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Can you remember a time when you felt stressed leading up to a big life event and then afterwards felt like a weight had been lifted? This process – the ramping up of the stress response and then feeling this settle back down – shows completion of the “stress cycle”.

Some stress in daily life is unavoidable. But remaining stressed is unhealthy. Chronic stress increases chronic health conditions, including heart disease and stroke and diabetes. It can also lead to burnout or depression.

Exercise, cognitive, creative, social and self-soothing activities help us process stress in healthier ways and complete the stress cycle.

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What does the stress cycle look like?

Scientists and researchers refer to the “stress response”, often with a focus on the fight-or-flight reactions. The phrase the “stress cycle” has been made popular by self-help experts but it does have a scientific basis.

The stress cycle is our body’s response to a stressful event, whether real or perceived, physical or psychological. It could be being chased by a vicious dog, an upcoming exam or a difficult conversation.

The stress cycle has three stages:

stage 1 is perceiving the threat
stage 2 is the fight-or-flight response, driven by our stress hormones: adrenaline and cortisol
stage 3 is relief, including physiological and psychological relief. This completes the stress cycle.

Different people will respond to stress differently based on their life experiences and genetics.

Unfortunately, many people experience multiple and ongoing stressors out of their control, including the cost-of-living crisis, extreme weather events and domestic violence.

Remaining in stage 2 (the flight-or-flight response), can lead to chronic stress. Chronic stress and high cortisol can increase inflammation, which damages our brain and other organs.

When you are stuck in chronic fight-or-flight mode, you don’t think clearly and are more easily distracted. Activities that provide temporary pleasure, such as eating junk food or drinking alcohol are unhelpful strategies that do not reduce the stress effects on our brain and body. Scrolling through social media is also not an effective way to complete the stress cycle. In fact, this is associated with an increased stress response.

Stress and the brain

In the brain, chronic high cortisol can shrink the hippocampus. This can impair a person’s memory and their capacity to think and concentrate.

Chronic high cortisol also reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex but increases activity in the amygdala.

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for higher-order control of our thoughts, behaviours and emotions, and is goal-directed and rational. The amygdala is involved in reflexive and emotional responses. Higher amygdala activity and lower prefrontal cortex activity explains why we are less rational and more emotional and reactive when we are stressed.

There are five types of activities that can help our brains complete the stress cycle?

It can help to understand how the brain encounters stress.

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1. Exercise – its own complete stress cycle

When we exercise we get a short-term spike in cortisol, followed by a healthy reduction in cortisol and adrenaline.

Exercise also increases endorphins and serotonin, which improve mood. Endorphins cause an elated feeling often called “runner’s high” and have anti-inflammatory effects.

When you exercise, there is more blood flow to the brain and higher activity in the prefrontal cortex. This is why you can often think more clearly after a walk or run. Exercise can be a helpful way to relieve feelings of stress.

Exercise can also increase the volume of the hippocampus. This is linked to better short-term and long-term memory processing, as well as reduced stress, depression and anxiety.

2. Cognitive activities – reduce negative thinking

Overly negative thinking can trigger or extend the stress response. In our 2019 research, we found the relationship between stress and cortisol was stronger in people with more negative thinking.

Higher amygdala activity and less rational thinking when you are stressed can lead to distorted thinking such as focusing on negatives and rigid “black-and-white” thinking.

Activities to reduce negative thinking and promote a more realistic view can reduce the stress response. In clinical settings this is usually called cognitive behaviour therapy.

At home, this could be journalling or writing down worries. This engages the logical and rational parts of our brain and helps us think more realistically. Finding evidence to challenge negative thoughts (“I’ve prepared well for the exam, so I can do my best”) can help to complete the stress cycle.

Journalling could help process stressful events and complete the stress cycle.
Shutterstock/Fellers Photography

3. Getting creative – a pathway out of ‘flight or fight’

Creative activities can be art, craft, gardening, cooking or other activities such as doing a puzzle, juggling, music, theatre, dancing or simply being absorbed in enjoyable work.

Such pursuits increase prefrontal cortex activity and promote flow and focus.

Flow is a state of full engagement in an activity you enjoy. It lowers high-stress levels of noradrenaline, the brain’s adrenaline. When you are focussed like this, the brain only processes information relevant to the task and ignores non-relevant information, including stresses.

4. Getting social and releasing feel-good hormones

Talking with someone else, physical affection with a person or pet and laughing can all increase oxytocin. This is a chemical messenger in the brain that increases social bonding and makes us feel connected and safe.

Laughing is also a social activity that activates parts of the limbic system – the part of the brain involved in emotional and behavioural responses. This increases endorphins and serotonin and improves our mood.

