’s choice of a commencement speaker. Still others, such as Xavier University of Louisiana, have rescinded invitations to commencement speakers deemed too controversial.

To gain insight into the challenges that colleges face in choosing a commencement speaker, The Conversation reached out to Walter M. Kimbrough, a longtime college president who currently holds an executive appointment at University of Southern California. His thoughts are reflected in the following Q&A.

How are commencement speakers typically selected?

There are a range of ways schools select commencement speakers. For some campuses there is a university-wide committee which will make a selection for the president to approve. Some campuses survey students to get recommendations for the speaker. On many campuses the president – and maybe a group of advisers – will select the speaker. In all cases, the president will have some say in the selection.

Who gets to have the most say, and why?

Ultimately the president will have the final say in the selection, especially if a
speaker has the potential to be controversial. If there is an issue with what a speaker says or does, the president will ultimately have to answer for the selection.

What are the most important characteristics or qualities to consider?

There are a range of philosophies that inform commencement speaker selection. Some institutions use it as an opportunity to highlight successful alumni, generally with the hopes of that alumnus becoming a major donor to the institution.

Politicians, both local and national, are often selected as speakers. Many see this as a goodwill gesture for a politician that represents the institution and who might have influence in helping the institution acquire resources.

Institutions with significant budgets for commencement, or great contacts, will select a celebrity for commencement. The theory there is that commencement is the largest branding event for a college or university each year. A celebrity boosts visibility with the potential for national media coverage, both print and digital. It is always a coup for an institution’s speaker to be part of the annual NBC Nightly News graduation recap.

The author, then-Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough, stands alongside the school’s 2015 commencement speaker, actor Denzel Washington.
Josh Brasted via Getty Images

What makes a commencement speech successful?

I believe commencement should be fun. A speaker that can connect with the audience, or one that brings excitement, leads to a successful speech. This is done most easily with a very popular commencement speaker. For example, while president of Dillard University – a small, historically Black, private liberal arts college located in New Orleans – we were able to host celebrities such as Michelle Obama, Denzel Washington, Janelle Monae, Chance the Rapper, Regina Hall and Michael Ealy.

From the time of the announcement until the speaker’s actual appearance, not only the graduates but their families and the broader community become more excited about the event. The actual speech should be short, no more than 15 minutes, because their presence alone makes graduates feel extra special on this day.

Why do so many commencement speaker selections backfire?

Most commencement speeches go off without any issues, generally because the speaker is someone unknown to the audience and there is little interest in their message. Campuses generally select someone who will be safe and noncontroversial.

When there is a backfire, it is generally because the speaker says something that appears to be out of character or not consistent with previous comments. In recent years, with a contentious political climate, politicians and other government officials pose a greater risk for commencement.

This might look like the recent actions of Virginia Commonwealth University graduates who walked out on state Governor Glenn Youngkin as he gave the commencement speech, or a more contentious protest like the one at Bethune-Cookman University when former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was the speaker. Not only did some students walk out, others turned their backs on her, and many in the audience booed her throughout the presentation. When the then-president intervened and threatened to mail students their diplomas, he too was booed.

And sometimes what normally is a good idea happens at the wrong time. Morehouse College requested President Joe Biden as their 2024 commencement speaker early last fall. Then Oct. 7 changed everything, leading to months of protests on college campuses as Israel has maintained its attack on Hamas, with tens of thousands of Palestinians being wounded or killed. While Biden would not have been the most exciting speaker for the students, as there are some concerns about promises made to Black communities being left unfulfilled, the event would have probably been controversy-free. That’s how it was when Biden spoke at Howard University in 2023 or in 2021 at South Carolina State University.

Push the envelope or play it safe?

Today, more presidents are risk-averse due to the political climate and the myriad stressors they currently face. Creating a potential conflict with a risky graduation speaker, for most, is not worth it. So they play it safe, and boring.

As a college president, I always tried to find people we have never heard before on that kind of platform. That is a risk, but every time, the audience was pleasantly surprised. When we hosted actor Michael Ealy, he gave one of the most thought-provoking commencements addresses we had ever had, causing many faculty members to remark that he may have been the best during my tenure – including Denzel Washington’s speech, which went viral.

Actor Michael Ealy delivers the commencement address at Dillard University in 2021.

For me, it isn’t so much about playing it safe. Commencement is a celebration and should be fun. A fun and exciting commencement speaker is an important part of that equation.

Is an unpopular pick necessarily the wrong pick?

