City light pollution is shrinking spiders' brains, new study finds

by Therésa Jones and Nikolas Willmott, The Conversation

 SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As darkness falls, the nocturnal half of the animal kingdom starts its day. Nocturnal species are perfectly adapted to navigate and survive the dark of night that has existed for countless millions of years.

What happens to these creatures when the darkness they call home is transformed by streetlights and other artificial night lighting?

In new research published in Biology Letters, we studied how light pollution affects the development of Australian garden orb weaving spiders. We discovered it makes their brains smaller, particularly in the regions devoted to vision—with unknown effects on their behavior.

What light pollution means for animals

Artificial light is one of the fastest-growing ways humans are polluting the world, and it has a huge range of effects on animals, plants and ecosystems. Recent evidence suggests the stress of living with light pollution may impair the growth and development of the brain in some birds and mammals.

This may be catastrophic. To survive in novel environments where light pollution is most common, such as cities, animals may actually need larger and more complex brains.

But what about insects and spiders and other, smaller creatures that inhabit the night? Could light pollution similarly affect the growth and development of their brains?

Our study on the nocturnal Australian garden orb weaving spider suggests it does.

More insects, but fewer offspring

The Australian garden orb weaving spider is a perfect species to explore this question. It lives happily in cities and rural areas where it constructs its webs each night in wide open areas (even under streetlights).

In previous studies we found urban spiders that build webs under streetlights catch more insect prey. We also showed that light at night has a cost because it accelerates juvenile development, resulting in smaller adults that produce fewer offspring.

In this current study we investigated whether developing under light at night also affects brain size in males and females.

To explore this question, we took late-juvenile spiders from relatively dark parks in Melbourne, Australia and reared them in the laboratory until they were adults.

During rearing, we kept half the spiders under darkness at night and exposed the other half to nocturnal lighting equivalent to the brightness of a streetlight.

Smaller brains, but why?

A few weeks after the spiders were fully grown, we assessed whether light at night had affected the development of their brains. As a spider brain is around the size of the nib of a ballpoint pen (less than a cubic millimeter), we used micro-CT imaging technology to visualize what was inside.

We found that short-term exposure to light at night resulted in overall smaller spider brain volumes. The strongest effects were seen in the area of the brain linked to vision in the spider's primary eyes.

These results are a first for invertebrates (animals with no backbone, such as insects and spiders), but they mirror what has been described in vertebrates. We can only speculate how these differences came about.

It is possible that the presence of light at night created a stressful environment that disrupted hormonal processes related to growth and development. However, if this were the case, we might expect to see all parts of the brain affected, which was not the case.

An alternative explanation is that spiders forced to develop under light at night changed their "investment" in different parts of the brain. Proper brain function is essential for an animal to navigate its environment, so under stressful conditions, limited resources may be directed to the more important parts of the brain. For spiders that don't rely on vision, like orb-weavers, they may compensate by reducing investment in the visual parts of the brain, as we found here.

Other invertebrates such as desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) show similar "neuroplastic shifts" in the visual center of their brain when they move from subterranean nest-tending to above-ground, vision-based foraging.

Why spiders—and their brains—matter

All this is quite interesting, but you might be wondering why we should care about light pollution affecting the size of a spider's brain.

Well, spiders are very important in an ecosystem. They eat other invertebrates, including many pest species such as flies and mosquitoes. Spiders are also important prey for other predators, such as birds and lizards.

If spiders' brains get smaller, it may affect their cognitive function and ability to perform these vital roles. We know from other species of birds and mammals that larger brains can help individuals survive in novel city environments and it is likely the same may be true for spiders.

This research also shows that the effects of light pollution on brain development extend to invertebrates as well as birds and mammals. The full effects of humanity's love of artificial lighting are likely much bigger than we yet understand.

More information: Nikolas J. Willmott et al, The effects of artificial light at night on spider brains, Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0202

Journal in formation: Biology Letters  ]

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New archaeological discoveries found frozen in Ice

Archaeologists have made several new discoveries during a study of ice patches in Lendbreen, Norway.

