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Feeling unsure about your child going to a sleepover is completely normal. You might be worried about how well you know the host family, how they manage supervision or screen time, and even safety.

Sleepovers can carry risk through inadequate supervision or exposure to unsafe behaviours such as bullying, coercion, sexually inappropriate behaviour, or abuse from other children or adults.

These risks are heightened when there’s a lack of clear rules and oversight.

But in safe environments, sleepovers can also provide opportunities for children to build independence and strengthen friendships.

We research child safety. Here are a few strategies help to reduce risk and make the sleepover more successful.

Get to know the host family

Don’t be afraid to suggest a daytime playdate first.

This will give you a chance to chat to the family, get a sense of their household routines and parenting, and observe how comfortable your child seems with them.

An “everything but the sleep” sleepover can be a great starting point. This allows your child to enjoy the excitement of dinner, games and bonding time without the added stress of staying overnight.

Setting a prearranged pickup time can help anxious children (or parents) feel more comfortable.

Don’t be afraid to suggest you start with a daytime playdate first.
K2L Family Stock/Shutterstock

Talk to the host family

When discussing the sleepover with the host family, it’s helpful to share that you have an open and honest communication style with your child.

This not only reassures the other parents that you’re engaged in your child’s safety but also subtly signals that you’ll follow up after the sleepover to ask how it went. For example you could mention:

how you talk to your child about respecting boundaries, including personal space during activities like going to the toilet or showering
your rules or expectations around use of devices and the internet
your ideas around appropriate bedtime attire for children (and for the adults who might be called on during the night)
that you plan to remind your child of these boundaries before the sleepover
that you’ll check in with your child afterwards to hear about their experience.

It’s OK to ask the host family about their approach to supervision and safety. You might ask:

who will be at home and who is supervising the kids? What adults will be present?
will there be other siblings or adolescents present?
what are the planned activities?
where will the children be sleeping?
how will they be supervised?
what is their approach to internet use and devices?

These questions don’t need to feel intrusive. Framing them as part of ensuring everyone has a great experience helps keep the conversation positive and collaborative.

Talk to your child about safety

Before the sleepover, reinforce with your child the importance of personal boundaries and respect for others.

After the sleepover, follow through with open-ended conversations. Ask your child how they felt, what they enjoyed, and if there was anything they didn’t like.

These casual but intentional conversations strengthen your child’s confidence in speaking up and help you stay attuned to their experiences.

Children should understand:

their body belongs to them and they have the right to say “no”
privacy rules around private parts, bathrooms, appropriate sleeping attire, and other private spaces
how to handle conflict with their friends, such as disagreements over sharing toys or activities
how to stay safe online (including while gaming), such as not sharing personal details, not talking with strangers, and what content is appropriate.

Let them know they should feel comfortable speaking up if something doesn’t feel right or if they are unsure. Come up with ways together to say no excuse themselves if a situation makes them uncomfortable.

Find out what the host family’s policy is on screen time and online gaming.
Silvia Moraleja/Shutterstock

Create an exit strategy

Having a backup plan is essential, especially for younger children or first-time sleepovers.

Let your child know it’s OK to leave early if they’re feeling homesick or uncomfortable.

Remind them they can contact you at any time for any reason, no matter how small it seems. Discuss this with the host parents in advance to ensure they understand your approach.

Ensure your child has a way to contact you. If they don’t have their own device, coordinate with the host parents ways for your child to use their phone or landline.

Another option is to set up pre-arranged check-ins, where the host parents help your child call or text you at an agreed time.

You can also choose a code word with your child – if they say it during your chat, it means you’ll come and collect them.

Reassuring them they have an “out” can give children the confidence to fully enjoy the experience.

Assess your child’s readiness

Not every child is ready for a sleepover at the same age. Consider their emotional maturity and comfort level. Ask them directly how they are feeling – excited and eager or hesitant and nervous?

Can they manage basic self care tasks? Have they successfully spent time away from home before, such as with a relative or close friend?

If your child is hesitant, starting with shorter visits or sleepovers at your own home might be better until they feel more comfortable.

Sleepovers can be a fun part of childhood, and can foster independence, friendship, and resilience.

It’s worth taking the time to prepare. It’s OK to start small, ask questions and trust your instincts. Läs mer…

Videos of children opening boxes of toys and playing with them have become a feature of online marketing – making stars out of children as young as two.

Twelve-year-old influencer Ryan Kaji, for example, earns US$30 million a year on YouTube leading one of the most popular children’s channels. His empire was built on toy unboxing.

An influencer (child or adult) with more than one million followers can earn upwards of $20,000 for one sponsored post, while a person with under 100,000 followers on a social media platform may still earn as much as $4,000 for each sponsored post.

But the rise of kidfluencers around the globe raises questions about the blurred lines between play and labour, independence and control, privacy, profit and online success.

Our research examines these questions. By analysing existing research to clearly identify the challenges faced by child toy unboxers, we can guide future researchers and governments to best support children who are living parts of their lives online.

YouTube as a career goal

A 2023 global survey of children aged between eight and 12 found they were three times more likely to aspire to be a YouTuber (29%) than an astronaut (11%).

Advertisers have taken note. Social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube collectively earned nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 from United States-based users younger than 18.

Toy unboxing has emerged as particularly popular, generating massive revenue and global audiences. These types of videos involved children who unbox, play and review toys.

