Gulf states arrested over 1,000 for Iran war social media posts: Amnesty

More than 1,000 people have been arrested across Gulf states for sharing information or opinions related to the Iran-US-Israeli war, in what Amnesty International has described as a “widespread crackdown” on freedom of expression.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 - RFI

Since the start of the war in the Middle East, the Gulf States have severely restricted their rules on freedom of speech, sometimes punishing citizens for publishing videos and content related to the war. Here, people film the Dubai fountain, 27 May 2026 (illustration). © Fatima Shbair / AP

In a statement released on Monday, the human rights organisation accused members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman – of “indiscriminately criminalising the exchange of information” under the pretext of national security.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said the arrests reflect an entrenched pattern of repression.

“These governments are exploiting the escalation in regional tensions to intensify their already suffocating grip on freedom of expression, in order to protect their pristine image as safe havens,” she said.

According to Amnesty’s findings, the UAE and Qatar account for the majority of cases, with more than 700 of the documented arrests.

Authorities in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar issued official statements announcing their arrests of hundreds of people for filming and sharing videos about the interception of missiles or projectile damage.

In several cases, arrests were made for “glorifying” a hostile state and its military leadership, which appears to refer to expressing sympathy with Iran.

Between 3 March and 8 April, UAE authorities detained at least 375 people – including dozens of British nationals – for allegedly publishing or sharing videos and other visual content related to the Middle East conflict.

In Qatar, 313 individuals of various nationalities were arrested between 28 February and 9 March for disseminating what authorities described as “misleading information” or rumours.

This handout satellite image courtesy of Vantor shows damage following a drone attack on a high-rise apartment building in Bahrain's capital Manama on March 2, 2026. The Gulf countries have long been seen as islands of stability in the Middle East, but the war in the region could threaten their prosperity, analysts said, pointing to risks to their revenues and reputations as business safe havens. © AFP - - 2026 Vantor

Amnesty stressed that such actions – including sharing images or commentary – are not criminal offences under international law. The organisation said Gulf authorities have relied on “vaguely formulated and excessively broad” provisions within cybercrime, counter-terrorism and national security legislation.

In Kuwait and Bahrain, repression has gone further, with authorities stripping individuals of their nationality. Kuwait has revoked the citizenship of more than 1,200 people by decree, without providing reasons. In Bahrain, at least 69 individuals and their families face similar measures for alleged support of Iran.

Amnesty warned that arbitrary deprivation of nationality violates international law, particularly when used as punishment for peaceful expression.

In Saudi Arabia, the number of arrests has been lower, but Amnesty highlighted increasing restrictions on access to information. According to Meta, Saudi authorities requested in April that 144 accounts be restricted over content related to regional conflicts and political satire.

A journalist in Riyadh told Amnesty that the environment of fear has severely limited reporting. “No one speaks openly about what is happening or how they feel,” he said.

Amnesty concluded that the measures adopted by Gulf states go “far beyond” what is permitted even during armed conflict, calling for the immediate release of those detained solely for exercising their right to free expression.

(With newswires)

Kenyan president defends US Ebola centre amid protests

Nairobi (AFP) – Kenya's president on Tuesday defended the opening of an Ebola quarantine centre for US nationals after a court halted the plan and security forces teargassed protesters fearing the deadly virus could spread in the country.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 - RFI

Ruto (pictured at the UN in Nairobi) defended the Ebola quarantine centre in Kenya reserved for US citizens © SIMON MAINA / AFP

The US-built facility at Kenya's Laikipia Air Base was due to open last week according to US officials, to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is battling a major Ebola outbreak.

The centre -- about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Nairobi -- was set to have 50 isolation beds and be managed by US medical staff.

Violent protests broke out near the facility on Monday amid anger at the US using Kenyan soil and bringing Ebola patients to the country. They were met with tear gas from police.

Police, emergency services and the Red Cross could not confirm reports of deaths during the protests. The Red Cross said they had only heard of two injuries.

In a post on X on Tuesday, President William Ruto said the proposed US facility was "neither unique nor exceptional but part of a broader national preparedness system", adding that it "will be there to serve the people of Kenya and to serve our friends, including the Americans".

On Monday, he said: "I can assure the people of Kenya that the agreement between the government of Kenya and the American government is for the good of our country and for the partnership."

"Why anybody would want to politicise, to mobilise negative politics on a matter so serious as a pandemic?" he continued.

"We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing. So people should relax."

Kenya has recorded no case of Ebola despite widespread testing of arrivals but neighbouring Uganda has registered 11 cases including one death.

However, the High Court extended a temporary halt to the plan on Tuesday, according to rights group Katiba Institute, which filed a petition last week claiming it was being established unilaterally and in secret.

The court said the government had seven days to "disclose all agreements" relating to the facility.

A small group of protesters gathered in central Nairobi on Tuesday, wearing white protective gear and carrying a coffin emblazoned with "Ebola" and placards reading: "Reject Ebola in Kenya".

There have been more than 1,000 suspected cases of Ebola in DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including nearly 250 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

© 2026 AFP

WHO seeks more aid for Congo as ebola outbreak continues to spread

The head of the World Health Organization met with Félix Tshisekedi on Monday to discuss the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola outbreak, as an aid agency warned the epidemic was likely far larger than official figures suggest. The government said confirmed Ebola cases had risen to 321.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 -  RFI

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meets with Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi during a visit in Kinshasa, on 1 June, 2026. via REUTERS - Democratic Republic of Congo Pre

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Congo last week and called for greater international support to halt the spread of the disease. He first travelled from the capital, Kinshasa, to Ituri Province, where the first cases were confirmed.

The outbreak is already the third largest on record and is believed to have persisted undetected for several weeks, according to health officials. They say they are now behind the curve and struggling to bring it under control.

Tedros said he had seen some encouraging signs – including five certified recoveries – but also highlighted the need to increase testing and treatment capacity and strengthen trust in healthcare workers.

After flying back to Kinshasa, Tedros met President Felix Tshisekedi at his residence.

"This Ebola outbreak can be stopped when communities take ownership of the response and with strong government leadership," he said after the meeting. "We need to strengthen the capacity of health systems in the affected areas."

DRC faces 'catastrophic collision' of conflict and Ebola outbreak, WHO warns.

Furaha Tikamanyire, 29, a Congolese health worker who recovered from the Ebola virus stands with Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus strain, in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on 31 May, 2026. REUTERS - Gradel Muyisa Mumbere


Call for help

The WHO also appealed to the international community for greater solidarity and resources. "There have been promises, but they need to materialise now," a WHO source said.

The global health organisation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), pledged approximately $60 million to Moderna and two other groups to accelerate the development of vaccines against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

The company told Reuters that vaccines against the strain could be ready for clinical trials within a few months.

China also announced on Monday that it would send a team of medical specialists to Congo to assist with the outbreak.

Tedros left Kinshasa on Monday evening to return to Geneva, according to his official programme.