5. Self-soothing

Breathing exercises and meditation stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (which calms down our stress responses so we can “reset”) via the vagus nerves, and reduce cortisol.

A good cry can help too by releasing stress energy and increasing oxytocin and endorphins.

Emotional tears also remove cortisol and the hormone prolactin from the body. Our prior research showed cortisol and prolactin were associated with depression, anxiety and hostility.

Getting moving can help with stress and its effects on the brain.
Shutterstock/Jaromir Chalabala

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Action beats distraction

Whether it’s watching a funny or sad movie, exercising, journalling, gardening or doing a puzzle, there is science behind why you should complete the stress cycle.

Doing at least one positive activity every day can also reduce our baseline stress level and is beneficial for good mental health and wellbeing.

Importantly, chronic stress and burnout can also indicate the need for change, such as in our workplaces. However, not all stressful circumstances can be easily changed. Remember help is always available.

If you have concerns about your stress or health, please talk to a doctor.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. Läs mer…

Former Spanish football federation chief Luis Rubiales may face significant consequences for his non-consensual kiss of Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso.

But this is not the norm for perpetrators of gender-based violence in sport. Our research – which reviewed 25 years of studies examining women’s experiences of gender-based violence in sport – found perpetrators are rarely held to account.

More commonly, they are free to continue abusing victims with impunity.

Even after millions of people watched Rubiales’ actions, it was obvious that Hermoso’s experience was minimised, that powerful organisations attempted to coerce her into stating it was consensual, and that it took the collective voices of women standing with Hermoso to fight back with a resounding “no”.

Luis Rubiales, the former Spanish football federation chief, has been charged with one count of sexual assault and one of coercion.

The shocking reality of gender-based violence in sport

Women’s sport is championed as a platform for empowerment and equality but previous studies have shown gender-based violence is highly prevalent, ranging from 26 to 75% across psychological, physical and sexual violence, depending on how the violence has been defined and measured.

There have been many historical and contemporary cases of abuse, bringing to light some of the concerns about how perpetrators were able to continue their abuse for so long.

Our research systematically gathered and analysed the collective voices of women who experienced gender-based violence in sport to understand their experiences better and to inform future prevention and response initiatives. Participants included current and former athletes, coaches, umpires and managers.

The research found women in sport experience multiple types of violence (sexual, physical, psychological, financial), often by more than one perpetrator. Coaches or other authority figures are the most common perpetrators, followed by male athletes or members of the public.

We found a “normalisation” of these violent behaviours in the sporting context; they were seen as expected and were routinely excused in order to get results.

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Beware of ‘sporting family violence’

When women do speak up and complain, our research highlighted that organisational responses are impotent at best, actively malevolent and cruel at worst.

Complaints often go nowhere, codes of conduct may not exist, and there is a strong lack of confidentiality because “everyone knows everyone”.

In some cases, women were mocked and told they’d imagined the abuse, a deliberate strategy by the organisation to put “success” and “winning” before the safety of women.

Instead, women are left to do their own safety work by avoiding the perpetrator(s) or leaving the sport entirely.

Justice is sometimes only achieved when women act as a group to voice their experiences and confront abusers.

Importantly, our research found the unique context of sport as an extended or surrogate family created the conditions for “sporting family violence”.

Athletes spend significant time within the sporting family unit, creating close relationships with their coach, other authority figures and teammates.

The coach as a father figure

The coach as a father figure was a consistent theme across several studies, with some athletes stating the coach knew more about them than their parents.

If a coach was regarded as “the best”, often no one questioned him. This gave coaches enormous power, which they used to isolate women they abused from both the sport family and their actual family, exerting coercive control to maintain an environment of secrecy and dominance.

Finally, our research found women are still seen as inferior to men and treated as “other” in the sporting context. Consequently, there is a hostility to women, who are perceived as a threat to the hegemonic masculinity of sport.

This was a particularly strong theme in non-traditional female sports such as judo and boxing, and for women in management or official roles.

Power is a key factor running through all our findings, and while women may be able to exercise some power through collective resistance, power often remains with men and sports institutions that are complicit.

Initiatives to address gender-based violence in sport must recognise the many forms of violence women experience, and the different ways in which power and violence play out.

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Some positive signs, but much more is needed

There are some positive signs of change. A recent report into the culture of abuse in swimming in Australia made several recommendations that are now being actioned.

And in the UK, laws that prohibit coaches from having relationships with players are being developed and acted upon.

Also, several collective survivor advocacy groups have been established, such as The Army of Survivors, Sport and Rights Alliance and Gymnasts for Change.

Of course, this still shows the extent of the collective voice needed to push for change.