Unboxing videos became popular in the 2010s, with content creators unpacking products such as tech gadgets and fashion items. Toy unboxing is now one of the highest-earning genres on YouTube.

Unboxing videos have become popular on video platforms such as YouTube.

Work, play or somewhere in between

At first glance, unboxing videos seem to follow a simple entertainer-audience relationship. The kidfluencers emotionally engage with young viewers, who are then inspired to create their own toy wish lists.

But behind the fun is a world of complexity often not obvious for young viewers (and sometimes older viewers too).

These children are hired by companies – and managed by their parents – to promote toys and other products in an job-like arrangement. This has raised concerns about child exploitation, privacy risks and unethical work practices.

But current child labour laws in New Zealand and elsewhere do not see child influencers as a type of “child worker”. And it is difficult to do so.

While kidfluencers seem to be genuinely playing with the sponsored toy, their content is managed by contracts with advertisers, and expectations set by their parents. Therefore it can’t fully be labelled as “play”.

At the same time, calling these practices purely “labour” ignores the real excitement children feel when creating sponsored content.

In 2020, the French government labelled kidfluencers a “grey zone” – where the child is not officially working, but nevertheless spends a significant amount of time making videos, or derives a significant level of income from them.

Protecting children

Another complexity is that some social media platforms require users to be over 13, yet some kidfluencers are toddlers, with parents creating and managing their accounts, including producing and posting their children’s online content.

While parents play a big role in managing their child’s online presence, the child drives the toy sales, creating tension between parental control and a child’s independence.

And behind this all is the issue of money. A child’s involvement – and success – is driven by the wants and needs of advertisers. This raises questions about how much of a say the child really has in terms of creating content.

Privacy and online safety are two key issues facing the kidfluencer industry. The more content a child toy unboxer posts online, the more popular and profitable they can become. But at the same time, popularity brings very real risks.

Young female unboxers – and female kidfluencers in general – have been targeted by online predators. To stay safe, some kidfluencers use fake names and don’t share their location. But these strategies are not perfect.

Current (and proposed) policies rarely balance protecting child stars with supporting their success in sponsored content.

In recent years, however, France and individual states in the US have created laws to protect the kidfluencers’ earnings.

All governments should follow suit and create policies that recognise the challenges of the kidfluencer industry, and which support and protect the children involved. Läs mer…

Exactly 50 years ago, on Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin and left a trail of devastation. It remains one of the most destructive natural events in Australia’s history.

Wind speeds reached more than 200 kilometres per hour. The cyclone claimed 71 lives and injured nearly 650, and left 70% of the city’s buildings flattened.

If you are about 60 or older, chances are you remember that day, even if the cyclone did not directly affect you.

The 50th anniversary of this disaster offers a crucial opportunity to reflect on how Cyclone Tracy not only reshaped Darwin but marked a turning point in Australia’s approach to disaster resilience.

Cyclone Tracy marked a turning point in Australia’s approach to disaster resilience.
AP

The nightmare before Christmas

Cyclone Tracy was initially a relatively small, slow-moving system. But after meandering around the Arafura Sea for three days, it rounded Bathurst Island and headed towards Darwin, getting more ferocious as it approached the coast.

Some Darwin residents later reported not knowing a cyclone was approaching. They included Keith and Christine Pattinson, whose daughter Courtney Zagel later recounted their story:

They told me […] the rain started coming sideways through the louvered windows. The power went out, and everything turned black.

Keith stood against the doors to try and keep them shut, then suddenly there was a huge explosion. The roof of the house flew off and the walls fell in. Christine was thrown back into a glass cabinet. Keith was trapped beneath one of the fallen walls.

The couple spent the night in the neighbour’s house. Christine was later evacuated for urgent medical treatment.

Resident Andrea Mikfelder would later write of the cyclone’s aftermath:

our house […] was still standing. It was a brick home, but the roof was gone. The neighbour’s house looked like a dollhouse, split in half, while the next house was completely flattened.

Cyclone Tracy destroyed 10,000 homes.
AP

The Bureau of Meteorology would later estimate peak wind gusts of between 217 and 240 kilometres an hour. A report published in 2010, employing more advanced techniques, suggested even higher speeds.

Tracy left about 10,000 houses destroyed and 40,000 people homeless from a city population of 47,000. The damage bill at the time totalled A$800 million.

More than 30,000 residents were evacuated, about 60% of whom never returned. The airlift operation remains the largest in Australia’s history.

Darwin residents being evacuated on a US Air Force plane after Cyclone Tracy. About 60% of residents airlifted out of Darwin never returned.
AP

What has changed since?

In the 50 years since the tragedy, authorities have become much better able to forecast tropical cyclones. They can now warn of a cyclone’s projected path, and the likelihood of it reaching land, several days in advance.

Cyclone Tracy reshaped Australia approach to disaster response and preparedness. The Natural Disasters Organisation – today known as Emergency Management Australia – had been established a few months before the cyclone, to coordinate national-level disaster relief efforts.

In the 50 years since the tragedy, authorities have become much better able to forecast tropical cyclones.
Bureau of Meteorology

But its role and authority were still evolving. Tracy served as a “reality check” for the young organisation.

