Agalope oshikirii n. sp. (Zygaenidae, Chalcosiinae) is described from the uppermost Miocene–Pliocene Sanzugawa Formation in Akita Prefecture, northern Japan. Because we found a single fossil forewing in this study, we give a table of the forewing characters of various groups of the genus Agalope and related genera and compared them with this new species, confirming that it does not match any of the species. This is the first discovery of chalcosiine fossils in Japan and provides evidence of a historically broader distribution of the genus.

http://zoobank.org/999828b5-4f91-470f-bc15-6b6fe7a8ec61

What shapes the ways in which citizens participate in politics? This article investigates the association between private homeownership and the forms of citizens’ political behaviors using a Chinese nationwide social survey. Exploiting the abolishment of the welfare housing system in the late 1990s as a quasi-natural experiment, I find that owning a home and experiencing home value appreciation increases citizens’ willingness for political engagement as well as participatory behaviors through formal channels, but reduces their confrontational behaviors towards government such as participation in protests. Further evidence on political attitudes suggests that homeowners are more critical of government performance, yet they report higher political trust in the state and a stronger preference for maintaining the status quo. These findings highlight the critical role of asset ownership in preventing conflict and promoting stability by shaping the political behaviors and beliefs of citizens.

This paper examines the effect of the 2022 FIFA World Cup group matches on outgroup bias among South Koreans. Using a list experiment conducted in four rounds before and during the tournament, we investigate whether these matches promote social learning, enabling individuals to update their perceptions of outgroups directly involved in the match, or if they merely trigger emotional responses to match results, with defeats leading to increased outgroup bias regardless of match contact. Our findings suggest insufficient evidence to conclude that South Korean respondents generally modify their outgroup bias levels in response to these events. However, certain subgroups, particularly males, demonstrate strong reactions to losses, exhibiting heightened outgroup bias towards all outgroups. These results indicate that in the context of negative contact valence, high-stakes intergroup sports competitions can lead to an overgeneralized outgroup bias against various groups among highly engaged individuals. This study contributes to understanding the relationship between sports events and intergroup attitudes, highlighting the potential for negative outcomes to exacerbate biases among certain subpopulations.

Species of Monopteria are revised to include documentation of substantial change in shell shape during growth, characters of the hinge, and characters present on the anterior surface of the shell. The mature shell grew in an arcuate curve that elongates far to the posterior and has a wide sinus that separates the inflated shell body from a prong-like posterior auricle on the hinge line. An unusual depression of the paired valves (anterior depression) is present on the anterior surface surrounding a large byssal notch. Dentition is lacking, and a clinovincular ligament (new term) is present. Species occur mostly in mollusk-rich biotas of shallow marine environments. Species lived with a combination of byssal attachment and a rounded ventral surface that enabled them to maintain position within fine-grained sediment. Six species are recognized, and five are provided with new or revised descriptions. New species include M. magna and M. heaneyi, neotypes are designated for M. longispina Cox, 1857 and M. alata Beede, 1898, and a lectotype is designated for M. marian White, 1874. Species Gervillia auricula Stevens, 1858, and Anthracoptera polita White, 1880, previously considered to be included in the genus, are excluded from Monopteria and the name Gervillia auricula is judged to be without merit and abandoned. The use of genus name Limopteria as a replacement of Monopteria is shown to be invalid. Limopteria is not a valid name; it has never been proposed as a taxon in publication.

http://zoobank.org/bd1064f1-f576-4194-8405-7d0c7771bc82

Fossil-Lagerstätten, or Lagerstätten, have played a critical role in our understanding of the diversity, abundance, evolution, and systematics of marine arthropods. The tendency toward preservation of Phanerozoic marine arthropods as fossils generally increases as a factor of biomineralization. Concentration deposits (Konzentrat-Lagerstätten) tend to have an abundance of biomineralized arthropod taxa, whereas conservation deposits (Konservat-Lagerstätten) tend to produce a higher biodiversity that includes biomineralizing and non-biomineralizing taxa. Some Lagerstätten incorporate aspects of both concentration and conservation deposits, indicating that these concepts are idealizations, or preservational end members. For arthropod occurrences, it is useful to consider another dimension of Lagerstätten: their taphonomic associations. This leads to a more nuanced understanding of arthropod fossilization history. Four taphonomic associations account for a substantial number of marine arthropod occurrences: (1) concretions, (2) clusters, (3) event beds, and (4) microbially sealed sediments. Each of these occurrences can blur the distinctions between, or the means of recognizing, the idealized genetic categories of concentration deposits and conservation deposits.