While we applaud this and the reckoning of Rubiales’ actions, and cheer for the collective voice standing with women like Jenni Hermoso, it would be negligent to forget the many silenced women’s voices in sport who bear the brunt of violence within a space often considered their family. Läs mer…

When the people of Solomon Islands go to the polls on Wednesday, they will be voting for more than just a new prime minister. The election will also be a referendum on whether the country continues with incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s growing strategic alliance with China.

Sogavare has remained secretive about the details of the security pact his government recently signed with China and is deeply sensitive to critique, particularly from the Australian media. In 2022, for example, he threatened to ban ABC journalists investigating the country’s links with China.

US Admiral John Aquilino on why a security deal between Solomon Islands and China is so concerning.

The security pact is just one small part of China’s sprawling Belt and Road Initiative, which has resulted in an expansion of Chinese influence across the region. This includes a focus on media. China has funded the training of Pacific journalists and their travel to China, and provided local media with syndicated content and financial support for infrastructure and vehicles.

There are allegations this funding has come with strings attached. The ABC reported last year that Solomon Islands’ oldest newspaper had received money from China in exchange for favourable coverage. (The Solomon Star’s editor said the newspaper maintained its independence – and had tried for years to obtain funding from Australia.)

The influence of Beijing is now so significant, the longtime journalist and Pacific specialist Sue Ahearn has said China is winning the information war in the Pacific.

Yet, according to research conducted by the ABC last year, Pacific islanders still overwhelmingly rely on – and trust – Australian media more than any other country’s media. In fact, five of six islands polled said ABC was the most valued and preferred international broadcaster.

Australia can’t rest on its laurels. It needs to build on this trust.

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ABC rebooting Pacific services

The concern about China’s influence on Pacific media comes as the international broadcasting section at the ABC is trying to reboot. This comes after it made redundancies and cuts to services as part of efficiencies forced on it by the former Coalition government. Although the ABC maintained some broadcasting to the Pacific under the Coalition government, its international division had become a shadow of its former self.

The Albanese government has refocused efforts on the Pacific more broadly, pledging A$2 billion in the last budget to boost Australia’s security efforts in the region. It also boosted funding to the ABC’s international division with a $32 million grant, and invested another $8.5 million through 2027–28 to increase the reach of the ABC and other Australian media content across the region.

Supporters of former Deputy Speaker Namson Tran cheer and wave in a pre-election rally in Solomon Islands’ capital, Honiara.
Mick Tsikas/AAP

The funding boost has sent the ABC into a local recruitment drive to hire broadcast staff, particularly those who come from the region. It is also commissioning more “bespoke” lifestyle and sport content for the region.

The ABC and the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding last month. It formalised their “commitment to collaboration and support, with an emphasis on content sharing and media development programs”.

However, this funding has not yet allowed the ABC to provide a basic, reliable news service specifically for the Pacific to complement local services.

Solomon Islands media challenges

However, news outlets in Solomon Islands and, indeed, the wider Pacific still face entrenched challenges.

Some of these challenges are due to the small population base in many countries, limited advertising revenue and marginal profits. Research from the University of the South Pacific has found the Pacific has among the highest journalist attrition rates in the world. News outlets are mostly staffed by young, inexperienced and underqualified journalists, who are tasked with reporting on extremely complex issues.

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As we report in a chapter for our book, Transnational Broadcasting in the Indo-Pacific: The Battle for Trusted News and Information, Solomon Islands media workers are particularly vulnerable to foreign influence due to their economic precarity, age and level of education.

Another challenge is the cultural system of wantok – broadly meaning “one talk” in the Pijin language of Solomon Islands, which means a network of kin and connection. Because of wantok, many stories remain untold due to conflicts of interest involving journalists writing critical stories on their own families.

However, that hasn’t stopped all fearless reporting. A year-long investigation involving Solomon Islands journalists working for an international organisation, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, reported last week that Sogavare has built at least eight new houses in and around the capital, Honiara, despite earning a modest salary. Sogavare did not respond to questions for the report, but has defended his land purchases in the past, saying he received loans from banks.

But this story, which is clearly of significance to voters heading to the polls, is not widely known and has mostly been distributed via Facebook on a volunteer-run news site, The Pacific Newsroom.

In such an environment, there is a clear need for a greater Australian media presence, not only to provide unbiased information to Solomon Islands voters and support the local media, but also to report on elections and other domestic issues for regional audiences.

This is why the ABC needs guaranteed funding for its international services – free from further government or managerial interference – to ensure this role in supporting Pacific media isn’t lost again. Läs mer…

It’s hard not to see the journalism industry as one in crisis.