Cyclone Tracy revealed weaknesses in disaster response at all levels of government. The scale of the damage quickly outstripped local and state resources. The federal government was forced to step in to oversee mass evacuations of over 30,000 people and lead recovery efforts.

However, the Commonwealth lacked clear powers to intervene in national emergencies at the time, complicating its response effort. Its powers have since increased.

Cyclone Tracy also gave impetus to disaster management legislation, such as Queensland’s State Counter-Disaster Organisation Act, established in 1975. Such reforms set the stage for the more structured and integrated approach to disaster response now in place across Australia.

Building back better

Darwin’s devastation prompted more stringent building codes across Australia.

Even though Darwin is naturally prone to cyclonic winds, few structures had been built to withstand them.

Afterwards, regulations requiring all reconstruction to adhere to updated cyclone-resistant building standards were introduced. It meant, for example, screws rather than nails must be used to hold down corrugated iron roofing, and buildings must be clad to withstand airborne debris.

Thanks to different building rules, Cyclone Marcus caused relatively little damage in Darwin in 2018.
Glenn Campbell

Similar regulations were implemented for new construction in other cyclone-prone areas of Australia.

Today, Darwin is a far more resilient city. In 2018 it was hit by Cyclone Marcus, the most powerful storm since Tracy with wind gusts of 130 kilometres per hour. No lives were lost, and relatively few structures were damaged.

Getting to grips with the mental toll

Cyclone Tracy had a deep psychological impact on survivors.
AP

Cyclone Tracy left deep mental scars on survivors.

A study of residents who were evacuated to Sydney after Tracy revealed 58% displayed signs of psychological disturbance in the days following the cyclone. Women and older individuals were particularly affected.

Decades on, survivors described ongoing anxiety and depression, often triggered by the sounds of wind and rain.

Today, the psychological impact of natural disasters – on survivors, volunteers and first responders – is much better understood.

Initiatives such as the National Disaster Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework reflect this progress. It recognises that mental health needs after extreme events are complex, and support is needed at the individual and community level.

Volunteers are key

Cyclone Tracy also showed how community efforts and volunteers are essential in disaster recovery.

In the cyclone’s aftermath, local emergency services were overwhelmed. Volunteers quickly became the backbone of the relief effort, setting a precedent for future disaster responses.

Today, volunteers – alongside established relief organisations – still provide food, shelter, medical care and other crucial aid after disasters. As extreme weather becomes more frequent and severe under climate change, the need for community mobilisation will only grow.

The recent Senate inquiry into Australia’s Disaster Resilience recognises the ongoing need to strengthen volunteer participation and management in disaster scenarios.

Volunteers help clean out a home damaged by Cyclone Jasper in 2023.
NUNO AVENDANO

A more resilient Australia

Under climate change, tropical cyclones conditions may occur less frequently. This means Australia is expected to experience fewer tropical cyclones in future.

But a greater proportion of those that do hit are expected to be high-intensity, with stronger winds and rain.

The tragedy of Cyclone Tracy means Australia’s disaster preparedness is more advanced than it might have been. However, building a disaster-resilient nation requires continuous efforts to strengthen infrastructure, refine evacuation plans, and address vulnerabilities in communities.

Achieving this is a responsibility which should be shared between governments and communities alike. Läs mer…

As the holiday season approaches, many people ponder the same question: how can you give a gift that truly stands out? For some, gift-giving is a genuine joy, while for others, it feels more like a chore. In the rush to find something suitable, many of us have resorted to the last-minute gift card, whether for a spa day at one of 253 partner wellness centers or a couple of laps around a race track in a luxury sports car.

No matter the choice, the holiday season often involves a significant financial commitment. According to a CSA survey for Cofidis (Christmas 2024), French consumers plan to spend an average of €497 on holiday expenses, including €323 for gifts and €132 for food. While the monetary value of a gift undoubtedly plays a role in its appreciation, it’s not the only factor. Our research highlights a less obvious yet impactful aspect of gift-giving: vicarious pride.

The value of personal investment

Vicarious pride arises when recipients mirror the pride felt by the gift-giver after putting thought and effort into creating something unique. A gift holds greater value when the giver invests personally in its selection or creation. Personalisation, whether by adding initials, choosing specific colours, or selecting scents for a custom perfume, is a powerful way to enhance a gift’s significance. It transforms a mass-produced item into a unique and meaningful object tailored to the recipient. In a market saturated with generic products, personalized gifts stand out as a thoughtful and intentional choice

Sometimes, friends simply buy gifts; other times, they go the extra mile by “creating” a gift that reflects their relationship with the recipient. By doing so, they showcase creativity and effort, crafting something unique that fosters pride and strengthens the bond.

Brands leading the way

Pride doesn’t stem solely from one’s own achievements – it can also come from appreciating the effort of others. That’s why the “best gifts” evoke joy and surprise while requiring sacrifice and altruism from the giver. Personalisation elevates a gift from an object to a meaningful experience.

Recognising this, many brands now offer platforms for customising items ranging from watches and mugs to calendars and T-shirts. For example, 24Bottles allows customers to add text, logos, or designs to their lightweight stainless steel bottles, aligning them with their eco-friendly ethos. Similarly, French cosmetic brand Aroma Zone offers natural ingredients for DIY skincare and shampoo customisation. These platforms not only cater to personalisation trends but also create opportunities for brands to connect deeply with their customers.

