tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-westminster-916/articlesThe University of Westminster2024-03-20T16:35:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235822024-03-20T16:35:50Z2024-03-20T16:35:50ZFriend-shoring: what Biden wants to achieve by trading with allies rather than rivals<p>The tendency to move production and trade away from countries considered to be political rivals or national security risks and towards allies, so-called <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0714">“friend-shoring”</a>, is a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/friendshoring-global-trade-buzzwords/">hot topic</a> among economists. The term popped up during the COVID pandemic, a time of significant disruption to supply chains, and gained further traction when Russia invaded Ukraine.</p>
<p>One of the most high-profile results of a friend-shoring policy is that Canada and Mexico have recently replaced China as America’s largest trading partners by total trade, while Mexico has overtaken China as America’s top importer (see figures below). This followed the introduction of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zhaohui-Wang-22/publication/338085025_Understanding_Trump's_Trade_Policy_with_China_International_Pressures_Meet_Domestic_Politics/links/5fdf5d53299bf140882f7481/Understanding-Trumps-Trade-Policy-with-China-International-Pressures-Meet-Domestic-Politics.pdf">Donald Trump’s trade strategy</a>, which aimed to reduce US dependence on Chinese goods – partly for political reasons and partly because of Trump’s perception of China as a rival power. </p>
<p>Joe Biden has also <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/09/biden-to-sign-chips-act-china-competition-bill.html">placed restrictions on trade</a> with China in an attempt to strengthen US competitiveness with China and grow the US tech industry.</p>
<p>The US <a href="https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2019/us-china-trade-war-tariffs-date-chart">raised tariffs</a> on imports from China significantly during the Trump administration. These levels remain high, making the costs of importing goods from China to the US more expensive. </p>
<p>In addition, the International Labor Organization Global Wage <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_862569.pdf">Report 2022-23</a> shows that China has experienced the highest rate of real wage growth among all G20 countries over the period 2008-22, also pushing up the price of Chinese goods. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/08/30/what-is-friendshoring">Biden administration</a> continues to champion friend-shoring, which has further encouraged companies to shift production from China to Mexico as they weigh up geopolitical risks against differences in the costs of production. </p>
<p>While data on the number of firms relocating production is not available, the latest trade data (see Figures 1 and 2) suggests Mexico has managed to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2ca4da83-f858-4215-88e7-544adf0aa18e">capitalise</a> on the US-China rivalry.</p>
<p>Closer relationships with allies can be created by forming new trade agreements, for example, the <a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement#:%7E:text=The%20United%20States%2DMexico%2DCanada%20Agreement%20(USMCA)%20entered,farmers%2C%20ranchers%2C%20and%20businesses.">US, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA)</a>, which is more about geopolitics and friend-shoring than lowering tariff barriers as was the case of its predecessor, the <a href="https://www.trade.gov/north-american-free-trade-agreement-nafta">North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta)</a>. </p>
<p>But the USMCA was also a product of its time. US political will had shifted towards undermining political competitors and setting out anti-China political statements that resonated with voters. </p>
<p>Trump, a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/naftas-economic-impact">consistent critic of Nafta</a>, had argued that it undermined American jobs and wages, a statement that undoubtedly played well in US industrial states experiencing manufacturing decline. A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggested that far more US jobs were lost due to <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21906/w21906.pdf">competition with China</a>.</p>
<h2>Doing business with your friends</h2>
<p>Friend-shoring is a new term for something that has been around for a long time. Countries engaged in sanctions, blockades, and friend-shoring during the first and second world wars on a much <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300270488/the-economic-weapon/">larger scale</a>. </p>
<p>In 1948, the US initiated economic sanctions against the Soviet Union, a 50-year-long strategy that started with export restrictions and was solidified by the Export Control Act of 1949. </p>
<p>These sanctions, intensified after the Battle Act of 1951, were aimed at limiting strategic goods to the Soviet bloc and became a permanent fixture of cold war policy following the escalation of the <a href="https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Embargoes-and-Sanctions-Cold-war-sanctions.html">Korean war</a>.</p>
<p>Data analysis shows how trade responds to political factors. For over sixty years, trade economists have made extensive use of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4037001">the gravity model</a> of trade, which has provided empirical evidence that countries tend to trade more with countries geographically closer to them as well as where there is a common language, common legal system, common exchange rate regime and shared colonial history. </p>
<p>Research also shows how political distance between countries and formal military alliances affects trade. </p>
<p><strong>Value of US imports from top five trading partners in 2010-23:</strong></p>
<p><strong>US trade with countries by value:</strong></p>
<p>Governments can use trade policy to strategically support their own industries, so reducing trade with rivals can be part of a political agenda based on boosting domestic manufacturing (and jobs) rather than relying on imports. The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/">US Chips and Science</a> Act, and in the EU, the <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/european-chips-act_en">European Chips Act</a>, are examples of policies that can inflict economic pain on adversaries while ensuring domestic production of this key component in high-technology manufacturing. </p>
<p>However, developing an industry takes time. By the time the industry is established, it <a href="https://www.piie.com/publications/piie-briefings/2021/scoring-50-years-us-industrial-policy-1970-2020">may not pay off</a>, either due to falling prices caused by increased supply or an economic slowdown that suppresses demand. </p>
<p>In the case of US chips, it is particularly interesting to note that the existing industry focuses on design and production of high-quality chips. Therefore, the latest policy will see low-cost microchips, the mainstay of the Chinese chip industry, start to be produced in the US and compete with the established US high-end suppliers. </p>
<p>The US has experienced the negative effects of these types of policies before. Just consider the US support for the steel industry, a popular choice among US presidents, including the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e0219409-b863-41fb-bbcb-6be9ad6f0a4e?emailId=c8a49fc1-229a-4246-984b-42598eccb2e6&segmentId=2785c52b-1c00-edaa-29be-7452cf90b5a2">current administration</a>. Under the Trump administration, this saw <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-steel-and-aluminum-tariffs-are-cascading-out-control">25% tariffs</a> imposed on steel imports, which benefited the US industry but imposed costs on steel users. </p>
<p>Countries such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-special-relationship-australia-safe-from-trump-s-tariffs-for-now-20190603-p51tyr.html">Australia</a> were exempt from this policy, while <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-steel-and-aluminum-tariffs-are-cascading-out-control">other allies</a>, such as the EU, were hit hard. Industrial policy can reduce dependence on rivals, but it’s not clear that friends always get special treatment.</p>
<p>Other policies can tie in with a friend-shoring agenda. The new generation of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/twec.13213">EU trade agreements</a> deal with issues including labour rights and environmental protection, making it clear that third countries that want to do business with the EU need to meet the same standards. The EU has also been debating new anti-forced labour legislation, so this type of legislation may also start to get more serious consideration in the UK, for instance.</p>
<p>Friend-shoring policies aren’t new, but the slogan is. Self-sufficiency at the national level can inflict short-term pain on adversaries but may hold limited benefits in the medium term. However, there is broader acceptance that businesses need to have the certainty of trading bloc friends. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.oecd.org/trade/topics/regional-trade-agreements/#:%7E:text=Regional%20trade%20agreements%20(RTAs)%20cover,World%20Trade%20Organization%20(WTO).">Half of all trade</a> currently takes place between members of trade blocs, and recent trade data for the US and Mexico (see figures above) suggests that trade blocs may become more important over time as production moves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada and Mexico have replaced China as the US’s largest trading partners, due to friend-shoring policies.Karen Jackson, Reader in Economics, University of WestminsterOleksandr Shepotylo, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250362024-03-14T17:19:11Z2024-03-14T17:19:11ZIs it ethical to watch AI pornography?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580230/original/file-20240306-30-un3efx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=79%2C88%2C5811%2C3850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mobile-addict-man-using-smartphone-browsing-2391001945">Lysenko Andrii/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’re in your 20s and 30s, you probably watch pornography. Millennials and gen Z are <a href="https://www.lelo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/UK-Sex-Census-2023.pdf">watching more</a> pornography than any other age group and are also <a href="https://www.lelo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/UK-Sex-Census-2023.pdf">more likely</a> than any other demographic to experiment with AI pornography. </p>
<p>As technology advances, AI-generated tools and techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible. This can lead to unethical content, including deepfakes – videos in which a person’s face is replaced with someone
else’s likeness, without their consent. Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) recently faced a scandal when it became awash with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/31/inside-the-taylor-swift-deepfake-scandal-its-men-telling-a-powerful-woman-to-get-back-in-her-box">deepfakes of Taylor Swift</a>.</p>
<p>But what about other kinds of AI pornographic content? How can consuming it affect you, and how can you make sure that you’re consuming it ethically? I’m a sex and relationship therapist, so I’m interested in helping clients with various sexual issues, including porn consumption problems. I am also curious about the ways AI could be used positively to create pornography that is not only ethical, but educational and sexy at the same time.</p>
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<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our 20s and 30s. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-you-should-know-about-coming-out-as-lgbtq-in-your-20s-and-30s-223910?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">What you should know about coming out as LGBTQ+ in your 20s and 30s</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-problems-with-dating-apps-and-how-they-could-be-fixed-two-relationship-experts-discuss-218401?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">The problems with dating apps and how they could be fixed – two relationship experts discuss</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-might-start-to-hate-the-influencers-you-once-loved-222659?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Why you might start to hate the influencers you once loved</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>The impact of watching AI porn</h2>
<p>While it’s perfectly normal to be curious about sex, watching a lot of pornography can affect your <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/8/7/914">sexual satisfaction</a> – and AI porn is no different. You might, for example, start comparing your partner to the hyper-realistic, but impossibly perfect, digitally generated actors of AI porn. </p>
<p>Already, <a href="https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2006/5/2/article-p179.xml">research</a> suggests that men who frequently watch online porn may experience erectile dysfunction. This could be due to the idealised unrealistic portrayals in pornography compared to real-life sexual encounters. AI pornography would likely only exacerbate this, with AI porn avatars able to participate in sex acts that wouldn’t be possible, or as accessible, for real people. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young asian woman lying in bed lit by glow of her phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581005/original/file-20240311-20-jwbnkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research has found that watching porn can help some women to overcome shame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/woman-phone-bed">TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Among women who watch porn, opinions vary. Some women have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2021.1885532">noted</a> positive changes, including a reduction in the shame associated with sexual pleasure. But others have expressed reservations about the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328265584_Is_Women%27s_Problematic_Pornography_Viewing_Related_to_Body_Image_or_Relationship_Satisfaction">beauty standards</a> in pornography, finding them unattainable. </p>
<p>This stance is very much shared by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539500000777?via=ihub#BIB30">anti-porn campaigners</a>, who claim that porn degrades and objectifies women. They believe it feeds into ideas of male supremacy, potentially leading to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342907785_A_Descriptive_Analysis_of_the_Types_Targets_and_Relative_Frequency_of_Aggression_in_Mainstream_Pornography/link/5f21c47b299bf134049257f8/download">violence against women</a>. </p>
<h2>Regulating AI pornography</h2>
<p>The roles women are given within mainstream pornography often portray a different power imbalance than, for example, gay male porn. For this article, I spoke to porn actor John Thomas. He argued that gay male porn was somewhat more ethical than mainstream straight porn which is [made for men to consume]. “Both roles in a gay scene might be appreciated by the viewer, rather than the pure objectification of the woman in a straight scene.”</p>
<p>One of the many concerns with unregulated AI-generated pornography is that it can distort a viewer’s sense of reality, leading to misinformation, unrealistic expectations around sex and potential harm. However, since the moral landscape surrounding ethical AI porn is a grey area, we are pushed into uncharted territory. As new technology emerges, new challenges arise.</p>
<p>To ensure <a href="https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3230/323047487009.pdf">responsible</a> innovation within the adult entertainment industry, it’s essential to be aware of AI’s ongoing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7296407/">integration</a> into our daily lives. For example, risks could be mitigated by training AI systems to recognise deepfakes, violence or child pornography. </p>
<p>For actors in the adult entertainment industry working pre-AI, consent has always been key. I asked John Thomas about best practice in the industry: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When working for a porn studio [as a freelance worker], I sign a contract which typically includes clauses relating to rights to my image – usually I am signing to give the studio the right to use, and alter, my image [from the photos or video created] and distribute it. AI is not specified in any contract I’ve signed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But since AI porn is expected to become more mainstream, the topic of consent becomes more ambiguous. As John Thomas adds: “I think one could interpret the contract to include AI … the contracts are written in such an expansive way that, having signed away the rights to your image, and consent to your image being altered, it could [hypothetically be used in AI].”</p>
<h2>How to be an ethical porn consumer</h2>
<p>Just as there are fair trade brands known for their ethical practices in producing coffee and clothing, there should be a safe space for consumers to explore their sexuality and fantasies. </p>
<p>As a porn viewer, you can be more ethical in your consumption by becoming <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2018.1556238">porn literate</a>, improving your understanding of realistic sexual expectations, gender identities, sexual orientations, relationship styles, kinks and ethical BDSM practices. </p>
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<img alt="A gay couple in bed together, looking happily at a phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581293/original/file-20240312-16-wqqfqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s good to talk about your porn preferences with your partner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/affectionate-gay-couple-watching-content-online-2233406561">Lomb/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>And if you decide you want to watch AI porn and want to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363460720936475">minimise</a> the risk of consuming unethical content, here are some tips to help enhance your porn literacy skills: </p>
<p>• consider joining online communities where discussions about <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460720936475?icid=int.sj-full-text.citing-articles.43">“feminist porn”</a> and sexualised content are open and encouraged</p>
<p>• if you are a fan of a particular porn actor, consider following them on social media. This will provide you with some insights into their performance activities and their preferred ways for you to access their content </p>
<p>• when coming across porn sites, take a moment to assess if they are recognised for ethical production practices. Some <a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/30093">established sites</a> are known for their commitment to ethical pornography. Typically, the ethical emphasis will revolve around aspects such as production standards, consent, representation of diverse body types, genders and races, portrayal of safe sexual practices and prioritising the enjoyment of all involved</p>
<p>• keep in mind the difference between fantasies and real sexual encounters when watching porn. Remember that what you see online may not translate to real life</p>
<p>• keep a close eye on your porn consumption. If you sense it’s becoming overwhelming, or impacting your daily life or sexual experiences, don’t be ashamed. Seek support from a professional, such as a sex therapist.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Gautier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People in their 20s and 30s are more likely than any other age group to experiment with AI pornography.Chantal Gautier, Lecturer, Sex and Relationship Therapist, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257142024-03-13T14:57:43Z2024-03-13T14:57:43ZAbortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we’ve not seen before<p>The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law – the so-called Veil law – was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s rights movement.</p>
<p>In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45MOc6PYoY8">speech</a>. She presented the public health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men. </p>
<p>The speech was met by fierce opposition and hostility, especially by those on the political right. Veil nevertheless managed to convince a majority of the deputies to vote in favour of her proposal. Once approved by the Senate, the law entered into force in 1975. Veil thereby became a symbol of women’s empowerment and emancipation.</p>
<p>Following her political success at national level, Veil stood in the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. Once elected, the parliament chose her as its president, and she became the first woman to head any of the European institutions.</p>
<h2>An election ahead</h2>
<p>Political parties are now gearing up for the latest round of elections to the European Parliament in June, more than 40 years after Veil first entered the institution. And issues of reproductive rights are on the agenda once again. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white portrait photo of Simone Veil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581645/original/file-20240313-16-e73bjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simone Veil, legend of the women’s rights movement and European politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Veil#/media/File:Simone_Veil_bij_uitreiking_Four_Freedoms_Awards_in_Middelburg,_Bestanddeelnr_933-0124_-_Restoration.jpg">Wikipedia/Anefo photo collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2022, the European parliament felt the need to issue a <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0243_EN.html">resolution</a> strongly condemning backsliding in women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health rights. </p>