Upgrading the response

RFI's correspondent in Kinshasa reported that some Congolese officials had initially questioned the WHO's communications strategy, describing it as "catastrophising".

Authorities sought to reassure the public, emphasising that the country has extensive experience, having already faced 17 Ebola outbreaks.

However, a member of the ministerial delegation sent to Bunia alongside the WHO team reported positive discussions.

Some encouraging developments also helped ease tensions, including the recovery of several patients and the opening of an Ebola treatment centre in Bunia by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Sunday.

The WHO's repeated calls for travel restrictions to be lifted have also been well received in Kinshasa.

A border health officer at the Busunga crossing between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo checks a traveler's temperature using a contactless infrared thermometer in Bundibugyo, on 18 May 2026. AFP - BADRU KATUMBA


In a joint statement issued on Sunday night, the WHO and the Congolese government acknowledged that it was "a challenging time" and said they were working to improve surveillance, testing and patient care.

"Persistent challenges include early detection and isolation of cases, contact tracing, safe and dignified burials, robust infection prevention and control in health facilities, and strong community awareness," the statement said.

Ebola outbreak declared in eastern DR Congo as regional alert raised

Larger figures?

The WHO said on Friday that there were 906 suspected Ebola cases in Congo, including 223 suspected deaths under investigation. The Congolese government said late on Sunday that the number of confirmed cases had risen to 282, with 42 deaths, after 19 new positive test results were recorded, before confirming on Monday that cases had increased further to 321.

According to data released by the communications ministry, there have been at least 264 confirmed cases in Ituri Province alone, as well as 15 in North Kivu Province and three in South Kivu Province.

Ebola cases have also been confirmed in neighbouring Uganda.

However, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned on Monday that the outbreak was likely significantly larger and more advanced than official figures suggest.

The aid agency said in a statement that the virus may have been spreading for up to three months before the first official cases were detected in mid-May. With only 20 per cent of contacts currently being traced, it said health authorities are struggling to identify and isolate new chains of transmission.

"When four out of five contacts are not being traced, it becomes incredibly difficult to contain the outbreak or even understand its true scale," said Rachel Howard, IRC's senior technical emergency health adviser.

While Congolese officials are highly experienced in responding to Ebola outbreaks, they have little experience with the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which is responsible for the current outbreak and for which there is no approved vaccine, the NGO added.

(with Reuters)

Israel risks new quagmire in Lebanon

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel has portrayed the capture of a Crusader-era fortress as a turning point in its offensive against Hezbollah, but the operation has also sparked fears of a new quagmire in south Lebanon.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 - RFI

An Israeli flag flies over the medieval Beaufort fortress © - / AFP

Israeli authorities praised the symbolism of the capture of Beaufort, perched atop a rocky outcrop, as they announced its capture in an assault documented by military drones.

Almost 44 years to the day earlier, Israeli forces had seized the same commanding position overlooking a valley, later turning it into a key base during their two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon.

By rapidly distributing footage of troops entering the fortress, the military echoed a famous 1982 image showing then-defence minister Ariel Sharon and prime minister Menahem Begin at the same spot.

For many Israelis, however, the fortress remains a symbol not of victory, but of a costly military entanglement that ultimately failed to eradicate the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

"The conquest of Beaufort is the most blatant sign that we haven't learned a thing," Israel's Reichman University professor Nadav Pollak said on X.

'Stupid PR photo-op'

The Middle East lecturer and former Israeli intelligence officer decried a "stupid PR photo-op" and described Beaufort as "a place that to many Israelis is a symbol of the stupidity of staying in south Lebanon."

More than 1,200 Israeli soldiers were killed and thousands more wounded in Lebanon before Israel withdrew in 2000.

The military, now conducting its deepest incursion into Lebanon since the withdrawal, argues the site holds genuine strategic value.

It says Iran-backed Hezbollah has launched 400 projectiles toward Israel from the area since fighting resumed in early March.

Avigdor Kahalani, who commanded the assault on Beaufort in 1982, recalled fierce battles against Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) fighters entrenched there at the time.

Though pleased to see the Israeli flag flying over the fortress once again, he told AFP he viewed the operation as a symbolic milestone and a stepping stone northward, rather than a decisive turning point.

"I will be excited the moment they will destroy Hezbollah," said Kahalani, a former minister of internal security.

'Historic opportunity'

According to Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah has accepted a US proposal for a "mutual cessation of attacks", while President Donald Trump hoped that fighting between the two sides would stop for "eternity".

Yet, despite an apparent pause in Israeli strikes on Beirut under US pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with operations in southern Lebanon.

The military says it wants to establish a security zone under its control in the Litani River area, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, a reserve lieutenant-colonel, told AFP that most Israelis have little appetite for a return to Lebanon.

"I grew up in an atmosphere when I was a child that every morning you opened the radio to hear the news of who was killed tonight in Lebanon," said the 50-year-old expert on security challenges on Israel's northern borders.

"My father fought in Lebanon. My husband fought in Lebanon. I lost friends in Lebanon. And I lost my cousin's son last week, not in Lebanon, but on the border," said Zehavi, who lives close to Lebanon's border.

Zehavi still believes that Israel has a "historic opportunity" to eliminate Hezbollah which she views has been weakened.

With Iran under intense US pressure, Lebanon's government engaged in talks with Israel and much of south Lebanon's population displaced, she believes Israel has an unusually favourable strategic opening.

'This is the moment'

Sam Heller, an analyst at the US-based Century Foundation, is unconvinced.

For him, the images of the Israeli flag over Beaufort do little to alter what he sees as the most likely outcome: a new and prolonged quagmire in Lebanon.

Israel's most pressing challenge, he argues, is Hezbollah's explosive drones, which have already killed several Israeli soldiers.

A buffer zone in southern Lebanon would do little to eliminate that threat, Heller told AFP, "for which it doesn't seem like the Israelis have an effective countermeasure."

Kahalani, however, was confident that Israel's military would eventually find a solution.

"I think the Israelis don't have a dream to stay there," he said, but "we have to destroy the Hezbollah. This is the moment."

© 2026 AFP

From Libyan Deserts To 3D-Printed Guns: The Weapons That Never Go Away

A side photo of the FGC-9 MKII Stingray. 

Photo Credit: Hot Sauce, Wikimedia Commons

June 2, 2026 
UN News
By Vibhu Mishra

Years after conflicts fade from the headlines, the weapons used to fight them often continue to circulate – crossing borders, fuelling crime and undermining an often-fragile peace. Now, ghost guns, 3D-printed firearms and increasingly sophisticated trafficking networks are creating new challenges for governments worldwide.

The issue is under scrutiny as delegates gather at UN Headquarters this week to tackle the global spread of illicit firearms – weapons that continue to fuel violence in communities long after wars end.

At the centre of discussions are emerging technologies that experts warn could make these illegal weapons easier to manufacture and harder to trace.


“Wars end – but unfortunately, the weapons that are used in that particular conflict would [then] not be under full control,” the UN’s top disarmament official, Izumi Nakamitsu, told UN News.