There is always a chance an unpopular pick for commencement speaker delivers a pleasant surprise. So that isn’t necessarily the wrong pick. But someone involved in current or past controversies will always be the wrong pick and will increase chances of criticism of the institution and dampening the mood for the occasion. Knowing a speaker may lead students to walk out or cause protests means you might have the wrong pick for that time. Läs mer…

After Colorado State University beat Virginia in the first round of March Madness, the campus erupted in celebration. A few days later, when the team lost to Texas, Rams groaned in shared disappointment. Between and around these moments of shared joy and agony, CSU – like other universities experiencing the inevitable ups and downs of sports – came closer together as a community.

Research shows that sports have this unique power, a way of bridging divides and uniting people, both on teams and among spectators, through a collective experience that can remove feelings of marginalization and exclusion.

Now, as the nation deals with a highly divisive election season, sports – so central to American culture and society – can offer critical lessons that I believe can fortify the pillars of democracy that elections embody. Student athletes are reminders of the value of practice, the strength that comes from focusing on differing roles, and the heights that can be reached when groups embrace the same goal. These are lessons I’ve absorbed as president of CSU.

Practicing skills for life

Universities are distinctive communities with structures, policies, procedures and outlets all oriented in pursuit of educating students to understand their world. Sometimes these mechanisms function quietly and efficiently, and campuses glide forward in the pursuit of knowledge with the grace of a star player leading a championship run. More often, there are stumbles and setbacks in building a path forward and finding common ground.

On occasion, disagreements escape the confines of campus, informing and becoming part of the national conversation – or the national conversation is brought to campus. The U.S. is experiencing this now in the wave of protests on campuses across the country. The ideal scenario remains a conversation guided by a shared commitment to building understanding and producing new knowledge. Disagreement is a central part of that. Research shows that we learn best by listening to and constructively engaging with those who have different viewpoints. Yet, the reality of diverse viewpoints is that consensus may at times be impossible no matter how long we debate.

That competition of ideas is the engine of progress. Research shows that this is where knowledge and new approaches come from. That is where we can find, if not cooperation or conciliation, at least points of agreement and connection. Today’s universities, full of young adults and bright minds, can play that role and offer these opportunities for practice.

Colleges are often where students vote for the first time. They run for office – whether for student body president or to be an officer in the ski club. Students learn to influence institutions of power, perhaps by serving on an advisory panel that makes recommendations to a dean, provost or president, or by participating in a campus demonstration or protest. They are exposed to people from vastly different backgrounds with diverse viewpoints. At the majority of institutions, faculty, staff and student leaders are elected by peers to representative bodies that make decisions, shape policies and take ownership in systems of shared governance.

Coming together as a team

Too often, we may not see those with whom we disagree, even if the disagreement is minor, as compatriots with the same wishes for their team, the country and their own lives. They can be seen as enemies to be defeated.

In political debates, each side can be the victim in its own narrative and the other side an oppressor who must be forced to see the error of their ways. Former President Ronald Reagan said leaders are those who recognize that “the person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a friend and ally – not a 20% traitor.” That cannot happen if future leaders are incapable of seeing those who disagree with them as being members of the same team, or at least fans with the same interest in supporting democracy.

Fandom, like politics, can have an ugly side. Sometimes there is bad behavior from individuals and groups to demonize players, coaches or referees, attacking them personally for something that happens during a game. Competing teams – and their fans – can attack each other.

Still, athletics can serve as a bridge builder. When audiences gather to watch their college teams compete, politics rarely matter. Even class and race lose their potency. A common goal of victory supersedes other considerations. In those moments, people have a shared identity.

Pursuing a vision

There is a carryover effect. The day after a big win, the campus is in a better mood. After a tough loss, the disappointment is shared. In either case, students have a new layer of common experience as fans. I am convinced that this connection can give students extra capacity to listen to one another. They can see classmates as teammates, even if they’re on the opposite side of a political issue. They can see common humanity.

Still, collegiate athletics are a testament that natural talent goes only so far. Student athletes demonstrate that groups are better when they set aside personal differences and join together for a common goal.

This is true in a democracy as well, where civic engagement is critical to success. In both spheres, it takes dedication, commitment, courage and resilience to stay focused on goals and shift strategies and tactics.

Recently, Robert Putnam, the Malkin research professor of public policy at Harvard University, visited CSU to lecture on the state of democracy. When I asked him to advise students on how they can strengthen democracy, he emphasized the value of cooperative activities – including sports – for students to build social capital and develop connections with different kinds of people.

At CSU, when the basketball season did, at last, come to an end, the next thought was how to do better next year. Complacency is not an option – each season, each competition, is about effort and the pursuit of excellence. For spectators, this can make for a glorious ride.

