US citizens are becoming collateral damage in Donald Trump's quest to deport immigrants.

Extract from ABC News

Analysis

By Rachel Clayton in Washington DC

• Topic:World Politics

16 hours ago

Protests erupted after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. (AP: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost)

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Minneapolis has become the flashpoint of an aggressive immigration enforcement operation ordered by the Trump administration and pitched as a campaign against undocumented criminals.

Over the weekend, Alex Pretti, a United States citizen and 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, was fatally shot by a border force officer after stepping into a confrontation between an immigration officer and a woman on the street.

In the immediate aftermath, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was quick to label Mr Pretti a domestic terrorist who "brandished" a gun at agents, who then shot him in self-defence.

But within hours, that account was challenged by politicians, journalists and everyday people who analysed videos of the incident from multiple angles.

Eyewitness video shows the moment federal officers shoot a man dead in Minneapolis.

No bystander videos appear to show Mr Pretti holding a weapon. The Minneapolis police chief said the nurse had a permit to carry a gun.

Just like after the shooting of Renee Good, lawyers, law enforcement, celebrities and politicians have been quick to express what they believe the facts are.

Minneapolis videos show violent takedown before fatal shooting

Multiple videos emerge of nurse Alex Pretti being pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground and then shot. The Trump administration says Mr Pretti was an armed man provoking violence.

To some, it appears as if US citizens are becoming collateral damage in US President Donald Trump's quest to deport immigrants.

And what that means is that even the findings of an official investigation won't matter much to a public that's "had enough", according to Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara.

"Even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves … the shooting … was legally justified, I don't think that even matters at this point because there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city," he told CNN.

Killing raises uncomfortable questions for Republicans

It's not just Democrats expressing outrage over what took place in Minneapolis: Republican senators have started raising their concerns about the shooting, too.

Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are among some of the GOP pressing for more information on what happened.

A sign for Alex Pretti is displayed during a vigil. (AP: Adam Gray)

That collapse in trust is now threatening to overwhelm the White House's central argument for the crackdown itself.

Trump campaigned on a promise to carry out the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history" to "make America safe again".

But clamping down on undocumented crime in the name of keeping Americans safe becomes a tough sell when two citizens are now dead at the hands of those enforcers.

For now at least, Mr Pretti's death does not appear to have impacted Trump's MAGA base in the same way.

Some key MAGA social media figures, who arrived in Minneapolis in the wake of Ms Good's death to denounce protesters as illegitimate, have criticised Mr Pretti for getting in the way of law enforcement.

But immigration enforcement is still shaping up to be a major issue in the midterms, said Alex Nowrasteh, a senior vice-president for policy at the Cato Institute.

It's largely why the administration is doing everything possible to shift the focus.

Trump administration is sticking to its story

Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche was asked questions on NBC's Meet The Press about the evidence proving Mr Pretti "brandished" a gun.

But instead of answering, he chose to blame local police for not being there to help federal officers.

Greg Bovino has become the face of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)

The morning after the shooting, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and ICE director Marcos Charles used their press conference to show photos and names of alleged criminals they were trying to apprehend.

They also listed the number of "illegal aliens" that had been arrested.

Journalists sat and listened for almost 15 minutes as the pair seemed to blame Mr Pretti for his own death and pushed a message about ICE providing "public safety".

The men answered questions about Mr Pretti's killing for just 7 minutes.

What next for ICE?

Tomorrow, a federal judge will decide whether to grant a temporary restraining order to halt ICE's operation in Minneapolis.

If the judge agrees, all eyes will turn to whether federal officers will obey the court.

Here's what we know about Minneapolis shooting

The death of 37-year-old US citizen Alex Pretti has prompted a fierce political debate and further protests in an already tense city. This is what we know about the situation so far.

Later this week, the Senate is due to vote on a bill that includes future funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

In the aftermath of Mr Pretti's death, a handful of Democrats say they will vote against the bill, which could lead to a partial government shutdown.

With the midterms approaching, the political stakes for Republicans are rising.

Yet the deaths in Minneapolis are fast becoming the core story when it comes to how this administration has carried out its immigration promise.