<p>This came in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion for 50 years. But it was also a response to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/abortion-right-europe-vary-widely-getting-squeezed/">developments</a> in some EU member states. </p>
<p>The resolution highlighted in particular the de facto ban on abortion that has come into force in Poland in recent years but also mentioned Malta, where abortion is illegal, Slovakia, where access is restricted, Hungary, where procedures are “not available” and Italy, where rights are being threatened. </p>
<p>Importantly, the resolution also calls for the right to abortion to be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which would mean all women in the European Union would have the right to access reproductive healthcare of this kind, thereby offering them some protection from restrictions in their home nations. </p>
<p>This call was echoed by French president <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240308-france-s-macron-to-seal-abortion-becoming-constitutional-right">Emmanuel Macron</a> during the ceremony marking the new constitutional right to abortion in France.</p>
<p>Yet, the parliamentary resolution masks internal divisions between, and sometimes within, the political groups of the European parliament. As these political groups are launching their campaigns and election manifestos, it is clear that the issue of abortion has become part of the wider political polarisation seen across Europe.</p>
<p>Many far-right parties, which are predicted to <a href="https://ecfr.eu/publication/a-sharp-right-turn-a-forecast-for-the-2024-european-parliament-elections/">make significant gains</a> in the upcoming elections, call for restrictions on abortion rights. The European Conservatives and Reformists, a right-wing group that brings together parties such as Brothers of Italy and Spain’s Vox, says it wants to “<a href="https://ecrgroup.eu/campaign/family_and_life">defend life, from its conception until its natural end.</a>”. </p>
<p>The political parties within the Identity & Democracy group do not share a common position on the issue, but several adopt a restrictive approach. For example, the Alternative for Germany recently <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-parliament-bundestagvotes-to-remove-ban-on-abortion-advertising/">voted against</a> a proposal to ban a law preventing doctors from providing information on abortion procedures in Germany.</p>
<p>The centre-right European People’s Party, the biggest political group in the Parliament, remains <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/abortion-debate-european-parliament-division-hatred/">divided</a> on the issue, but most of its MEPs agree that abortion should remain a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcms.13378">matter of national competence</a>. </p>
<p>Groups on the other side of the political spectrum, meanwhile, are making explicit reference to the need to safeguard and expand reproductive health and rights in their European election manifestos. They include <a href="https://left.eu/mon-corps-mon-choix/">the Left</a> group, <a href="https://www.datocms-assets.com/87481/1708539548-egp_manifesto-2024_courage-to-change.pdf">the Greens</a> and the <a href="https://pes.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_PES_Manifesto_EN.pdf">Socialist & Democrats</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, the liberal group Renew Europe is pushing for greater alignment on abortion rights across the EU. It it is behind the recently launched <a href="https://www.simoneveilpact.eu/">Simone Veil Pact</a>, which calls for greater pan-European effort on gender equality.</p>
<h2>A new parliamentary term</h2>
<p>Veil considered the European parliament a key institution in the democratic development of the European Community. She saw the right given to Europeans to vote for the parliament as a <a href="https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1999/1/1/174d384d-d5c7-4c02-ad78-b1f6efc9740a/publishable_en.pdf">milestone</a> and a springboard for increased parliamentary involvement in European integration and decision-making. Under her leadership, the European parliament gained greater recognition and transformed into a real political actor.</p>
<p>Veil held the post of president for three years, and she remained a member of the European parliament until 1993. During her three terms as an MEP, she continued to support issues relating to women’s rights.</p>
<p>The arguments once made by Simone Veil, who in 2018 was honoured with a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20180629-liveblog-france-women-rights-abortion-simone-veil-holocaust-pantheon">burial in the Panthéon</a> (the Parisian mausoleum reserved exclusively for France’s most eminent citizens), are surfacing once again ahead of the hotly contested European parliament elections. </p>
<p>When the 720 newly elected MEPs meet for the next parliamentary term, discussions and debates around abortion and women’s rights are bound to continue. They may well take a different tone and occupy a higher position depending on the outcome of the elections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Legendary European parliament president Simone Veil fought for women’s reproductive rights in France and in Brussels. Is her legacy about to be re-opened?Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250182024-03-07T12:22:50Z2024-03-07T12:22:50ZLord’s Resistance Army: ICC awards reparations to victims of commander Dominic Ongwen – what happens next<p><em>The International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently ordered <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/ongwen-case-icc-trial-chamber-ix-orders-reparations-victims">reparations</a> for victims of Dominic Ongwen, an ex-child soldier turned commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that terrorised northern Uganda for two decades.</em></p>
<p><em>The court’s order, the first in the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/situations/uganda">Ugandan situation</a>, awards collective community-based symbolic payment for each victim. International criminal law scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lb2BdAwAAAAJ&hl=en">Tonny Raymond Kirabira</a> and <a href="https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/uche-miracle-chinwenmeri">Miracle Chinwenmeri Uche</a> answer questions about the ruling</em>.</p>
<h2>Who are the victims in this case?</h2>
<p>The victims are part of the post-war affected communities in northern Uganda. <a href="https://theconversation.com/icc-upholds-jail-term-for-ugandan-rebel-commander-ongwen-why-it-matters-for-africa-196349">Ongwen</a> is one of the top Lord’s Resistance Army commanders charged by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 2002 and 2005. The charges include attacks against the civilian population, murder, enslavement as well as sexual and gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Other charges include conscripting children under the age of 15 into an armed group and using them to participate actively in hostilities. </p>
<p>Ongwen was convicted of the crimes in 2021, and is currently serving <a href="https://theconversation.com/icc-upholds-jail-term-for-ugandan-rebel-commander-ongwen-why-it-matters-for-africa-196349">a joint sentence</a> of 25 years of imprisonment in Norway after his unsuccessful appeal in The Hague. When a person is convicted of more than one crime, the International Criminal Court pronounces a sentence for each crime as well as a joint sentence specifying the total period of imprisonment.</p>
<p>Essentially, not all victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict will receive reparations. This order applies only to those harmed in specific ways by Ongwen, directly or indirectly. Ongwen’s victims recognised by the court included those in the internally displaced people’s camps and victims of sexual and gender-based crimes. Others are children born of those crimes, and former child soldiers.</p>
<p>Ongwen’s liability for reparations was set at €52,429,000 (US$57 million) for approximately 49,772 potential victims. But as he was already declared as indigent, the reparations will be made through the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/tfv">Trust Fund for Victims</a>. This is a separate organisation from the court. It is mandated with implementation of the International Criminal Court’s reparations and assistance programmes.</p>
<h2>What does international law say about reparations in this context?</h2>
<p>Generally, the obligation to repair harm under such a context arises from individual criminal responsibility of the person found to be criminally responsible for crimes. They are also equally liable for the reparations. But the international law has a set of non-legally binding <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/basic-principles-and-guidelines-right-remedy-and-reparation">basic principles and guidelines</a> on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violation of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law. States may be responsible for reparations in contexts like that of the Lord’s Resistance Army war in northern Uganda.</p>
<p>The legal dilemma is that Uganda’s criminal justice system, like those of many countries in the developing world, does not have a defined victims’ programme or mechanism for reparations. In that case, the alternative is to look at the existing <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/transitional-justice">transitional justice</a> frameworks or policies to draw pathways for reparations.</p>
<h2>Is there a precedent for the ICC’s reparation order?</h2>
<p>The primary guidance on reparations is derived from <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">Article 75 of the Rome Statute</a>. The article allows the court to make orders for the benefit of victims, including compensation and rehabilitation. The reparations order can be made directly against a convicted person, in this case Ongwen, detailing the nature and scale of reparations he needs to make. The court can equally order the award through the trust fund. </p>
<p>This is not the first reparations order by the International Criminal Court. There were orders in the cases of Congolese rebel leaders <a href="https://www.trustfundforvictims.org/en/news/lubanga-case-tfv-announces-details-collective-reparation-award">Thomas Lubanga</a>, <a href="https://trustfundforvictims.org/en/what-we-do/reparation-orders/katanga">Germain Katanga</a> and <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/ntaganda-case-tfv-welcomes-reparations-order-victims-icc-trial-chamber-vi">Bosco Ntaganda</a>. The court also issued a reparations order in the case of Malian Islamist <a href="https://www.trustfundforvictims.org/en/what-we-do/reparation-orders/al-madhi">Ahmad Al Mahdi</a>. These cases included collective reparations with individualised components. The Al Mahdi reparations process included the entire population of Timbuktu as eligible victims.</p>
<p>In the Ongwen case, the court used the principles of reparations set out in the Ntaganda case. But the court expanded the scope of victims as well as the types and modalities of reparations. More notable are the principles in relation to the treatment of child victims; gender inclusivity and sensitivity; and sexual and gender-based violence.</p>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>There are two phases to the court’s practice: the judicial and administrative stages of reparations. The court issues an order under the judicial proceedings. But it works through other administrative channels in the registry, the legal representatives of victims and the Trust Fund for Victims in relation to the execution, implementation and enforcement of the reparations orders. As Ongwen’s case involves individual and collective reparations, the court will monitor and oversee the implementation of the order.</p>
<p>Following this reparations order, we should expect to see another core judicial decision of approving a draft implementation plan submitted by the trust fund. And subsequently there will be a consideration of the trust fund’s periodic reports.</p>
<p>While only 4,096 victims were authorised to participate in the court proceedings, the judges <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/ongwen-case-icc-trial-chamber-ix-orders-reparations-victims">envisage</a> that there will be about 49,772 potential beneficiaries of the reparations. </p>
<p>The court will also be expected to review decisions by the trust fund during the administrative screening, as part of its oversight role during the implementation stage. The trust fund will carry out consultations with victims for the purposes of designing and implementing the reparations awards. This and the process and outcome of fundraising mean that the full implementation of the reparations will take years.</p>
<p>Uganda as the concerned state party is obligated under international law to support the enforcement of the reparation orders. So Uganda’s government would be expected to go out and find people who fall under the court’s order.</p>
<p>But the government is hesitant to single out individuals as direct victims. The Lord’s Resistance Army war affected the entire northern Uganda and part of the country’s eastern region. The available pathway for the government’s formal engagement with Ongwen’s victims will be through the <a href="https://www.ictj.org/news/beyond-symbolism-translating-uganda%E2%80%99s-transitional-justice-policy-real-changes-lives-victims">National Transitional Justice Policy of 2019</a>, which has provision for victims’ reparations and other support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Uganda, as the concerned state party, is expected to go out and find Dominic Ongwen’s victims.Tonny Raymond Kirabira, Lecturer in Law, University of East LondonMiracle Chinwenmeri Uche, Lecturer in Law, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245632024-03-05T16:34:19Z2024-03-05T16:34:19ZEarly Hollywood was financed by Italian immigrants – as our new documentary shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578288/original/file-20240227-16-oa1sag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C4%2C2862%2C1612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A. P. Giannini photographed in March 1927, and the Hollywood sign.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M._A._P._Giannini,_président_de_la_Banque_d%27Italie.jpg">Agence Rol. Agence photographique/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney and Frank Capra have in common? The same Italian banker.</p>
<p>Early Hollywood movies have been widely studied and investigated. But surprisingly little is known about their financing, and how the contributions of low-income immigrants helped shape the Hollywood film industry – especially Italians.</p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/df00972512508ffd6e0cd72cb6826337/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819447">4 million people</a> from disadvantaged backgrounds had arrived in the US via Ellis Island by 1920. They have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/abs/black-hands-and-white-hearts-italian-immigrants-as-urban-racial-types-in-early-american-film-culture/895A19920CDD8E55120426314ACFC5C9">often been portrayed</a> in film as delinquents of New York’s Lower East Side. This stereotypical character assigned to Italians persisted for decades, and was revived by the popularity of <a href="https://books.google.it/books?hl=it&lr=&id=2482tWkpfpQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA19&dq=mafia+movies+italians+in+america&ots=QgNWfZMFT1&sig=zA9LZ9WOs8DMg3KG-p6TWuhlwSM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mafia%20movies%20italians%20in%20america&f=false">mafia movies</a> and TV shows such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/JPFT.32.2.49-73?casa_token=xkSBo6cXC4sAAAAA:vt_Va3IVhP9pvawmG8e08i3yRlQtleZzSf7ARzYoY3y9wu_9ma1BIk4XKjMDM0mxpO8uq4BmpNc">The Sopranos</a>.</p>
<p>These portrayals have progressively influenced <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/467405?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiJmNTc4OWJiMi1kMGEzLTQ0ZjQtODAzNy02ZmZkMWY5NGMyZjYiLCJlbWFpbCI6InpvcHBlbGNAd21pbi5hYy51ayIsImluc3RpdHV0aW9uSWRzIjpbIjhhYzIyMzA2LTAzMjMtNGE0OS1hZTFlLTUwNzE1YjVmMjY4YSJdfQ">public perceptions and attitudes</a> toward Italian immigrants and their descendants. But in reality, early Italian immigrants were central to the establishment and growth of the American economy. One visionary financier, whose name is not (yet) as well known as it should be (and that our <a href="https://www.daitona.it/projects/feature/a-p-giannini-bank-to-the-future/">upcoming documentary research</a> aims to spotlight) saw an opportunity to change the narrative.</p>
<h2>AP Giannini</h2>
<p>Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949), commonly known as AP, was a popular figure in San Francisco. He was the son of Italian immigrants and the founder of the Bank of Italy, which he progressively grew into the Bank of America. Through this institution, Giannini contributed to the birth of projects such as the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldengate-gianini/">Golden Gate Bridge</a> (1937), the 1948 <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/center/mm/eng/mm_dr_03.htm#:%7E:text=In%20the%20end%2C%20a%20total,exceeded%2C%20their%20prewar%20production%20levels/">Marshall Plan</a> (in which the US provided western European countries with economic aid following the second world war). He was also an important player in the birth of Hollywood.</p>
<p>Sometimes known as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_P_Giannini.html?id=agBGtAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">“people’s banker”</a> or the <a href="https://www.newacademia.com/books/the-gentleman-banker-amadeo-peter-giannini-a-biographical-novel/">“gentleman banker”</a>, Giannini started out working in agriculture through his small family business. Having inherited some shares from his father-in-law in a small bank he was able to see that the system was constructed by and for the wealthy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A US national bank note issued by the Bank of Italy in 1927." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US national bank note issued by the Bank of Italy in 1927.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_$5_National_Bank_Note_from_Bank_of_Italy_NT%26SA,_San_Francisco.jpg">The Bureau of Engraving and Printing</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Giannini believed that immigrants chasing the American dream, like his own father and mother from Liguria, could be an important resource for the US. He believed that ethical banking would allow general social mobility, and with it the opportunity to finance young industries – such as cinema.</p>
<p>Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in 1904 as a small bank in San Francisco. There, minorities who were traditionally excluded from any form of financing, such as Italian, Chinese, Irish, Mexican and Portuguese people, could deposit their savings – no matter how modest. The bank was more than a place where to put your salary. It was an entry way into American institutions enabling such migrants to borrow money ethically, often on a handshake, and grow. </p>
<p>Not only did these deposits allow the migrant community to settle and flourish, but it meant that employment could be created by investing in immigrant businesses.</p>
<h2>Changing the game</h2>
<p>The most promising of these businesses was the movie studio system. The Bank of Italy began to lend money to young filmmakers and producers in Hollywood. Many of these filmmakers didn’t qualify for business loans, but as Giannini believed in building not only an industry, but a community, the bank would extend personal loans. </p>
<p>Producer Sol Lesser, best known for his Tarzan movies, is a case in point. While still a minor, he received a private loan undersigned by Giannini himself to buy seats for his first Nickelodeon movie theatre. This was the beginning of his path towards becoming an influential producer.</p>
<p>Giannini’s little bank figured out the lending system that has since become the industry standard. As Warren Sherk of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences explains in our upcoming documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd-2KOQ6Mqg">AP Giannini: Bank to the future</a>, banks initially used film negatives as collateral, believing they held value since they could be used to make sellable prints and therefore allow them to recover their investment were the producers unable to fulfil the loan payments. But this approach prevented filmmakers from accessing, printing and distributing their own films. </p>
<p>As a solution, Giannini instead came up with a new protocol for film loans where the bank would secure the rights and distribution income of two films that had already been produced as security for the loan of the film financed by the bank. He also began what is now known as “attachment” – the practice of having a star attached to a film in order to secure ticket sales</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vd-2KOQ6Mqg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for our documentary, AP Giannini - Bank To The Future.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With this new financing model, the bank’s risk was minimised, the filmmakers were able to meet the conditions and the Hollywood industry thrived. Classics such as The Tramp (1915), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gone With the Wind (1939) were financed through Giannini. Filmmakers including Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, and organisations such as United Artists and even the Academy itself were backed by Giannini’s revolutionary vision.</p>
<p>The transparency of Giannini’s bank was central to his success and saved it during some of the most challenging financial times of the 20th century. Its stability was nourished by the constant influx of immigrant money, deposited by those yearning to become respected American citizens with a bank account, a privilege that was extended to women in 1920 when Bank of Italy opened the first women’s department in the country. </p>