Of course, democracy isn’t, and can’t be, a spectator sport. As in sports, the truth is that we benefit from having an opponent willing to play hard and within the rules. In this way, rivals are actually partners, and groups interact with each other out of a shared love of the game. Läs mer…

A vote on ending prosecutions for abortion appears to have been delayed again. MPs have been expecting to vote on this issue via an amendment to the criminal justice bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

The change – tabled by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson and supported by a cross-party group – would remove the possibility of women being prosecuted for illegal abortion. The amendment is one of many attached to the criminal justice bill, but selection and debate of amendments has been repeatedly delayed.

It may come as a surprise that such a change is necessary in Britain, especially after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019, and France has now made it a constitutional right.

The British laws that make abortion a crime are very old, and historically have been very rarely used to prosecute women. But now, apparently due to the increased awareness of the possibility of ending a pregnancy using pills, these laws are being more actively enforced.

Up to one in three British women access an abortion at some point in their lives. Many of them will use abortion pills, which are very safe, highly effective, and included on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

The archaic Victorian legal framework criminalising “unlawful procurement of miscarriage” treats abortion pills as a “poison or other noxious thing” and is far removed from modern understandings of abortion as an essential health service. More than three-quarters of British adults believe that an abortion should be allowed where a woman decides on her own that she does not want to have a child.

The Abortion Act 1967 created an exemption, where no offence would be committed where a termination is authorised by two doctors and performed before 24 weeks (or beyond in exceptional cases). If these criteria are not met, abortion remains a criminal offence.

Several other amendments proposed to the criminal justice bill relate to abortion. One, tabled by Stella Creasy MP, proposes wider-ranging decriminalisation, while three others place further restrictions on access to abortion services.

Prosecutions of women ending their own pregnancies have, until recently, been rare. Only three cases were reported between 1861 and 2022, the most publicised being the 2013 case of a Yorkshire woman with an obstetric history of “disturbance, personal misery and entrenched problems”. She bought pills online and used them to terminate a pregnancy that had advanced far beyond the 24-week legal limit. She was initially sentenced to eight years in prison, reduced to three and a half on appeal.

There has recently been a dramatic rise in police investigations, fuelled by greater awareness of abortion pills following the introduction of telemedical abortion services during the pandemic. Women who might previously have sought pills outside the NHS could now access them legally within it. As an example, requests to Canadian non-profit organisation and online abortion service Women on Web, have dropped from hundreds per year to almost zero.

The trauma of abortion prosecution

British abortion providers have reported an increasingly suspicious and hostile environment around late pregnancy loss and a significant increase in police requests for access to patients’ medical records. In a small number of cases, women have faced prosecution after acting deliberately to end pregnancies after 24 weeks. In others, they have been investigated following spontaneous premature delivery or pregnancy loss.

One such example is Sammy (a pseudonym), who experienced a very premature delivery at home in 2023, with her baby born blue. She attempted CPR as her husband rang for an ambulance, but was shocked when police as well as paramedics responded. Her son survived. However, after being discharged from hospital, Sammy was taken in for questioning and her husband was arrested on suspicion of attempting to procure an illegal abortion.

Sammy’s case raised suspicions, as she had earlier struggled with whether to continue her pregnancy and had been seen at an abortion clinic. When told that she was too late for a lawful termination, she investigated buying abortion pills online, getting as far as putting them into her basket (though not checking out).

Protests broke out in London in June 2023 after a woman was given jail time for taking abortion pills past the legal limit.
Loredana Sangiuliano/Shutterstock

The police investigation has now been dropped, but it lasted for over a year and left Sammy traumatised. Her story was featured in a BBC File on 4 investigation, where she reported being unable to sleep properly due to ongoing fears that she’ll be “taken away”.

Women have had their computers and mobile phones seized as part of a “digital strip search”, making them even more isolated during a vulnerable time. One woman reported being required to express breast milk and leave it at the neonatal unit reception, as she was refused contact with her premature newborn.

No one wants women to end late pregnancies on their own at home. However, the reported facts in those rare and disturbing cases where they have done so suggests ordinary women acting in desperation at a moment of personal crisis. The question is whether we should respond with medical care, support and appropriate safeguarding, or with the full force of the criminal law.

And anyone who wishes to defend the need for such prosecutions must also defend the uncomfortable truth that some women – like Sammy – will be inevitable collateral damage. Läs mer…

Recent floods in Kenya have left at least 270 people dead, displaced more than 200,000 and destroyed property, infrastructure and livelihoods across the country. In Nairobi, hundreds of people in informal settlements were left homeless and thousands were displaced. And now, the government has been evicting people from flood-prone areas.