Governments in both England and Korea prioritise a comparable set of childcare policies and strategies to promote young children’s development and wellbeing and maternal labour market participation. This paper compares the two marketised childcare systems and policies and their impact on family outcomes in the context of public policy aims to increase maternal employment. Despite Korean financial support for its childcare system being proportionally much greater than England’s, maternal employment rates in England far outstrip those in Korea. As our conceptual approach, we adopt Kagan’s (Kagan et al.; Kagan with Landsberg) application of systems theory to childcare systems. Important aspects of these two marketised systems and their infrastructure appear to be operating inefficiently, impeding equitable access to high-quality, sustainable provision. This evidence fails to explain, though, lower maternal employment levels in Korea, where a lack of active labour market policies coupled with socio-cultural factors form additional barriers. Both countries may be close to tipping points in childcare policy development. Extending childcare support beyond working families and curbing market operations may need considering in England, while in Korea expanding high-quality universal childcare support through public and not-for-profit providers and family-friendly employment policies requires addressing.

This article explores a feminist approach to energy justice. In business and human rights to date, there has been little attention to the gendered dynamics in energy transition, mirroring the lack of attention to the rights of women and girls within broader energy and energy transition discourses. Without this attention, there is a risk that energy transition efforts maintain, increase, or create new gendered inequalities, rather than diminish them. With a focus on the distributional, recognitional and procedural dimensions of energy systems, the concept of energy justice holds much potential for the field of business and human rights. Taking women’s participation in energy transition policy-making in Sub-Saharan Africa as a concrete example, we argue that a feminist approach to energy justice could be one way of operationalizing a more gender-transformative energy transition.

The International Seabed Authority is under pressure from some states and companies to adopt the regulations that would allow deep seabed mining (DSM) to commence. While presented by its supporters as necessary to procure the minerals and metals needed for energy transition, DSM presents serious risks for the marine environments and human rights whose extent is still insufficiently understood. This article focuses on whether, should DSM be allowed in the short term, the current regulatory regime would suffice to ensure that the corporations leading this activity carry out effective assessment, prevention and mitigation of environmental impacts. In order to answer this question, it explores contractor obligations as they emerge from the current version of the ‘Mining Code’. In light of persisting scientific uncertainty and the high-risk profile of DSM activities, this article contends that the current version of the regulations does not devise sufficiently stringent due diligence obligations.

The need to urgently shift away from fossil-based systems of energy for the sake of the planet and its people is clear. The green transition comes, however, with negative impacts on human rights and the environment, notably on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Global South, where most of the essential minerals and metals needed for the transition are found. In this piece, we discuss recent legal developments in the Netherlands from the perspective of the need for a just energy transition. Against the background of the recently adopted European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), we analyze two draft Dutch due diligence laws and their potential in the context of a just energy transition. The focus is on the rights of Indigenous Peoples who are in an extremely vulnerable position in the transition process.

The United Kingdom was the first country to legalize the refusal to provide health care in the name of “conscientious objection”, allowing doctors to refuse to provide abortions based on personal or religious beliefs.

A historical review into the origins and motivation behind the “conscientious objection” clause in the 1967 Abortion Act found that Parliamentarians and the medical profession wanted to preserve doctors’ authority over patients, protect objecting doctors from liability, and appease religious anti-abortion beliefs.

These factors point to an unprincipled basis for the introduction of “conscientious objection” into healthcare, which ultimately came at the expense of patients’ rights and health. The “conscience clause” also represented a negation of basic ethical directives in medical practice including patient autonomy and physicians’ fiduciary duty to patients. The term “conscientious objection”— borrowed from the military but misapplied to healthcare — helped mask the practice as a moral “right” of doctors, even while it disregarded patients’ health and dignity.

Refusing to provide treatment on the basis of “conscience” is harmful and discriminatory, and should be phased out gradually using disincentives and other measures to encourage objectors to choose other fields.

Norway is, in many aspects, at the forefront of the global energy transition. Nevertheless, a human rights paradox in Norway’s energy transition plan is that while addressing climate-related human rights impacts, it might come at a high cost to the rights of the Indigenous Sámi People. Mining operations and renewable energy developments in the Sámi ancestral lands have already threatened reindeer husbandry, on which certain Sámi communities rely for a living, and which represents an integral component of their cultural identity. Resolving this paradox is crucial to achieving a just transition that leaves no one behind. Against this backdrop, the piece examines how the Norwegian Transparency Act—a mandatory human rights due diligence initiative—can address the impacts on Sámi rights caused by companies involved in renewable energy and extractive developments on Sámi lands.