<p>So much so that, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd-2KOQ6Mqg">as Sherk explains</a>, it was immigrants’ nickels and dimes, deposited in Bank of Italy and Bank of America, that funded the early Hollywood film industry. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How the son of Italian immigrants created the Bank of America, and funded early Hollywood in the process.Valentina Signorelli, Associate Professor in Film and TV, University of GreenwichCecilia Zoppelletto, Visiting lecturer in film studies, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2156232024-01-17T17:49:47Z2024-01-17T17:49:47ZSome people who share fake news on social media actually think they’re helping the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569339/original/file-20240115-25-gr73c2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=692%2C617%2C7020%2C4634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'You're welcome!'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/digest/">Misinformation</a> is the number one risk facing society over the next two years, according to the World Economic Forum. With key elections due in the US, UK and many other nations this year, an onslaught of political misinformation can be expected.</p>
<p>Some of this material is distributed through paid advertising on social media, like the AI generated “deep fake” videos of British prime minister <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/12/deepfake-video-adverts-sunak-facebook-alarm-ai-risk-election">Rishi Sunak</a> doing the rounds. However, we know that much of <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aap9559">the spread of false material</a> is due to the actions of individual social media users.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/06/PDL_06.16.22_Twitter_Politics_full_report.pdf">Many people</a> share political news online. Inevitably some of that news is false. Fake political news is, after all, common. It’s not unusual to see it as you scroll through your social media feeds.</p>
<p>One of the main ways in which fake news spreads is when people share it to their own social networks. Some genuinely believe the story to be true and share it by mistake. We’ve <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886921004487">found</a> that around 20% of people report having shared a story they later found out was untrue. </p>
<p>However, like <a href="https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/littrell_knowingly_sharing_false_political_info_20230825.pdf">other researchers</a>, we also find that around one in 10 people admit sharing political information that they knew at the time was untrue. </p>
<p>Why would these people deliberately spread lies? Are they deliberately setting out to do harm? Or do they perhaps think it’s acceptable to spread because it supports ideas they hold strongly and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X24000010">“might as well be true”</a>?</p>
<h2>Meaning well, meaning ill</h2>
<p>Only a minority of people share false information but, given the vast scale of social media platforms, even that can lead to fake stories spreading like wildfire. This makes it harder for people to get news they can trust and leads people to believe things that simply aren’t true.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051231192032">Our research</a> revealed that some people shared fake stories because they thought they were funny (one said because they thought it was “ludicrous”, for example). Others shared the misinformation specifically to highlight that it was false. Others minimised the harm they were doing by suggesting it wasn’t actually that serious if they shared fake news. </p>
<p>Our findings reveal that some people behave in an antisocial way when it comes to fake news, deliberately sharing false information to achieve some personal objective, even if it means attacking other people or trying to manipulate them. Sharing false stories in this way can be used, for example, to affect people’s political views, whether by supporting a smear campaign against a politician or by boosting a politician’s clout. </p>
<p>People driven by such reasons seem not to be bothered by whether the news they are sharing is true or false, and may even view sharing news as a means of manipulation. At the very least, these people are being uncaring about the harmful effects of their actions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A phone showing the news with the word 'fake' written across it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569340/original/file-20240115-17-w57daw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fake news is everywhere, and difficult to spot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In sharp contrast to these, some people share political news, whether true or false, with the best intentions. They seem to see sharing fake news as a way to make the world better. </p>
<p>“Good” reasons for sharing can reflect a desire to protect others (for example, by alerting them to potential dangers), to encourage people to “do the right thing”, or even to become socially or politically engaged. Other people may use news sharing as a force for good by pointing out that a particular story is false. Ironically though, that means the false story may spread even further. </p>
<h2>Dealing with fake news</h2>
<p>People can have strong reactions when they see a friend or family member sharing material they know is untrue. This is not a big surprise because misinformation tends to rely on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01174-9">negative sentiment and to appeal to our morals</a>. It is the stories that make us emotional (for example by scaring us) that go viral in the first place.</p>
<p>However, the next time you see someone sharing a story you know to be false, and you think about giving them a piece of your mind or blocking them, remember that they may be unaware that they were doing harm and may even have been trying to do good. It may be that they were thinking only about themselves, but it may also be they have shared that story thinking that it benefits others. </p>
<p>Sharing false stories, even when done with the best intentions, may have implications that <a href="https://theconversation.com/disinformation-campaigns-are-undermining-democracy-heres-how-we-can-fight-back-217539">go beyond</a> people’s personal goals for sharing. When people expose others to misinformation in order to debunk it, they are potentially risking unintended <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444820943878">political consequences</a> such as increasing cynical perceptions towards election campaigns and politicians. </p>
<p>One way to reduce this risk and support the battle against misinformation is to follow <a href="https://www.who.int/campaigns/connecting-the-world-to-combat-coronavirus/how-to-report-misinformation-online">guidance on how to report false stories</a>, for example by marking them as false on the platform.</p>
<p>And if you yourself are tempted to share material that might not be true — for whatever reason — it is best to find other ways to get your message across.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Buchanan receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Husbands and Rotem Perach do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We asked people why they shared misinformation and a lot of people do it with good intentions.Rotem Perach, Lecturer in Psychology, University of WestminsterDeborah Husbands, Reader, Social Sciences, University of WestminsterTom Buchanan, Professor of Psychology, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211382024-01-15T17:26:36Z2024-01-15T17:26:36ZAnnie Nightingale: DJ, author, presenter, mother. Raver extraordinaire.<p>Annie Nightingale, who died on January 11, was a champion of what she called “underground music”. At the age of 83, she was BBC Radio 1’s longest serving DJ. She outlasted all the male counterparts from the 1970s and – unlike most of them – she never lost her touch or went out of fashion. She was also renowned for being the <a href="https://twitter.com/ZoeTheBall/status/1745808532736274730">last person to leave any party</a>. </p>
<p>The only other DJ comparable to Nightingale was her beloved co-pilot John Peel, whose untimely death in 2004 deeply affected her. Nightingale sought out new music and was committed to the idea that a change of tempo heralded in a new music generation. Her knowledge of pop and underground music was immense, from The Beatles to Bowie, punk to rave through to techno, dubstep and grime. She loved witty, clever lyrics, beats and bass lines.</p>
<p>Annie Nightingale fought sexism to get on to the radio, and ageism to stay on it for over five decades. She was always extremely stylish and was admired and really loved by so many of her colleagues and all the musicians she supported, as well as all her thousands of fans. </p>
<p>Nightingale was born in the west London suburb of Brentford on April 1 1940. She was the only child born into what <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27506885">she described</a> as an unhappy marriage. Her parents sent her to a Catholic boarding school at the age of five.</p>
<p>She was a bright and often rebellious student and claimed that she got the idea of becoming a journalist while watching Gregory Peck driving around in sports cars and having an exciting time in the film Roman Holiday. </p>
<p>She absolutely hated being from the boring suburbs and could not wait to get away to the bright lights of the city. She persuaded her exasperated parents to let her study journalism in central London at Regent Street Polytechnic, now the University of Westminster. At the Polytechnic she gravitated towards art school students, whose world she found fascinating and liberating. It was from the art schools that the first British pop music revolution would evolve.</p>
<h2>Life as a journalist</h2>
<p>She soon found work as a journalist and became ensconced in swinging sixties London. She was already a passionate music fan.</p>
<p>At the age of 19, Nightingale ran away to Brighton with a married man, which was scandalous at the time. The couple eventually married and had two children.</p>
<p>In Brighton, Nightingale started working on the Brighton Argus writing a music column covering the bands that came to play in city. She befriended many of the musicians, most notably The Beatles and she was especially close to Paul McCartney. Her marriage however fared less well and ended in divorce.</p>
<p>When the BBC launched Radio 1 with an all-male line up, Nightingale became obsessed with joining the station – she wrote to them repeatedly asking for a job.</p>
<p>In the end she claimed they only hired her in 1970 because she was a music journalist and the station needed to abide by the strict needle time regulations. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/radio-reinvented/launch/#needletime">Needle time</a> was a restriction negotiated by the musicians’ union with the BBC in an attempt to stop the playing of records replacing “real” musicians performing on radio. With her music journalism credentials, she could supply information about the bands and talk about the music in a way that none of the other DJs who just played records could.</p>
<p>Nightingale was awarded an OBE 2002 and CBE in 2020 for services to radio broadcasting. In 2012 she was made an <a href="https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/honorary-awards/honorary-awards-2012">honorary doctor</a> by the University of Westminster, which was the only occasion I got to speak to her in person. She was wearing such high platform shoes I was astonished she was able to walk – in contrast I was wearing my Dr Martens boots under my gown.</p>
<p>As a specialist DJ, Annie Nightingale created her own style and her own path. She chose to work on the evening sessions because she wanted to play music she liked and to champion new music and new artists. Although daytime presenters know a lot about music, they are not always specialists. </p>
<p>What is remarkable about Annie Nightingale is that she renewed her specialism with each new musical scene. She added constantly to her knowledge of underground music and when that music went overground, she went on her way again. She was extraordinary in that she was never nostalgic and never looked back. </p>
<p>There can never be another Annie Nightingale, she made a path for all of us women working in music to travel on and for that we will be forever grateful.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Anne Gross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What is remarkable about Annie Nightingale is that she renewed her specialism with each new musical scene.Sally Anne Gross, Reader in Music Business, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183792024-01-08T17:43:43Z2024-01-08T17:43:43ZMisinformation: how fact-checking journalism is evolving – and having a real impact on the world<p>“Fake news” loves a crisis. It’s clear now that false information has played a role in recent events around the world from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-election-marked-by-disinformation-networks-says-carter-center-2022-11-05/">divisive elections</a> to <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/misinformation-covid-19-what-did-we-learn-2023-02-21_en">the COVID pandemic</a> to <a href="https://edmo.eu/2023/10/17/edmo-preliminary-analysis-of-the-israel-hamas-conflict-related-disinformation/">the conflict roiling Israel and Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>It is important to counter false claims and false narratives. And research now shows a lot more clarity about how to do this.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/business/media/fact-checkers-misinformation.html">a rather downbeat article</a> in September 2023, the New York Times (NYT) reported that “the momentum behind organizations that aim to combat online falsehoods has started to taper off”. It reported that the number of fact-checking operations around the world had “stagnated”, after rising <a href="https://reporterslab.org/tag/fact-checking-database/">from 11 in 2008 to 424 in 2022</a> and dropping slightly to 417 today.</p>
<p>The NYT report captured some of the well-known challenges fact-checkers face. But it offered a distressingly narrow picture of the work they actually do every day, how the fact-checking community’s approach to countering false information has evolved, and the different ways their work can make a difference in the world. </p>
<p>On numbers alone, the picture is more complex than was presented. <a href="https://africacheck.org/who-we-are/our-team">Africa Check</a>, the first fact-checking organisation in Africa, has grown from a team of two in 2012 to a staff of 40 with offices in four countries today. </p>
<p>The same is true of <a href="https://maldita.es/quienes-somos">Maldita</a> – which started as a Twitter account run by two TV journalists and <a href="https://maldita.es/quienes-somos">today has a staff of more than 50</a>. In some regions, the number of operations has fallen back. In others, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, it is still growing.</p>
<p>A second challenge is one of scale. Since fact-checkers around the world started contributing to a database of checks operated by Google, known as <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/factcheck">Claim Review</a>, they had, as of late September 2023, verified almost 300,000 true and false claims. </p>
<p>That is an impressive number but tiny by comparison with the scale of the problem, which may, of course, be worsened by AI. Groups such as UK fact-checking charity <a href="https://fullfact.org/">Full Fact</a> are <a href="https://fullfact.org/blog/2021/jul/how-does-automated-fact-checking-work/">developing AI</a> to help spot false claims and boost the reach of fact-checks.</p>
<h2>Does fact-checking work?</h2>
<p>A series of studies published over recent years have shown that, while fact-checks will, of course, not alter an individual’s long-held worldview, they can and do have “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2019.1668894">significantly positive overall influence</a>” on reader’s factual understanding and “<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2104235118">reduce belief in misinformation, often durably so</a>”. </p>
<p>What’s more, two recent studies have shown that so-called “warning labels” attached to online content “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X23001550?dgcid=author">effectively reduce</a> belief and spread of misinformation” and do so <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t2pmb/">“even for those most distrusting of fact-checkers”</a>.</p>
<p>The problem, correctly identified by the NYT, is that this success “is inconsistent and contingent on many variables”. A first challenge is that those who see and believe misinformation are, often, not the same as those who see and believe the subsequent fact-checks. The two audiences often do not cross over. </p>
<p>Fact-checkers also understand the limits of information as a tool for countering misinformation. They see daily evidence in emails and comment threads that, while some appreciate their work, others reject it. Like countless journalists, fact-checkers accept that their work doesn’t reach everyone it should. Most argue that exposing falsehoods and hoaxes is worth the effort, nevertheless.</p>
<h2>Correcting the record</h2>
<p>But informing the public is only one way fact-checking organisations make a difference. First, research <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/21568/Nyhan%20Reifler%20AJPS.pdf">confirms</a> what many fact-checkers see firsthand: knowing someone is checking will often push politicians to <a href="https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-923X.12898">be more careful</a> with their claims. </p>
<p>Obvious <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/10/meet-bottomless-pinocchio-new-rating-false-claim-repeated-over-over-again/">exceptions aside</a>, many public figures will quietly drop a claim after it’s been debunked – or even issue a mea culpa. This happened this year in Kenya when police apologised “unreservedly” after fact-checkers at AFP news agency caught them using unrelated images of one protest to hunt down those involved in another.</p>
<p>Many operations take a direct approach, contacting media outlets or political campaigns to ask them to <a href="https://fullfact.org/about/interventions/">correct</a> the <a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/this-fact-checker-got-several-news-outlets-to-correct-a-false-story-about-a-mini-ice-age/">record</a>. And in many countries, fact-checkers <a href="https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/blog/blog-fact-checking-doesnt-work-way-you-think-it-does">intervene at a structural level</a> to promote a culture of accuracy in key institutions. </p>
<p>British lawmakers last month voted <a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/parliamentary-corrections-process-opened-up-to-mps">to change House of Commons rules</a> on correcting the official record, following a campaign by the <a href="https://twitter.com/FullFact/status/1716845679325155561">fact-checkers Full Fact</a>.</p>
<p>In some regions, fact-checkers work with statistical agencies, advocate for open government, <a href="https://factsfirst.ph/about">operate broad coalitions against misinformation</a> and run media literacy programs. In the Arabic-language world, the Jordan-based <a href="https://arabfcn.net/en/about-us/">Arab Fact-Checkers Network</a> trains media in in-house fact-checking, to reduce the spread of false information prior to publication. In Europe, the <a href="https://eufactcheckingproject.com/">European Fact-Checking Standards Network</a>, has a team who work on public policy – something not possible in many parts of the world.</p>
<p>This growing breadth of approaches reflects how our understanding of false information has changed. </p>
<p>As Tom Rosenstiel of the University of Maryland <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/">noted in 2017</a>: “Misinformation is not like plumbing, a problem you fix. It is a social condition, like crime, that you must constantly monitor and adjust to.” It also reflects the different organisational cultures of operations set up by media companies, and by civil society and academic institutions.</p>
<p>The picture, in summary, is more complex than was suggested, and in many, if not all, parts of the world, more hopeful too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Cunliffe-Jones is a member of the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), based at the Poynter Institute, founder of the fact-checking organisation Africa Check, and was senior advisor to the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) in 2023. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Graves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Artificial intelligence is likely to make the ‘fake news’ problem worse. But it can also be used to help us counter misinformation.Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Visiting Researcher & Co-Director Chevening African Media Freedom Fellowship, University of WestminsterLucas Graves, Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200092023-12-19T15:13:48Z2023-12-19T15:13:48ZPrince Harry and the Mirror: how court victory reopened the phone hacking scandal the British press had hoped was over<p>A pivotal court <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Duke-of-Sussex-v-MGN-Judgment.pdf">judgment</a> has found evidence that “habitual” phone hacking went on at Mirror Group newspapers for years.</p>
<p>The high court judgement from Mr Justice Fancourt left no doubt: “There is compelling evidence that the editors of each newspaper knew very well that [phone hacking] was being used extensively and habitually and that they were happy to take the benefits of it”.</p>