I

mage Credit : Secrets Of The Ice

By:Mark Milligan
Date: September 4, 2024
Archaeology


“Secrets Of The Ice” is a glacier archaeology program, dedicated to studying ice patches containing preserved artefacts and organic objects.
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Snowdrifts and ice patches can preserve organic remains for extended periods, as cold temperatures significantly slow down chemical and biological processes, nearly halting the degradation when temperatures reach freezing.


As part of a wider survey in the Breheimen National Park, situated in Norway’s Innlandet and Vestland counties, archaeologists have been surveying the area of Lendbreen.

Lendbreen is a glacier and mountain pass that served as an important trade route from the Roman era until the late Middle Ages. As the glacier has receded due to climate change, it has revealed a range of ancient artefacts that provide new insights into the history of human activity in the high-altitude regions of Norway.

Secrets Of The Ice

The survey has yielded the discovery of a 1300-year-old arrow, complete with a preserved shaft and iron arrowhead. The only part missing are the fletches, however, a faint imprint is still visible on the shaft.
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According to a press announcement on social media, the arrow has only recently melted from the ice, which was found in situ on the ice surface.


The researchers also recently found a horse’s canine tooth, likely belonging to one of the packhorses that traversed the Lendbreen pass during the Iron Age and Medieval period, in addition to a preserved piece of textile that dates from the Viking Age or Medieval Period.

At another survey site in August 2024, the team discovered scaring stick flags used for hunting deer, as well as a Viking-era arrowhead in the Jotunheimen Mountains.

Header Image Credit : Secrets Of The Ice

Sources : Secrets Of The Ice

 

H5N1 avian influenza virus found in multiple bird species in Antarctica

Birds in Antarctica. Credit: Ashley Bennison

A team of virologists with the U.K.'s Animal and Plant Health Agency, working with colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey, the KEMH Pathology and Food, Water & Environmental Laboratory, and the Department of Agriculture, both in the Falkland Islands, has found that the global spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus has made its way to multiple bird species in Antarctica.

In their paper published in Nature Communications, the group describes how they tested multiple birds for the virus in the region over the years 2022–23 and what they learned by doing so.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus, as its name suggests, infects mainly birds, though it has been found to infect a few mammals, including humans. It was first observed in 1959 and then again in 1997. Early outbreaks were stopped by mass killing of animals in the infected areas.

More recently, infections have become widespread, infecting birds, both wild and domestic, across the globe. Billions of birds have been killed, thus far, and there is no indication that the pandemic is slowing. In this new effort, the researchers have found that the virus has even made its way to birds living in Antarctica—one place on the planet that is generally safe from such outbreaks.

The researchers traveled to several sub-Antarctic and Antarctic sites and tested birds that were living there, finding infected birds in all the places they visited. They also noted that the virus was infecting multiple species, ranging from Antarctic terns, to South Georgia shags, to brown skuas. They also found the virus had infected several marine mammals, such as the southern elephant seal.

In conducting a genetic analysis of the viruses they found, the research team was able to determine that the virus had spread to the sub-Antarctic (likely via migratory birds) from South America, and from there to Antarctica. The team also tested two penguins, one a king and the other a southern rockhopper, and found no evidence of infection.

The research team concludes by noting that it is not yet known what sort of impact the virus is having on bird populations in Antarctica, but that their work highlights the need for more research in the region.

More information: Ashley C. Banyard et al, Detection and spread of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5N1 in the Antarctic Region, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51490-8

Journal information: Nature Communications© 2024 Science X Network

Chickens, ducks, seals and cows: A dangerous bird flu strain is knocking on Australia's door

 

SF Bay area study reveals chemical levels in bottled, tap and household-treated tap water

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A team of water technicians at water testing company SimpleLab has tested chemical levels in hundreds of water samples collected from bottles, household taps and treated tap water in the San Francisco Bay area. Their paper is published in the journal PLOS Water.