Making personalisation simpler

For personalised gifts to become a more accessible option, brands need to simplify the customisation process – especially during the hectic holiday season. Streamlining this process can help alleviate the time crunch many shoppers face. Brands can also enhance the gifting experience by encouraging personalisation through thoughtful details, such as labeling items with the giver’s name or sharing a brief story about the customisation process. These small touches reinforce the connection between the giver and the recipient, making the gift even more memorable.

Research shows that recipients tend to cherish personalised gifts longer. The emotional connection to the item, given the effort behind its creation, often leads recipients to handle it with care, repair it if it breaks, and delay replacing it. Personalised gifts are no ordinary objects – they carry sentimental value and foster a deeper bond between the recipient and the giver.

Whether it’s a custom chocolate bar or a handmade piece of jewelry, well-thought-out gifts create lasting impressions. They embody care, creativity, and effort, leaving a meaningful impact that goes beyond the holiday season. Läs mer…

Three years ago, on Dec. 30, 2021, a wind-driven wildfire raced through two communities just outside Boulder, Colorado. In the span of about eight hours, more than 1,000 homes and businesses burned.

The fire left entire blocks in ash, but among them, pockets of houses survived, seemingly untouched. The owners of these homes may have felt relief at first. But fire damage can be deceiving, as many soon discovered.

When wildfires like the Marshall Fire reach the wildland-urban interface, they are burning both vegetation and human-made materials. Vehicles and buildings burn, along with all of the things inside them – electronics, paint, plastics, furniture.

Research shows that when human-made materials like these burn, the chemicals released are different from what is emitted when just vegetation burns. The smoke and ash can blow under doors and around windows in nearby homes, bringing in chemicals that stick to walls and other indoor surfaces and continue off-gassing for weeks to months, particularly in warmer temperatures.

The Marshall Fire swept through several neighborhoods in the towns of Louisville and Superior, Colo. In the homes that were left standing, residents dealt with lingering smoke and ash in their homes.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

In a new study, my colleagues and I looked at the health effects people experienced when they returned to still-standing homes after the Marshall Fire. We also created a checklist for people to use after urban wildfires in the future to help them protect their health and reduce their risks when they return to smoke-damaged homes.

Tests in homes found elevated metals and VOCs

In the days after the Marshall Fire, residents quickly reached out to nearby scientists who study wildfire smoke and health risks at the University of Colorado Boulder and area labs. People wanted to know what was in the ash and causing the lingering smells inside their homes.

In homes we were able to test, my colleagues found elevated levels of metals and PAHs – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – in the ash. We also found elevated VOCs – volatile organic compounds – in airborne samples. Some VOCs, such as dioxins, benzene, formaldehyde and PAHs, can be toxic to humans. Benzene is a known carcinogen.

Wildfire ash and dust entered homes under doors and around windows.
Courtesy of Joost de Gouw

People wanted to know whether the chemicals that got into their homes that day could harm their health.

At the time, we could find no information about physical health implications for people who have returned to smoke-damaged homes after a wildfire. To look for patterns, we surveyed residents affected by the fire six months, one year and two years afterward.

Symptoms 6 months after the fire

Even six months after the fire, we found that many people were reporting symptoms that aligned with health risks related to smoke and ash from fires.

More than half (55%) of the people who responded to our survey reported that they were experiencing at least one symptom six months after the blaze that they attributed to the Marshall Fire. The most common symptoms reported were itchy or watery eyes (33%), headache (30%), dry cough (27%), sneezing (26%) and sore throat (23%).

All of these symptoms, as well as having a strange taste in one’s mouth, were associated with people reporting that their home smelled differently when they returned to it one week after the fire.

Many survey respondents said that the smells decreased over time. Most attributed the improvement in smell to the passage of time, cleaning surfaces and air ducts, replacing furnace filters, and removing carpet, textiles and furniture from the home. Despite this, many still had symptoms.

We found that living near a large number of burned structures was associated with these health symptoms. For every 10 additional destroyed buildings within 820 feet (250 meters) of a person’s home, there was a 21% increase in headaches and a 26% increase in having a strange taste in their mouth.

These symptoms align with what could be expected from exposure to the chemicals that we found in the ash and measured in the air inside the few smoke-damaged homes that we were able to study in depth.

Lingering symptoms and questions

There are a still a lot of unanswered questions about the health risks from smoke- and ash-damaged homes.

For example, we don’t yet know what long-term health implications might look like for people living with lingering gases from wildfire smoke and ash in a home.

We found a significant decline in the number of people reporting symptoms one year after the fire. However, 33% percent of the people whose homes were affected still reported at least one symptom that they attributed to the fire. About the same percentage also reported at least one symptom two years after the fire.

We also could not measure the level of VOCs or metals that each person was exposed to. But we do think that reports of a change in the smell of a person’s home one week after the fire demonstrates the likely presence of VOCs in the home. That has health implications for people whose homes are exposed to smoke or ash from a wildfire.

Tips to protect yourself after future wildfires

Wildfires are increasingly burning homes and other structures as more people move into the wildland-urban interface, temperatures rise and fire seasons lengthen.

It can be confusing to know what to do if your home is one that survives a wildfire nearby. To help, my colleagues and I put together a website of steps to take if your home is ever infiltrated by smoke or ash from a wildfire.