<p>This is an extraordinary vindication for Prince Harry, who has been determined to hold publishers to account for phone hacking and covering it up. It also has repercussions for the British press, since Fancourt’s judgment names a number of editorial and executive figures as complicit in the Mirror’s unlawful activities.</p>
<p>Fancourt found that phone hacking began in 1995 and was “widespread and habitual” from 1998. But unlawful activity by the press was not confined to hacking phones. A 2006 <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/archive-content/meyer-intercepting-mobile-phone-messages-is-completely-unacceptable/">investigation</a> by the Information Commissioner’s Office uncovered an “undercover economy” where <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c800240f0b626628ac7f5/0036.pdf">hundreds of journalists</a> were buying personal information. </p>
<p>In 2007, the News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman was jailed after pleading guilty to hacking Prince William’s phone. Although the paper’s editor Andy Coulson resigned (claiming no knowledge of unlawful activities), the episode was dismissed as the miscreant activities of “one rogue reporter”. </p>
<p>Cursory investigations by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) – the then industry regulator – <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110902132404/http:/pcc.org.uk/news/index.html?article=NjAyOA==">concluded</a> both in 2007 and 2009 that there was no evidence to suggest that unlawful practices were widespread or ongoing.</p>
<h2>The Leveson inquiry</h2>
<p>In 2011, after first refusing to reopen criminal investigations, the Metropolitan Police acted on further evidence and arrested a number of News of the World journalists. News International, the UK arm of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire, made limited admissions in a few high profile cases. There the matter may have rested: a niche industry issue being doggedly pursued by the Guardian’s Nick Davies, but assiduously avoided by the rest of Fleet Street.</p>
<p>That changed with the revelation in July 2011 that News of the World journalists had hacked the phone of murdered teenager Millie Dowler. Murdoch responded to public revulsion by closing the paper.</p>
<p>David Cameron, prime minister at the time, then set up the Leveson inquiry – a two-part judicial investigation into the culture, practices and ethics of the press.</p>
<p>During the first part of the inquiry, senior editorial figures across the UK’s national titles gave sworn evidence that their newspapers had no part in phone hacking or any other forms of unlawful information gathering.</p>
<p>In 2012, Leveson recommended a new framework for independent press regulation, with incentives for publishers to join up. Parliament agreed (overwhelmingly) but the press refused to participate. Instead, they set up their own complaints body, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), to replace the discredited PCC. </p>
<p>They lobbied furiously against key components of the Leveson framework, arguing that forcing them into a regulator that would actually maintain standards was a threat to press freedom. And anyway, went their argument, the industry was now reformed.</p>
<p>As in previous decades, the government caved. In 2018, it cancelled the second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was supposed to investigate who authorised unlawful activities and the extent of any collusion between the press and the police. It has since committed itself to repealing legislation that would give real teeth to the Leveson framework.</p>
<p>Throughout this period, Murdoch’s News Group has been quietly settling claims to a reported total <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/phone-hacking-scandal-total-costs/">cost</a> of around £1.2 billion, while repeatedly denying any unlawful activity at the Sun. Just this month it <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2023/12/05/news-corp-was-out-to-get-me-chris-huhne-condemns-murdoch-empire-after-settlement-for-phone-hacking-and-intrusion/">agreed</a> a six-figure payout to former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Chris Huhne for intrusions allegedly ordered by company executives.</p>
<p>Before Fancourt’s judgement, the Mirror publisher had made limited admissions in 2014 (again after repeated denials) with a fulsome apology across its titles. The most recent judgment covered both further hacking claims (including Prince Harry’s) and other unlawful techniques that were again furiously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5JB_DBfwBo">denied</a> during the trial as “fantastical” and “in the realms of pure speculation”.</p>
<h2>The truth outs</h2>
<p>Over the past 20 years, the police, which <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/83/home-affairs-committee/news/177507/110720-phone-hacking-report/">failed to properly investigate</a>, the British legal system, which allows cases to be settled without the evidence being made public, and parliament, which allowed Leveson to be cut short, have comprehensively failed to hold a powerful industry to account.</p>
<p>Fancourt even found that hacking continued during the Leveson inquiry itself – an extraordinary demonstration of press contempt for the legal and judicial process. That it should take the resources and determination of Prince Harry to elicit the truth in court is an irony that will not be lost on many journalists.</p>
<p>The truth about the extent of unlawful information gathering by the press is finally emerging – and there are further cases against the Sun and Mail titles due in court over the next 18 months. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, ordinary victims of press wrongdoing still have no protection. In 2021, my colleague Dr Gordon Ramsay and I <a href="https://camri.ac.uk/blog/2021/06/23/ipso-regulator-or-complaints-handler/">produced a report</a> detailing how Ipso is owned and controlled by the media companies it is supposed to regulate. </p>
<p>Although Ipso <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/ipso-publishers-have-overhauled-editorial-compliance-in-post-leveson-era/">says</a> that it works “to promote high editorial standards and provide accountability where there are shortcomings”, our findings suggested otherwise: that Ipso is either unwilling or unable to deal properly with complaints or to impose sanctions, and is therefore a wholly ineffectual regulator.</p>
<p>But politicians still fear the power of the press. Circulations may have plummeted, but newspapers and their websites set agendas that are followed by broadcasters. Political parties want their readers’ votes.</p>
<p>Any real and meaningful change will depend on the courage of a new government to reverse decades of inaction and introduce a regulatory framework that does not rely on a wealthy royal warrior to bring justice. If recent press <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/16/labour-backs-away-press-reforms-after-prince-harry-phone-hacking-victory">reports</a> are to be believed, Labour leader and prime ministerial hopeful Keir Starmer may be the next to duck any political responsibility for action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Barnett is on the management and editorial boards of the British Journalism Review. He is a member of the British Broadcasting Challenge which campaigns for Public Service Broadcasting. He is on the board of Hacked Off which campaigns for a free and accountable press.</span></em></p>Prince Harry won a comprehensive victory in the first of three court cases against newspapers. What is the context for that judgement, and what are the implications for the UK press?Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197722023-12-14T13:26:39Z2023-12-14T13:26:39ZGaza war: deadlock in the security council shows that the UN is no longer fit for purpose<p>As Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27 – having conducted airstrikes in the weeks following the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7 – the UN general assembly convened an emergency session. With reports of upwards of 7,000 civilian deaths in Gaza, the general assembly passed a <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N23/319/20/PDF/N2331920.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the UN security council, which has primary responsibility for international peace and security, remained silent.</p>
<p>By October 27, the security council had voted on four resolutions, all of which had failed. For a resolution to pass, it must receive at least nine affirmative votes and not be vetoed by a permanent member. All five permanent security council members (the P5) – France, China, Russia, the UK and the US – wielded their veto, revealing deep fractures in addressing the crisis. </p>
<p>The first of the four resolutions, proposed by Russia, which came to a vote on October 17, was vetoed by France, the UK and the US. The resolution called for a humanitarian ceasefire but failed to condemn Hamas. The US also objected to the lack of recognition of Israel’s right of self-defence. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/311/26/PDF/N2331126.pdf?OpenElement">second resolution</a>, proposed by Brazil and voted on October 18 fared better. But it still attracted a US veto due the failure to mention Israel’s right of self-defence. </p>
<p>Billed as a consensus resolution – opting for the more palatable language of “humanitarian pauses” – the disappointment at the US veto was palpable. <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N23/310/62/PDF/N2331062.pdf?OpenElement">Brazil</a> remarked: “Council paralysis in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe is not in the interest of the international community.” </p>
<p>A week later, on October 25, the security council met to vote on <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N23/320/23/PDF/N2332023.pdf?OpenElement">draft resolutions</a> from the US and Russia. The US resolution, unsurprisingly, focused on the right of self-defence and prompted a double veto by Russia and China. </p>
<p>China, in particular, objected to the inclusion of the “deeply divisive” issue of self-defence and observed that the resolution did not reflect the consensus of the Brazil resolution on addressing the humanitarian situation. </p>
<p>The US vetoed the Russian resolution which, like its predecessor, did not garner sufficient affirmative votes to be adopted. The security council was deadlocked with the US firmly opposed to a humanitarian ceasefire.</p>
<p>Close on the heels of a warning from the UN secretary general, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-chief-says-gaza-becoming-graveyard-children-2023-11-06/">António Guterres</a>, that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children”, came the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-no-ceasefire-gaza-just-brief-local-pauses-2023-11-09/">announcement</a> of “tactical, local pauses” for humanitarian aid. And on November 15, Malta successfully tabled a <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/359/02/PDF/N2335902.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> in the security council calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors”, which was <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-rejects-un-call-for-extended-humanitarian-pauses-for-gaza-/7357247.html">roundly rejected</a> by Israel. </p>
<p>Moreover, a proposed amendment calling for, in the words of the general assembly resolution, “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”, was vetoed by the US. Like with Ukraine, the security council had reached the end of the road, stymied by the use of the veto. It would not meet again until prompted to do so by Guterres.</p>
<h2>Invoking Article 99</h2>
<p>Under Article 99 the secretary general may “bring to the attention” of the security council “any matter which, in in his opinion, may threaten international peace and security”. On <a href="https://www.un.org/en/situation-in-occupied-palestine-and-israel/sg-sc-article99-06-dec-2023">December 6</a>, Guterres brought the human suffering wrought by the “hostilities in Gaza and Israel” to the attention of the security council as a matter that “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.</p>
<p>The invocation of Article 99 is significant. As the most powerful tool available to the secretary general, it has only been used six times since 1950. But it does not necessarily prompt security council action. Indeed, under the UN charter, the security council retains discretion as to how, and if at all, to act. </p>
<p>So while the security council met in 1950 to discuss Korea as a result of the then secretary general <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/formersg/trygve.shtml">Trygve Lie</a> bringing the matter to its attention, the subsequent inaction of the security council prompted the general assembly to step in with the “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717#:%7E:text=The%20emergency%20special%20session%20is,maintenance%20of%20international%20peace%20and">Uniting for Peace</a>” resolution. Invocation of this resolution allows the general assembly to hold emergency sessions when the security council fails “to exercise its primary responsibility” for international peace and security. </p>
<p>When the security council met on December 8, members spoke of a humanitarian imperative for security council action, with a draft <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/397/75/PDF/N2339775.pdf?OpenElement">UAE resolution</a> demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” securing 13 affirmative votes. Yet, the US vetoed the resolution. It cited the absence of Israel’s right to self-defence and the lack of condemnation of Hamas and asked why the resolution “fails to encourage a resumption of humanitarian pauses to allow for the release of hostages and an increase in aid”. </p>
<h2>Dead end</h2>
<p>In response, the general assembly reconvened its October emergency session, held under the 1950 “Uniting for Peace” resolution. The <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N23/397/09/PDF/N2339709.pdf?OpenElement">proposed resolution</a> mirrored the <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/397/75/PDF/N2339775.pdf?OpenElement">UAE resolution</a> that had been vetoed by the US days before in the security council. By a clear majority, the general assembly demanded an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. </p>
<p>This time 153 states voted in favour, compared to 120 for the previous resolution. With the number of abstentions dropping by approximately half and a mere ten states voting against the resolution, the global consensus for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” was clear. </p>
<p>But Israel was equally clear in holding its position that a ceasefire would not only prolong “death and destruction” but would only benefit Hamas. It was obviously a position shared by the US given its use of the veto. And therein lies the problem.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a global consensus for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire – this is evident in the voting records of both the general assembly and the security council. And yes, the US will be held to account by the general assembly for its use of the veto in the coming days under the “<a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3972149?ln=en">standing mandate</a>” established following the security council impasse over Ukraine. </p>
<p>But there is little more that the UN can do in the face an avowed aversion to ceasefires by Israel – it has now exhausted every avenue available to it to stop the fighting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma McClean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Geopolitical concerns have once again brought the UN security council to a standstill.Emma McClean, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194342023-12-11T15:50:13Z2023-12-11T15:50:13ZSerbian election: another win for the Serbian Progressive Party will threaten peace in Europe<p>The outcome of Serbia’s parliamentary elections on December 17 will have profound implications for peace in Europe. Though somewhat obscured by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and more recently the crisis in Gaza, tensions in the Balkans have <a href="https://theconversation.com/kosovo-and-serbia-in-crisis-talks-as-regional-tension-escalates-thanks-to-russian-meddling-215038">risen sharply</a> in recent months. Should Serbs reelect the main party of government, the likelihood of regional conflict will increase. </p>
<p>The Serbian Progressive Party (SPP) has been in government since 2012. Formed in 2008, the SPP was initially seen as a pro-EU-integration party that would lead Serbia towards the west. </p>
<p>The SPP, however, became increasingly authoritarian and Serbia is today widely regarded as an example of <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/news/captured-states-western-balkans-turkey">state capture</a>. This is where a small number of influential actors in the public and private sectors have colluded to change rules, sponsor legislation and co-opt institutions to further their own narrow interests at the expense of the broader public interest.</p>
<p>The SPP has, according to the US-based advocacy group, <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/serbia/freedom-world/2023">Freedom House</a>, “steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations”. Press freedom advocates, <a href="https://rsf.org/en/country/serbia">Reporters Without Borders</a>, recently noted that the dominant state-run media perpetuates “rampant fake news and propaganda” where “journalists are threatened by political pressures”. </p>
<p>Corruption has also <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/serbia/corruption-index">increased</a> since 2012 and <a href="https://ocindex.net/country/serbia">the Global Organized Crime Index</a> reported that “criminal networks are widespread”. An in-depth investigation by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/magazine/aleksandar-vucic-veljko-belivuk-serbia.html">the New York Times</a> alleged that Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić – a founding member of the SPP – and his inner circle were closely linked to these criminal gangs. </p>
<p>Since 2012, Serbia’s government has stoked regional tensions to the extent that many fear 2024 may see <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/the-spectre-of-a-second-war-in-europe-looms-large-with-tensions-extraordinarily-high-in-kosovo-12978280">renewed war</a> with neighbouring Kosovo. </p>
<p>Given Vučić’s past – and that of many of the SPP’s leading figures – this was hardly a surprise. Throughout the 1990s Vučić supported aggressive Serbian nationalism. Just days after the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia in July 1995, he declared: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU6t2XWFQD8">Kill one Serb and we will kill 100 Muslims</a>.” </p>
<p>Between 1998 and 2000, he was Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević’s “minister for information” during which time the war in Kosovo erupted. During that conflict, roughly 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed and over 90% of the population were displaced. </p>
<p>In 2018 Vučić described Milošević as “<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/vucic-s-great-milosevic-evokes-ghost-of-greater-serbia-/29486327.html">a great Serbian leader who undoubtedly had the best intentions</a>”.</p>
<h2>Destabilising Kosovo and Bosnia</h2>
<p>The SPP has stoked nationalist sentiments among Serbs living outside Serbia. Their attempts to redraw the borders of Yugoslavia’s successor states along demographic lines – to create what they call a “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/24/serbia-balkans-expansionism-russia-montenegro-elections/">Serbian world</a>” – would almost certainly lead to war in Bosnia and Kosovo. </p>
<p>Indeed, Vučić <a href="https://thegeopost.com/en/news/vucic-made-gloomy-predictions-for-2024-next-year-will-bring-conflicts-it-will-be-the-most-difficult-in-the-modern-history-of-serbia/">recently stated</a> that 2024 “will bring us much more conflict and unrest than the previous one” specifically highlighting Bosnia and Kosovo as likely to erupt. </p>
<p>Vučić exercises near complete control over the main Serb parties in Bosnia and Kosovo and has encouraged each to undermine the authority of the central government in both states. </p>
<p>Milorad Dodik – the president of the Serb-majority Republika Srpska federation within Bosnia – now openly talks about <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/bosnian-serb-leader-dodik-charged-over-defying-peace-envoys-decisions-2023-08-11/">seceding from Bosnia</a>. Kosovo Serbs in favour of integration in Kosovo have been <a href="https://www.cins.rs/en/bombs-and-bullets-fear-and-loathing-in-north-kosovo/">bullied into submission</a> or <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2022/04/20/kosovo-serb-politician-murdered-for-political-reasons-brother-says/">murdered</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to regularly vowing to <a href="https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2023&mm=11&dd=26&nav_id=117128">never recognise Kosovo’s independence</a>, Vučić <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2019/12/06/serbian-president-accused-of-spreading-hate-by-denying-massacre/">has denied</a> that Serb-perpetrated massacres occurred in Kosovo. He has also <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64099388">threatened Nato troops</a> stationed there and branded the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, as “<a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/serbia-boycotts-eu-summit-calls-kosovo-pm-terrorist-scum/">terrorist scum</a>”. </p>