Smith Ouma is a legal expert with a focus on urban governance. His research has covered land and tenure rights in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Ouma to share his thoughts on the government’s response to the flooding in Nairobi’s informal settlements and how it can be improved.

Why are Nairobi’s informal settlements vulnerable to flooding?

Nairobi’s informal settlements sprang up in the colonial period. Colonial authorities used various laws and public health concerns as a way to remove Africans from areas considered commercially attractive. They were pushed into marginal areas of the city that were prone to hazards like flooding.

This continued after Kenya gained independence. Planning tools (like city master plans) were used to force low-income groups to relocate to the city’s peripheries.

Today, informal settlements cover only 5% of Nairobi’s total residential land area, but they are inhabited by at least half of the city’s population. Because they offer cheap living options, people end up crammed into this small space with minimal basic infrastructure and services.

Informal settlements continue to be vulnerable to hazards like floods because development plans haven’t considered their residents’ needs. The vast majority of informal settlements residents are left to cope in whatever way they can, often against established standards. For instance, residents will use whatever cheap material they can find to build their homes or improve infrastructure, like roads and sanitation facilities.

To make matters worse, as I’ve found in my previous research, there’s been a decline in city institutions. This has weakened the city’s ability to enforce rules and work with residents in low-income neighbourhoods towards creating effective solutions.

For instance, the County Assembly, the primary legislative institution at the county level, has been sidelined. This has created room for unaccountable institutions. The Nairobi Metropolitan Service, for example, was established as part of the president’s office rather than as an independent office in the county government system.

What did the government do to support those affected by flooding?

The government has used forceful evictions in low-income neighbourhoods. President William Ruto ordered the evacuation of all homes along the nation’s waterways.

In the immediate aftermath of the floods, residents of informal settlements and community groups banded together to support each other. Community health workers helped affected households with essential services and medicines. Food and other essential items were distributed by social movements, using donations.

But, rather than acknowledging, applauding, and supporting these efforts – which are the government’s constitutionally mandated duties – the administration came out with reactionary policies and proclamations.

Despite the constitutional guarantee of the right to adequate housing and numerous court judgments reaffirming citizens’ rights against forceful evictions, the government has resorted to heavy-handed tactics.

There are concerns that the new affordable housing programme – aimed at constructing 250,000 affordable housing units per year – might serve as a cover for evicting people from their land. This would create space for investors to build houses for an exclusive market.

Are these forced and arbitrary evictions legal?

No. Based on applicable laws and the constitution, in my view Kenya is violating local laws and other international treaties in carrying out these forced evictions.

First, the state, through the National Land Commission, failed to provide adequate notice to residents (three months as stipulated in the Land Act), which renders the evictions arbitrary.

Second, under the Kenyan constitution, the state has a duty to ensure all Kenyans have a right to adequate housing.

The loss of lives and property as a result of the state’s actions is a violation of residents’ right to life and property. Indeed, the Supreme Court has ruled that landless individuals who establish housing on public land have a protectable right to housing on the same land. This includes public land that is along riparian reserves. Any evictions that are to be carried out by the state must respect these rights and procedural requirements.

Third, Kenya is a signatory to various international treaties and conventions which say that any evictions carried out by the state must be in accordance with the United Nations Guidelines on Evictions. States must take all appropriate means to promote the right to adequate housing and prior to carrying out any evictions, explore – in consultation with the affected persons – all feasible alternatives with the view of avoiding or minimising the need to use force.

Also, as determined by a high court case in 2013, the state was to develop appropriate legal frameworks for evictions. The Kenyan government failed to do this, leading to a 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court affirming that in the absence of such guidelines, the UN Guidelines on evictions would be applicable as soft law.

How should the government have prepared and reacted instead?

The government has invoked its duty to protect lives as justification for the ongoing evictions in low-income settlements. This is a duty that existed even before the onset of the heavy rains. The government received early warnings of possible heavy rains and floods from the meteorological department but did very little to act on these warnings.

The government is also aware of the current national housing deficit of more than 8,888,626 units. This contributes to the expansion of informal settlements.

Armed with this knowledge, the ongoing catastrophe could have been avoided, or at least mitigated.

The state should have mobilised a coalition of actors to develop and implement protective measures for the residents.

Through the work I’ve done in various informal settlements in Kenya, such as Mukuru, I’ve seen how there are already long-standing initiatives by social movements and community groups which could have helped. These could be tapped into to identify risks and build community capabilities to respond to the flooding challenge.

These communities could also help with planning to prevent this situation from happening again. For instance, they’re already undertaking restoration activities along the rivers.