Here are a few of those steps:

When you’re ready to clean your home, start by protecting yourself. Wear at least an N95 (or KN95) mask and gloves, goggles and clothing that covers your skin.
Vacuum floors, drapes and furniture. But avoid harsh chemical cleaners because they can react with the chemicals in the ash.
Clean your HVAC filter and ducts to avoid spreading ash further. Portable air cleaners with carbon filters can help remove VOCs.

A recent scientific study documents how cleaning all surfaces within a home can reduce reservoirs of VOCs and lower indoor air concentrations of VOCs.

Given that we don’t know much yet about the health harms of smoke- and ash-damaged homes, it is important to take care in how you clean so you can do the most to protect your health. Läs mer…

To combat climate change and help nature to recover, a lot more investment is urgently needed. The UN’s State of Finance for Nature report claims that if the world is to meet climate, biodiversity and land degradation targets, it needs to invest an extra US$4.1 trillion (£3.2 trillion) by 2050.

With most of the existing funding coming from public sources (US$133 billion), calls to close the “investment gap” are now focusing heavily on private investments, commonly referred to as green finance. Such is the power of this narrative that the need to involve corporate investors has come to be seen by many as self-evidently true.

There are a great deal of initiatives looking to provide or secure private investments to restore nature, for example through carbon and biodiversity markets. But a major risk is being overlooked: when we put a price on something given to us by nature, this fundamentally changes how we relate to it.

The entire global economy is already based on this commodification of nature. Food and fuel, for example, have been bought and sold for millennia. But now we are expanding the frontier to previously non-traded constituents of the natural world, such as carbon or biodiversity itself.

This process can change our relationship to those aspects of nature. For instance, while we may have once felt we had a moral obligation to save a certain species or habitat, once that form of nature is commodified, our motivations may switch to “conservation because it makes a profit”. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, articulated this worldview at the launch of a State of Finance for Nature report in 2021, when he said that: “By taking profits of nature-based solutions, we can vastly improve human well-being and prosperity”.

There’s carbon in them thar bogs.
Joe Dunckley / shutterstock

All this heightens the risk of increased inequality. For instance, as most of the world’s land is owned by only a few people, those people will be at advantage when it comes to selling carbon credits (by planting trees or protecting peat bogs on their land, for instance). This concentrates the ability to make money out of carbon in the same hands. (This is similar to large property owners being able to charge rents and accumulate more wealth).

The idea that nature is something that can be bought and sold in a market was originally a western concept, but has now spread across the world. As market thinking is extended further into the natural world, those remaining non-western frameworks risk being further marginalised. The “Mother Earth law” in Bolivia, for instance, enshrines in law the idea that people take care of nature because it is like taking care of family. Ideas like this are not particularly compatible with a world in which forests are protected and species are saved because there is money to be made doing so.

Despite evidence of the risks of nature commodification, alarmingly little attention is being paid to it in the newly supercharged advocacy for green finance, which has a feeling of a new gold rush.

Implicit narrative in favour of commodification

The UK is a good example of how a push for private finance to fix the climate and biodiversity crises means the problems of nature commodification are ignored. In 2023, the then government set a target to stimulate £500 million per year of private investment into nature recovery, aiming to increase it to £1 billion per year by 2030 (there are no signs yet that the Labour government, elected in 2024, will change this strategy).

But when we analysed 19 policy and advisory documents that form this green finance strategy, we found they overwhelmingly think of risks in terms of how they affect investors or the market. There is lots of talk of uncertainty around financial returns, or the chances of losing consumer confidence due to “greenwashing”. Just one document, a discussion of “natural capital”, provides specific examples of ethical and cultural threats for rural communities.

Overall, there seems to be an implicit narrative in favour of commodification. Critically, it is not that the risks are unknown, but the framing remains decidedly commercial, centring the potential challenges for consumers and investors, and not in our relationship with nature. Meanwhile, red flags are already flying, as more stories emerge of market-based “carbon offsetting” policies that benefit big landowners and can end up widening rural inequalities and preventing local communities from accessing the income generated by wind farms, forests or peat bogs.

Those with a vested interest in making profits from nature may underplay the issues with commodification. And those same issues might be inadvertently ignored by people who are strongly committed to nature recovery but frustrated with slow progress. However, if we fail to engage with the way that private green finance fundamentally changes how we relate to nature, we might make things worse.

This is not to discount the possibility of ethical initiatives to invest in nature, but simply applying “good standards” will not be sufficient. We need a deep collective reflection on whether this is what we really want as a society and if so, how we effectively prevent and mitigate those risks. Läs mer…

Why empires fall is a question that fascinates many. But in the search for an answer, imagination can run wild. Suggestions have emerged in recent decades that attribute the rise and fall of ancient empires such as the Roman Empire to climate change and disease. This has prompted discussions over whether “536 was the worst year to be alive”.

That year, a volcanic eruption created a dust veil that blocked the sun in certain regions of the world. This, combined with a series of volcanic eruptions in the following decade, is claimed to have caused a decrease in the global temperature. Between 541 and 544, there was also the first and most severe documented occurrence of the Justinianic plague in the eastern Roman Empire (also referred to as the Byzantine Empire), in which millions of people died.