“They continue to circulate. They are sometimes hidden. They are brought across borders.”
‘Ghost guns’ and 3D firearms

One of the fastest-growing concerns involves so-called ghost guns – firearms assembled from parts or kits and lacking serial numbers – that are near impossible for authorities to trace.

Advances in 3D-printing technology have created additional challenges by allowing components – and in some cases entire and fully operational firearms – to be produced outside traditional manufacturing and regulatory systems.

The increasing availability and affordability of such technology has heightened concerns among governments that illicit firearms could become easier to make and harder to regulate.

“Those weapons or weapon parts, if they are disassembled and then trafficked, [are] more difficult to trace,” Ms. Nakamitsu said.
What are small arms and light weapons?

Small arms – such as pistols, revolvers and assault rifles – can be carried and operated by a single person. Light weapons include systems such as grenade launchers, machine guns and portable anti-aircraft or anti-tank weapons, that can be operated by a small crew.

Because they are relatively inexpensive, durable and easy to use, these weapons can remain in circulation for decades.

Ammunition is also a critical part of the challenge. Even when weapons are already circulating illicitly, continued access to ammunition can prolong their use in conflict, crime and terrorism.
When wars end, the guns remain

One frequently cited example is Libya, where weapons looted or diverted during and after the 2011 conflict which ended the rule of Muammar Gadaffi later surfaced across the wider Sahel region, including in Niger, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

Some were subsequently found in the hands of extremist groups, illustrating how arms from one conflict can destabilise neighbouring countries years later.

“The end of the conflict does not mean the end of the circulation of those weapons…it stays and it continues to harm people,” Ms. Nakamitsu said.
From crime to conflict

The impact varies by region but is widespread.


In Latin America and the Caribbean, illicit firearms are closely linked to organized crime and some of the world’s highest homicide rates. According to UN estimates, firearms account for between 70 and 80 per cent of violent deaths in parts of the region.

In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the proliferation of small arms can undermine peacebuilding effortslong after fighting subsides. Weapons retained by armed groups, militias or communities for self-protection can contribute to renewed violence and instability.
Beyond security concerns

The consequences also extend well beyond conflicts.

Illicit weapons are linked to human rights abuses, terrorism, and sexual and gender-based violence.

“It is not just a security issue. It is also about peacebuilding. It is about human rights. It is also about development,” Ms. Nakamitsu said.
The UN response

Recognising the dangers posed by small arms and light weapons, UN Member States adopted an action programme in 2001, committing to strengthen national legislation, improve stockpile security, combat illicit trafficking and expand international cooperation.

A major milestone followed in 2005 with the adoption of the International Tracing Instrument, which established global standards for marking, recording, and tracing the illegal weaponry.

The framework helps investigators identify where illicit weapons originated and how they entered illegal markets, while reducing the risk of diversion from legal stockpiles.


The UN supports implementation through technical assistance, policy guidance and capacity-building programmes aimed at helping governments secure weapons stockpiles, improve tracing systems and strengthen border controls.
Why it matters

Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan famously said small arms could well be the world’s real “weapons of mass destruction” because of the enormous number of deaths and injuries they cause.

The challenge is ultimately about more than deadly weapons. It is about reducing violence, protecting communities and preventing conflict from reigniting.

Ms. Nakamitsu said reducing the circulation of illicit firearms would benefit communities everywhere.

“It is a real issue for many people. We want proper control and regulation of small arms in all societies. That would definitely make everyone’s life safer and more secure.”

Student Astronomer Discovers ‘Rosetta Stone’ For Mysterious Cosmic Signals


These are antennas of CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder with the Milky Way overhead. Credit: Alex Cherney/CSIRO

June 2, 2026

By Eurasia Review


An international team led by astronomers at the University of Sydney has uncovered the clearest evidence yet for the origin of an unusual class of cosmic signals. In doing so, they have identified a rare stellar system that is providing scientists with a natural laboratory to study extreme physics.

Using CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope, the team discovered a small, dense star, called a white dwarf, shredding material from its larger, but less dense, companion star.

As this material spirals in, it produces powerful bursts of radio waves and X-rays in a cycle that repeats every 1.4 hours.

The findings are published in Nature Astronomy.

Lead author and PhD student Kovi Rose from the University of Sydney’s School of Physics and CSIRO said this provides the first confirmed identification of a what astronomers call ‘long-period radio transients’: cosmic pulses discovered from just a few remote regions of our galaxy.

“For the first time we have pinpointed the origin of these signals, confirming the source to be a ‘cataclysmic variable’, or an accreting white dwarf star,” said Mr Rose.

“Long-period radio transients have puzzled astronomers for years,” Mr Rose said. “We’ve only found about a dozen, and their origins have been unclear. Now, we’ve been able to show that the source for one of these transients comes from a white dwarf actively pulling material from a companion star.”
A rare and revealing system

The newly identified system, named ASKAP J1745−5051, consists of a white dwarf – a dense stellar remnant roughly the size of Earth but with the mass close to that of the Sun – paired with a larger but lower-mass red dwarf star of about one-tenth the Sun’s mass. The two stars orbit each other extremely closely, completing a full orbit in just over an hour.

As material from the less massive star is drawn towards the white dwarf, it heats up and emits X-rays. At the same time, interactions between the stars’ magnetic fields generate regular radio bursts, meaning the signal occurs at specific intervals.

“These emissions are all tied to the orbital motion of the system,” Mr Rose said. “But interestingly, the radio and X-ray signals don’t peak at the same time, which tells us they’re being produced in different regions of the system.”

The team found that the radio emission likely originates where the magnetic fields of the two stars meet and interact with the charged material being ripped from the companion star, producing tightly beamed bursts of radiation.
Solving a cosmic mystery

Long-period radio transients were initially thought to be slow-spinning neutron stars, known as pulsars. However, current models suggest neutron stars rotating this slowly should not be able to produce such signals.

The new discovery strengthens an alternative explanation: that at least some of these mysterious bursts come from systems of two stars, involving white dwarfs.

“Some similar objects had been linked to binary systems before, but this is the first one where we can clearly see both stars and the accretion process in action,” said Professor Murphy, Head of School at the University of Sydney School of Physics and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).

The system is also only the second known long-period radio transient to emit regular X-rays – and the first where the cause of the regularity has been confirmed.

A ‘Rosetta stone’ for future discoveries

This unique system was discovered using the ASKAP radio telescope, owned and operated by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. ASKAP’s mix of coverage, resolution, and sensitivity is unparalleled in radio astronomy, allowing for such unusual signals to be detected that would otherwise be missed.

The researchers say that ASKAP J1745-5051 could act as a reference point for understanding other long-period radio transients.

“This system gives us a way to decode these signals. It could help us determine whether other long-period transients are more like pulsars or like white dwarf systems, acting like a stellar Rosetta stone,” said Mr Rose, referring to the archaeological object discovered in Egypt that helped translate ancient hieroglyphics.

The discovery also provides a unique opportunity to study extreme plasma physics and magnetic interactions under conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth.