In February, Bell Media announced it was ending multiple CTV newscasts, making other programming cuts and selling 45 radio stations. Its parent company, BCE Inc., also announced it is cutting 4,800 jobs “at all levels of the company,” saying fewer than 10 per cent are at Bell Media.

Weeks later, Vice Media said it would stop publishing on Vice.com and lay off hundreds.

These decisions followed CBC’s December 2023 announcement that it would cut 600 positions, and news last fall that some Canadian journalism schools had shut down or paused their programs.

Across the country, the outlook for the future of news is — at best — uncertain. Not talking about the state of the industry is not an option for journalism educators.

In journalism school, students learn their craft while engaging with critical questions about their roles and responsibilities. They are often taught by previous or current journalists, whose work experiences prepare them to help students tackle reporting challenges.

Crises ask journalism educators, students and practitioners to grapple with sharing stories about what the future could hold. What will journalists’ jobs look like in five years? Or 25 years?

No one in any industry would be able to answer such questions with certainty. But critical events in journalism demand we talk through uncertain futures. And this presents follow-up questions. What are the risks and rewards of talking openly about precarity? How do you start a conversation when the future is so uncertain?

Understanding journalism education

In 2015, with the shock of the 2008 economic crisis still working through newsrooms, journalism educators offered a wide-ranging map for reevaluating the goals of journalism schools, and whether they are solely meant to train future journalists.

Crises run into each other, overlapping and informing responses to change. COVID-19 and a reckoning with racism in journalism and other institutions have demanded new reflections on journalism education.

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Students make their way around the renamed Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly known as Ryerson University, in Toronto on April 26, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Pathways to the future

It’s time journalism educators shift conversations with students, to address their experiences, their worries and their understanding of what journalism is and what they want it to be.

In 2022, we asked journalism students at Carleton University — where we, respectively, teach and studied — how they felt about their training through COVID-19. We were curious about how students viewed online learning and transitioning into journalism jobs.

What we heard were concerns about burnout, precarity, work-life balance and the long-term outlook for a life in journalism.

“I just feel like almost every week or every few weeks, I go on Twitter and there’s a journalist who’s like in their 30s or 40s, like halfway through their career, who just quit,” one student said.

Students knew the risks of going into the industry, thanks to news of other cutbacks, guest speaker testimonies and their own experiences losing internship opportunities when the pandemic forced newsrooms online.

Newsrooms being forced online was one fallout of the pandemic for journalists and the industry.
(Shutterstock)

Anticipating challenges

We asked journalism students what they thought a day in the life of a journalist looked like. They talked about days that demanded endurance, dedication and working through different kinds of uncertainty.

“They’re just always on,” one student said. “I don’t think journalists have a normal day. As in, you know, get up, get to work, get home.”

Another student described “general burnout” as “a huge part” of the job.

It isn’t surprising that students anticipated challenges finding work and worried about long-term financial stability. In some ways, their responses align with a broader Gen-Z refusal to put their jobs at the centre of their lives or accept low pay.

“I don’t want to say, you know, the more money you make the more successful you are, but being able to just have that security is, I think, a huge thing,” one student said.

“Maybe it doesn’t quite align with ‘success’ in a ‘making a difference’ kind of way. But I think (financial security) gives you an ability to make a difference.”

Students also flagged the importance of mental health and well-being.

“There is an expectation that your entire life should revolve around chasing a story until you physically cannot anymore,” one student said, explaining that this kind of thinking turned them away from journalism.

Learning together

Today’s journalism students have likely been told their entire lives — by friends, family, pop culture and so many reports — that it’s a dying industry. Nonetheless, they’re driven to find out more.

Read more:
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Journalism in crisis, as others have argued, presents an opportunity to unpack traditions and reimagine practices.

It’s also an opportunity to reconsider how journalism schools and newsrooms respond to the concerns of emerging journalists. How can precarity and burnout be addressed collectively inside and outside journalism, not as individual matters?

One place this can begin is with classroom conversations, collectively taking on uncomfortable truths and fears alongside building new skills.

Discussing expectations can happen alongside building new skills in journalism school.
(Pexels/Fox)

Navigating not having reassuring answers

One risk, for educators, is not having ready-made, reassuring answers to questions of insecurity.

Introducing worst-case scenarios also risks scaring away students. In our interviews, one student cautioned against presenting guest speakers’ negative portrayals of the industry too early, for example.

But recent news makes industry crises impossible not to talk about.

Talking through crises can allow for discussion of alternatives and solutions. However, care should be taken to not romanticize what has worked in the past, including precarious conditions like long hours, low pay or competing for fewer and fewer jobs.