Studies show that there is no textual evidence for the effects of the dust veil in the eastern Mediterranean, and there is an extensive debate over the extent and length of the Justinianic plague. But, despite this, there are still many in academia who claim that changes to the climate and the outbreak of plague were catastrophic for the eastern Roman Empire.

Our research, which was published in November, shows that these claims are incorrect. They were derived from using isolated finds and small case studies that were projected onto the entire Roman Empire.

The use of large datasets from vast territories previously ruled by the Roman Empire presents a different scenario. Our findings reveal that there was no decline in the 6th century, but rather a new record in population and trade in the eastern Mediterranean.

The eastern Roman Empire reached its greatest extent in the 6th century. Light purple represents its military gains from 533 and 565, a period in which the empire was supposedly devastated by climate change and plague.
Simeon Netchev/World History Encyclopedia

We used both micro and large-scale data from various countries and regions. Micro-scale data included examining small regions and showing when the decline in this region or site occurred. Case studies, such as the site of the ancient city of Elusa in the north-western Negev desert in today’s Israel, were reexamined.

Previous research claimed that this site declined in the middle of the 6th century. A reanalysis of the carbon 14, a method for checking the age of an object made of organic material, and ceramic data used to date the site showed that this conclusion was incorrect. The decline only started in the 7th century.

Large-scale data included new databases compiled using archaeological survey, excavation and shipwreck finds. The survey and excavation databases, which were made up of tens of thousands of sites, were used to map the general changes in the size and number of sites for each historical period.

The shipwreck database showed the number of shipwrecks for each half century. This was used to highlight the shift in the volume of naval commerce.

Changes to naval commerce (150–750)

Graph comparing the percentage of shipwrecks in each half century, out of the total number of
shipwrecks in that half of the Mediterranean, according to the Harvard and OXREP databases. Orange
represents the western Mediterranean, blue represents the eastern Mediterranean.
Lev Cosijns and Haggai Olshanetsky

Our results showed that there was a high correlation in the archaeological record for numerous regions, covering modern-day Israel, Tunisia, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt and Greece. There was also a strong correlation between the different types of data.

Both the smaller case studies, and the larger datasets, showed there was no decrease in population or economy in the 6th century eastern Roman Empire. In fact, there seems to have been an increase in prosperity and demography. The decline occurred in the 7th century, and so cannot be connected to sudden climate change or the plague which happened more than half a century before.

It seems the Roman Empire entered the 7th century at the peak of its power. But Roman miscalculations, and their failure against their Persian opponents, brought the entire area into a downward spiral. This left the two empires weak and allowed Islam to rise.

This is not to say that there was no change in the climate during this period in some regions of the world. For example, there was a visible change in material culture and a general decline and abandonment of sites throughout Scandinavia in the middle of the 6th century, where this change in the climate was more extensive.

And today’s climate crisis is on course to bring much greater changes than those seen in the past. The sharp departure from historical environmental fluctuations has the power to irreversibly change the world as we know it. Läs mer…

Expecting a baby, especially a first baby, is a lot for any new parent. There are so many unknowns and so much to plan for: where your baby will sleep, how you will organise feeding, changing and bathing arrangements and how you will arrange your work life so you or another caregiver are with the child. If you have the privilege of using more than one language, you may well want your child to know these languages.

In the English-speaking world, many people have limited knowledge of any other language, but that is certainly not the case everywhere. Almost 60% of people aged 25–64 in the EU know at least one language other than their first language at a “good” or “proficient” level.

Many children are born into families where several languages are used daily and can expect to have more than one first language. You may have grown up with more than one first language, or you parents may have different first languages. The majority language outside the home may not be either parent’s first language.

Before your baby is born, there is a lot you can do to prepare the ground for them to acquire the languages you want them to know.

Parents can discuss what their linguistic aspirations are for their child. Which language(s) or language varieties should your child develop right from the start as their first?

Typically, the first language or languages are developed to a higher level than other languages that are learned later. Due to practical limitations, you may need to prioritise if there are more than three or four languages involved.

The key is to ensure that the child has enough regular input and interaction in each language they are developing. Often, parents want to be able to interact with their baby in the language(s) they were raised in. There may be other language(s) used outside your home, and these can wait until your child’s world expands to early childhood education or daycare, or sandpit interaction with other children.

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Expectant parents can work out the family language policy. Who will speak which language with your child? Will this vary according to time and place? How will your baby get enough input and interaction in each of the languages?

Here, my own experience is with the one-person-one-language approach. Right from the beginning, I spoke my first language (English) with my children, and their father spoke his first language (Swedish) with them. The children spoke to us in the languages we used with them. No explicit teaching is needed.

In other families, the parents might share a first language or both be proficient speakers of a minority language and mostly use that with the child. Other languages, particularly the majority language spoken in the country the family is living in, may also be used around the child.

Expanding your child’s world

Get friends and family on board as early as possible. Grandparents and other extended family back in the old country may be concerned about not being able to speak to your child. Once they know that you want your child to know their language, family can be a valuable source of input and interaction.

Relatives may have encountered myths about early childhood bilingualism being damaging, and early conversations can allay their fears and show the advantages of bilingualism to your child and your family. There is no evidence that children growing up with more than one language experience delayed language development.

It is very difficult to predict what languages your child will need in their future. They may want to migrate to a place you were glad to leave in the past.