For many years, tap water in the average American home was consumed without hesitation, considered to be absolutely safe. Such beliefs have been tested in recent years, however, with reporting about lead in drinking water consumed by children in Flint, Michigan.

In response, many consumers have stopped drinking tap water and have turned instead to filters or even commercially sold bottled water. In this new effort, the team at SimpleLab tested drinking water from the three main sources available to people living in the San Francisco Bay area to see how they compared.

The work involved analyses of 100 samples of bottled water, 603 samples of tap water samples and 111 samples of household tap water that had been filtered using a Brita filter. They found that almost all the water samples they tested met federal drinking water health standards.

But they also found that chemical levels in filtered and bottled water were nearly equal, while water straight from the tap had much higher levels. The most common chemicals of concern, they note, were trihalomethanes, released when chlorine is used to disinfect the water. All three sources contained some amount of the chemicals.

Trihalomethanes have been linked to several health problems including liver damage, developmental delays and an increased risk of some types of cancers. They also note that their findings are not meant to alarm consumers—consumption of small amounts of trihalomethanes or the other chemicals that they found in the water is not likely to cause harm.

They conclude that most consumers would likely benefit from the use of a filter when drinking tap water. Doing so, they note, also makes water taste better.

More information: Samantha E. Bear et al, Bottled water, tap water and household-treated tap water–insight into potential health risks and aesthetic concerns in drinking water, PLOS Water (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pwat.0000272

Journal information: PLOS Water 

© 2024 Science X Network

Europe's drinking water contaminated by 'forever chemical': NGOs

Viewpoint: In the face of DEI backlash, belonging plays a key role to future success

by Andrea Carter, The Conversation

 SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have become increasingly visible in U.S. workplaces, especially over the past five years. However, DEI has recently come under attack, with companies scaling back their DEI plans.

As a professor of organizational psychology, I believe businesses should refine rather than abandon these efforts. Introducing a powerful concept, "belonging," could hold the key.

Although people mistakenly use "belonging" and "inclusion" interchangeably, their differences matter a lot—and can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction and organizational success.

What DEI is and why it's struggling

Diversity initiatives have a long history in American workplaces, but it's only recently that "DEI" has become a buzzword. DEI refers to policies and initiatives implemented by organizations to ensure fair treatment of and full participation by all people.

Adoption of formal DEI programs has seen significant growth. In 2019, around 64% of organizations had some form of DEI initiative. By 2023, this rose to 89%, demonstrating a clear upward trend.

Research shows that companies with diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets and are 87% better at making decisions. Additionally, 85% of CEOs report diverse workforces improving profitability. Despite this, a trend of businesses and schools significantly or completely eradicating their DEI initiatives has become prevalent in 2024.

What happened? While external factors contributed to the backlash, including political pressure and a changed legal environment, research suggests that problems with how DEI is conceptualized and practiced also bear a fair share of the blame.

Misunderstanding DEI

While diversity and inclusion are often well-intentioned, many organizations that approached change initiatives solely through diversity metrics have failed. Effective DEI strategy focuses on learning and development, mentorship, and allyship, extending beyond race and gender. The challenge comes from narrow views of DEI, driving oversimplifications and zero-sum thinking.

For example, people have multiple intersecting identities, with complex traits that often depend on social context. But some DEI efforts ignore that complexity, reducing employees to a single category, such as gender, race, age or disability status. That leaves people, regardless of whether they feel included in "ingroups" or "outgroups," feeling diminished.

Similarly, research shows that people's actions and opportunities are strongly influenced by their environment. But too often, DEI efforts place the responsibility for growth entirely on individuals. That actually reinforces people's biases because group dynamics and social structures shape collective behaviors.

When models fail to distribute accountability and responsibility effectively, collective behavior will uphold toxic environments.

To be fair, not all organizations have fallen into these traps. Those with leaders that adopted a more contemporary understanding of power and bias have developed more effective strategies for employees to thrive.

My research suggests that for DEI initiatives to succeed, respect and fairness must be present. These requirements are rooted in the foundations of belonging.