Instead, it’s helpful to think of imagining different journalism futures as an in-progress collaboration for students, educators, journalists and news organization leaders. Such collaboration is a project of articulating not only crisis conditions, but drawing on shared experiences to figure out what it would take to make things better.

Looking back, we wonder what responses and creative solutions we would have heard if we asked students what they wanted their days to look like as journalists — not just what they thought the job looked like already. Läs mer…

In recent years, media and social networks have brought to light growing denunciations of obstetric and gynecological care that is considered violent, disrespectful, abusive or neglectful. These behaviours, words, acts and omissions are known as obstetric and gynecological violence (OGV).

Beyond the medical domain, OGV stems from gender-based violence as well as biases and stereotypes about women (biological or gendered) and mothers. More particularly, OGV can encompass the expression of medical racism and colonialism that places racialized and Indigenous individuals at greater risk to experience it.

Obstetric and gynecological violence

Canadian studies have identified several characteristics that help us define OGV:

treatment conducted without the patient’s free and informed consent,
professional and organizational practices that deprive individuals of their reproductive autonomy, and
the patient’s subjective appreciation of her health-care experience.

Systemic factors are also central to the occurrence of OGV, combined with interpersonal factors between women and health-care professionals. In other words, it is not just about incompetent or ill-intentioned staff. It is also about common professional and organizational practices, like economic factors, professional cultures, and hierarchical and authority relationships between health-care providers and patients. Another factor is stereotypes, prejudices and gender biases about female reproduction that are still common.

Beyond the medical domain, OGV stems from gender-based violence as well as biases and stereotypes about women (biological or gendered) and mothers.
(Shutterstock)

The use of the term violence has been criticized, mainly because it suggests the behaviour contains an intent to harm. Some also argue that the use of the term may be considered as a form of violence against health-care professionals.

Nevertheless, it is increasingly acknowledged that this term is necessary to name a reality that would otherwise be ignored due to the epistemic injustices that often impair women’s experiences. Epistemic injustices mean that women’s testimonies are disbelieved or belittled, and that their experiences of violence are seen as normal, ignored or dismissed out of hand.

From what we know, OGV happens quite often. A study conducted in the United States shows that 17.3 per cent of women respondents reported obstetric mistreatment. A survey of women who gave birth in Australia reveals that 11.6 per cent of 8,546 respondents experienced obstetric violence. They reported that it left them feeling dehumanized, violated and/or powerless. Examples included vaginal exams without consent and being coerced into interventions ranging from use of stirrups to labour induction and C-sections.

Gynecological violence is less documented in the current research, although some studies in France indicate that medical acts as commonplace as prescribing contraceptive pills may give rise to behaviours and statements that violate women’s dignity, such as denial of suffering, blame, judgement, imposed treatment, withheld information, misinformation, coercive heteronormativity and medical paternalism.

We do not yet have sufficient quantitative Canadian data to accurately determine how often and in which circumstances OGV happens in Canada. However, in the coming years, ongoing large-scale studies will answer these questions with respect to the realities of women in Québec and across Canada.

Leveraging women’s rights to improve health care

At the heart of many OGV situations is the absence of consent, or a consent given without having received the appropriate information. This underscores the importance of respecting women’s rights throughout the entire health-care pathway. Consent to receive treatment falls under the basic rights of women to their autonomy, integrity and dignity.

At the heart of many OGV situations is the absence of consent, or a consent given without having received the appropriate information.
(Shutterstock)

Many rights can empower women to understand their prerogatives in reproductive health-care situations:

the right to consent (and also the right to refuse or to change one’s mind),
to be informed of one’s status and to participate in decisions that affect the treatment plan,
to be accompanied,
to ask for a second professional opinion,
to choose one’s health-care professional and institution, and
to receive adequate care from scientific, human and social standpoints.

In Québec, these rights are mainly set out in the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Civil Code of Québec and the Act respecting health services and social services. Similar rights exist in all Canadian provinces and territories.

However, awareness of these rights is not sufficient to make them effective tools to prevent OGV. More is required: first, women must be able to express their rights and exercise them at the appropriate time.

Second, health-care providers must be aware of these rights and receptive to women’s claims of them. Unfortunately, patients too often fear that expressing their rights, asking questions or voicing their disagreement with medical professionals will harm the therapeutic relationship and result in poorer care and outcomes. Afraid of being labelled as “difficult” patients, they often decide to opt out, reluctantly, of the collaborative health-care decision-making process.

Furthermore, respect for women’s rights should be included in all health-care guides, protocols and directives that directly affect their reproductive health. In practice, an unnuanced implementation of practice standards and guides could lead to OGV, as it does not always allow for an accurate appreciation of individual needs and preferences.