The children of migrants are often curious about a side of their ethnicity that will only be open to them if they have the necessary language skills to spend time as an insider. Adult children who grew up without learning a parent’s first language report regretting that their parent did not pass on their language to them.

With a little planning, you can give your child the gift of all your languages.
Rawpixel/Shutterstock

Finally, remember you are not alone in planning to raise your child to speak more than one language. There are a lot of resources and advice available. Read about what other families have done. Recruit support in your extended family and community.

For the first year or two, a child only needs a small number of people around. But for an older child, more adults and children who speak the minority language(s) are valuable. A child also needs to hear parents speaking the languages with other people, as this gives more complex input.

Growing up with more than one language has obvious advantages in that a child can communicate with more people who may be important in their life. There may also be cognitive and social advantages.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” While it may seem intimidating, don’t shy away from giving your baby the gift of access to all your languages. Läs mer…

Mikheil Kavelashvili is due to be inaugurated as Georgia’s new president on December 29. The former Manchester City footballer has represented the ruling Georgian Dream party in parliament since 2016.

During its time in office, Georgian Dream has moved the country away from engagement with the EU, and closer to Russia.

Georgian Dream has been in power since 2012. It is backed by the considerable financial resources of its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia and has extensive ties there. During that time, it has overseen increasingly harsh repression of Georgia’s independent media and brutal responses to ongoing popular protests.

In reaction to these policies, the US has suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia . The UK government has also announced it will suspend all aid to Georgia and restrict engagement with the Georgian Dream party.

But Kavelashvili’s appointment is likely to signal further change. He is one of the founders of a political movement known as The People’s Power, a radical offshoot of Georgian Dream which is known for even harsher anti-western, pro-Vladimir Putin rhetoric.

The lengths to which Georgian Dream has gone to ensure its choice of the next president suggests it regards this post as more important than its historically purely ceremonial status would suggest. Removing this role from an opposition figure may be the key to completing its takeover of the leading institutions of the state.

Constitutional changes

Kavelashvili is the first Georgian president not to be directly elected by the people. This was because of a 2022 change in the constitution initiated by Georgian Dream. He was chosen by a college of electors, composed of members of parliament and local government representatives. He was the only candidate on the ballot.

The way the new president was chosen was justified by the government as strengthening parliamentary democracy and reducing political polarisation. Independent analysts, by contrast, argue that it eroded potential checks on the government by giving the ruling party an almost guaranteed opportunity to choose the president.

Meanwhile, the opposition has accused the party of interfering in elections to ensure that it dominates national, regional and local government.

In the most recent elections in October 2024, Georgian Dream won 54% of seats in parliament, compared with a total of 38% for the four opposition parties.

There have been extensive claims that Georgian Dream manipulated these election results through violence, vote-buying and ballot box stuffing. The European Parliament has called for the election to be re-run.

So why is the shift towards Russia happening? Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgia’s trade with Russia has increased dramatically. Tbilisi has benefited from its willingness to ignore economic sanctions and welcome Russian tourists and businesses.

Protests in Georgia around decisions taken by the government and over the recent elections.

The personal economic interests of Georgia’s ruling elite now depend heavily on Tbilisi maintaining good relations with Russia. Such financial rewards mean that little or no action by Russia is needed to ensure these leaders continue that policy.

Similarities with Russia?

In the political sphere, the Georgian Dream has used its time in power to push through a series of laws that are similar to repressive legislation adopted in Russia. These include a “foreign agents” law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power”.

This requirement affects most of the independent NGO sector in Georgia, which finds it difficult to secure domestic funding in a political system that is so thoroughly dominated by a ruling party that does not welcome scrutiny or criticism.

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Georgia is sliding towards autocracy after government moves to force through bill on ’foreign agents’

Like Russia, Georgia has passed legislation that bans gay marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, and the depiction of LGBTQ+ people in the media, in order to protect “Christian and Georgian values”.

The adoption of Russian-style laws regulating aspects of everyday life has been accompanied by ongoing disputes with Brussels, first over its demands that Georgia tackle corruption and then over EU disapproval of Georgia’s repressive new laws.

On November 28, Tbilisi announced its withdrawal from EU accession negotiations and said it would reject EU funding until at least 2028.

It was this announcement, and the prospect that EU membership would be placed out of reach – perhaps indefinitely – that brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets. EU membership has been consistently popular among ordinary members of Georgian society, in sharp contrast to the strongly pro-Russian orientation of the government.

Outgoing president was opposition voice

The only remaining national political figure in Georgia willing and able to stand up to the government is the country’s outgoing president, Salome Zourabichvili , who was born and raised in the Georgian emigre community in France.

Zourabichvili is a passionate and articulate champion of democracy, human rights, and the benefits of greater integration with western Europe, including joining the EU. She has publicly sided with the protesters and called upon the EU to put pressure on Tbilisi to hold free and fair elections to reflect the will of the people.

She has refused to accept the legitimacy of the October parliamentary elections or Kavelashvili’s election, and has said that she will not vacate the presidency at the end of this month.

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Zourabichvili’s ability to use her position as head of state to draw attention to her country’s plight and call upon the international community for help is another indication of the importance of the presidency, and why Georgia’s government was so determined to control it.

As the presidential inauguration on December 29 approaches, the stage is set for a confrontation that will determine the future direction of the country. Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, also from Georgian Dream, has already indicated what that might be, saying that Kavelashvili’s win “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty”.