<p>Vučić and the SPP prime minister, Ana Brnabić, have repeatedly claimed – <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2023/10/23/kosovo-serbs-may-feel-insecure-but-theyre-not-ethnically-cleansed/">without supporting evidence</a> – that the government of Kosovo is engaged in “<a href="https://twitter.com/BalkanInsight/status/1706252062248305143">brutal ethnic cleansing</a>” against Serbs. In September, close Vučić ally Milan Radoičić, the deputy leader of the Belgrade-controlled Serbian List party, was part of a militia group that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kosovo-serb-politician-admits-role-gun-battle-that-killed-four-2023-09-29/">attacked the Kosovo Police</a> – killing one officer – in what many believe was a Belgrade-orchestrated attempt <a href="https://www.helsinki.org.rs/press_t85.html">to spark a war</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the SPP’s record, western leaders have sought to maintain that Serbia is, as the US ambassador to Serbia recently stated, “<a href="https://twitter.com/usambserbia/status/1686405557089869824">headed towards the west</a>”. Many have <a href="https://n1info.rs/english/news/a579353-merkel-and-vucic-discuss-kosovo-taxes-dialogue-coronavirus-via-video-link/">posed with Vučić</a>, <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/04/03/pec-tusk-letter-vucic/">celebrated his electoral victories</a> and “<a href="https://www.cirsd.org/en/horizons/horizons-winter-2018-issue-no-10/the-rise-and-fall-of-balkan-stabilitocracies">turned a blind eye</a>” to his government’s policies at home and abroad. </p>
<p>The logic behind this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/29/the-flare-up-of-violence-in-kosovo-shows-the-folly-of-the-wests-appeasement-of-serbia">appeasement</a> stems from a determination to coax Serbia away from its traditional ally, Russia. This has evidently failed. </p>
<p>Following the invasion of Ukraine, Serbia <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/serbia-aleksandar-vucic-europe-russia-choice/">refused to join</a> western sanctions against Russia, because – Vučić says – Serbs “<a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/opinion/serbia-must-not-be-putins-accomplice/">love Russia</a>”. The country continues to maintain <a href="https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1705272005535183113">close relations</a> with Moscow.</p>
<p>The Serbian government has also cultivated links with other likeminded autocrats throughout Europe – particularly <a href="https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2023/06/26/orbans-alliance-with-vucic-demonstrates-strategic-hungarian-interests-in-the-western-balkans/">Hungary’s Viktor Orbán</a> – who openly reject democratic values. </p>
<h2>Future directions</h2>
<p>There is little to suggest the SPP will change; they have signed an election pact with the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party – led by <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2018/04/11/vojislav-seselj-hague-tribunal-war-crimes-appeal-verdict-04-11-2018/">convicted war criminal</a> Vojislav Šešelj – and are likely to again seek to form a coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia, led by Ivica Dačić. Known as “little Slobo”, he was Milošević’s spokesman in the 1990s. </p>
<p>There are signs that a more progressive movement – the <a href="https://serbiaelects.europeanwesternbalkans.com/2023/12/02/evolution-of-the-party-scene-since-2012-who-are-the-members-of-the-serbia-against-violence-coalition/">Serbia Against Violence</a> coalition – will <a href="https://serbiaelects.europeanwesternbalkans.com/2023/11/15/first-poll-released-since-the-start-of-the-campaign-finds-sns-at-39-serbia-against-violence-at-26/">increase its share of the vote</a>. It seeks to capitalise on the public anger which boiled over in June when a series of <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/22/mass-protests-demand-political-change-in-serbia">mass protests</a> were held against gun violence and corruption. </p>
<p>But the SPP has sought to steer the election campaign away from domestic concerns – especially the high inflation, <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/serbia/inflation-cpi">which stands at 8.5%</a> – towards nationalist issues, such as the plight of Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo. </p>
<p>In this, it has been successful due to its <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/elections-in-serbia---vu%C4%8Di%C4%87-s-party-now-controls-the-whole-state-system-/49005478">near monopoly</a> over the media in Serbia and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/28/critics-of-serbias-government-targeted-with-military-grade-spyware?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">targeted cyberattacks</a> and <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2023/12/01/belgrade-opposition-candidate-quits-election-campaign-over-private-video-leak/">smear campaigns</a> against critics of the government. The prospects of the SPP being removed thus appear remote and the spectre of regional conflict looms. </p>
<p>However, this could yet be averted. Despite the SPP’s nationalistic and anti-western rhetoric, realistically, Serbia cannot prosper outside the west. Russia’s ability to support its allies since the invasion of Ukraine has decreased, as <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/91121">Armenia recently discovered</a> in Nagorno-Karabakh. </p>
<p>Serbia is surrounded by EU and Nato member states and thus vulnerable to western sanctions. As such, a forceful stance by the west would probably compel the SPP to change course and prevent renewed conflict. Whether the west has the unity and will to do so, however, remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aidan Hehir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Serbia’s nationalist government seeks re-election. If it succeeds, Europe may be poised for renewed war in the Balkans.Aidan Hehir, Reader in International Relations, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187512023-12-06T17:44:46Z2023-12-06T17:44:46ZTransport aérien, croisières… La piste des « passeports carbone » pour limiter l’impact du tourisme<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562156/original/file-20231031-15-1auro3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C7128%2C4748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-carries-luggage-airport-terminal-403443151">Shine Nucha/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>L’été 2023 a marqué un tournant pour l’industrie du voyage. À la fin du mois de juillet, les arrivées de touristes internationaux dans le monde <a href="https://www.unwto.org/news/international-tourism-swiftly-overcoming-pandemic-downturn">ont atteint 84 % des niveaux d’avant la pandémie</a>. Dans <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/eu-tourism-almost-full-recovery-pre-pandemic-levels-2023-10-23_en">certains pays européens</a>, comme la France, le Danemark et l’Irlande, la demande touristique a même dépassé son niveau prépandémique.</p>
<p>C’est peut-être une excellente nouvelle <a href="https://skift.com/insight/state-of-travel/">sur le plan économique</a>, mais il est à craindre que ce retour au <em>statu quo</em> n’ait déjà des conséquences désastreuses sur les plans environnemental et social.</p>
<p>L’été 2023 a été marqué par des vagues de chaleur record dans de nombreuses régions du monde. Les gens ont dû fuir les <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/24/greece-wildfires-corfu-evia-rhodes-heatwave-northern-hemisphere-extreme-weather-temperatures-europe">incendies de forêt en Grèce</a> et <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/hawaii-fires-update-biden-b2393188.html">à Hawaï</a>, tandis que des <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/world-news/foreign-office-issues-spain-weather-27339111">alertes météorologiques</a> extrêmes ont été émises dans de nombreuses destinations de vacances populaires telles que le Portugal, l’Espagne et la Turquie. Les experts <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-heatwave-whats-causing-it-and-is-climate-change-to-blame-209653">ont conclu à la responsabilité du changement climatique dans ces conditions météorologiques extrêmes</a>.</p>
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<strong>
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<p>Le tourisme fait partie du problème. Le secteur du tourisme génère <a href="https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2021/WTTC_Net_Zero_Roadmap.pdf">environ 10 %</a> des émissions de gaz à effet de serre à l’origine de la crise climatique.</p>
<p>Les effets négatifs du tourisme sur l’environnement sont devenus si graves que certains suggèrent que des changements radicaux dans nos habitudes de voyage sont inévitables. Dans un <a href="https://www.intrepidtravel.com/sites/intrepid/files/basic_page/files/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20For%20Travel%20From%20Crisis%20To%20Transformation-231016-02.pdf">rapport</a> de 2023 sur l’avenir des voyages durables, le voyagiste Intrepid Travel a proposé l’idée de « passeports carbone » pour aider l’industrie du tourisme à survivre.</p>
<h2>Qu’est-ce qu’un passeport carbone ?</h2>
<p>L’idée du passeport carbone repose sur l’attribution à chaque voyageur d’un quota annuel de carbone qu’il ne peut pas dépasser. Ces quotas permettent ensuite de « rationner » les déplacements.</p>
<p>Ce concept peut sembler extrême. Mais l’idée de quotas de carbone personnels n’est pas nouvelle. Un <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/565/565.pdf">concept similaire</a> – appelé « échange personnel de droits d’émission de carbone » – a été discuté à la Chambre des communes du Royaume-Uni en 2008, avant d’être abandonné en raison de sa complexité apparente et de la possibilité d’une résistance de l’opinion publique.</p>
<p><em>[Plus de 85 000 lecteurs font confiance aux newsletters de The Conversation pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux du monde. <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=france&region=fr">Abonnez-vous aujourd’hui</a>]</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/">L’empreinte carbone annuelle moyenne</a> d’une personne aux États-Unis est de 16 tonnes, l’un des taux les plus élevés au monde. Au Royaume-Uni, ce chiffre s’élève à 11,7 tonnes, soit plus de cinq fois le chiffre recommandé par l’<a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-average-british-carbon-footprint-is-five-times-over-paris-agreement-recommendations/152669/">accord de Paris</a> pour maintenir l’augmentation de la température mondiale en deçà de 1,5 °C. (<em>En France, celle-ci est <a href="https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/en_SNBC-2_summary.pdf">du même ordre de grandeur</a>, ndlt</em>)</p>
<p>Au niveau mondial, l’empreinte carbone annuelle moyenne d’une personne est plus proche de quatre tonnes. Mais pour avoir les meilleures chances d’empêcher la hausse des températures de dépasser les 2 °C, l’empreinte carbone mondiale moyenne <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/">doit baisser</a> à moins de deux tonnes d’ici à 2050. Ce chiffre équivaut à environ <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year">deux vols aller-retour</a> entre Londres et New York.</p>
<p>Le rapport d’Intrepid Travel prévoit que les passeports carbone seront utilisés d’ici 2040. Cependant, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/travel-short-haul-flights-europe-under-fire-climate-change-cop26/">plusieurs lois et restrictions</a> ont été mises en place au cours de l’année écoulée, ce qui suggère que nos habitudes de voyage sont peut-être déjà sur le point de changer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boeing 777 avec Manhattan en arrière-plan à l’aéroport JFK de New York." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Un vol Londres-New York génère un peu moins d’une tonne de CO₂ par passager.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-january-2-boeing-777-93592174">Eliyahu Yosef Parypa/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pourquoi cibler le transport aérien</h2>
<p>Entre 2013 et 2018, la quantité de CO<sub>2</sub> émise par les vols commerciaux dans le monde <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT_CO2-commercl-aviation-2018_20190918.pdf">a augmenté de 32 %</a>. Certes, les améliorations en matière d’efficacité énergétique réduisent lentement les émissions par passager. Mais une <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231014004889">étude</a> de 2014 a révélé que, quels que soient les efforts déployés par l’industrie pour réduire ses émissions de carbone, ils seront contrebalancés par la croissance du trafic aérien.</p>
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<p>Pour que les réductions d’émissions aient un effet significatif, les prix des billets devraient augmenter de 1,4 % par an, ceci afin de décourager certaines personnes de prendre l’avion. Or, en réalité, les <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/increase-in-flights-will-outweigh-carbon-cuts-17875">prix des billets sont en baisse</a>.</p>
<p>Certains pays européens commencent à prendre des mesures pour réduire les voyages en avion. En Belgique, depuis le 1<sup>er</sup> avril 2023, les passagers des vols court-courriers et des avions les plus anciens sont <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/12/private-jets-and-short-haul-flights-face-pollution-busting-tax-increases-in-belgium">soumis à des taxes plus élevées</a> afin d’encourager d’autres formes de voyage.</p>
<p>Moins de deux mois plus tard, la France a interdit les <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65687665">vols intérieurs court-courriers</a> lorsque le même trajet peut être effectué en train en deux heures et demie ou moins. <a href="https://businesstravelerusa.com/news/spain-to-follow-frances-lead-plans-to-ban-short-haul-domestic-flights/">On s’attend à ce que l’Espagne</a> fasse de même prochainement.</p>
<p>Un projet similaire pourrait également voir le jour en Allemagne. En 2021, un <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/seventy-percent-germans-favour-banning-short-haul-flights-survey">sondage YouGov</a> a révélé que 70 % des Allemands soutiendraient de telles mesures pour lutter contre le changement climatique si des parcours alternatifs par train ou par bateau étaient disponibles.</p>
<h2>Des croisières qui polluent</h2>
<p>Le transport aérien n’est pas le seul à être sous le feu des critiques. Une <a href="https://www.transportenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-return-of-the-cruise-June-2023.pdf">enquête</a> menée en 2023 par la Fédération européenne pour le transport et l’environnement a révélé que les navires de croisière rejettent quatre fois plus de gaz sulfuriques – dont il est prouvé qu’ils provoquent des pluies acides et <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/04/26/cruise-ship-pollution-is-causing-serious-health-and-environmental-problems/">plusieurs affections respiratoires</a> – dans l’atmosphère que l’ensemble des 291 millions de voitures en circulation en Europe.</p>
<p>De telles statistiques ont contraint les destinations touristiques européennes à <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8727387d-590d-43bd-a305-b5ec208a4dfe">prendre des mesures</a> contre l’industrie des croisières. En juillet, le conseil municipal d’Amsterdam a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66264226">interdit aux bateaux de croisière</a> d’accoster dans le centre-ville afin de réduire aussi bien le tourisme que la pollution, une initiative qui a fait ses preuves ailleurs.</p>
<p>En 2019, Venise était le port européen le plus pollué, en raison du grand nombre de bateaux de croisière. Mais elle est tombée à la 41<sup>e</sup> place en 2022 après l’interdiction faite aux grands navires de croisière d’entrer dans les eaux de la ville, <a href="https://www.transportenvironment.org/discover/europes-luxury-cruise-ships-emit-as-much-toxic-sulphur-as-1bn-cars-study/">ce qui a permis de réduire de 80 % la pollution atmosphérique à Venise provenant des navires</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gondoles au premier plan d’un énorme bateau de croisière à Venise." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">En 2022, Venise a interdit aux grands navires de croisière d’accoster dans ses eaux.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gondolas-on-background-huge-cruise-ship-243221659">Ugis Riba/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Changer de destination</h2>
<p>Le rapport d’Intrepid Travel souligne également que le changement climatique aura bientôt un impact non seulement sur la façon dont nous voyageons, mais aussi sur <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/global-warming-reshuffle-europes-tourism-demand-particularly-coastal-areas-2023-07-28_en">là où nous voyageons</a>. Les températures brûlantes diminueront probablement l’attrait des destinations balnéaires traditionnelles, incitant les touristes européens à rechercher des destinations plus fraîches pour leurs vacances d’été, telles que la Belgique, la Slovénie et la Pologne.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Tour-Operators/Travelers-seek-cooler-destinations-this-summer">Plusieurs agences de voyages</a> ont signalé une augmentation sensible des réservations de vacances vers des destinations européennes plus fraîches comme la Scandinavie, l’Irlande et le Royaume-Uni pendant la saison haute de l’été 2023.</p>
<p>Quelle que soit la solution, changer nos habitudes de voyage semble inévitable. Des destinations du monde entier, de <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/barcelonas-war-on-tourism-ada-colau/">Barcelone</a> à la <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/italy-tourism-bans-controls-fees-restrictions/a-66453047">Riviera italienne</a> en passant par <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-on-everest-the-boom-in-climbing-tourism-is-dangerous-and-unsustainable-114033">l’Everest</a>, appellent déjà à limiter le nombre de touristes pour lutter contre la foule et la pollution.</p>
<p>Les vacanciers doivent se préparer à modifier leurs habitudes de voyage dès maintenant, avant que ce changement ne leur soit imposé.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Bennett-Cook ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Si rien n’est fait pour changer nos habitudes de voyage, le temps de l’industrie du tourisme pourrait être compté. Des « passeports carbone » pourraient-ils faire partie de la solution ?Ross Bennett-Cook, Visiting Lecturer, School of Architecture + Cities, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2190292023-12-04T12:29:32Z2023-12-04T12:29:32ZWhy OpenAI developing an artificial intelligence that’s good at maths is such a big deal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562966/original/file-20231201-25-yystj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4896%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mathematics-abstract-background-made-solid-numbers-2244979015">Daboost / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/29/a-timeline-of-sam-altmans-firing-from-openai-and-the-fallout/">recent sacking and swift rehiring</a> of Sam Altman by OpenAI, debates around the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) are once again in the spotlight. What’s more unusual is that a prominent theme in media reporting has been the ability of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/openai-sam-altman-q-algorithm-breakthrough-project/676163/">AI systems to do maths</a>.</p>
<p>Apparently, some of the drama at OpenAI was related to the company’s development of a new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q*">AI algorithm called Q*</a>. The system has been talked about as a significant advance and one of its salient features was a capability to reason mathematically.</p>
<p>But isn’t mathematics, the foundation of AI? How could an AI system have trouble with mathematical reasoning, given that computers and calculators can perform mathematical tasks?</p>
<p>AI is not a single entity. It’s a patchwork of strategies for performing computation without direct instruction from humans. As we’ll see, some AI systems are competent at maths. </p>
<p>However, one of the most important current technologies, the large language models (LLMs) behind AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, has struggled so far to emulate mathematical reasoning. This is because they have been designed to concentrate on language.</p>
<p>If the company’s new Q* algorithm can solve unseen mathematical problems, then that might well <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-altmans-ouster-openai-was-precipitated-by-letter-board-about-ai-breakthrough-2023-11-22/">be a significant breakthrough</a>. Mathematics is an ancient form of human reasoning that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model">large language models (LLMs)</a> have so far struggled to emulate. LLMs are the technology that underlies systems such as <a href="https://chat.openai.com/auth/login">OpenAI’s ChatGPT</a>. </p>
<p>At the time of writing, the details of the Q* algorithm and its capabilities are limited, but highly intriguing. So there are various subtleties to consider before deeming Q* a success. </p>
<p>For example, maths is a subject with which everyone engages to varying extents, and the level of mathematics that Q* is competent at remains unclear. However, there has been published academic work that uses alternative forms of AI to advance research-level mathematics (<a href="https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/w4q3v/machine-learning-number-fields">including some written by myself</a>, and one written by a team of mathematicians in collaboration with researchers at Google DeepMind). </p>
<p>These AI systems could be described as competent at maths. However, it’s likely that Q* is not being used to help academics in their work but rather is intended for another purpose.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, even if Q* is incapable of pushing the boundaries of cutting-edge research, there is very likely some significance to be found in the way it has been built that could raise tantalising opportunities for future development.</p>
<h2>Increasingly comfortable</h2>