Beyond the scientific and clinical aspects that govern the decision made when drafting clinical guidelines and protocols, the essential consideration should be the perspectives and rights of the individuals concerned. Accordingly, women should participate in the process of adopting clinical guidelines to ensure the cultural, social and interpersonal factors that can affect their needs, values and preferences are taken into account.

Although it is unclear to what extent women are actually included in such decision-making processes in Canada, studies are underway to better understand the effective implementation of women’s rights in obstetric and gynecological care.

Access to justice

Women have the right to participate in meaningful definitions of good-quality health care that respects their rights and choices.
(Shutterstock)

Finally, when OGV occurs, measures for remediation and access to justice should enable victims to regain their confidence in the health-care system, and control over their reproductive autonomy. Accountability and liability mechanisms should provide opportunities for improving professional practices and systems for health-care professionals, managers and administrators.

In Canada, taking legal action against physicians or institutions for civil, ethical or criminal liability are possible avenues. However, this type of justice is difficult to access, and victims will find the path strewn with obstacles. These barriers include prohibitive costs for civil liability, and more generally, lengthy delays and the risk of revictimization during the judicial process.

It is therefore important that we study the existing justice mechanisms and improve them in order to correct the wrong done to the victims, define institutional and individual responsibilities, and bring about significant changes in health-care organization and delivery.

Ultimately, individuals who receive obstetric and gynecological care must be heard when they say that they have received inadequate, violent treatment. They have the right to participate in meaningful definitions of good-quality health care that respects their rights and choices. Läs mer…

When former prime minister Helen Clark spoke out against New Zealand potentially compromising its independent foreign policy by joining pillar two of the AUKUS security pact, foreign minister Winston Peters responded bluntly:

On what could she have possibly based that statement? […] And I’m saying to people, including Helen Clark, please don’t mislead New Zealanders with your suspicions without any facts – let us find out find out what we’re talking about.

Pillar one of AUKUS involves the delivery of nuclear submarines to Australia, making New Zealand membership impossible under its nuclear-free policy.

But pillar two envisages the development of advanced military technology in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles and cyber warfare. By some reckonings, New Zealand could benefit from joining at that level.

Peters denies the National-led coalition government has committed to joining pillar two. He says exploratory talks with AUKUS members are “to find out all the facts, all the aspects of what we’re talking about and then as a country to make a decision.”

But while the previous Labour government expressed a willingness to explore pillar two membership, the current government appears to view it as integral to its broader foreign policy objective of aligning New Zealand more closely with “traditional partners”.

Official enthusiasm

During his visit to Washington last week, Peters said New Zealand and the Biden administration had pledged “to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests” in a strategic environment “considerably more challenging now than even a decade ago”.

In particular, he and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed there were “powerful reasons” for New Zealand to engage practically with arrangements like AUKUS “as and when all parties deem it appropriate”.

Read more:
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Declassified documents reveal the official enthusiasm behind such statements and the tightly-curated public messaging it has produced.

A series of joint-agency briefings provided to the New Zealand government characterise AUKUS pillar two as a “non-nuclear” technology-sharing partnership that would elevate New Zealand’s longstanding cooperation with traditional partners and bring opportunities for the aerospace and tech sectors.

But any assessment of New Zealand’s strategic interests must be clear-eyed and not clouded by partial truths or wishful thinking.

Traditional allies: NZ foreign minister Winston Peters meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks in Washington, April 11.
Getty Images

Beyond great power rivalry

First, the current government inherited strong bilateral relations with traditional security partners Australia, the US and UK, as well as a consistent and cooperative relationship with China.

Second, while the contemporary global security environment poses threats to New Zealand’s interests, these challenges extend beyond great power rivalry between the US and China.

The multilateral system, on which New Zealand relies, is paralysed by the weakening of institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, Russian expansionism in Ukraine and a growing array of problems which do not respect borders.

Read more:
Is Japan joining AUKUS? Not formally – its cooperation will remain limited for now

Those include climate change, pandemics and wealth inequality – problems that cannot be fixed unilaterally by great powers.

Third, it is evident New Zealand sometimes disagrees with its traditional partners over respect for international law.

In 2003, for example, New Zealand broke ranks with the US (and the UK and Australia) over the invasion of Iraq. More recently, it was the only member of the Five Eyes network to vote in the UN General Assembly for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza.

Role of the US

In a robust speech to the UN General Assembly on April 7, Peters said the world must halt the “utter catastrophe” in Gaza.

He said the use of the veto – which New Zealand had always opposed – prevented the Security Council from fulfilling its primary function of maintaining global peace and security.