Unfortunately for its citizens, the government appears to hold all the cards: control of the political institutions including the security forces, enormous wealth, and the ruthlessness to use every means possible to defeat its opponents. Läs mer…

Nine-year-old Annie McGuire and seven-year-old Elizabeth Martin were among thousands of women and girls admitted to the Glasgow Lock Hospital for Unfortunate Females, one of a network of Lock hospitals built across Britain and its colonies in the 19th century, between 1846 and 1947.

Established to diagnose and treat women and girls for venereal diseases, the hospital lay at the heart of the notorious Glasgow System – the Scottish city’s response to the Contagious Diseases Act (CDA).

The CDA, implemented in garrison towns and naval ports across England and Wales in the 1860s, aimed to eradicate sexually transmitted diseases among the armed forces. The Glasgow Lock played a key role in the Glasgow System’s unprecedented coalition of police, courts, prisons, medical authorities and the city’s Magdalene institutions.

Annie and Elizabeth were admitted to the hospital with gonorrhoea – and died there three years later. They, like all those who died in the Lock, were buried in unmarked graves. These sparse details are all that remain of the short but brutal lives of these two little girls.

Although the hospital’s records reveal little about its patients’ personal stories, through them, as part of my research on gender-based violence, I’ve been able to glimpse the social repression of working-class women and girls in 19th century Glasgow.

Here was a city with a mission to end women’s supposedly evil ways and eradicate the “social evil” of prostitution and venereal disease. Vulnerable young girls like Annie and Elizabeth were victims of these attitudes, and blamed for the sexual violence they’d experienced. As a “treatment”, they were then subjected to more abuse – at the institution that was supposed to protect them.

‘Dangerous sexualities’

Alexander Patterson, a surgeon at the Lock in the 1860s, advocated the creation of the Glasgow System to eradicate prostitution and venereal diseases – by focusing on women as the cause of both.

Patterson’s suggestion was well received by the city’s leaders, who regarded prostitution and venereal diseases as “highly visible symbols of the social dislocation attendant upon the industrial era”. Women and their “dangerous sexualities” were supposedly responsible for a “social evil which disgraces the land”.

In their eyes, any woman was a “prostitute” if her behaviour, speech, dress or lifestyle defied Victorian social or sexual norms. Prostitution included what contemporary moralists regarded as degenerate working-class culture, whereby women were free to roam the streets creating a “dangerous temptation” to men and a threat to public morality and health.

The Glasgow Police Act 1866 granted officers full discretionary powers to apprehend any women or girl they thought was, or risked becoming, a prostitute. According to Glasgow’s chief constable Alexander McCall, this meant any woman found on the street who was unable to account for how she made her living.

Thousands were apprehended based on this definition (or on the whim of individual policemen), including homeless, destitute or unemployed women, separated women and single mothers, and part-time and casual female labourers.

Women and girls were taken first to the Lock for a compulsory, brutal internal examination. Its registers show ballerinas, actresses, shop girls, unemployed mill girls, domestic servants, farm workers and the wives of soldiers and tradesmen and children all being admitted.

The women entered the Lock’s doors under a sign proclaiming its aims: TREATMENT – KNOWLEDGE – REFORMATION. They were categorised as one of the following:

“Wanderer” – a homeless, destitute young girl;
“Fallen” – a young woman who had become a known prostitute;
“Newly fallen” – a young woman or girl who had only recently become involved in prostitution; or
“Hardened” – an adult woman working as a prostitute who was known to the police or who had previous convictions.

By 1910, the Lock was admitting around 300 women a year, housing around 50 patients at any one time. With shaved heads and regulation brown uniforms, these patients were highly visible and stigmatised outside the walls of hospital.

When well enough, the women worked in the laundry, kitchens and mortuary, and attended classes provided by middle-class women volunteers, designed to train patients in “acceptable” female behaviour.

A (short) life of incarceration

The Glasgow Lock’s records show many children under 13, like Annie and Elizabeth, contracted gonorrhea while incarcerated at other institutions and reformatories – possibly after being raped by men seeking the “virgin cure” for venereal disease.

The girls’ bodies, already severely damaged by sexual violence, often struggled to survive the punishing conditions – and brutal but largely ineffective treatments – inflicted on them in the Lock.

By the late 19th century, the Glasgow System, incorporating Duke Street women’s jail, the Lock, and Glasgow’s Magdalene institutions, was incarcerating, treating and attempting to reform thousands of women and girls.

Once treated, girls and young women considered to be in imminent danger of becoming prostitutes were admitted to the Magdalene, where they were subjected to a harsh regime of religious instruction and hard labour in its commercial laundry. Designed to divert them from prostitution and to become obedient wives and compliant workers, it remained in operation until 1960.

While the scandal of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland is notorious, Scotland’s Magdalene asylums are less well known. Glasgow’s Magdalene Institution for the Repression of Vice and Rehabilitation of Penitent Females was closely associated with the Glasgow Lock.

The hospital closed its doors in 1947, following the introduction of Britain’s new National Health Service. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow now has a dedicated Lock Room, telling its story through powerful visual displays. Demolished in 1955, the original Glasgow Lock Hospital sites lie within the University of Strathclyde’s campus area. Läs mer…