Trump's immigration crackdown is no longer being judged by how many criminals are caught.

Instead, it is about how much unchecked power his administration has given federal agents — and that's a fight he didn't campaign for.

Keynes's Bancor idea needs revisiting in wake of Trump.

Analysis

By Alan Kohler

• Topic:Business, Economics and Finance

3 hours ago

White (left) dominated the Bretton Woods conference, but Keynes's idea could be revisited in the wake of Trump's threats. (Supplied: IMF)

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On Tuesday last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney effectively announced the death of the 80-year-old "rules-based world order".

At least that's how his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos has been taken. Carney said that it was "fading" and was "not functioning as advertised".

In any case, it has become increasingly obvious since the inauguration of Donald Trump a year and five days ago that the new administration of the nation at the heart of that world order is no longer interested in playing that role.

And it was more or less confirmed when Trump spoke at Davos on Wednesday and said, among so many other things: "With all of the money we expend, with all of the blood, sweat and tears, I don't know that [NATO]'d be there for us. They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you."

He meant Greenland.

So the world will now have to revisit the conference that set the system up, held at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944.

Mark Carney gave a passionate speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, denouncing Trump's assault on the rules-based world order. (AP Photo: Markus Schreiber)

The US's 'exorbitant privilege'

The usual story about Bretton Woods is that it established the International Monetary Fund and a new post-war system of global currencies pegged to the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, fixed to gold at $US35 an ounce.

This was the foundation of the "rules-based world order" and led to the creation of the United Nations and the signing of the UN Charter a year later, which seems now to have been inevitable.

But that was just the proposal put up by the lead US delegate to Bretton Woods, Harry Dexter White, a US Treasury official who was later accused of espionage for Russia. He dominated the 1944 conference, and his plan prevailed.

There was another plan that didn't get up, put by JM (Lord) Keynes, an economist rather than a politician, which would not have had the US as the predominant global financial power and would have led to an entirely different rule-based world order.

In Davos, European leaders met Trump with strength and he backed down

European leaders will be breathing a sigh of relief that the extraordinary threat of a US invasion of Greenland has receded. But some things cannot be undone.

Keynes's idea was known as "Bancor", named after the new currency that he proposed. It wouldn't be a unit of money that people could carry in their wallets or, these days, tap with their phones, but a "unit of account" that would be used for transactions between governments and central banks. Its value would be fixed to gold, but adjustable, and all other national currencies would be pegged to it.

In other words, he wanted something other than the US dollar as the world's reserve currency because he knew that it would bestow on the US an "exorbitant privilege", as the French finance minister, and later president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, said 20 years later.

The most interesting part of Keynes's idea was how it handled trade imbalances.

In the system that came out of the US-controlled plan put forward by White, the burden of adjustment falls on the debtor (the country buying more than it sells), which is forced to cut spending and endure a recession to balance its books.

Keynes argued that creditors (countries with large surpluses) were just as responsible for imbalances, so his plan included taxes on surpluses that meant countries with excessive Bancor credits would be charged interest (effectively a fine).

There would be a separate system of "use it or lose it" pressure designed to force wealthy nations to spend their surpluses on imports from debtor nations, stimulating global trade rather than letting capital sit idle.

When Richard Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility to gold in 1971 the Bretton Woods system ended, but the dollar became even more powerful. (Reuters/Nixon Library)

An overvalued currency

America's "exorbitant privilege" is that it gets to run endless trade and budget deficits because its currency will always be in demand for trade and foreign exchange balances in central banks.

In fact, to provide the world with dollars, the US had to run deficits, which allowed it to finance the Marshall Plan and the early Cold War military expansion, essentially by exporting pieces of paper.

When Richard Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility to gold in 1971 in what's called the "Nixon Shock", the Bretton Woods system ended but the dollar became even more powerful.

That's mainly because after the 1973 oil shock, the US struck a deal with Saudi Arabia that oil would be priced exclusively in dollars (petrodollars), which meant that every country had to keep large dollar reserves to buy energy.

When foreign nations earn dollars through trade, they don't just keep cash, they buy US Treasury bonds, which is why Japan is the largest owner of American government debt, along with China, the UK and Europe.