However, the government has been unwilling to publicly admit a crucial point: it was a traditional ally – the US – whose security council veto and unconditional support of Israel have led to systematic and plausibly genocidal violations of international law in Gaza, and a strategic windfall for rival states China, Russia and Iran.

Rather than being a consistent voice for justice and de-escalation, the New Zealand government has joined the US in countering Houthi rebels, which have been targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Read more:
New Zealand is reviving the ANZAC alliance – joining AUKUS is a logical next step

A done deal?

The world has become a more complex and conflicted place for New Zealand. But it would be naive to believe the US has played no part in this and that salvation lies in aligning with AUKUS, which lacks a coherent strategy for addressing multifaceted challenges.

There are alternatives to pillar two of AUKUS more consistent with a principled, independent foreign policy, centred in the Pacific, and which deserve to be seriously considered.

On balance, New Zealand involvement in pillar two of AUKUS would represent a seismic shift in the country’s geopolitical stance. The current government seems bullish about this prospect, which has fuelled concerns membership may be almost a done deal.

If true, it would be the government facing questions about transparency. Läs mer…

Why are activists, who are so passionate about their social justice work, so often burned out by those very causes? We don’t often think about activism as a form of labour, but it is. Research on the activists that make up social justice movements suggests that the pressures of activist work, can cause them to experience serious consequences to their own mental well-being.

In some cases they might be driven to leave activism altogether, hurting their activist movements as a whole.

To understand how activists can better manage the challenges of their work, our research examines how self-compassion could be used to help them alleviate stress and avoid burnout.

Activist work often isn’t successful at first: social progress takes a long time, especially in the face of systemic barriers. Activists tend to be very aware of the injustices they fight against and how hard it is to make change happen. In the face of these struggles, many activists can feel hopeless about the issues they are passionate about, causing serious mental distress.

Police detain a man who was blocking a road during a climate protest of Extinction Rebellion and other activists near the Dutch parliament in The Hague, Netherlands, April 6, 2024.
(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Can self-compassion help?

Given these burdens, activists need support for coping with their painful thoughts and feelings. However, some activists suggest that these resources aren’t always available. Non-activists may look down on their efforts or be unsupportive and activists who belong to marginalized groups can experience discrimination even within their organizations. On top of this, some activists feel pressure to participate in social justice work without complaint even when they are seriously struggling.

It’s important to acknowledge that many of the negative experiences that activists encounter will need to be addressed by systemic changes. This could include a society that is more open to progress and more sympathetic to those engaged in social justice work. Progressive movements could also offer more support to their members, particularly those who experience prejudice themselves.

However, if movements are going to provide resources to their members for coping with the stresses of their work, we should consider what supports might be most helpful. Enter self-compassion — this term refers to our ability to respond to our own suffering with care and support, and is made up of three components.

Self-kindness is the ability to show ourselves warmth and encouragement rather than judgement during difficult experiences.
Common humanity is the knowledge that our struggles unite us with, rather than isolate us from other people.
Finally, mindfulness is the ability to be aware of our pain, without becoming overly entangled with it.

Self-compassion refers to our ability to respond to our own suffering with care and support.
(Shutterstock)

As there are many resources and interventions for self-compassion that have been tested and shown to be successful, this adds to its usefulness for activist populations.

Tips for activists

For activists struggling with the painful emotions that arise from their work, being self-compassionate might be a valuable support. This could involve treating themselves with kindness, remembering that they are united in their struggles with other activists and being mindful of their thoughts and feelings.

Using these strategies could help provide activists with the internal strength to continue their efforts while also making time for their own self-care.

In previous research, self-compassion has been connected to higher levels of hope and lower levels of hopelessness. These are both emotional states that activists link to their well-being and ability to manage the pressures of their social justice work. Possibly, by being more supportive of themselves, self-compassionate people are able to be more optimistic.

Additionally, the mindfulness aspect of self-compassion may help individuals to avoid ruminating about difficult experiences, in turn reducing feelings of hopelessness. Self-compassion and self-compassion interventions have also been linked to lower levels of burnout across various working populations.

My own thesis research in psychology has expanded on these findings by identifying a relationship between higher levels of self-compassion and lower levels of hopelessness and burnout among activists. This suggests that the relationship between self-compassion and mental health extends to those involved in social justice movements.

From campaigns about climate change and income inequality, to protests against anti-racism and war, activism plays a vital role in the world. It draws attention to those marginalized by unequal systems and casts light on often forgotten issues. It is important to recognize this work as well as the emotional and mental toll it can take on the people struggling to make change. Läs mer…

The effects of ocean warming are profound and well-documented. But sometimes changes in the patterns of winds and ocean currents cause seawater to suddenly cool, instead.

