Editor's note

Nau mai, haere mai - welcome to your New Zealand newsletter.

Massey University researchers have asked young people living with mobility, vision and hearing impairments about what they see as the biggest barrier to their participation in community life - and they found that our attitudes are the most significant hurdle. The researchers teamed up with illustrator Toby Morris to show how discrimination and prejudice continue to affect people with disabilities.

Globally, more than 300 million people are affected by depression and the World Health Organisation describes it as the leading cause of disability. The first diagnostic criteria were introduced in the 1980s, but we still lack clear consensus on how this mental disorder should be explained. Victoria University of Wellington psychologists Samuel Clack and Tony Ward propose a new approach to understanding the links between signs, symptoms and causes of depression.

In Climate Explained this week, University of Sydney lecturer Dries Verstraete explains why we have electric trains and cars but as yet no electric passenger planes.

You’ll find many more stories in this newsletter and on the New Zealand page. Many thanks for reading - if you enjoy this newsletter, please spread the word among friends and colleagues. He mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa.

Veronika Meduna

New Zealand Editor

Top stories

Toby Morris/Health Research Council

Comic explainer: young disabled New Zealanders on the barriers to a better life

Penelope Carroll, Massey University; Karen Witten, Massey University; Octavia Calder-Dawe, Massey University

One in four New Zealanders are living with a disability. Non-disabled people think they know what disability "looks like", and often how to help. And that can be a problem.

People with depression experience symptoms that affect their mood, cognitive function and physical health. from www.shutterstock.com

Depression: it’s a word we use a lot, but what exactly is it?

Samuel Clack, Victoria University of Wellington; Tony Ward, Victoria University of Wellington

Understanding of depression has advanced significantly since the first diagnostic criteria were introduced in the 1980s, but we still lack clear consensus on how this mental disorder should be explained.

Tax reforms generally imply a trade-off between average income and inequality. from www.shutterstock.com

How raising tax for high-income earners would reduce inequality, improve social welfare in New Zealand

Nicolas Herault, University of Melbourne; John Creedy, Victoria University of Wellington; Norman Gemmell, Victoria University of Wellington

At 33%, New Zealand's highest income tax rate is relatively low compared to other economies. Lifting it and cutting tax for low-income earners could improve welfare.

Research into low-carbon planes is underway, but we won’t see electric long-haul flights any time soon. DENIS BALIBOUSE / POOL

Climate explained: why don’t we have electric aircraft?

Dries Verstraete, University of Sydney

Unlike a car, you can't just stick a battery-powered engine in a plane and expect it to fly. Despite that, small planes might be the future of electric flight.

More than 32,000 civilians have been killed in the Afghanistan war between 2009 and 2018 - most of them by anti-government forces. AAP/GHULAMULLAH HABIBI

Operation Burnham: inquiry underway to determine any wrongdoing by New Zealand troops in Afghanistan

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato

An official inquiry is underway to examine if New Zealand troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan during an event known as Operation Burnham, when six civilians were killed.

From The Conversation's international editions

Merchants of misinformation are all over the internet. But the real problem lies with us

Will J Grant, Australian National University; Rod Lamberts, Australian National University

Every day, new "alternative facts" are peddled in the public realm. But misinformation is not solely a modern problem - its origins are as old as humanity.

‘The beautiful HIV-positive community’: Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness shines a spotlight on the changing face of HIV

Jennifer Power, La Trobe University; Graham Brown, La Trobe University

The Queer Eye star coming out as HIV positive and the changing face of HIV is an encouraging story about the way stigma is shifting. But we still have work to do.

Repealing the Clean Water Rule will swamp the Trump administration in wetland litigation

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School

A 2006 Supreme Court ruling created widespread confusion about which wetlands and other waters are federally protected. The Trump administration's latest action isn't likely to clear things up.

UN Climate Action Summit missed a key ingredient: climate action

Nicholas Beuret, University of Essex

Guterres wanted world leaders to tackle subsidies for fossil fuels, implement taxes on carbon, and end new coal power beyond 2020. None of this happened.

Revealed: how underwater plants and corals can help animals survive marine heatwaves

Marco Fusi, Edinburgh Napier University

Oxygen produced by these plants helps animals boost their metabolism to match the heat.

Q+A: Supreme Court rules Boris Johnson’s prorogation of UK parliament was unlawful – so what happens now?

Michael Gordon, University of Liverpool

Does this mean the prime minister lied to the Queen? And could he face personal repercussions?

How a populist morality movement is blocking a law against sexual violence in Indonesia: analysis

Sharyn Graham Davies, Auckland University of Technology

Indonesia's populist morality movement considers talking about eliminating sexual violence against women is the same as supporting women’s right to have sex outside of marriage.

How the Arabian Nights stories morphed into stereotypes

Katherine Bullock, University of Toronto

Aladdin draws on hundreds of years of anti-Muslim sentiment in western culture.

A campaign promise kept: Canada’s modestly successful cannabis legalization

Michael J. Armstrong, Brock University

Illegal cannabis products still dominate the market. But a fanciful election promise has become mainstream reality.

African countries need to up their game to embed constitutional democracy

Charles Manga Fombad, University of Pretoria

The writing and adoption of a constitution is merely the start point, not the end of constitutional literacy