“These systems are natural laboratories,” Mr Rose said. “They allow us to test our understanding of how matter behaves in strong magnetic fields and under intense gravitational forces.”
Future research

The team plans further observations combining radio, optical and X-ray telescopes to better understand how these emissions are generated and whether similar mechanisms can explain the full population of long-period radio transients.


“Each new discovery is helping us piece together the bigger picture,” Mr Rose said. “We’re only just beginning to understand this new class of cosmic events.”

The international team included astronomers from the United States, China, Canada, Spain, Israel and Australia. The team used CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array and ASKAP radio telescopes in Australia, the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the SOAR and Magellan optical telescopes in Chile, and the space-based Swift (UV/X-ray) and Einstein Probe (X-ray) telescopes.

One Of The World’s Most Famous Wildlife Coexistence Scheme Falls Short



Dr Pettersson shadowed wildlife rangers in the Arctic.

CREDIT: University of York

June 2, 2026 

By Eurasia Review


A celebrated scheme for human-wildlife coexistence is now at risk of failing due to lack of long-term government investment, new research has found.

In 2015, Sweden was celebrated worldwide when a study revealed that its Conservation Performance Payment (CPP) scheme – the oldest of its kind – had successfully promoted the recovery of the endangered wolverine population.

Now, more than a decade after gaining international acclaim, the scheme designed to protect both wolverines and the Indigenous Sámi reindeer herders they share space with, is failing to sustain this success.

Research at the University of York in collaboration with the Swedish Agricultural University has shown that documented wolverine numbers have fallen significantly in its northern strongholds, with government funds frozen for the past 20 years, and communities reporting a lack of trust in the scheme.


The study, published in the journal Conservation Letters, highlights that government neglect of the financial and social consequences of long-term wildlife recovery can result in local communities left to shoulder the burden.

Dr Hanna Pettersson, from the University of York’s Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, said: “Implemented in 1996, the scheme was at the time revolutionary. Instead of paying reindeer herders for damages caused by predators, the government paid communities for coexisting with them, whether or not damage actually occurs.

“The idea is to tie an income to the presence of the predator, providing an incentive to find ways to live alongside them, thus decreasing conflicts and improving social justice.

“Initial findings showed encouraging results of the scheme, namely a marked increase of the wolverine population, but after studying 30 years of data from the scheme, we have shown that this success has not been sustained.”

Dr Pettersson shadowed wildlife rangers in the Arctic, and the research team combined ecological monitoring data with interviews in Norrbotten, Sweden’s northernmost county. The results showed a scheme in turmoil, and a warning sign for other global conservation initiatives.

The team found that while wolverines are expanding into southern Sweden, they are decreasing in their northern strongholds. In the early 2000s, Norrbotten accounted for two-thirds of all documented wolverine reproductions nationwide.

Today, that share has plummeted to less than one-third, and the region consistently misses its minimum conservation targets.

Dr Pettersson said: “The payments to the reindeer herders from the scheme have remained frozen at 200,000 SEK per predator reproduction since 2002, but due to rising costs and meat prices, the real value of the payment has approximately halved over the last two decades.

“While the Sámi Parliament calculates the legal payout should be at least 480,000 SEK to comply with the law, the government offered only a 25,000 SEK increase in 2024.”


The study also showed that the scheme had been challenged by climate change, which has altered Arctic snow conditions, making wolverine tracks difficult to find. This means that the number of documented wolverines may be inaccurate, and many clear sightings of them were disqualified by officials due to strict documentation rules.

Dr Pettersson said: “If a government fails to adapt payments to rising costs of coexistence, the burden is shifted onto local, often marginalized, communities, who in this case are already straining under the cumulative impacts of mining, forestry, and climate change.

“It is a warning sign for other global conservation efforts. Governments must plan ahead and adapt interventions to changing conditions and local needs.”

Pakistan: BLA Rampage In Balochistan – Analysis

June 2, 2026 
SATP
By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

On May 24, 2026, at least 30 people were killed and 50 were injured after a blast caused by a vehicle-borne suicide bombing tore through a shuttle train near Chaman Phatak in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The shuttle service was travelling from Quetta’s cantonment area to connect with the Jaffar Express long-distance train when the blast occurred, a Railways Ministry statement disclosed. Immediately after the blast, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch declared that the group accepted responsibility for what it called a “highly organized fidayeen attack” on a train carrying Pakistani military personnel.

On May 25, 2026, BLA released a detailed statement to the media, claiming the death of at least 82 military personnel and injuries to more than 121. According to the statement, the dead and wounded include junior commissioned officers (JCOs), non-commissioned officers (NCOs), soldiers, and newly recruited personnel. Spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch stated that this successful operation was a severe blow to the ‘enemy’ Army’s new and secret travel protocol, which was introduced after the March 11, 2025 Jaffar Express hijacking and the November 9, 2024, attack on Quetta Railway Station carried out by Majeed Brigade suicide bomber Rafiq Baloch.

On May 16, 2026, BLA cadres killed six SF personnel during a clash in the Bypass area of Dalbandin town in Chagai District. According to a statement issued by BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch, the SFs attempted to advance into the area after militants seized control of parts of Dalbandin town. Two military vehicles were disabled during the exchange of fire, forcing SF personnel to retreat from the area.


On May 16, 2026, BLA cadres killed three SF personnel in an ambush on a military convoy in the Abad area of Kanak in Mastung District. While claiming responsibility for the attack in a statement, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch asserted that several other SF personnel were injured and one military vehicle was disabled during the attack on the Quetta-Taftan Highway.

On May 15, 2026, BLA cadres killed two SF personnel during a clash in the Mal area of Nushki District. In a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said that BLA cadres had blocked the Quetta-Taftan Highway and conducted snap checking for several hours, during which four persons associated with the Saindak Project were also detained for interrogation.

On May 13, 2026, five SFs personnel were killed when the BLA cadres launched a heavy ambush on a SF checkpoint in the Kardgah area of Mastung District. In a BLA statement, spokesperson Azad Baloch claimed responsibility for the attack.

On May 12, 2026, two SF personnel were killed while one sustained injuries when BLA cadres attacked a SF checkpoint in the Mangochar area of Kalat District. According to a statement issued by BLA spokesperson Azad Baloch, the attack was carried out at around 10:00 AM. The outfit further claimed that surveillance cameras installed at the SF camp were destroyed during the attack.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 60 BLA-linked incidents have already been recorded in 2026, and at least 222 persons, including 48 civilians, 71 SF personnel and 103 militants, have been killed (data till May 31, 2026). During the corresponding period of 2025, 59 such incidents resulted in 245 fatalities, including 32 civilians, 159 SF personnel and 54 militants. The whole of 2025 recorded 134 incidents in which 454 persons were killed, including 54 civilians, 339 SF personnel and 61 militants.