DEI's evolution: Integrating belonging for lasting impact

While belonging is related to inclusion, research shows it's much more than just a synonym.

Inclusion may focus on being seen, accepted and valued within a team or community. Belonging goes deeper, involving a genuine sense of connection and identity within a group.

To truly experience belonging, it's not enough to feel included; my research shows that five critical indicators must also be present.

These elements ensure that individuals feel a deep, meaningful attachment to the group, which inclusion alone cannot fully achieve. This distinction underscores that belonging is a unique and essential experience, distinct from inclusion, and critical for fostering a truly cohesive and supportive environment.

So what are the five indicators of belonging? They are comfort, connection, contribution, psychological safety and well-being, and all of them can be measured.

When an environment is high in each of the five indicators, and the measured gap between the ingroup and outgroup is low, it suggests an environment where responsibility for creating opportunities to thrive is shared and balanced. Let's unpack these concepts:

1. Comfort. When an organization is high in comfort, people feel seen for who they are. This requires them to accept that others have complex, sometimes contradictory identities, and to adopt a mindset of awareness. Perhaps counterintuitively, achieving comfort requires being a little uncomfortable, too. That's because respectfully seeing and being seen means acknowledging other people's discomfort.

2. Connection. Connection is the need to be known and trusted. For an organization to score high on connection, people will be aligned on values and goals. Connection creates a shared sense of responsibility and accountability. This shared responsibility is a foundation for empathy, since trust and fairness are born from understanding and empathizing with the social and emotional needs of others.

3. Contribution. An organization high in contribution values its members for the unique and diverse attributes they bring to the table. In belonging environments, an individual's contribution is evaluated through curiosity and openness; ideas and perspectives are shared to influence and challenge the status quo, driving innovation and creativity. When someone is genuinely acknowledged for their contributions, both they and their team feel fulfilled.

4. Psychological safety. When a person is genuinely accepted into a group, making a mistake or even failing is seen as a chance to learn and grow, not an opportunity to shame, blame or exclude. This is the essence of psychological safety. In cases where people's perspectives are dramatically different, psychological safety requires everyone to reflect and put themselves in the shoes of the other to respect their differences and be accountable for behavior.

5. Well-being. In an organization high in well-being, members' experiences are considered and cared for. This requires everyone to share responsibility for caring for individuals, groups, teams and the organization as a whole, each with their authentic needs.

Belonging, based on my research, is not just a buzzword; it's the bedrock of a thriving, innovative workplace. Leaders who understand this and take action can enhance individual well-being while unlocking the full potential of their teams.

By committing to building environments where the indicators of belonging are prioritized, leaders can ignite passion, loyalty and excellence in their workplaces.

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

DEI policies work best when they are designed to include everyone and are backed by evidence, says researcher

Māori king's daughter crowned as king buried

Ali Abbas Ahmadi
BBC News

BBC
The newly crowned Māori monarch Queen Ngâwai Hono I Te Pô

A new queen was crowned as the eighth Māori monarch in New Zealand as her father, King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, was laid to rest.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ngā Wai hono i te pō was chosen as Kuini by a council of New Zealand's indigenous Māori chiefs during an elaborate ceremony in the country's North Island.

She is only the second Māori queen, the first being her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

Ngā Wai hono i te pō is the youngest child of King Tuheitia, who died last Friday at the age of 69.



Sitting on a carved wooden throne, the new queen was announced at a gathering at Tûrangawaewae Marae, which is the seat of the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement.

She sat in front of her father's coffin, wearing a wreath and a cloak as prayers and chants were performed ahead of his burial.

A flotilla of war canoes then transported the king - who laid in state for six days before his burial - to his final resting place on Mount Taupiri, sacred to the Māori people.

The king had been recovering from heart surgery in hospital when he died, just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.

"The death of Kiingi Tuheitia is a moment of great sadness for followers of Te Kiingitanga, Maaoridom and the entire nation," Rahui Papa, spokesman for the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement said at the time. "A chief who has passed to the great beyond. Rest in love."

