Movement

• He is on a secret mission to meet representatives of Britain’s ruling Labour party – including, he hopes, the recently elected prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald.
• The 38-year-old Matteotti, a tireless defender of workers’ rights, still hopes Mussolini can be stopped.
• For Matteotti, this new British government – the first to be led by Labour, although not as a majority – is a beacon of hope.

Four days in London

• Britain’s new prime minister was a working-class Scot who had made his way up via humble jobs and political activism.
• In contrast, Matteotti hailed from a wealthy family that owned 385 acres in the Polesine region of north-eastern Italy.

• The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
• But something else may have troubled Mussolini about Matteotti’s visit to London – part of a European tour that also included stops in Brussels and Paris.

Death of a socialist

• He had reportedly been working on this speech day and night, studying data and checking numbers for many hours.
• This secret group, known as Ceka after the Soviet political police created to repress dissent, had been following Matteotti for weeks.
• The squad’s leader, US-born Amerigo Dumini, reputedly boasted of having previously killed several socialist activists.
• Socialist MPs, alerted by Matteotti’s wife, denounced the MP’s disappearance – but were not altogether surprised by it.
• For a few days, it appeared that the resulting public outrage – much of it aimed at Mussolini himself – might even bring down Italy’s government, spelling the death knell for fascism.

Why was Matteotti murdered?

• His death can be seen as one of the most consequential political assassinations of the 20th century.
• Yet for the Italian right, Matteotti is a ghost.
• Throughout her political career, Italy’s current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has hardly ever spoken about the historical crimes of fascists in Italy, and not once about the murder of Matteotti.
• The historical debate about the murder has also never reached a unanimous conclusion about who gave the order to kill Matteotti and why.

The LSE documents

• The story of how the documents came to be secreted away in the LSE library takes us back to London for another clandestine visit – this time by Gaetano Salvemini, an esteemed professor of modern history who fled Italy in November 1925.
• In December 1926, while still in London, Salvemini received the secret package which he soon passed on to the LSE.
• But they were driven by the conviction that these documents could one day prove beyond doubt that Mussolini had orchestrated Matteotti’s assassination.
• Salvemini may thus have considered the LSE a safe haven – and there the documents have remained ever since.

A voice from the dead

• Rather, the move allowed Mussolini to legislate unchallenged while the seats of the 123 MPs who had joined the rebellion were left vacant.
• Matteotti’s article, entitled “Machiavelli, Mussolini and Fascism”, was a response to an article published in the magazine’s June issue by Mussolini himself.
• The Italian prime minister’s translated essay about the Renaissance intellectual Niccolò Machiavelli had carried the provocative headline “The Folly of Democracy”.
• The article was widely commented on in the British press, which had been following the story of Matteotti’s murder almost daily.
• His funeral was rushed through very quickly, with the coffin being transported overnight in an attempt to prevent public gatherings.

The end of Italian democracy

• In a speech to parliament on January 3 1925, he took “political responsibility” for the murder while not admitting to ordering it.
• Mussolini’s speech ended with a rhetorical invitation to indict him – to a parliament now populated only by fascists.
• The speech signalled the end of Italian democracy.
• The nature of Mussolini’s involvement was little discussed in the wake of his execution in April 1945 and the end of the second world war.
• Was it the evidence of the Mussolini government’s corruption that he planned to reveal to the Italian parliament the day after his kidnap?

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• He has also received funding from the Fondazione Giacomo Matteotti to study the LSE documents.
• Gianluca Fantoni 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.

• Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change?
• Specifically, we investigate solutions to environmental and societal problems that stem from the disparities between scientific research, policy and management responses to environmental issues.

Our work’s standing among global research aimed at stopping ecosystem collapse has been recognised as one of 23 national champions in this year’s Frontiers Planet Prize.

Read more:
Our oceans are in deep trouble – a 'mountains to sea' approach could make a real difference

More holistic solutions

• The challenges focused on environmental issues were deliberately created to concentrate on separate ecosystem and management domains (marine, freshwater and land).
• We focus on solutions where social and ecological connections are at the forefront of environmental management practices and decisions.

• Most of the microplastics found along coasts and in harbours are blown or washed off the land.
• This leads to lags in decision making which create undesirable environmental outcomes that are difficult to return from.

Cyclones as a real-world example

• The exposed soil associated with clear felling was left draped in woody debris to protect it from rain.
• However, Cyclone Gabrielle hit in February last year, with extreme rainfall washing both soil and woody debris into streams.