Since the beginning of the Baloch insurgency, 2025 has recorded the highest levels of violence, driven largely by BLA, which carried out the majority of militant attacks. In the deadliest attack of 2025, BLA militants hijacked the Jaffar Express on March 11, after blowing up a section of the railway track near Dhadar in the Bolan District, disrupting the train’s journey from Quetta (Balochistan) to Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). More than 400 passengers were on board when the train was seized. In response, the Pakistan Army launched a rescue operation on March 12 and announced its conclusion on March 14, stating that all 33 militants involved had been killed. According to the Army, 26 hostages – including 18 SF personnel, three railway employees, and five civilians – were killed by the attackers before the retaliatory operation commenced. The military further reported that 354 hostages, including 37 injured passengers, were successfully rescued, while five Frontier Corps (FC) personnel lost their lives during the operation. BLA, however, disputed the official account, claiming that its fighters had inflicted a significant blow on the Pakistani military and had executed all 214 military personnel allegedly held hostage during the train siege.

While releasing its annual operations report for 2025, on January 7, 2026, BLA claimed at least 521 attacks across Balochistan, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,060 SF personnel. The report, titled Dhak, claimed that more than 556 personnel and informants were also injured in various attacks. BLA also claimed that it killed 75 people it labelled as informants, saying some were detained during raids and “sentenced to death” by a body it referred to as the “Baloch National Court.” The group said it carried out 15 “special operations” in 2025, four by the Majeed Brigade, six by the Fateh Squad and five by the Special Tactical Operations Squad (STOS). It added that its intelligence wing, the Zirab (Zypher Research and Analyses Bureau), played a key role in identifying targets and planning operations. The report claimed that BLA fighters conducted 212 explosions, including 112 improvised explosive device (IED) attacks, and destroyed 215 military vehicles and motorcycles, 35 quadcopters and surveillance drones, seven communication and surveillance towers, and three railway tracks. The group also said it seized 208 weapons from security forces and their collaborators, and further, that its members took control of 48 locations during the year, including what it described as military camps, Police and Levies stations, and the towns of Zehri, Mangochar, Surab, Mastung and Panjgur, and established more than 42 highway blockades across Balochistan. It claimed to have detained 366 people it referred to as “agents,” including some members of Pakistan’s armed forces.


Since August 1, 2004, when the first BLA-linked incident was recorded by SATP, at least 1,596 persons, including 353 civilians, 832 SF personnel, 391 militants, and 20 in the Not Specified category, have been killed (data till May 31, 2026). The first BLA-linked incident was recorded on August 1, 2004, when five soldiers and a civilian were killed in a targeted attack on SF vehicles in the Khuzdar District.

The persistence of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings by state agencies has contributed to the cycle of violence in Balochistan, fostering deep-seated grievances and fuelling retaliatory attacks by Baloch insurgent groups against SFs and state institutions. Civilians accused of collaborating with the State, including members of pro-government armed groups often referred to as “death squads,” have also been frequent targets of insurgent violence. The resulting security vacuum and instability have created conditions conducive to the growth of Islamist militant outfits, some of which have operated alongside or in parallel with Baloch insurgent groups. The principal insurgent groups active in the province include the BLA, Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), Balochistan Liberation Tigers (BLT), Baloch Republican Guards (BRG), Baloch Republican Army (BRA), Baloch National Army (BNA) and United Baloch Army (UBA). Among these, BLA has emerged as the most active and lethal insurgent formation, accounting for a significant proportion of major attacks in recent years.

Composed predominantly of members of the Marri and Bugti tribes, BLA emerged amid growing resentment in Balochistan over the exploitation of the province’s natural resources by the Pakistani state and the persistent neglect of its socio-economic development. The group is estimated to maintain a strength of approximately 6,000 cadres operating across Balochistan and in adjoining border regions of Afghanistan. Among its ideological and political forebears was Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti, the former Chief Minister and Governor of Balochistan, who was killed during a military operation on August 26, 2006 – a defining moment in the evolution of the contemporary Baloch insurgency. Following Bugti’s death, the leadership of BLA passed to Balach Marri, who remained at its helm until his death in Afghanistan on November 21, 2007. Thereafter, his brother, Hyrbyair Marri, assumed the leadership of the organization from exile in London, where he has continued to serve as its principal political figure. The group’s military operations are reportedly directed by current ‘commander-in-chief’ Bashir Zeb Baloch, who assumed command in 2018, following the death of its earlier leader Aslam Baloch.

Among the various Baloch insurgent groups, BLA is distinctive for maintaining a dedicated suicide unit known as the Majeed Brigade. The brigade is named after Majeed Langove Senior and Majeed Langove Junior, who are revered within the organization for carrying out suicide missions in August 1974 and March 2010, respectively. Majeed Senior attempted to assassinate then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto during an official visit to Quetta, reportedly in retaliation to the dismissal of the National Awami Party (NAP) Government in Balochistan. The attempt failed, and he was killed during the operation. Decades later, Majeed Junior died while resisting an SF raid on a militant hideout in Quetta’s Wahdat Colony, enabling his associates to escape. Following his death, senior BLA ‘commander’ Aslam Achu formalized the group’s suicide warfare capability through the creation of the Majeed Brigade, which is currently led by Hammal Rehan Baloch.


The brigade conducted its first vehicle-borne suicide attack on December 30, 2011, targeting tribal elder Shafiq Mengal, son of former acting Chief Minister and Federal Minister Naseer Mengal, on Arbab Karam Khan Road in Quetta. Shafiq Mengal had long been accused by Baloch nationalist circles of leading a pro-state militia “death squad,” involved in counter-insurgency activities against Baloch insurgents. While the intended target survived the attack unharmed, the bombing resulted in the deaths of 14 people, including women and children, and injured another 35, underscoring the significant civilian toll associated with the insurgency’s evolving tactics.

Beyond the Majeed Brigade, BLA also maintains a specialized operational wing known as STOS, reportedly under the command of Bashir Zeb Baloch. The unit is tasked with conducting intelligence-led operations against military personnel and the members of “death squads.” STOS primarily functions as the BLA’s intelligence and reconnaissance arm, focusing on surveillance, target identification, intelligence collection, and operational planning, to facilitate precision attacks against designated targets.

In May 2021, BLA established an elite combat unit known as the ‘Fateh Squad’, composed of highly trained and experienced cadres selected for their demonstrated battlefield proficiency and operational capabilities. The squad was named in honour of Fateh Qambrani, a prominent BLA militant who was killed during an assault on an Army camp in the Meshdari area of Shahrag tehsil in Harnai District in September 2018. According to the organization, Qambrani’s actions were instrumental in facilitating the capture of the military installation and he had previously played a significant role in several other insurgent operations. The Fateh Squad is reportedly tasked with spearheading high-risk assaults, with its cadres drawing on extensive combat experience to lead attacks on military and paramilitary installations. Acting as the vanguard of such operations, the unit is intended to breach defensive positions and create opportunities for follow-on forces to penetrate and secure targeted facilities.