“Our country will be in mourning,” said Chris Hipkins, leader of New Zealand’s opposition Labour party, shortly after the king's death. “He was a fantastic king with a wicked sense of humour, but also a very good man… with a real focus on bringing New Zealanders together.”

New Zealand’s prime minister Christoper Luxon praised King Tuheitia as a leader "whose commitment to Māori and all New Zealanders has been felt right across the country".

However, Mr Luxon – whose policies have been accused by some indigenous New Zealanders of being anti-Māori – is on an official trip to South Korea and has not attended the funeral.

Last year thousands of protesters across New Zealand rallied against the government's plans to reverse policies which boosted Indigenous rights, including plans to close the Māori Health Authority, Te Aka Whai Ora, set up during Jacinda Ardern's Labour government and to switch the names of some departments from Māori to English.

King Tuheitia’s official period of mourning was extended from the usual three days to seven days, in order to accommodate the huge delegations that came to pay tribute to the king.

“I have never experienced anything like this,” Mereana Hond, a Māori journalist told BBC Newsday.

“It is no small thing to lose a king, but he was just really starting to rise to prominence, leading all tribes of Altara and New Zealand at a time when we're under a lot of political and social pressure under this coalition.”

The king was born Tūheitia Paki in 1955. He was crowned in 2006 following the death of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

Like his mother, King Tuheitia was seen as a great unifying figure - recently calling on Māori to stand together in the face of policies targeting them.

The Māori monarchy dates back to 1858, when the Māori people decided to create a unifying figure similar to that of a European monarch in order to try and prevent the widespread loss of land to New Zealand's British colonisers and to preserve Māori culture. The role is largely ceremonial.

White House signals it may block sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel
September 04, 2024 
 PMBy Associated Press
FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, campaigns with President Joe Biden at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sept. 2, 2024.

WASHINGTON —

The White House is signaling an openness to blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, as a government review of the proposed takeover by the Japanese company is wrapping up.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Joe Biden plans to stop the deal from going forward. A White House official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the matter, did not deny the report and said Biden still needs to receive the official recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). That review could end as soon as this month.

Biden had voiced his objections to the merger, backing his supporters in the United Steelworkers union who oppose the deal. The objection carries weight as U.S. Steel is headquartered in the swing state of Pennsylvania and is a symbol of Pittsburgh's industrial might in an election year when Republicans and Democrats alike are promising more domestic manufacturing jobs.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, came out against the deal this week. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has said he would block the merger if he were still in the White House.

Stock in U.S. Steel fell roughly 17% on the news that Biden would stop the merger.

The CFIUS review process generally pertains to business issues with national security implications. U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said in an email that the company had not received any update on the process and that the company sees "no national security issues associated with this transaction, as Japan is one of our most staunch allies."

"We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction, which is best future for Pennsylvania, American steelmaking, and all of our stakeholders, closes," Malkowski said.

A spokesman representing Nippon Steel said the company had not received any updates from the federal government on the review process.

U.S. Steel on Wednesday hosted a rally in support of the acquisition. It said in a statement that without the Nippon Steel deal the company would "largely pivot away from its blast furnace facilities, putting thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk, negatively impacting numerous communities across the locations where its facilities exist, and depriving the American steel industry of an opportunity to better compete on the global stage."

 

PNG

Bougainville to ‘raise the flag’ in international push of independence plans

Stefan Armbruster
2024.09.04
Brisbane

People queue to vote in Bougainville’s independence referendum from Papua New Guinea in Buka, the capital of the autonomous region, pictured on Nov. 23, 2019. Stefan Armbruster/BenarNews

Establishing ties with the Melanesian Spearhead Group will be the first priority for the Autonomous Government of Bougainville’s newly created “external relations” office, as it prepares for independence from Papua New Guinea.

The province voted 97.7% in favor of independence in a 2019 referendum that is yet to be ratified by PNG’s parliament, but Bougainville’s President Ishmael Toroama told BenarNews it would happen regardless in 2027.