• The debris also clogged harbours and coastal beaches, smothered seafloor habitats, destroyed fisheries and affected cultural and recreational values.
• This real-world example demonstrates the severe consequences of lags in information flow and management responses.

Living with nature, not off it

• Living within planetary boundaries requires a paradigm shift in behaviours, including the way we link science and management to on-the-ground action.
• Crucially, we need to increase the speed at which new research is taken up and rapidly transition this into action that improves environmental outcomes at local scales.
• This behavioural shift underpins the way to a more integrated, broad-scale ability to act and stay within planetary boundaries.

• Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher receives funding from philanthropy, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), including from the National Science Challenges, the Marsden Fund and the Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships.
• Conrad Pilditch receives funding from Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), including the National Science Challenge Sustainable Seas, Marsden Fund and regional councils.

• NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up.
• Read more:
  Scrap the West Australian GST deal set to cost $40 billion – leading economists

So how much less?

• But since 2021-22, Australia’s GST has been allocated under a new equalisation arrangement.
• If NSW’s “no worse off” top-up payments are taken into account, the difference is only $188 million.
• Yes, that’s a lot of money to lose, but multiplied out over four years, it’s still well short of $11.9 billion.

Short-changed on population

• NSW’s beef with the GST carve-up is most likely that it receives much less than it would get if those revenues were distributed according to population share, instead of according to service delivery needs between states and territories.
• Next year, for example, with 31.2% of the population, NSW will only receive 27.1% of GST revenues.
• In dollar terms, the difference is equivalent to about $3.6 billion, which multiplied out over four years, would come to $14.4 billion.
• Distributing GST by population alone ignores different service delivery needs between states.

But what’s really fair?

• In reality, Mookhey has taken aim at the way we try to even up the financial capacity of the states and territories.
• Because of service needs, these jurisdictions receive a bigger share of GST funds than their share of the national population.
• Read more:
  States agree to do more heavy lifting on disability, in exchange for extra health and GST funding

Spending, not income, likely the problem

• Most of the slippage occurred in 2023 after the budget was brought down.
• While GST revenues will be down compared to what was budgeted in 2024-25, revenues in total are well above budget, by $490 million.
• The problem is not revenues, but expenses, which have blown out by close to $1 billion, mainly due to the impact of rising interest rates on outstanding debt.
• Were the other two agencies to follow suit, it likely wouldn’t make a difference.

David Hayward 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.

• During the appointment they measure your waist.
• GPs and health professionals commonly measure waist circumference as a vital sign for health.
• Men are at greatly increased risk of health issues if their waist circumference is greater than 102 centimetres.
• More than two-thirds of Australian adults have waist measurements that put them at an increased risk of disease.

How much is too much?

• A ratio of 0.6 or more places a person at the highest risk of disease.
• This can kick off a discussion about their risk of chronic diseases and how they might address this.
• For women, hormone levels begin changing in mid-life and this also stimulates increased fat levels particularly around the abdomen.
• Finally, your family history and genetics can make you predisposed to gaining more abdominal fat.

Why the waist?

• Visceral fat surrounds and infiltrates major organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines, releasing a variety of chemicals (hormones, inflammatory signals, and fatty acids).
• These affect inflammation, lipid metabolism, cholesterol levels and insulin resistance, contributing to the development of chronic illnesses.

• In addition to the direct effects of hormone changes, declining levels of oestrogen change brain function, mood and motivation.
• These psychological alterations can result in reduced physical activity and increased eating – often of comfort foods high in sugar and fat.
• And importantly, the waist circumference (and ratio to height) is just one measure of human health.

Muscle matters

• On current evidence, it is equally or more important for health and longevity to have higher muscle mass and better cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness than waist circumference within the healthy range.
• So, if a person does have an excessive waist circumference, but they are also sedentary and have less muscle mass and aerobic fitness, then the recommendation would be to focus on an appropriate exercise program.
• Conversely, a person with low visceral fat levels is not necessarily fit and healthy and may have quite poor aerobic fitness, muscle mass, and strength.

Getting moving is important advice

• Exercise can counter a lot of the negative behavioural and physiological changes that are occurring during midlife including for people going through menopause.
• And regular exercise reduces the tendency to use food and drink to help manage what can be a quite difficult time in life.
• Measuring your waist circumference and monitoring your weight remains important.

Rob Newton receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, Cancer Council Western Australia, Spinal Cord Injuries Australia and the World Cancer Research Fund. Rob Newton is a board member of The Healthy Male.