On April 13, 2026, BLA announced the creation of a new maritime wing, the Hammal Maritime Defence Force (HMDF), and claimed responsibility for what it characterized as its first naval operation. The unit was named after Hammal Jiand Baloch, a historical figure associated with resistance against Portuguese incursions along the Makran coast during the sixteenth century, whom the organization portrays as a symbol of maritime resistance. In a statement issued to the media, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch asserted that HMDF had been established to safeguard what the group described as Baloch maritime interests, particularly in response to the alleged exploitation of coastal resources and the expanding security presence along the province’s coastline. The announcement followed an attack reportedly carried out on April 12, 2026, near the Jiwani area of Gwadar District, in which three personnel of the Pakistan Coast Guards (PCG) were killed after their patrol vessel came under fire at sea. The incident marked a notable development in the BLA’s operational evolution, suggesting an effort to expand its insurgent activities into the maritime domain.

Earlier, on February 12, 2026, BLA announced the operationalization of its dedicated aerial warfare and drone unit, QAHR (Qazi Aero Hive Rangers), marking a significant expansion of the organization’s technological and operational capabilities. In a statement issued to the media, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch stated that the unit had successfully completed its initial missions during the second phase of Operation Herof(Operation Dark Storm). According to the organization, the establishment of QAHR reflected an effort to adapt the Baloch insurgency to the evolving requirements of modern warfare through the integration of unmanned aerial systems and advanced operational technologies. The unit was named after senior BLA commander Abdul Basit Zehri, also known as Qazi, who was credited with promoting technological innovation, research, and institutional development within the movement and is regarded as a key figure in the unit’s creation. The spokesperson further claimed that QAHR’s inaugural operational deployments were conducted during Operation Herof II, with coordinated drone strikes targeting Gwadar Port highlighted as the most significant of these actions. The announcement underscored BLA’s growing emphasis on technological adaptation and the diversification of its insurgent capabilities beyond conventional guerrilla tactics.


BLA’s increasing strength and sophistication are reflected in the execution of Operation Herof, a two-phase coordinated campaign carried out in August 2024 and subsequently in February 2026. The first was conducted on August 25-26, 2024, with coordinated and simultaneous attacks across seven Districts. This was the largest act of retribution by any Baloch insurgent group. In the early morning of August 26, 2024, BLA cadres offloaded passengers from trucks and buses in the Rarasham area of Musakhail District and shot them after checking their identities. At least 23 Punjabi travellers were killed. The armed men also set fire to 10 vehicles. As the day progressed, Balochistan recorded multiple attacks across the province, which left at least 38 people dead, including the 23 in Musakhail. In response, SFs neutralised 21 terrorists and injured several others. BLA cadres then targeted Levies Forces and Police Stations in Mastung, Kalat, Pasni, and Suntsar, resulting in numerous casualties. Explosions and grenade attacks were reported in Sibi, Panjgur, Mastung, Turbat, Bela, and Quetta, with militants blowing up a railway track near Mastung. The ISPR issued a statement later in the day, claiming that 21 terrorists had been killed, while 14 SF personnel, including four from law enforcement agencies, were killed during ‘clearance operations’.

However, in a statement released on its official media, Hakkal, BLA announced the successful completion of its fidayeen Operation Hereof, claiming to have killed 130 military personnel during a series of coordinated attacks across Balochistan. BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch claimed that the group’s elite fidayeen unit, the Majeed Brigade, had maintained control over the Bela Army Camp for 20 hours, during which 68 military personnel were killed and dozens more injured. After achieving the objectives of Operation Herof, the roadblocks on all highways were lifted.

The second part of Operation Hereof was launched on January 31, 2026, when BLA cadres launched coordinated attacks at 48 locations across 14 cities in Balochistan, killing 84 personnel of the Army, Police, intelligence agencies and CTD. BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch stated that BLA had “taken control of multiple enemy posts, including central military headquarters,” and that movement of Pakistani forces had been “severely restricted.” According to the group, several units, including the Fateh Squad, the Majeed Brigade, the intelligence wing ZIRAB and STOS, were operating jointly across different Districts. On February 6, BLA said that the second phase of its campaign had successfully concluded. Jeeyand Baloch added that the operation began at 5 a.m. on January 31 and ended at 4 p.m. on February 6 after, according to the group, its “predefined objectives” were achieved, and the campaign had targeted 14 cities across Balochistan – termed the group’s “largest, most intense and most organised military operation.” He said 93 Baloch fighters were killed, including 50 from the Majeed Brigade, 26 from the Fateh Squad and 17 from STOS, while more than 362 Pakistani security personnel from the Army, Frontier Corps, Police and state-backed armed groups were killed.

Horrified by the continuous and escalating BLA attacks, security personnel have started hesitating to serve in Balochistan. After the first phase of Operation Hereof (August 25-26, 2024), while chairing the Provincial Apex Committee in Quetta on August 30, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif emphasized the need for the deployment of capable and talented officers in Balochistan, acknowledging that, due to security concerns, some officers hesitate to serve in the province. Announcing the policy, PM Sharif said half officers of the 48th Common Group of both Police and Civil side would be posted to Balochistan immediately for one year. The remaining half of the officers of the 48th Common Group would be posted after six months from their initial deployment, and would also serve for one year. Similarly, he said after one year, the first half of the officers from the 49th common group would be posted to Balochistan for one year. After one and a half years, the remaining half of the officers from the 49th group would be posted to Balochistan for one year. PM Sharif also announced that special incentives would be provided to officers deployed in Balochistan, including four air tickets for their families every three months. There is no readily available public evidence confirming implementation of these announced incentives.


With rising BLA attacks and roadblocks on all highways, security personnel and state functionaries no longer feel safe on Balochistan’s roads. Former Chief Minister and ex-speaker Jan Muhammad Jamali noted, on September 28, 2025, that Government ministers and party leaders could no longer travel safely by road, as armed groups expand their dominance over the region’s highways. On May 15, 2026, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader Sadiq Umrani emphasised that the security situation in Balochistan had deteriorated to the point where Ministers were unable to travel to their own areas by road. On May 22, 2026, Deputy Director and Commanding Officer of the Airport Security Force (ASF), Waseem Ahmed, was detained by BLA cadres during a snap-checking operation in Kalat District. In a brief statement issued to the media, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch confirmed that Waseem Ahmed was in the group’s custody.

Notwithstanding the Balochistan Government’s enforcement of Section 144 across the province on May 17, 2026, BLA demonstrated its operational capability by carrying out a large-scale attack in Quetta. BLA’s trajectory demonstrates a significant transformation from a conventional insurgent outfit into a highly adaptive and increasingly sophisticated militant outfit. Through the expansion of specialized units such as the Majeed Brigade, STOS, Fateh Squad, HMDF, and QAHR, the group has diversified its operational capabilities across land, maritime, and aerial domains. Its ability to conduct coordinated, large-scale attacks, impose highway blockades, target critical infrastructure, and challenge state authority across vast areas of Balochistan underscores a deteriorating security environment across and beyond the province.