Unlike Indonesia’s Papuan provinces, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Guam and American Samoa - which were or are part of the U.N. decolonization process - Bougainville’s self-determination is mandated through the PNG constitution.

Under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement – after a brutal civil war triggered by Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine – PNG retains responsibility for foreign affairs but allows for the ABG to engage externally, for trade and with “regional organizations.”

“To raise, to put a flag at the MSG is one step forward into reality,” Toroama told BenarNews in Brisbane. “I think we start with the MSG first, we are looking to become an observer,.” 

“We need countries to support us, we need to talk to those countries (ahead of independence),” said the former Bougainville Revolutionary Army commander who will face elections in 2025 after five-years in office.

Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama speaks with diaspora community members in Brisbane during draft constitution consultations, pictured on Sept. 2, 2024. [Stefan Armbruster/BenarNews]

The MSG was formalized as a sub-regional grouping in 2007 – comprising Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of New Caledonia – primarily to promote economic growth in the Melanesian region. 

An ABG approach has not yet been made to the MSG but in the meantime, Toroama is looking to foster international economic ties. 

In July, the ABG created the External Relations Directorate under the office of the president, with former politician Albert Punghau as acting director and former Bougainville president James Tanis as an “international legate”.

The move was welcomed in a letter from the PNG prime minister’s department as an “important step.”

“Given this, my expectation is that the Directorate will liaise closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs on any foreign relations activities. This will ensure alignment on foreign relation matters with national government policies,” chief secretary of the PNG government Ivan Pomaleu wrote to the ABG on July 22, copying Prime Minister James Marape.

Written advice provided to Pomaleu, seen by BenarNews, states, “Under the BPA, the ABG has every right to establish the Directorate to enable the ABG to better engage in foreign relation activities and it could be argued that this is long overdue.”

Former Bougainville president and External Relations Directorate international legate James Tanis speaks with delegates at ANU State of the Pacific conference in Canberra, pictured on Sept 5, 2024. [Sue Ahearn/BenarNews]

Last September, Bougainville’s government called on the U.S., Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China for foreign direct investment, adding “these are the very nations we will establish diplomatic relations with as an independent sovereign nation.”

Toroama says the ABG has respected the peace agreement on the foreign affairs front, by not engaging directly with foreign governments, but it does allow “economically starting to engage with whatever nations that will be available.”

Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country with an estimated 12 million people, is a focus of intensifying U.S.-China rivalry for influence in the Pacific. The easternmost islands of Bougainville, home to about 350,000 people and ethnically closer to Solomon Islands, is the site of the long-inactive Panguna mine.

One of the most resource-rich areas of PNG, Bougainville has the world’s largest copper reserves, gold and tuna. Toroama sees the resources as the basis for its future economy, where there is currently almost none.

There is little reliable available data on the Bougainville’s mainly agricultural, fisheries and alluvial mining based economy. Restarting the Panguna mine would take many years and cost billions of dollars.

The former BRA officer during the civil war said he is inspired by the vision of his late former commander Francis Ona of creating a Pacific economic powerhouse.

“It’s just testing the waters. What I’m saying here is we have colonial partners, if you cannot come in, then we have the last card, the Chinese card, that I will be playing. So I’m very frank and honest,” Toroama said.

“The (Chinese) corporations, they’ve been to visit Bougainville. They have spoken but not in real terms, into signing an agreement. Not yet.”

Satellite photo of the abandoned former Rio Tinto Panguna mine (center) in Bougainville, with the regional capital Arawa (top left) and tailings waste spilling downstream (bottom right), pictured Sept. 26, 2017. [Trevor Hammond/Planet Labs via Reuters]

Toroama said there’s little interest from the U.S. - despite a visit to meet investors in Washington last year - or Japan. Most engagement is from the Australian government and investors, but he said there are legacy issues to deal with.

“They’re putting money in, but it’s a piecemeal package if you compare Panguna mine and what resources have been taken out. It’s just nothing,” he said. 