Additionally, in places like Mukuru, residents are actively seeking community-driven solutions to the land and housing challenges that are at the root of informal settlement development. These residents are the climate, environmental and universal housing champions who the government ought to have been working with even before the floods started.

Instead of forcibly evicting communities that have already experienced great hardship, if the government has no alternative option for them, policymakers should tap into their knowledge. Läs mer…

The UK’s rise to become the world’s fourth largest exporter sparked a wave of celebration among the country’s policymakers, politicians and trade analysts. According to new data, the UK overtook major economies like France, the Netherlands and Japan, and sat behind only China, the US and Germany in 2022 with US$1.02 trillion (£808 billion) in exports.

Algarhi and Lagos

At first glance, this seems a significant coup, showcasing the UK’s economic resilience. But before cracking open the champagne, it’s worth considering what these numbers truly mean and whether they tell the full story.

Looking at the top-line export figures alone can be misleading when gauging a country’s true economic competitiveness. This is because total exports report the value of products, including the costs of everything that goes into making them. But some of this – parts and labour known as “intermediate inputs” – will be imported.

Think of the value of a Mini car made in the UK and exported abroad. With it being assembled domestically, the finished car counts as a UK export. However, a good portion of its total value (more than 60% in some cases) is added earlier in the supply chain by companies in other countries. The UK then imports the value of the parts and labour to complete the car production.

So the UK’s export ranking may not accurately reflect its economic strengths and productive capability. The US$1.02 trillion headline may hide a large portion of value created far from the UK shores.

And the net value of the UK’s output produced domestically as a percentage of GDP (after adding all output and subtracting intermediate inputs) confirms this. This has been on a steady decline since the 1990s, reaching a value of 16.7% in 2022. On top of that, the value of imported intermediate inputs (the things the UK buys in to produce its finished products) increased in 2022 by 4.8% and 11.9% from EU and non-EU countries respectively. Both figures indicate an increasing UK reliance on imported goods.

So why is there a problem here? Since the exports are rising, even if the amount of value the UK feeds in is reduced, total exports still add value to the economy, right? Again, it’s not straightforward.

In 2022, there was an impressive rise in UK exports, but the data also shows an even faster increase in imports into the UK. This produced a trade deficit (when a country imports more than it exports) of almost £66.8 billion, the highest since 1989.

One reason for this was the Bank of England (BoE)’s aggressive cycle of interest rate hikes to combat inflation.

Raising UK interest rates attracts foreign investment, increasing demand for the pound, which strengthens its value. A stronger pound makes imports cheaper but exports more expensive, potentially leading to the UK importing more than it exports.

Algarhi and Lagos

But from the early 2000s, imports exceeded exports consistently. This can’t be explained solely by the BoE interest rate decisions. And even though having a trade deficit is not necessarily indicative of an unhealthy economy, a prolonged deficit may raise concerns around the UK’s export-led economic growth narrative.

Economic theory suggests that persistent trade deficits, especially where imports are taking the place of domestically produced goods, may highlight weaknesses in certain industries due to low productivity, a lack of international competitiveness, or both.

It can also point to over-reliance on certain imports, which can effectively make the economy complacent and limit efforts towards innovation and efficiency. This, in fact, is what UK productivity data reveals – it has under-performed relative to comparable economies like France or Germany, with the UK annual average productivity growth rate being just 0.5%.

Interestingly, even though the sharp drop in imports and exports in 2020 can be explained by the COVID pandemic and Brexit in January of that year, the Brexit announcement itself did not appear to damage the UK’s international trade.

Quite the opposite actually, with both the UK’s imports and exports increasing from 2016 to 2020. This may have been due to businesses building up stockpiles ahead of a new post-Brexit deal that companies feared would increase costs.

Looking to the future

Prime minister Rishi Sunak may well celebrate the UK becoming the world’s fourth largest exporter, but the future remains uncertain.

Leaving the EU’s single market introduced new trade frictions, despite the 2021 trade deal (the Trade and Cooperation Agreement) allowing smoother UK-EU trade and driving up both imports and exports in 2022.

To counterbalance these frictions, striking more bilateral trade deals could increase UK exports to faster-growing overseas markets. But this depends on the terms negotiated, and how well they remove tariffs and reduce other trade obstacles.

Additionally, the UK’s ability to maintain its momentum relies on increasing domestic productivity, innovation, workforce skills and growth in emerging technology sectors. This will allow it to improve competitiveness.

In future, the UK’s global export ranking will be meaningless without sustainable trade surpluses. Long-term policies that add value to the UK economy and increase the range of goods and services the country exports will determine if 2022’s figures marked an anomaly – or reinstate the UK as a global powerhouse. Läs mer…