<p>As a society, we are increasingly comfortable with specialist AI being used to solve predetermined types of problem. For example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_assistant">digital assistants</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_recognition_system">facial recognition</a>, and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-do-recommender-systems-work-on-digital-platforms-social-media-recommendation-algorithms/">online recommendation systems</a> will be familiar to most people. What remains elusive is a so-called <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi-explained/">“artificial general intelligence” (AGI)</a> that has broad reasoning capabilities comparable to those of a human. </p>
<p>Mathematics is a basic skill that we aspire to teach to every school child, and would surely qualifies as a fundamental milestone in the search for AGI. So how else would mathematically competent AI systems be of help to society?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sam Altman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562972/original/file-20231201-27-bygbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Q* came to light after the sacking of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by the company’s board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/openai-ceo-sam-altman-attends-artificial-2366323229">Jamesonwu1972 / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The mathematical mindset is relevant to a multitude of applications, for example coding and engineering, and so mathematical reasoning is a vital transferable skill for both human and artificial intelligence. One irony is that AI is, at a fundamental level, based upon mathematics. </p>
<p>For example, many of the techniques implemented by AI algorithms ultimately boil down to a mathematical area known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(mathematics)#Abstract_algebraic_aspects_and_generalizations">matrix algebra</a>. A matrix is simply a grid of numbers, of which a digital image is a familiar example. Each pixel is <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/image-1-introduction.html">nothing more than numerical data</a>.</p>
<p>Large language models are also inherently mathematical. Based on a huge sample of text, a machine can learn the probabilities for the words that are <a href="https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/resources/intro-llms">most likely to follow a prompt (or question) from the user</a> to the chatbot. If you want a pre-trained LLM to specialise in a particular topic, then it can be fine tuned on mathematical literature, or any other domain of learning. A LLM can generate text that reads as if it understands mathematics. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, doing so produces a LLM that is good at bluffing, but bad at detail. The issue is that a mathematical statement is, by definition, one that may be assigned an <a href="https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ias?topic=list-boolean-values">unambiguous Boolean value</a> (that is, true or false). Mathematical reasoning amounts to the logical deduction of new mathematical statements from those previously established. </p>
<h2>Devil’s advocate</h2>
<p>Naturally, any approach to mathematical reasoning that relies on linguistic probabilities is going to be driving outside its lane. One way around this could be to incorporate some system of formal verification into the architecture (exactly how the LLM is built), which continuously checks the logic behind the leaps made by the large language model.</p>
<p>A clue that this has been done could be in the name Q*, which could plausibly refer to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0004370273900131">an algorithm developed all the way back in the 1970s</a> to help with deductive reasoning. Alternatively, Q* could refer to Q-learning, in which a model can improve over time by testing for and rewarding conclusions that are correct.</p>
<p>But several challenges exist to building mathematically able AIs. For instance, some of the most interesting mathematics consists of highly unlikely events. There are many situations in which one may think that a pattern exists based on small numbers, but it unexpectedly breaks down when one checks enough cases. This capability is difficult to incorporate into a machine. </p>
<p>Another challenge may come as a surprise: mathematical research can be highly creative. It has to be, because practitioners need to invent new concepts and yet stick within the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/mathematics/Ancient-mathematical-sources">formal rules of an ancient subject</a>. </p>
<p>Any AI methodology trained only to find patterns in pre-existing mathematics could presumably never create genuinely new mathematics. Given the pipeline between mathematics and technology, this seems to preclude the conception of new technological revolutions. </p>
<p>But let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment, and imagine whether AI could indeed create new mathematics. The previous argument against this has a flaw, in that it could also be said that the best human mathematicians were also trained exclusively on pre-existing mathematics. Large language models have surprised us before, and will do so again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Oliver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mystery has surrounded the Q* project that OpenAI has been working on.Tom Oliver, Lecturer, Computer Science and Engineering, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166892023-11-14T17:06:53Z2023-11-14T17:06:53ZAround a million children in the UK are living in destitution – with harmful consequences for their development<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558367/original/file-20231108-29-8kzjy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4730%2C3158&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/small-boy-71181397">spixel/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of people in the UK are unable to meet their most basic physical needs: to stay warm, dry, clean and fed. This is known as destitution. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/destitution-uk-2023">Recent analysis</a> from charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (<a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/">JRF</a>) estimates that around 3.8 million people in the UK experienced destitution at some point during 2022. This is a 61% increase since 2019 – and a 148% increase since 2017. </p>
<p>Living in destitution means severe material hardship. The JRF’s <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/destitution-uk-2023">2022 survey</a> of crisis service users in the UK found that 61% reported going without food in the month before the survey. They often put other needs, such as accommodation or feeding their children, over feeding themselves. </p>
<p>About half of the people surveyed were not able to afford adequate clothing and basic necessities, such as toiletries. Many talked of living in insecure and low quality housing. </p>
<p>One particularly alarming aspect of these most recent statistics is the steep increase in the number of children living in destitution. In 2022, around 1 million children lived in households who experienced destitution. This is an increase of 88% since the charity’s corresponding 2019 study, and a 186% increase since the 2017 study.</p>
<h2>Impact on children</h2>
<p>Destitution causes immediate suffering. But for these children, this experience of hardship at a young age will have consequences that last throughout their lives. There is little doubt that both <a href="https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/casepaper203.pdf">money</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12146745/">environment</a> (housing quality, parental mental health and nutrition, for example) contribute to inequalities in child development. Both of these factors are affected by living in destitution. </p>
<p>When children reach the age of three, stark differences are <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/early-childhood-inequalities-chapter/">already evident</a> between those who live in poverty and those who do not. Children from more well-off families have better developed skills in both cognitive tasks, such as understanding basic concepts like colours, letters, numbers and shapes, as well as socio-emotional skills, such as self-control and resilience. </p>
<p>Other factors that are important in shaping children’s skills include housing quality and parental mental health. </p>
<p>Inequalities so early in life can compound and widen over time. These differences between the disadvantaged and the better off can <a href="https://www.eif.org.uk/report/social-and-emotional-skills-in-childhood-and-their-long-term-effects-on-adult-life">be seen in</a> educational achievement, health and criminal activity.</p>
<p>These types of inequalities were also exacerbated by the pandemic. While pupils everywhere missed out on education, these learning losses were not equally distributed: young people from lower socio-economic background fell <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learning-during-the-pandemic/learning-during-the-pandemic-quantifying-lost-time--2">further behind</a>. </p>
<p>Despite large <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/2019-annual-report-education-spending-england">increases</a> in funding for the early-year sectors, socio-economic inequalities in child development have <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/early-childhood-inequalities-chapter/">not generally narrowed</a>, particularly in recent years. </p>
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<p>And now, the sharp increase in the share of children living in destitution does not paint a optimistic picture for the future. </p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>However, many of these issues can be changed by government policy. For example, we know that being hungry at school makes it difficult to concentrate and learn. Measures that address hunger, then, can make a difference. <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/articles/breakfast-clubs-work-their-magic-disadvantaged-english-schools#:%7E:text=New%20IFS%20research%20finds%20that,the%20course%20of%20a%20year.">Analysis</a> of a trial of breakfast clubs in English schools, which offered free breakfast to disadvantaged children aged six and seven, found that the free breakfast lead to the equivalent of two months’ extra progress in reading, writing and maths across the course of one year. </p>
<p><a href="https://heckmanequation.org/resource/research-summary-perry-preschool-and-character-skill-development/">Research has shown</a> that many early interventions – such as high quality childcare and education programmes for at-risk children – can have long-lasting positive effects. From an economic perspective, acting early to lift children out of poverty and improve their home and learning environments can be a cost-effective way of helping in the long run, both for individuals as well as wider society. </p>
<p>Another option would be reform of the benefits system to make sure families have enough money to live. In the <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/destitution-uk-2023">2022 Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey</a> of people who used crisis centres, 72% did receive social security benefits – but were still destitute.</p>
<p>This rise in children living in household experiencing destitution must be given serious attention. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-opportunity">Successive governments</a> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-the-great-meritocracy-prime-ministers-speech">claim</a> to hold upward social mobility as a important goal – that is, the ability of people to move up the economic and social ladder, regardless of their own upbringing and social background. Reducing destitution would not only benefit children right now, but would help them throughout life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Louise Gorman receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to support her academic research (grant numbers ES/R00627X/1 and ES/X012190/1)</span></em></p>Destitution causes children immediate suffering – and can affect them throughout their lives.Emma Louise Gorman, Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Employment Research, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168762023-11-08T14:09:06Z2023-11-08T14:09:06ZCan HIV be cured using gene editing? We will soon find out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558029/original/file-20231107-23-m91tyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5668%2C3937&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/editing-dna-chains-concept-genome-modification-2375332825">Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>HIV, the virus that causes Aids, was first <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/why-the-hiv-epidemic-is-not-over#:%7E:text=The%20HIV%20virus%20was%20first,situation%20and%20initiated%20international%20surveillance.">identified in 1983</a>. To catch this virus was initially a death sentence, but today, thanks to antiretroviral drugs, it can be kept in check. However, there is still no cure. </p>
<p>A small biotech company in San Francisco called Excision BioTherapeutics is trying to change that with its infusion, called EBT-101. The company <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/25/2766525/0/en/Excision-BioTherapeutics-Presents-Positive-Interim-Clinical-Data-from-Ongoing-Phase-1-2-Trial-of-EBT-101-for-the-Treatment-of-HIV-at-ESGCT-30th-Annual-Congress.html">recently reported</a> positive results on the one-off gene-editing treatment – but only regarding safety. There were no severe side-effects in the three patients given the experimental drug. </p>
<p>We will have to wait till 2024 for the first report on efficacy.</p>
<p>Despite the availability of antiretroviral drugs, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8864516/">hundreds of thousands</a> of people still die from Aids each year. A cure for the disease is sorely needed.</p>
<h2>Small but wily</h2>
<p>HIV, like all viruses, is made of genetic material and a shell. It is about a quadrillion times <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2303077120">smaller than a human body</a> and is an expert at dodging the immune system’s defences. </p>
<p>The treatment developed by Excision BioTherapeutics uses <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-prize-two-women-share-chemistry-prize-for-the-first-time-for-work-on-genetic-scissors-147721">gene-editing technology called Crispr</a> to seek out and disable the virus by cutting large sections of its DNA, which prevents it from replicating.</p>
<p>Crispr is an idea copied from our microscopic ancestors, the bacterial cells. This versatile tool against viruses, efficiently used by bacteria for millions of years to defend themselves, is now ready to protect humans from viral threats. </p>
<p>Crispr is like a miniature robot that can be directed to desired locations on genetic material within a living cell or outside. It can be used for <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2021.699597/full">curing diseases</a>, developing <a href="https://www.synthego.com/blog/crispr-agriculture-foods#:%7E:text=CRISPR%20gene%20editing%20technology%20has,to%20a%20store%20near%20you.">new types of crops</a>, and keeping an eye on how infectious <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-021-00760-7">diseases spread</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">How Crispr works.</span></figcaption>
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<p>It has been 35 years since Crispr was <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5847661/">first discovered</a>, but in the last ten years, the technology has made significant progress, especially in treating inherited diseases, such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/16/1163104822/crispr-gene-editing-sickle-cell-success-cost-ethics">sickle cell disease</a>. The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide on the approval of Crispr for sickle cell therapy in December.</p>
<h2>We need a cure</h2>
<p>As of December 2022, nearly 30 million people were receiving antiretroviral drugs for HIV, which is a significant increase from 7.7 million in <a href="https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/aids#:%7E:text=Since%20the%20start%20of%20the,million%20people%20living%20with%20HIV.">2010</a>. Although these drugs are life-savers, they can induce side-effects, such as blocked arteries of the <a href="https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-and-heart-disease">heart</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952282/">neurodegenerative disorders</a>.</p>
<p>Viruses and the organisms they infect have been at war for billions of years. The human body is a fortress guarded by layers of protection, so HIV uses several tactics to escape the sophisticated immune attack of the human body. One strategy is to remain hidden within the very same immune cells, called <a href="https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2020/04/hiv-hides-in-immune-system-cells-resistant-to-killer-t-cells">T cells</a>, that are designed to attack it. The virus can remain dormant in these cells for long periods, waiting for suitable conditions <a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/new-strategies-drive-hiv-cellular-hiding-places">to replicate</a>.</p>
<p>The virus also makes mistakes in its genetic material when replicating, giving rise to thousands of mutant varieties. This makes it very <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-drug-resistance">difficult to develop drugs</a> against the threatening disease. However, Crispr is designed to attack the core of the virus, increasing the chance of disabling it.</p>
<p>Researchers have been focusing on enhancing Crispr tools and their delivery to HIV-infected cells to directly target and remove the integrated viral DNA from the host <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29346-w">immune cell’s</a> genome. </p>
<h2>From animals to humans</h2>
<p>As with all drugs, the treatment first had to be tested in lab animals. </p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33247091/">In 2020</a> researchers at Temple University in the US successfully used Crispr to seek out HIV in the organs of mice and rats and remove critical bits of HIV DNA. This boosted further research in the field. </p>
<p>In the same year, the same team <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19821-7">provided proof</a> that the technique worked in macaques with the simian (monkey) form of HIV, known as SIV. This suggested that the treatment might be safe to test in humans.</p>
<p>While the safety results of EBT-101 are encouraging, there is still a lot of work to do. Testing on larger groups of people and making the therapy affordable for everyone with HIV are crucial because the disease is more prevalent in poorer countries. </p>
<p>Still, the accomplishment of Excision BioTherapeutics is starting to give hope that a cure for Aids may be on the horizon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kalpana Surendranath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Science is getting closer to finding a cure for HIV.Kalpana Surendranath, Senior Lecturer in Molecular biology and Microbiology, Leader of Genome Engineering Lab, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165032023-11-03T17:29:56Z2023-11-03T17:29:56ZIt’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘carbon passports’ may be the answer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556887/original/file-20231031-15-1auro3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C7128%2C4748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-carries-luggage-airport-terminal-403443151">Shine Nucha/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The summer of 2023 has been very significant for the travel industry. By the end of July, international tourist arrivals globally <a href="https://www.unwto.org/news/international-tourism-swiftly-overcoming-pandemic-downturn">reached 84% of pre-pandemic levels</a>. In <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/eu-tourism-almost-full-recovery-pre-pandemic-levels-2023-10-23_en">some European countries</a>, such as France, Denmark and Ireland, tourism demand even surpassed its pre-pandemic level.</p>
<p>This may be great <a href="https://skift.com/insight/state-of-travel/">news economically</a>, but there’s concern that a return to the status quo is already showing dire environmental and social consequences. </p>
<p>The summer saw record-breaking heatwaves across many parts of the world. People
were forced to flee <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/24/greece-wildfires-corfu-evia-rhodes-heatwave-northern-hemisphere-extreme-weather-temperatures-europe">wildfires in Greece</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/hawaii-fires-update-biden-b2393188.html">Hawaii</a>, and extreme <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/world-news/foreign-office-issues-spain-weather-27339111">weather warnings</a> were issued in many popular holiday destinations like Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Experts <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-heatwave-whats-causing-it-and-is-climate-change-to-blame-209653">attributed these extreme conditions</a> to climate change.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/european-heatwave-whats-causing-it-and-is-climate-change-to-blame-209653">European heatwave: what’s causing it and is climate change to blame?</a>
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<p>Tourism is part of the problem. The tourism sector <a href="https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2021/WTTC_Net_Zero_Roadmap.pdf">generates around one-tenth</a> of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the climate crisis.</p>
<p>The negative impacts of tourism on the environment have become so severe that some are suggesting drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable. In a <a href="https://www.intrepidtravel.com/sites/intrepid/files/basic_page/files/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20For%20Travel%20From%20Crisis%20To%20Transformation-231016-02.pdf">report</a> from 2023 that analysed the future of sustainable travel, tour operator Intrepid Travel proposed that “carbon passports” will soon become a reality if the tourism industry hopes to survive. </p>