Lately they've been buying gold instead, which has led to an 80 per cent rise in the price of gold since Trump's inauguration and a fall in the US dollar.

It means trade surpluses are recycled back to the US government, effectively acting as a low-interest loan that allows the US to fund its budget deficits.

And that is directly responsible for America's economic and military supremacy that Trump is now exploiting.

It also turned into a nightmare, not only because the US government is now $US38 trillion ($55 trillion) in debt, and rising, but also because it produced Trump, who is now blowing up the system that made America rich and powerful.

That's because Bretton Woods resulted in decades of an overvalued currency, which in turn crushed its manufacturing industries, turning the mid-west into the rust belt and led to poverty, inequality and anger — enough anger to vote for a real estate huckster and reality TV star.

That is all now wearing thin, with Trump insulting and berating the allies that voted for Harry Dexter White's plan at the Mount Washington Hotel over Lord Keynes's plan, and pulling out of 66 global bodies, conventions and treaties, including the effort to prevent a climate disaster, and whining about not having Greenland.

The Trump administration needs to sell $US2.5 trillion in new debt every month to replace expiring bonds and fund new spending. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)

The US is living on its credit card

The week before last, the US Treasury sold $US654 billion worth of government debt.

The auction didn't go well. The yield on US 10-year treasuries spiked to 4.3 per cent, up from below 4 per cent two months ago, even as the Federal Reserve cuts short-term rates.

The Trump administration needs to sell $US2.5 trillion in new debt every month to replace expiring bonds and fund new spending.

Basically, the US is living on its credit card and is very vulnerable to the bond markets — in fact, that is probably the only guardrail on his behaviour that's left, in the absence of either the US Congress or the Supreme Court.

Popularity doesn't seem to be a factor, since Trump evidently plans to rule beyond 2028, perhaps by sufficiently inflaming enough Americans that he can declare martial law, or invoke the Insurrection Act, which he has threatened, and cancel elections.

Radical economics — what can we learn from the life of John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes was an economist whose dreams went beyond balance sheets and into political ideas and cultural movements.

Meanwhile, some economists and finance ministers are revisiting Keynes's Bancor idea, arguing that a new supranational currency would remove America's financial hegemony, preventing any single country, including China, from dominating global trade and finance.

Also, when a country has a debt crisis, the burden of it falls entirely on that country, with the IMF usually imposing painful austerity. Keynes's plan was unique because it would have also penalised surplus countries that hoarded capital.

So there is a lot of interest in Keynes's "symmetrical adjustment" idea as a way to force wealthy, surplus-heavy nations to spend or invest back into the global economy, preventing the "liquidity traps" seen during the 2008 financial crisis.

And finally, many are sick of the US Federal Reserve calling the global monetary policy shots. When the Fed changes interest rates, it sends shock waves through everyone else, especially emerging markets, so they're very interested in a system that is decoupled from the domestic policy of a single nation.

'The New Development Bank'

There have already been a few attempts at doing something like what Keynes proposed.

The IMF has an existing reserve asset called the SDR (special drawing rights) and in 2009, the governor of the People's Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, called for the SDR to be transformed into a "super-sovereign reserve currency" modelled on Keynes's Bancor to replace the US dollar.

That was opposed by the US and didn't get up, and China didn't have the clout then that it has now.

Instead, China is now working with the other BRICS nations (chiefly Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) to develop something called "The New Development Bank" and exploring a shared unit of account for trade, which is an obvious attempt to create a mechanism that bypasses the US dollar.

Networks of central bank swap lines mimic the overdraft facility that Keynes proposed with what he called the International Clearing Union instead of the IMF, allowing countries to access liquidity without relying on dollars.

And finally, there's a push to use blockchains to create a transparent, algorithmic version of the Bancor — that is, a global stable coin backed by a basket of commodities or currencies that no single government can control.

Will any of these things turn into a genuine Keynes-style Bancor? Probably not without another meeting like Bretton Woods.

Perhaps it could be held in Canada somewhere and be chaired by Carney.

Alan Kohler is finance presenter and columnist on ABC News and he also writes for Intelligent Investor.