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

How Consciousness Shapes Culture, Communication, And Shared Meaning – Analysis

June 2, 2026 
By Josh Fisher

Research suggests that human consciousness evolved as a cognitive filter, privileging and amplifying human-communicative inputs as a foundation for transmissive teaching and learning, language development, and, ultimately, cultural evolution and culture itself.

This piece explores human consciousness as the foundational engine of culture, tracing its evolution from early social learning in infants to the sophisticated shared meanings of prehistoric human communities. It examines how social consciousness—joint attention and reciprocal mirroring—enabled humans to transmit knowledge, develop language, and coordinate culturally, creating a feedback loop between individual and collective consciousness. The article draws on biology, anthropology, and linguistics, including case studies like Nicaraguan Sign Language, to illustrate how shared meaning emerges. Its central argument: consciousness facilitates transmissive teaching and learning, which underpins human cultural evolution and the cumulative growth of knowledge across generations.

Consciousness as Cognitive Filter

Research suggests that human consciousness evolved as a cognitive filter, privileging and amplifying human-communicative inputs as a foundation for language development, transmissive teaching and learning, and, ultimately, culture.

Fortunately, humans do not wait for a full understanding of things before they converse about them. Love is a good example, perhaps the best one. We have been talking about, singing about, painting, and dancing around “love” almost certainly from the beginning of our species’s communicative existence, and yet, what exactly love is, is a real question we could take up in earnest at any time without embarrassment. The same goes for concepts like maturity, character, respect, common sense, trust, leadership, normalcy, and, of course, consciousness. We can often do no better than to say merely that we know these things when we see them.


When humans do recognize consciousness, they tend to agree on a set of similar intuitive descriptions: it is like an inner self capable of observing our mental activity, an inner witness, or a piece of cerebral machinery that equips its owner with the sense that “I am” and “what it’s like to be me.”

We tend to speak of consciousness as something uniquely human, even after accounting for our scientific ignorance and allowing for the possibility of consciousness in “lower” animals, individual cells, or the entire universe.

Biological science furnishes us with its own constraining assumptions and intuitions about human consciousness: it likely evolved in some way across vast expanses of time; its roots likely stretch far back into prehistory; and it likely served, and perhaps continues to serve, an important purpose or set of purposes for the human species that possesses it, purposes that remain a mystery.

To this array of conversational and scientific intuitions, let us add those of archaeologists and anthropologists. The appearance of sophisticated tool refinement, the creation of art, the rise of elaborate burials, and the evolution of organized communities in the archaeological record are physical marks that are quintessentially human, indicators of consciousness, and as mysterious as they are.


It is likely that our various intuitions about consciousness are mostly true and that the mysteries connect. That is, human consciousness not only supplies us with a seemingly dualistic sense of “inner self” but also the one that represents the first click of the ratchet effect—the process responsible for cultural evolution and believed to be behind organized settlements, tool refinement, and art.

An infant sticks out its tongue, and their parent sticks out theirs. This phenomenon is known as human reciprocal mirroring. It is how social learning occurs. The infant imitates, then, crucially, pauses to monitor the parent’s reaction. Although non-human apes can occasionally manage this kind of behavioral imitation, they do not engage in reciprocal mirroring. In human infant-parent communication, each is aware that the other is aware that they are aware, a recursive process that represents an alignment of consciousness that goes back to the start of life. The infant is ready to be both observer and participant, actor and audience. It just needs the content of human social life (the scenes, experience, and knowledge) to start putting meat on the bones of this “inner self,” which is shaped by a rapidly changing social world. This same process of experience and learning from others is what gives social learning its footing. Nearly everything the infant will learn in its life will occur through this process.

What this exchange shows is that human consciousness, both social and individual, is what makes cumulative human culture possible. From the start, the mind is built to align with other minds, allowing knowledge to move between people and persist across time. Meaning is not merely passed along but stabilized and carried forward through this recursive awareness, so that what is learned does not vanish with the learner but becomes part of a shared, revisitable world.

How did our species arrive at this moment where all of its newest members are ready to learn, quickly and accurately, how to communicate?

Social Consciousness

Our story is generally thought to have started around 300,000 to 400,000 years ago with the consolidation of human social consciousness. This capacity can be described as “the spontaneous adoption of another person’s perspective,” as in the relationship between a parent and their infant. The increasing strength of this mutual attention in humans—especially, among groups of humans—gradually allowed for the generation of joint representations, or ‘objectified,’ agreed-upon percepts from the surrounding natural and social environments.


Human social consciousness—a term used here as an alternative to joint attention—forms both a literal and a figurative breeding ground for the consciousness we experience now. In simple terms, it can be understood as a communication channel. We witnessed this when the parent and infant were sticking out their tongues; joint attention automatically opens a channel, and the participants, parent and infant, communicatively imitate each other within it. Opening of communication channels also happens in larger groups, even with strangers. Each channel internally represents shared meanings, called joint representations, and participants can now point, imitate, use gestures and movements, vocal pitch, and other, even unintended, signals to coordinate within and across these social situations and explore them. The unconscious, automatic nature of this process is something we very much take for granted. For example, we will follow others across the street at a crosswalk, against the light, even though we are total strangers who have never spoken a word to each other, and never will again. We know without trying that everyone has the same joint representation.

The stage is now set for the gradual evolution of individual consciousness in humans, with tools of social consciousness becoming available to individuals at birth. This evolution allows communities to grow across vast spaces while remaining close-knit. Maybe it began in the Middle Paleolithic era (the Paleolithic era, characterized by the development of stone tools, extended between 3.3 million to 11,700 years ago) when little bands of humans begin to make some cultural progress, but only when they are together physically—a condition that fits well with Merlin Donald’s (1993) view that early human cognition remained heavily dependent on socially enacted forms of representation. This need for proximity makes cultural progress very slow because the necessity of staying together limits the sheer numbers, territorial reach, and outside cultural contacts of these human tribes. Even with a developing language and other signs of modern human sophistication, once a group’s culture became complex beyond a certain limit, generational change under social consciousness, without a robust individual consciousness, could only sustain it, not grow it further.

Shared Meaning: Gestures, Signs, and Grammars

It is reasonably likely that human tribes that were most successful at creating joint representations (i.e., shared meanings) across time and distance—quickly learning them, remembering them, and, importantly, coordinating themselves to them—were much better at adapting to the rapidly changing climates of the Pleistocene Epoch (from 3 million to 12,000 years ago).

Although they may not have had words at first, their emerging communication channels were by no means empty of content. A fairly sophisticated “folk physics” did not have to be effortfully shared and developed. For example, each member of the “superorganism” (groups of humans) automatically brings with them the intuition that “what goes up must come down,” which becomes part of objective joint representations. Similarly, humans experience shared emotions and shared inferences without words. Thus, humans started this process of developing shared meanings across time and space already equipped with several joint-representational hooks on which they could hang new vocabulary and new evidence of shared meaning. The shared landscape and environment also provided physical hooks: the stars are in relatively fixed positions, the mountains in the distance do not move, a nearby tree appears human-like, deviations from routine are noticeable, and certain animals predictably appear at specific locations at specific times. These stable representations become, for creatures with social and then individual consciousness, objects around which shared meaning becomes centered.