Surface temperatures can plummet rapidly — by 10ºC or more over a day or two. When these conditions persist for several days or weeks, the area experiences a “coldwave”, which is the opposite of more familiar marine heatwaves.

When a “killer coldwave” manifested along South Africa’s southeast coast in March 2021, it killed hundreds of animals across at least 81 species. More worrying still was the fact these deaths included vulnerable manta rays and even specimens of notoriously robust migratory bull sharks. In southern Africa, bull sharks, whale sharks and manta rays have previously washed up dead following such sudden cold events, especially over the past 15 years.

As we report in Nature Climate Change, the conditions that can drive these killer coldwaves have grown increasingly common over the past four decades. Ironically, strengthening winds and currents as a result of climate change can also make these deadly localised coldwaves more likely in places such as the east coasts of South Africa and Australia, potentially putting even highly mobile species such as sharks in harm’s way.

What’s going on?

Certain wind and current conditions can cause the sea surface to cool, rather than warm. This happens when winds and currents force coastal waters to move offshore, which are then replaced from below by cold water from the deep ocean. This process is known as upwelling.

In some places, such as California on the US west coast, upwelling happens regularly along hundreds of kilometres of coastline. But localised upwelling can occur seasonally on a smaller scale, too, often at the edges of bays on the east coasts of continents due to interactions of wind, current and coastline.

Previous research had shown climate change induced changes in global wind and current patterns. So we investigated the potential consequences at particular locations, by analysing long-term wind and temperature data along the south-eastern coast of South Africa and the Australian east coast.

This revealed an increasing trend in the number of annual upwelling events over the past 40 years. We also found an increase in the intensity of such upwelling events and the extent to which temperatures dropped on the first day of each event – in other words, how severe and sudden these cold snaps were.

Read more:
The Southern Ocean upwelling is a mecca for whales and tuna that’s worth celebrating and protecting

Mass deaths warrant investigation

During the extreme upwelling event along the southeast coast of South Africa in March 2021, at least 260 animals from 81 species died. These included tropical fish, sharks and rays.

To investigate the ramifications for marine fauna, we took a closer look at bull sharks. We tagged sharks with tracking devices that also record depth and temperature.

Bull sharks are a highly migratory, tropical species that only tend to travel to upwelling regions during the warmer months. With the onset of winter, they migrate back to warm, tropical waters.

Being mobile, they should have been able to avoid the local, cold temperatures. So why were bull sharks among the dead in this extreme upwelling event?

One of the dead bull sharks that washed up after an extreme upwelling event in South Africa.
Ryan Daly

When running and hiding isn’t enough

Bull sharks survive environmental conditions that would kill most other marine life. For example, they’re often found several hundred kilometres up rivers, where other marine life would not venture.

Our shark tracking data from both South Africa and Australia showed bull sharks actively avoid areas of upwelling during their seasonal migrations up and down the coast, even when upwelling isn’t too intense. Some sharks take shelter in warm, shallow bays until the water warms again. Others stick close to the surface where the water is warmest, and swim as fast as they can to get out of the upwelling.

But if marine coldwaves continue to become more sudden and intense, fleeing or hiding may no longer be enough even for these tough beasts. For example, in the event in South Africa that caused the death of manta rays and bull sharks water temperatures dropped from 21°C to 11.8°C in under 24 hours while the overall event lasted seven days.

This sudden, severe drop paired with the long duration made this event particularly deadly. If future events will continue to become more severe, mass deaths of marine life could become a more common sight – especially along the world’s mid-latitude east coasts.

Manta rays were among the dead after the extreme upwelling event.
Ryan Daly

Read more:
Marine life is fleeing the equator to cooler waters. History tells us this could trigger a mass extinction event

Still learning how climate change will play out

Overall, our oceans are warming. The ranges of tropical and subtropical species are extending towards the poles. But along some major current systems, sudden short-term cooling can make life difficult for these climate migrants, or even kill them. Especially if events like the one in South Africa become more common. Tropical migrants would increasingly be living on the edge of what they are comfortable with in these areas.

Our work emphasises that climate impacts can be unexpected or even counterintuitive. Even the most resilient life forms can be vulnerable to its effects. While we do see an overall warming, changes in weather and current patterns can cause extreme cold events as well.

This really shows the complexity of climate change, as tropical species would expand into higher-latitude areas as overall warming continues, which then places them at risk of exposure to sudden extreme cold events. In this way, species such as bull sharks and whale sharks may very well be running the gauntlet on their seasonal migrations.

The need to limit our impacts on the planet by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions has never been more urgent, nor has been the need for research into what our future might hold. Läs mer…