“You have dug that hole, you have been benefitting out of the Panguna mine.”

The environmental and social impacts of the giant Rio Tinto Panguna mine and inequitable distribution of revenues sparked the Bougainville ‘crisis’. 

An estimated 10,000-15,000 people died in a decade-long civil war between Bougainville and PNG that ended with a peace agreement in 2001, leading to the referendum in 2019.

Papua New Guinea’s Marape government missed the agreed 2023 deadline for parliament to debate the referendum result and decide on the semi-autonomous region’s independence aspirations. 

While recognizing the different circumstances, Toroama fears “the window of opportunity” for independence is almost closed for West Papua, closing for New Caledonia, and that could also happen to Bougainville. 

“What I’m saying to my fellow Bougainvilleans, if we cannot make this happen within this given timeframe, I think Bougainville will be lost forever,” he said.

“We are not going to compromise the legal basis we are setting. If the national government will not ratify our independence, whether Pacific islands like it or not, Bougainville sovereignty is there.”

Bougainville diaspora community, commissioners and ABG officials celebrate at the end of two days of draft constitution consultations, pictured on Sept. 1, 2024. [Stefan Armbruster/BenarNews]

At the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Tonga last month, Marape told BenarNews that Bougainville’s independence is an internal matter to be decided by PNG’s parliament. 

Bougainville’s government wants to achieve independence by 2027 but has faced opposition from PNG’s leaders, who fear it could encourage secessionist movements in other regions of the volatile Pacific island country. 

The two sides are far apart and have just appointed a moderator over whether a parliamentary vote is by simple or two-thirds majority to approve or reject independence.

“That is the point of argument and if that (two-thirds) goes into place, it would be a disaster for Bougainville,” Toroama said.

In Brisbane for diaspora consultations on the draft Bougainville constitution last weekend, Toroama said there’s “still a lot of work to do” and “time is against us” for meeting a tentative December deadline for completion.

Issues still being considered range from the design of the flag and name of the currency to landowner rights and definition of citizenship.

“The whole process for getting the constitution, that it is a platform that we will be using to declare Bougainville independence,” he said.

“Bougainville has been known for unilateral declarations,” he added, referring to two previous independence bids. 

Strictest abortion-ban states offer least family support

'Pro-life attitude begins at conception but ends there as well'

September 4, 2024 | By Kristin Samuelson

States with the most severe post-Dobbs abortion restrictions also have the fewest policies in place to support raising families, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.


States with the most severe post-Dobbs abortion restrictions also have the fewest policies in place to support raising families, reports a Northwestern Medicine study, published Sept. 4 in the American Journal of Public Health.

“We found that in the states that most severely restrict abortion, the women, children and families that abortion proponents seek to ‘protect’ are the populations that are left behind — with less access to health care and family social services — when pregnancy is continued,” said lead and corresponding author Dr. Nigel Madden, a recent graduate of the fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and now an instructor at Harvard Medical School and physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

This is one of the only academic studies to systematically examine the intersection between post-Dobbs state abortion policy and state access to reproductive health care and family social policies and programs.

“Proponents of abortion restrictions, who identify as ‘pro-life,’ assert that these policies are essential to protect children, women and families,” said senior author Dr. Lynn Yee, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg and a Northwestern Medicine physician. “It would seem in these states that the abortion-opponent, ‘pro-life’ attitude not only begins at conception but ends there as well.”

Certain groups disproportionally bear a greater burden from abortion bans, the study authors said. Previous research has found that people of low socioeconomic status and marginalized people are more likely to seek abortion, and they’re also less likely to be able to overcome barriers imposed by abortion bans and restrictions, such as needing to travel out of state to receive care.
How support is lacking

Compared to the least restrictive states, the study found states with more severe abortion restrictions are:More likely to have lower enrollment in state-funded assistance programs, such as the nutrition-assistance Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, because women and families in these states are required to be poorer to qualify for these programs
Less likely to implement policies that support families, such as paid family leave. Of the states with the most restrictive abortion bans, none have a mandatory paid family leave policy
More likely to limit access to reproductive health care
Less likely to have policies in place that allow for pharmacists to prescribe birth control (42.9% vs. 82.4% of the least restrictive states)

“The degree to which these states fail to support their most disadvantaged populations warrants immediate attention and action,” said co-author Katie Watson, professor of medical education, medical social sciences and obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg.