<h2>What is a carbon passport?</h2>
<p>The idea of a carbon passport centres on each traveller being assigned a yearly carbon allowance that they cannot exceed. These allowances can then “ration” travel. </p>
<p>This concept may seem extreme. But the idea of personal carbon allowances is not new. A <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/565/565.pdf">similar concept</a> (called “personal carbon trading”) was discussed in the House of Commons in 2008, before being shut down due to its perceived complexity and the possibility of public resistance. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/#:%7E:text=A%20carbon%20footprint%20is%20the,is%20closer%20to%204%20tons.">average annual carbon footprint</a> for a person in the US is 16 tonnes – one of the highest rates in the world. In the UK this figure sits at 11.7 tonnes, still more than five times the figure recommended by the <a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-average-british-carbon-footprint-is-five-times-over-paris-agreement-recommendations/152669/#:%7E:text=Despite%20rising%20environmental%20awareness%20across,equivalent%20(tCO2e)%20per%20year.">Paris Agreement</a> to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. </p>
<p>Globally, the average annual carbon footprint of a person is closer to 4 tonnes. But, to have the best chance of preventing temperature rise from overshooting 2°C, the average global carbon footprint <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/#:%7E:text=Globally%2C%20the%20average%20carbon%20footprint,tons%20doesn't%20happen%20overnight!">needs to drop</a> to under 2 tonnes by 2050. This figure equates to around <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year">two return flights</a> between London and New York. </p>
<p>Intrepid Travel’s report predicts that we will see carbon passports in action by 2040. However, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/travel-short-haul-flights-europe-under-fire-climate-change-cop26/">several laws and restrictions</a> have been put in place over the past year that suggest our travel habits may already be on the verge of change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boeing 777 with Manhattan in the background lining up on at JFK airport in New York." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556889/original/file-20231031-23-kfakh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=195&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taking a flight from London to New York generates about 986kg of CO₂ per passenger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-january-2-boeing-777-93592174">Eliyahu Yosef Parypa/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Targeting air travel</h2>
<p>Between 2013 and 2018, the amount of CO₂ emitted by commercial aircrafts worldwide <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT_CO2-commercl-aviation-2018_20190918.pdf">increased by 32%</a>. Improvements in fuel efficiency are slowly reducing per passenger emissions. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231014004889">research</a> from 2014 found that whatever the industry’s efforts to reduce its carbon emissions, they will be outweighed by the growth in air traffic. </p>
<p>For emission reductions to have any meaningful effect, ticket prices would have to rise by 1.4% each year, discouraging some people from flying. However, in reality, <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/increase-in-flights-will-outweigh-carbon-cuts-17875">ticket prices are falling</a>.</p>
<p>Some European countries are beginning to take measures to reduce air travel. As of April 1 2023, passengers on short-haul flights and older aircraft in Belgium have been <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/12/private-jets-and-short-haul-flights-face-pollution-busting-tax-increases-in-belgium">subject to increased taxes</a> to encourage alternative forms of travel.</p>
<p>Less than two months later France banned <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65687665">short-haul domestic flights</a> where the same trip can be made by train in two-and-a-half hours or less. <a href="https://businesstravelerusa.com/news/spain-to-follow-frances-lead-plans-to-ban-short-haul-domestic-flights/">Spain</a> is expected to follow suit. </p>
<p>A similar scheme could also be on the horizon for Germany. In 2021, a <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/seventy-percent-germans-favour-banning-short-haul-flights-survey">YouGov poll</a> found that 70% of Germans would support such measures to fight climate change if alternative transport routes like trains or ships were available. </p>
<h2>Cruises and carbon</h2>
<p>It’s not just air travel that’s being criticised. An <a href="https://www.transportenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-return-of-the-cruise-June-2023.pdf">investigation</a> by the European Federation for Transport and Environment in 2023 found that cruise ships pump four times as many sulphuric gases (which are proven to cause acid rain and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/04/26/cruise-ship-pollution-is-causing-serious-health-and-environmental-problems/?sh=468ee2f637db">several respiratory conditions</a>) into the atmosphere than all of Europe’s 291 million cars combined. </p>
<p>Statistics like these have forced European destinations to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8727387d-590d-43bd-a305-b5ec208a4dfe">take action</a> against the cruise industry. In July, Amsterdam’s council <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66264226">banned cruise ships</a> from docking in the city centre in a bid to reduce tourism and pollution – an initiative that has shown success elsewhere.</p>
<p>In 2019 Venice was the most polluted European port, due to large numbers of cruise ship visits. But it dropped to 41st place in 2022 after a ban on large cruise ships entering the city’s waters <a href="https://www.transportenvironment.org/discover/europes-luxury-cruise-ships-emit-as-much-toxic-sulphur-as-1bn-cars-study/">reduced air pollutants from ships</a> in Venice by 80%.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gondolas in the foreground of a huge cruise ship in Venice." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556894/original/file-20231031-23-krj8r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2022, Venice imposed a ban on large cruise ships entering the city’s waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gondolas-on-background-huge-cruise-ship-243221659">Ugis Riba/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing destinations</h2>
<p>Intrepid Travel’s report also highlights that not only how we travel, but <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/global-warming-reshuffle-europes-tourism-demand-particularly-coastal-areas-2023-07-28_en">where we travel</a> will soon be impacted by climate change. Boiling temperatures will probably diminish the allure of traditional beach destinations, prompting European tourists to search for cooler destinations such as Belgium, Slovenia and Poland for their summer holidays. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Tour-Operators/Travelers-seek-cooler-destinations-this-summer">Several travel agencies</a> reported seeing noticeable increases in holiday bookings to cooler European destinations like Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK during 2023’s peak summer travel months.</p>
<p>Whatever the solution may be, changes to our travel habits look inevitable. Destinations across the globe, from <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/barcelonas-war-on-tourism-ada-colau/">Barcelona</a> to the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/italy-tourism-bans-controls-fees-restrictions/a-66453047">Italian riveria</a> and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-on-everest-the-boom-in-climbing-tourism-is-dangerous-and-unsustainable-114033">Mount Everest</a> are already calling for limits on tourist numbers as they struggle to cope with crowds and pollution. </p>
<p>Holidaymakers should prepare to change their travel habits now, before this change is forced upon them. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Bennett-Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The clock could be ticking for the travel industry unless action is taken to change our travel habits.Ross Bennett-Cook, Visiting Lecturer, School of Architecture + Cities, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160532023-10-26T12:23:18Z2023-10-26T12:23:18ZFocusing on functional fitness in your 20s and 30s can help you stay ready for anything — and many exercises can help you achieve it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556065/original/file-20231026-27-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C12%2C4147%2C2731&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CrossFit is an example of a workout which focuses on functional fitness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-trains-box-jumps-195395828">Kjetil Kolbjornsrud/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s the best type of exercise you can do for your health? The answer seems to change every week. Lately, many fitness enthusiasts and influencers have been talking about the importance of “functional fitness” – especially for people in their 20s and 30s who want to stay mobile and ready for anything as they get older.</p>
<p>Functional fitness has actually been in and out of the <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2023/01000/Worldwide_Survey_of_Fitness_Trends_for_2023.6.aspx?context=FeaturedArticles&collectionId=1">top ten global fitness trends</a> since 2016. While there are plenty of posts and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@jay.rose.phase6/video/7257885109058014490">videos online</a> telling people what the best functional fitness exercises are, in reality many (or even most) exercises could be done in a way that is functional. </p>
<p>What’s more important is the outcome of the exercise. If it results in you becoming as physically capable as possible and ready for anything in life – whether that’s moving furniture, climbing a mountain or running after your child – it could be considered functional fitness.</p>
<p>When you think about this outcome, you can see why it’s hard to pin down a specific list of movements or workouts that count as functional fitness. Because anything that builds any form of fitness that helps you live life could be considered “functional” – including strength, cardio, agility and flexibility. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/tailoring-workouts-to-your-menstrual-cycle-may-help-your-physical-fitness-but-only-if-done-properly-195773?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Tailoring workouts to your menstrual cycle may help your physical fitness – but only if done properly</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-running-can-help-you-cope-with-stress-at-work-198362?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">How running can help you cope with stress at work</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/shy-girl-workouts-arent-just-a-great-way-to-get-fit-they-may-also-help-women-gain-confidence-in-the-gym-206972?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">‘Shy girl workouts’ aren’t just a great way to get fit – they may also help women gain confidence in the gym</a></em></p>
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<p>So you might lift weights to build strength, cycle to build cardio, do sprints to build agility and calisthenics to build flexibility. Or, you could combine all of these exercises into a single workout by doing labelled functional fitness exercise programmes such as <a href="https://www.crossfit.com/">CrossFit(R)</a>, <a href="https://hyrox.com/">Hyrox</a> or <a href="https://f45training.com/">F45</a>.</p>
<p>Improving <a href="https://functionalfitness.sport/sport/movement-standards/">all forms of physical movement</a> is why many have said functional fitness exercise programmes are the best exercise you can do. Boosting your <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7404807/">overall fitness</a> may also potentially set you up for being more physically capable and independent well into <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3870597/">old age</a>.</p>
<h2>Building fitness</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00242.2021">don’t have much research</a> on the specific benefits of functional fitness over and above other sports because it’s still quite a new area. But we can get an idea of what benefits it may have by looking at what effect combining different types of exercise can have versus just doing those exercises on their own. </p>
<p>Strength training, for example, helps build strength in your <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ff5a78ee90e0776a8d5615b/CYP_MSBS_Review__1_.pdf">muscles, bones and connective tissue</a>. This can help you retain the ability to move independently into old age. </p>
<p>Cardio (or “conditioning”), on the other hand, can have a greater effect on the <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.115.002014">cardiovascular and respiratory systems</a>, which may make us more robust in the face of illness. </p>
<p>So they both have distinct as well as common benefits, which is why it’s often considered <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity">important to include both</a> in your weekly exercise routine. This is one reason why functional fitness workouts that incorporate both may be a benefit. </p>
<p>But, if functional fitness exercise programmes are not your thing, a number of other sports and activities could clearly help you become functionally fit too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man playing rugby bends down to place the ball on the ground to score a try." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556081/original/file-20231026-21-icms8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rugby combines is an example of a sport that can make you more functionally fit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rugby-players-training-on-pitch-park-322664444">wavebreakmedia/ Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Take <a href="https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/physical-and-physiological-demands-of-rugby">rugby</a>, for example. These players train to be strong, but also fast, agile and with the endurance to play for an 80 minute game. Or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3281210/">ice hockey</a>, where players must again be fast, powerful and able to sustain a high intensity across a game. Or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720877/">obstacle racing</a>, where people run long distances – using strength, power, skill and agility to climb over obstacles in their path.</p>
<p>Another way you can build your strength, agility, balance and other aspects of functional fitness is by combining different sports and exercises. For example, you may choose to run, but also do <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9653850/">calisthenics</a> a couple days a week. Or perhaps do <a href="https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/FullText/2014/12000/The_Physiology_of_Strongman_Training.9.aspx">strongman training</a> during the week, and play football on the weekends. </p>
<p>So, while functional fitness exercise programmes are one way to incorporate strength, conditioning and other physical skills into your training, they are not the only way. Combining many different types of exercise into your regular workout regime can also help you achieve the benefits of functional fitness. And given each of us have different genetics, bodies, lifestyles and workouts we prefer to do, the type of exercise that best helps you achieve functional fitness may vary depending on the person.</p>
<p>The biggest health and fitness improvements are usually going to come from <a href="https://www.sportengland.org/about-us/physical-wellbeing">consistent exercise</a>. So at the end of the day, doing exercises that you enjoy, and which fit into your daily routine, are likely to <a href="https://www.sportengland.org/research-and-data/research/inactive-people?section=research">have the greatest benefit</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sinead Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Functional fitness can help you to be as physically capable as possible.Sinead Roberts, Lecturer Sport and Exercise Nutrition, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2156852023-10-20T07:15:21Z2023-10-20T07:15:21ZKecemasan dapat menyebabkan masalah ereksi pada laki-laki muda - tapi meraih Viagra tidak selalu menjadi solusi<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553846/original/file-20221111-22-v1r6fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7360%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mengatasi akar penyebab kecemasan adalah kunci untuk mengatasi masalah ini.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-upset-man-psychologist-reception-consulting-1081339235">VGstockstudio/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Banyak orang menganggap masalah ereksi sebagai kondisi yang hanya memengaruhi laki-laki yang lebih tua. Namun, tidak perlu jauh-jauh mencari untuk menemukan laporan tentang kondisi ini di kalangan laki-laki <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/viagra-sildenafil-erectile-dysfunction-young-men-b2137943.html">berusia 20-an dan 30-an</a>. Beberapa penelitian bahkan memperkirakan bahwa setengah dari laki-laki yang melaporkan mengalami kesulitan untuk mendapatkan atau mempertahankan ereksi berusia <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijclp/2022/5229702/">30-an</a>.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/anxiety-can-lead-to-erection-problems-in-young-men-but-reaching-for-viagra-isnt-always-the-solution-191980&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>Kamu bisa mendengarkan lebih banyak artikel dari The Conversation, yang dinarasikan oleh Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">di sini</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Namun, terlepas dari seberapa umum masalah ereksi yang mungkin terjadi - <a href="https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/sexual-and-reproductive/erectile-dysfunction-impotence#:%7E:text=Disfungsi%20ereksi%20adalah%20sangat%20sangat,memilikinya%20pada%20tingkat%20tertentu.">memengaruhi hampir setengah dari laki-laki berusia 18-60 tahun</a> – Masih ada banyak stigma dan rasa malu karena memiliki kondisi tersebut. Hal ini dapat terjadi terutama ketika kamu masih muda, berkat <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.06.001">skrip seksual</a> yang didengar oleh banyak orang yang tumbuh dewasa - seperti bahwa mereka harus selalu siap untuk melakukan hubungan seks, bahwa mereka harus terangsang setiap saat, dan bahwa mereka harus dapat melakukan dengan sempurna setiap saat. </p>
<p>Akibatnya, banyak yang tidak mau mencari bantuan, atau mencoba memperbaikinya dengan menggunakan “solusi” yang sebenarnya hanya menutupi masalah mereka. Sebagai contoh, ada laporan bahwa banyak laki-laki muda yang beralih ke obat resep dan obat yang dijual bebas, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/viagra-sildenafil-erectile-dysfunction-young-men-b2137943.html">seperti Viagra</a>, untuk mengatasinya. </p>
<p>Obat-obatan semacam itu telah menjadi jauh lebih murah dan <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11085341/Why-Viagra-use-grown-men-30.html">lebih banyak tersedia</a> melalui apotek daring yang tersembunyi dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Namun, meskipun produk-produk ini dapat membantu orang-orang yang sesekali mengalami ereksi yang tidak dapat diandalkan, mereka tidak akan benar-benar memperbaiki inti dari masalahnya.</p>
<p>Ada beberapa alasan mengapa masalah ereksi dapat terjadi, termasuk <a href="https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2016/1115/p820.html?crsi=undefined&cicada_org_src=healthwebmagazine.com&cicada_org_mdm=direct">masalah kesehatan tertentu</a> (seperti ketidakseimbangan hormon atau tekanan darah tinggi). Namun salah satu penyebab paling umum dari masalah ereksi, terutama di kalangan laki-laki muda, adalah kecemasan. </p>
<p>Biasanya, saat terangsang, otak mengirimkan sinyal ke penis dan memicunya untuk terisi darah. Namun ketika seseorang merasa cemas, tubuh melepaskan hormon stres (disebut kortisol), yang mengaktifkan <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10571-010-9606-9">respons lari atau melawan</a>. Karena kadar kortisol yang tinggi menyempitkan pembuluh darah dan aliran darah, hal ini dapat menyulitkan untuk mendapatkan (atau mempertahankan) ereksi. </p>
<p>Ada beberapa alasan mengapa laki-laki muda mungkin mengalami kecemasan, terutama seputar seks. Beberapa alasan yang paling umum meliputi: </p>
<ul>
<li>hasrat yang rendah</li>
<li>perasaan bersalah dan malu</li>
<li>masalah hubungan</li>
<li>kebingungan tentang seksualitas</li>
<li>keyakinan agama</li>
<li>pendidikan seks yang buruk</li>
<li>citra tubuh yang buruk</li>
<li>ketakutan akan kehamilan dan infeksi menular seksual (IMS).</li>
</ul>
<p>Memahami akar penyebab kecemasan merupakan kunci utama dalam mengobati masalah ereksi. </p>
<p>Sebagai contoh, jika masalah ereksi seseorang disebabkan oleh kecemasan yang berasal dari libido yang rendah. Mereka mungkin merasa bersalah karena tidak dapat memuaskan pasangannya dan mungkin merasa malu karenanya. Tanpa berbicara dengan pasangannya atau ahli kesehatan tentang hal itu, mereka hanya akan terus berada dalam siklus di mana kecemasan mereka memburuk karena masalah ereksi mereka, dan masalah ereksi mereka memburuk karena kecemasan mereka.</p>
<h2>Apa yang dapat kamu lakukan</h2>