How did humans use these hooks to build language, constructing shared meanings outside immediate experience? As Israeli linguistic theorist Daniel Dor explains in his book The Instruction of Imagination, language was not a ready-made code inside individual minds but a public technology, one which groups of humans gradually invented to instruct one another’s imaginations. Speakers turned subjective experiences into compact, conventional instructions that helped listeners construct similar scenes in their minds. This process involves a mutually agreed-upon sign and its use in various situations. In this view, language (not just words, but a shared emotional, conceptual, and coordinative meaning) exists between people as a network of norms and conventions.

Functionally, the process, which follows the usage-based, joint-attention model of language development articulated by Michael Tomasello in Origins of Human Communication, can be summarized in a few steps:

1. Anchor

A speaker points or otherwise recruits joint attention to a salient, shared experience and pairs it with a form, for example, a gesture or sound. Gesture is often the most effective starting point, with pantomime and pointing supplying the first instructions, and vocalizations or hand signs becoming more useful as conventions accumulate.

2. Mutual identification

Others agree that this experience counts as the anchor for that form.

3. Generalization

Over repeated use, the group decides, often implicitly, what meanings the form can cover and where new distinctions deserve new signs.

4. Linkage

Signs (shared meanings) acquire relations to one another (e.g., exclusions, where the part can stand for the whole, causal links), building the basis of a language.

5. Procedural streamlining

Recurrent instruction patterns harden into grammar—negotiated constraints and sequencing routines that make the “instructions to imagine” faster and more reliable.

Dor emphasizes that this technology is negotiated and prone to error and repair; this is what real-time technology looks like.

Real-world cases echo these dynamics. In Nicaraguan Sign Language, for example, beginning in the late 1970s, children built a new language across cohorts. Earlier cohorts established basic conventional signs, and later cohorts introduced grammatical devices that segment and recombine events more systematically. Similar development of the structure of sign language, for instance, is also documented for Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. And of course, sign language has rules just as spoken language does.

These cases show communal anchoring, cohort-by-cohort generalization, and the crystallization of grammatical procedures, just what Dor’s book (and title)—”Instruction of the Imagination“—would predict for a socially engineered signal system and communication technology.

Individual Consciousness

This work of language building, of building shared meaning with language as an important byproduct, was inevitable. A shared external code of some kind, a public semantic code linking private experiences to each other, was really the only solution to solitude.

It was in this selection environment that individual traits that make people “better” contributors to the communal technology of shared meaning were selected. Some of the implicit evaluation criteria include: effective anchors; sensitivity to others’ attention and intentions; memory for conventions; rapid learning and generalization of these conventions; and fluency in applying them.

The pressures on our prehistoric human ancestors to construct shared meanings converged in ecological (territorial reach, dietary variety, etc.), social (group maintenance, teaching and learning, etc.), and sexual selection(communicative display, listener selectivity, etc.). This merging produced generations of human individuals increasingly ready to participate in, extend, and stabilize the shared code, or, again, the set of shared meanings, of a community.

Infant brains show specialized responses to human voices; they can distinguish the structure of speech from other signals long before they have any vocabulary or comprehension. When it comes to sight, human faces, bodies, and body parts, human movements, and gait are all attentionally prioritized. Even scenes of people interacting are selectively highlighted in the brain. Touch (stroking, caressing, holding, etc.) also plays an important role in transmitting communication.

With both social consciousness and individual consciousness in place, humans inherit two selves: a “we + me” communicative social self and a private self. Subjective awareness is the result of the social self communicating about its private experiences internally, or, more often, simply being automatically ready to do so.

The Purpose of Consciousness

Research on shared human intentionality and gene-culture coevolution thus suggests that social and individual consciousness together enabled human cultural evolution to develop in tandem with the biological evolution of the species. Children could now rapidly learn their culture’s shared code, but, much more importantly, consciousness enabled them to more rapidly learn their culture’s shared meanings, which are only partially represented in the society’s language. These shared meanings become important knowledgethat supports the tribe’s ability to survive and flourish. The human child comes ready to communicate and, thus, ready to contribute to those shared meanings.

Although many factors contribute to the success of Homo sapiens, the capacity for transmissive cultural teaching and learning, especially enabled and catalyzed by human consciousness, is a uniquely powerful factor in that success story. Paul L. Harris shows that humans learn almost everything they know from what epistemologists call “testimony”—learning from other humans, explicitly and communicatively. This includes learning about yourself and teaching others about who you think you are.


Children today learn voraciously, from language to the unwritten rules of playground games to the rhythms of popular music. As they grow older, they learn the shifting trends of dress and slang that define peer groups, how to behave on first dates, how to work at a first job, how to manage different identities (such as online versus offline personas), and how to cope with the loss of a loved one. This kind of knowledge simply cannot be had or shared without the presence and action of others, and it comprises a good deal of what we consider crucial to our lives.

The evidence, compiled across the literature and detailed in Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies by Lynne Kelly, The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich, and The Prehistory of the Mind by Steven Mithen, suggests that knowledge transmission and storage were also very important in the lives of prehistoric humans. Transmissions (teachings) were crafted to be memorable. So they were represented in stories and couched in memorably fantastic myths, which were danced, sung, written, or drawn in various ways to ensure preservation from one generation to the next. Kelly also argues quite powerfully that neurodiversities such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD have likely been with our species from the beginning of its cultural evolutionary journey, and provide significant benefits to variability in working with, maintaining, and transmitting verbal and spatial information within human culture.

Conclusion

Transmissive teaching and learning, which are the essence of cultural evolution, are our species’ superpower. And if that is the case, then human consciousness is the focus and form that this transmissive life inevitably takes. It is the capacity that allows meanings first exchanged between people to be carried forward, revisited, recombined, and answered for even in their absence.

There is very little mystery, in our view, as to why it emerges where meaning must be shared, preserved, and acted upon. When we understand these terms—teaching and learning—broadly, we see that they cover much more in our lives than “educating” narrowly defined. We transmit consolations and threats, and we offer congratulations and doubts; we explain, issue warnings, express commitments, and invite trust or resistance.


In doing so, we break out of our solitude. We come to know the world, ourselves, and others through meanings that did not originate with us, and we take action on that knowledge, for better or worse, within a web of shared expectations that long predates any single mind.

Author Bio: Josh Fisher is a writer and educational theorist whose work explores how human understanding emerges through shared practices and social coordination. Drawing on philosophy, psychology, cultural evolution theory, and the history of education, he examines a transmission-centered view of knowledge grounded in culture and collective meaning. He has more than three decades of experience developing curricula and has held senior roles in education publishing, where he helped design curriculum-integrated learning tools, including an AI tutor that improved student outcomes. He is a contributor to the Observatory.

Credit Line: This article was produced for the Observatory by the Independent Media Institute.