It would seem in these states that the abortion-opponent, ‘pro-life’ attitude not only begins at conception but ends there as well.”Dr. Lynn Yee


“Advocates should take this opportunity to leverage the child protection arguments of anti-abortion policymakers and encourage them to put their money where their mouth is by advocating for the implementation and improvement of policies that support individual and family well-being.”

This might include adding new policies like postpartum Medicaid expansion or paid family and medical leave; increasing eligibility for state-based assistance programs like WIC and TANF or creating new programs like mobile health clinics to serve pregnant people in maternity care deserts, the study authors said.
Breakdown of abortion restrictions by state

The study categorized states into three post-Dobbs abortion-restriction groups based on state abortion policies as of December 2023:

Most restrictive group: Includes 21 states in which abortion is severely restricted, 14 of which have complete abortion bans with very limited exceptions and 7 of which have an early gestational age ban of 6–18 weeks’ gestation
Moderately restrictive group: Includes states in which abortion is legally available, but Medicaid coverage of abortion is prohibited, making abortion largely inaccessible to a significant portion of the population. These states also often have additional restrictive and burdensome policies (i.e. waiting periods, mandatory parental notification for monitors, etc.) in place
Least restrictive group: Includes states in which abortion is both legally available and accessible. These states have either no gestational age ban or ban abortion at 24 weeks’ gestation or later and allow Medicaid funds to pay for abortion

More young police officers and firefighters in S. Korea quitting over heavy workload, low pay

A first-year police officer in South Korea earns $1,800 per month, less than what a minimum wage worker would earn. PHOTO: AFP

Sep 05, 2024,

SEOUL – A growing number of young police officers and firefighters in South Korea are quitting their jobs due to the heavy workload and low wages, data showed on Sept 4.

According to data from the National Police Agency submitted to Representative Shin Jung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of police officers with less than 10 years of service who resigned voluntarily nearly doubled from 155 in 2022 to 301 in 2023. Similarly, 125 firefighters with less than 10 years of service resigned in 2023, compared with 98 in 2022.

In the first half of 2024 alone, 162 police officers and 60 firefighters have already left their posts.


The proportion of junior officers among all resignations is also on the rise.

Among police officers, those with less than 10 years of service accounted for 63 per cent of all resignations in 2022. This figure rose to 72.7 per cent in 2023 and 77.1 per cent in the first half of 2024. A similar pattern is observed among firefighters, with the rate increasing from 62.8 per cent in 2022 to 72.2 per cent in 2023, and 75 per cent in the first half of 2024.

This trend is reflected in the recruitment process, where fewer people are applying for the job.

In the first half of 2024, the competition rate for police recruitment was 9.9 to 1 for men and 24.6 to 1 for women. It was the first time in two decades that the ratio for men dropped to single digits. The competition rate for firefighter positions also declined, from 13.8 to 1 in 2023 to 11.5 to 1 in 2024.

This figure is in line with a broader trend of the younger generation turning away from government jobs. In 2024, the competition for an entry-level civil servant was the lowest in 32 years since 1992.

Low pay and overwork are seen as major reasons why many young officers decide to leave. Currently, a first-year police officer receives about 1.87 million won (S$1,800) a month in base salary, less than the approximately two million won that one would earn by working the same hours for minimum wage. Firefighters receive wages in a similar range as well.

While they receive lunch stipends, overtime pay and other benefits, their salary is much lower than those working for private companies.

Experts are concerned that the growing number of junior police officers’ and firefighters’ resignations could hurt patrol coverage and responses to emergencies.