<p>Dengan masih banyaknya stigma seputar seks, dapat dimengerti mengapa banyak laki-laki muda yang tidak yakin siapa yang harus dimintai bantuan - dan mungkin malah mencari obat yang dijual bebas. Namun, karena setiap orang berbeda, penting bagi kamu untuk berkonsultasi dengan dokter umum terlebih dahulu tentang apakah ini baik untuk kamu sebelum mencobanya. Penting juga untuk dicatat bahwa Viagra terbatas dalam hal apa yang dapat dilakukannya, dan mungkin bukan solusi yang diharapkan banyak orang.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Seorang pria memegang pil viagra di antara jari-jarinya." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494833/original/file-20221111-22-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Viagra bukanlah obat yang banyak orang percayai.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-male-doctor-holding-pill-men-1652592268">Yuriy Maksymiv / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Viagra adalah <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776492/">penghambat PDE5</a>. Hal ini dapat membantu lebih banyak darah mengalir ke penis saat terangsang - <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2006.06.027">memperpanjang ereksi</a>.</p>
<p>Namun, Viagra <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-4295(02)01688-6">tidak dapat menghasilkan ereksi spontan yang instan</a> tanpa merasa terangsang. Konsumsi alkohol yang banyak juga dapat membuatnya kurang efektif. Hal ini karena alkohol mengurangi aliran darah ke penis, sehingga sulit untuk mencapai dan mempertahankan ereksi. Jadi, meskipun Viagra dapat bekerja untuk beberapa orang, ini bukanlah sesuatu yang dapat diandalkan, terutama jika masalah ereksi kamu disebabkan oleh kecemasan.</p>
<p>Dengan demikian, penting juga untuk mengambil langkah untuk mengatasi kecemasan itu. Hal ini akan membantumu untuk mengatasi masalah ereksi.</p>
<p>Jika kamu tidak yakin harus memulai dari mana, hal pertama dan terpenting yang harus dilakukan adalah berbicara dengan pasangan (jika kamu sudah berpasangan) tentang apa yang kamu rasakan, sehingga kamu bisa mengeksplorasi bersama untuk menemukan cara yang berbeda dalam berhubungan seks dan keintiman. </p>
<p>Kamu juga dapat mencoba beberapa teknik sederhana untuk meredakan kecemasan seputar seks, seperti membuat seks tidak terlalu berorientasi pada tujuan atau melatih perhatian penuh. Hal ini dapat membantu menenangkan kamu dengan mengalihkan perhatian dari pembicaraan diri yang negatif, dan kembali ke <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681994.2014.892920">perasaan kamu saat berhubungan seks</a>.</p>
<p>Namun jika terus mengalami masalah dalam jangka panjang, atau jika gejalanya menyebabkan tekanan yang signifikan bagi kamu (atau pasangan), mungkin inilah saatnya untuk mencari bantuan profesional. Kunjungi dokter umum terlebih dahulu untuk menyingkirkan penyebab organik (seperti dari kondisi kesehatan lainnya). Dokter mungkin juga akan merujuk kepada terapis psikoseksual. </p>
<p>Terapi psikoseksual dapat sangat bermanfaat, karena dapat membantu menghubungkan pikiran dan tubuh dengan lebih baik, memahami mengapa kamu merasakan apa yang kamu rasakan, dan mempelajari teknik-teknik khusus untuk mengatasi kecemasanmu. </p>
<p>Terakhir, perlu diketahui bahwa sebagai seorang terapis seks dan hubungan, tidak jarang mengalami kecemasan tentang seks. Terkadang juga normal untuk mengalami masalah dalam mendapatkan atau mempertahankan ereksi. Masalah ereksi sering kali dapat diobati - jadi tidak perlu menderita dalam diam jika membutuhkan bantuan.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Rahma Sekar Andini dari Universitas Negeri Malang menerjemahkan artikel ini dari bahasa Inggris</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Gautier tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Masalah ini lebih sering terjadi daripada yang kita kira.Chantal Gautier, Lecturer, Sex and Relationship Therapist, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155042023-10-12T15:58:32Z2023-10-12T15:58:32ZSex Education: a sex therapist’s advice on having a successful long-distance relationship<p>In the new season of Sex Education, Otis and Maeve, our favourite “will-they-won’t-they” couple (let’s be honest, Ross and Rachel aren’t quite as fun), are taking a chance on love again. However, as ever, things aren’t so easy. This time they have to work out how to be together while apart, as Maeve embarks on a writing course in the US. Yep, they are in an LDR (long-distance relationship).</p>
<p>Typically, LDRs are deemed less successful compared to couples in closer proximity. But being in close proximity doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407504046115">relationship satisfaction</a>. I’ve seen this myself as a sex and relationship therapist, where I frequently encounter clients who, despite living side-by-side, still experience feelings of loneliness and a lack of intimacy with their partners.</p>
<p>And, according to a <a href="https://2date4love.com/long-distance-relationship-statistics/">survey</a> in 2021, 58% of couples in LDRs do manage to sustain a satisfactory lasting relationship. So don’t write them off. And if you’re in one yourself, here are some useful tips on how to negotiate the potential pitfalls of an LDR.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hG-QiKmlxsg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>1. Texting</h2>
<p>As Maeve and Otis’s relationship unfolds, they quickly learn how to navigate through the dos and don’ts of long-distance dating and communication mishaps. For example, while the duo starts off in a playful texting manner, communication suddenly comes to a halt. How the couple engage next is an example of how texts can be hard to interpret and lead to misunderstandings. </p>
<p>Take the <a href="https://weizmann.esploro.exlibrisgroup.com/esploro/outputs/993347967403596?institution=972WIS_INST&skipUsageReporting=true&recordUsage=false#file-0">question mark</a> for example – it can mean many things. Maeve asks Otis for a sexy picture, a request that goes unanswered so she sends him a “?”. While Maeve is expressing impatience or frustration, feeling like she is being ignored, Otis interprets the text as pressure. While it isn’t her intention, the text contributes to making him feel embarrassed, awkward and under pressure to respond. Same text, different feelings.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ethical-non-monogamy-what-to-know-about-these-often-misunderstood-relationships-200785?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Ethical non-monogamy: what to know about these often misunderstood relationships</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/five-important-things-you-should-have-learned-in-sex-ed-but-probably-didnt-202177?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Five important things you should have learned in sex ed – but probably didn’t</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/love-languages-might-help-you-understand-your-partner-but-its-not-exactly-science-199040?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">‘Love languages’ might help you understand your partner – but it’s not exactly science</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>In my experience, there are perhaps better ways of communicating by text. When we don’t have the words, we rely instead on limited <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563215002277?via%3Dihub">textual cues</a> – emoticons, question marks, gifs and so on – which makes it easy for our texts to be misconstrued and sometimes get “lost in translation”. Text messaging in LDRs demand exceptional communication skills. So always be clear about what you need (and how to ask for it) and always communicate openly and honestly about how you feel.</p>
<p>Other texting tips to consider when you are in LDRs:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Avoid heavy (emotionally loaded) topics by text.</p></li>
<li><p>Minimise ambiguity when texting to avoid misunderstandings.</p></li>
<li><p>Always check in with your emotions and self-regulate before texting your partner.</p></li>
<li><p>Consider time zones and different schedules.</p></li>
<li><p>Communicate frequently.</p></li>
<li><p>Be present and responsive during interactions.</p></li>
<li><p>Organise regular face-to-face meetings to maintain connectedness.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Understand attachment styles</h2>
<p>Distance can trigger feelings of <a href="https://ijip.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/18.01.141.20210903.pdf">jealousy</a> and insecurity. <a href="https://theconversation.com/attachment-theory-what-people-get-wrong-about-pop-psychologys-latest-trend-for-explaining-relationships-195034">Attachment theory</a> provides a valuable framework for understanding the formation of love relationships and what influences how individuals perceive, initiate and maintain romantic connections.</p>
<p>For example, individuals with a secure attachment style tend to have healthier, more stable and satisfying relationships. In contrast, <a href="https://newbeginningsfamilycounseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Attachment.Style_.Article.docx">fearful-avoidants</a> fear rejection and often hold negative views of both themselves and their partner.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324811134_Staying_Connected_An_Examination_of_Relationship_Maintenance_Behaviors_in_Long-Distance_Relationships">researchers</a> looked at how individuals connect and keep their relationships going, they found something interesting. People who are not so sure about their relationships avoid being close. They don’t express their true feelings or don’t like to talk about themselves in the relationship or don’t give much assurance. Assurance in this context is regarding love and how much you care about someone and the relationship. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407510363427">maintenance behaviours</a> are necessary for relationship satisfaction and for building trust.</p>
<p>For Otis, <a href="https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1242&context=etd">trust</a> is an issue as he grapples with a new handsome friend of Maeve’s. Feelings of inadequacy rise. Could his greatest fear be abandonment? And if so, might this explain his <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241716101_A_relational_uncertainty_analysis_of_jealousy_trust_and_maintenance_in_long-distance_versus_geographically_close_relationships">uncertainty</a> about the status or future of the relationship?</p>
<p>Eventually, Otis opens up about his fears that Maeve is not fully committed and that she might never come back. This is a good example of a couple practising honesty and openly communicating their emotions, ultimately fostering a stronger connection between them. </p>
<h2>3. Creative long-distance sex</h2>
<p>Research has found that sex is beneficial to our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550615616462">wellbeing</a>, whether it is solo or with a partner(s). Yet often the biggest challenge for monogamous couples in LDRs is the lack of physical closeness. </p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>So, how can LDR couples bridge that gap? Otis and Maeve have a go at phone sex, which they enhance with <a href="http://www.nicola-doering.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/D%C3%B6ring_Poeschl_2019_Experiences_Sex_Toys.pdf">sex toys</a>.</p>
<p>Even though couples are not able to actually touch each other, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02654075211043296">technology</a> is incredibly useful in maintaining a sense of togetherness. Many sex toy companies have developed a range of toys for long-distance couples, enabling them to connect interactively to their lover’s device.</p>
<p>In our increasingly interconnected world, it is fair to say, that navigating LDRs can be complex. The success of these relationships hinges on many factors, including the quality of communication, the level of commitment, attachment styles, trust, and the coping strategies adopted by those involved. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, despite occasional challenges and setbacks, Otis and Maeve seem to be handling their long-distance relationship quite well.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Gautier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long-distance relationships are hard but there are ways to make your connection stronger.Chantal Gautier, Lecturer, Sex and Relationship Therapist, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137342023-09-17T08:53:31Z2023-09-17T08:53:31ZNonmonogami: etika yang perlu diketahui dalam menjalin hubungan yang sering disalahpahami ini<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548659/original/file-20230420-26-hczxem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=181%2C86%2C5570%2C3742&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-restful-couples-lying-head-by-740062681">Pressmaster/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alkisah, Sarah dan John telah menjalin <a href="https://www.queerlit.co.uk/products/rewriting-the-rules?_pos=1&_sid=0287cd7c7&_ss=r">hubungan monogami selama lima tahun</a>. Meskipun mereka saling mencintai, Sarah, yang merupakan seorang biseksual, baru-baru ini mulai merasakan ketertarikan pada rekan kerjanya, Andrea. Sarah dan Andrea telah beberapa kali melakukan hubungan seksual, dan ini membuat Sarah merasa bersalah. Namun, dia belum pernah membicarakan dengan John tentang perasaan atau pengalamannya dengan Andrea.</p>
<p>Tidak peduli seberapa besar kamu mencintai pasanganmu, wajar jika kadang kala kamu merasa tertarik pada seseorang di luar sana. Beberapa pasangan bahkan sampai menginginkan hubungan seksual dengan orang lain. Sulit untuk mengelola perasaan-perasaan semacam ini, terutama ketika ini bertentangan dengan komitmen dan janji-janji yang telah dibuat dalam suatu hubungan.</p>
<p>Walaupun hubungan seks antara Sarah dan Andrea dilakukan atas dasar suka sama suka, apa yang dilakukan Sarah tetap termasuk dalam hubungan seks nonkonsensual karena ia melakukannya tanpa persetujuan John yang tengah terikat komitmen hubungan monogami dengannya. </p>
<p>Rasa penasaran masyarakat, terutama di kalangan kaum muda, tentang <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101468">hubungan nonmonogami</a> yang etis atau konsensual (dengan persetujuan) tampaknya mulai meningkat. Data YouGov menemukan bahwa 43% generasi milenial di Amerika Serikat (AS) mengatakan bahwa <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2020/01/31/millennials-monogamy-poly-poll-survey-data">hubungan ideal</a> bagi mereka adalah nonmonogami, meskipun hanya sedikit yang menjalin hubungan semacam itu. Sebuah survei yang dilakukan oleh merek mainan seks <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/throuples-restaurants-valentines-day-b2010151.html">Lelo</a> menemukan bahwa 28% dari mereka yang berusia 18 hingga 24 tahun akan mempertimbangkan hubungan terbuka (<em>open relationship</em>).</p>
<p>Apa yang membuat hubungan nonmonogami menjadi “etis” adalah penekanan pada <a href="https://bettymartin.org/videos/">persetujuan yang disepakati, persetujuan yang berkelanjutan</a>, dan rasa saling menghormati. Semua pihak yang terlibat sepenuhnya menyadari situasi ini dan secara sukarela setuju untuk menjalinnya. Masing-masing pasangan bebas untuk berubah pikiran kapan saja dan (kembali) menegosiasikan batasan-batasan yang sesuai untuk para pihak yang terlibat.</p>
<p>Nonmonogami yang etis ini bisa terwujud dalam banyak bentuk, termasuk <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8321986/">poliamori</a> (hubungan asmara yang melibatkan emosional dan aktivitas seksual dengan lebih dari satu orang pada waktu yang bersamaan), hubungan terbuka, dan <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/014466606X143153"><em>swinging</em></a> (bertukar pasangan dalam hubungan seks).</p>
<p>Bentuk-bentuk hubungan tersebut sering kali <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/01461672221139086">mendapat stigma</a> dan disalahpahami. Hubungan ini menantang gagasan tradisional tentang monogami, yang umumnya dipandang oleh sebagian besar masyarakat barat dan agama sebagai satu-satunya cara yang dapat diterima dalam menjalin hubungan asmara.</p>
<p>Namun, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550619897157">penelitian menunjukkan</a> bahwa hubungan nonmonogami konsensual–dengan berdasarkan persetujuan–dapat memberikan efek positif bagi masing-masing pasangan yang terlibat.</p>
<p>Orang-orang yang menjalin hubungan ini <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1088868312467087?casa_token=We5Fp9hOPjQAAAAA:LI0m000j1SwvqGMbCVWekUcZ5z9DfqzuMmUtdIi59-OJiEZJ0_EjxlYq3pU6xcUZr5jIG9vlvXxztA">melaporkan</a> tingkat kepuasan seksual dan hubungan yang lebih tinggi serta <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19419899.2011.631571">keintiman</a> yang lebih besar dalam hubungan dibandingkan orang-orang yang berada dalam hubungan monogami. </p>
<h2>Kesalahpahaman dan stigma</h2>
<p>Salah satu <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00667-7">pandangan yang menstigmatisasi</a> adalah bahwa orang yang berada dalam hubungan nonmonogami berisiko yang lebih besar merugikan kesehatan seksual pasangannya. Ini didasarkan pada asumsi bahwa memiliki banyak pasangan seksual meningkatkan kemungkinan paparan <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282130422_A_Comparison_of_Sexual_Health_History_and_Practices_among_Monogamous_and_Consensually_Nonmonogamous_Sexual_Partners">Infeksi Menular Seksual (IMS)</a>. </p>
<p>Namun, penelitian menunjukkan bahwa orang-orang yang berada dalam hubungan terbuka dan nonmonogami justru cenderung menerapkan <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S174360951534008X?via%3Dihub">kegiatan seks yang lebih aman</a> dibandingkan dengan pasangan yang monogami tetapi tidak setia.</p>
<p>Nonmonogami yang etis dapat menjadi jalan keluar yang lebih aman dalam hal ekspresi seksual dibandingkan dengan hubungan monogami yang mengarah pada <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jsm/article-abstract/12/10/2022/6966715">perselingkuhan</a>. Orang yang berselingkuh berisiko menularkan IMS kepada pasangannya. </p>
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<img alt="Three pairs of feet side by side, sticking out from under a white duvet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C115%2C5502%2C3640&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522066/original/file-20230420-15-yztocc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Apakah menjalin nonmonogami etis cocok untuk hubunganmu?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/feet-man-two-women-lying-under-2116188575">Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Dalam hubungan yang sehat, setiap pasangan menyadari bahwa setiap orang memiliki preferensi seksual yang unik dan <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00667-7">kebutuhan seksual yang beragam</a>. Bagi pasangan nonmonogami yang berlandaskan persetujuan, mereka biasanya sudah bahwa hubungan utama mereka mungkin tidak selalu memenuhi semua hasrat seksual mereka.</p>
<p>Meski dalam hubungan nonmonogami pun masih sering muncul rasa cemburu, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1041794X.2018.1531916">penelitian</a> menemukan bahwa rasa cemburu tersebut cenderung <a href="https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3297&context=tqr">lebih dapat dikelola</a> dibandingkan dalam hubungan monogami. Ini karena dalam hubungan nonmonogami yang aman, terdapat diskusi terbuka mengenai ketertarikan seksual dan penetapan batasan, sehingga pasangan dapat mengatasi kecemasan akan kecemburuan mereka.</p>
<h2>Mengeksplorasi hubungan nonmonogami</h2>
<p>Tidak semua orang bisa menjalin hubungan nonmonogami yang etis. Kamu boleh mencobanya hanya jika kamu dan pasanganmu sama-sama merasa nyaman. Kamu juga harus mendapatkan persetujuan dari pasangan dan pastikan bahwa hubungan kalian pun sudah solid.</p>
<p>Orang lain sering kali memiliki pandangan <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33990929/">stereotip</a> bahwa orang yang menjalin hubungan nonmonogami adalah mereka yang hubungan dengan pasangannya tidak stabil.</p>
<p>Jika kamu memutuskan bahwa jenis hubungan ini cocok untukmu, ingatlah hal-hal berikut ini. </p>
<p><strong>1. Berkomunikasi secara terbuka</strong></p>
<p>Komunikasi penting dalam hubungan apa pun, tetapi menjadi sangat penting dalam hubungan nonmonogami beretika. Masing-masing pasangan harus transparan dan jujur tentang niat, perasaan, harapan, dan batasan mereka. Orang-orang dalam hubungan nonmonogami perlu menyadari batas-batas emosional mereka dan bersiap untuk mengelola rasa <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-018-1286-4">cemburu</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Berlatihlah melakukan seks yang aman</strong></p>
<p>Kesehatan seksual adalah kunci, terlepas dari apapun status atau gaya hubunganmu. Lakukan tes IMS secara teratur dan gunakan perlindungan selama berhubungan seksual untuk meminimalisir risiko penularan. </p>
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Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-important-things-you-should-have-learned-in-sex-ed-but-probably-didnt-202177">Five important things you should have learned in sex ed – but probably didn't</a>
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<p><strong>3. Hentikan rasa malu</strong></p>
<p>Mengelola stigma adalah salah satu bagian tersulit dalam hubungan nonmonogami beretika. Dalam masyarakat yang meyakini bahwa memiliki banyak pasangan itu salah dan tidak bermoral, hubungan ini dapat menimbulkan rasa malu dan keraguan diri.</p>
<p>Penting untuk menyadari bahwa hubungan nonmonogami dan <em>multipartner</em> secara konsensual adalah pilihan gaya hidup yang sah. Kamu dapat mencari dukungan dari orang-orang yang berpikiran sama atau berbicara dengan terapis seks dan hubungan, jika perlu.</p>
<p>Meskipun hubungan nonmonogami tidak disukai semua orang, tiga tips di atas bisa membantu juga untuk hubungan apa pun. Pada akhirnya, sangat penting untuk menjaga komunikasi, persetujuan, dan rasa hormat dalam hubunganmu.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Gautier tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Kaum muda lebih cenderung mempertimbangkan beberapa bentuk hubungan terbuka atau nonmonogami.Chantal Gautier, Lecturer, Sex and Relationship Therapist, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.