ICE agents urged to leave Minneapolis after second fatal shooting.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:World Politics

1 hours ago

Alex Pretti was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, local time. (Supplied via AP Photo: Michael Pretti)

In short:

Protests have been held across the US after the fatal shooting of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by a federal immigration agent.

It is the second death in the US city linked to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Federal authorities claim the agent shot Mr Pretti in self-defence.

Link copied

Democrats are demanding federal immigration officers leave the American state of Minnesota after a US Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis and set off clashes with protesters who poured into the frigid streets in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier.

The latest shooting has also sparked a legal fight over control of the investigation and renewed calls by state and city officials for an end to the immigration surge that has swept across Minneapolis and surrounding cities.

Federal officials said agents were acting in self-defence by opening fire on Saturday morning, local time, when Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, stepped into a confrontation between an immigration officer and a woman on the street.

Protests are being held across the US after a second fatal shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. (AP: Caroline Brehman)

Officials said Mr Pretti was armed, but no bystander videos appear to show him holding a weapon. The Minneapolis police chief said Mr Pretti had a permit to carry a gun.

Mr Pretti's family said they were "heartbroken but also very angry" at authorities, saying in a statement that Mr Pretti was a kind-hearted person who wanted to make a difference in the world.

Former US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama put out a statement saying Mr Pretti's death was a "heartbreaking tragedy".

"It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault," they said.

"For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city.

"These unprecedented tactics — which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterised as embarrassing, lawless and cruel — have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two US citizens.

"And yet, rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they've deployed, the president and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr Pretti and Renee Good that aren't informed by any serious investigation — and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence."

The moment federal officers shoot a man dead in Minneapolis.

A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from "destroying or altering evidence" related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed on Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St Paul.

"A full, impartial and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable," Mr Ellison said in a statement.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which are named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from the Associated Press.

Another federal judge previously ruled that officers participating in the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, though an appeals court temporarily suspended that ruling days before Saturday's shooting.

The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Governor Tim Walz, officials said, with troops sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off daily with demonstrators.

Here's what we know about Minneapolis shooting

The death of 37-year-old US citizen Alex Pretti has prompted a fierce political debate and further protests in an already tense city. This is what we know about the situation so far. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference that Mr Pretti showed up to "impede a law enforcement operation".

She questioned why he was armed but did not offer details about whether Mr Pretti drew the weapon or brandished it at officers.

But gun rights groups have noted it is legal to carry firearms during protests.

"Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers or exercising their First Amendment rights," the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement.

"These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed."

Trump blames Democrats

The president weighed in on social media by lashing out at Mr Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.

He shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: "What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren't they allowed to protect ICE Officers?"

Mr Trump said the Democratic governor and mayor "are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric".

Democratic politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for her party to oppose funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Reuters: Angelina Katsanis)

US House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among several Democratic politicians demanding that federal immigration authorities leave Minnesota.

She also urged Democrats to refuse to vote to fund US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying via social media: "We have a responsibility to protect Americans from tyranny."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer later said that Democrats would not vote for a spending package that included money for DHS, which oversees ICE.

Senator Schumer's statement increases the possibility that the government could partially shut down January 30 when funding runs out.

Mr Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an ICE officer killed 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7, sparking widespread protests.

It is the second fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minneapolis since an immigration crackdown got underway in the city. (AP: Adam Gray)

Mr Pretti's family was furious at federal officials' description of the shooting.

"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," the family statement said.

"Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.

"Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man."

Video shows officers, man who was shot

When the Saturday confrontation began, bystander video shows protesters blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on a commercial street in south Minneapolis.

The videos show Mr Pretti stepping in after an immigration officer shoves a woman.

Mr Pretti appears to be holding his phone toward the officer, but there's no sign he is holding a weapon.

The officer shoves Mr Pretti in his chest, and pepper sprays him and the woman.

Soon, at least seven officers are forcing Mr Pretti to the ground. Several officers try to bring the man's arms behind his back as he appears to resist. An officer holding a canister strikes him near his head several times.

Minneapolis residents gathered to pay tribute to Alex Pretti hours after his death. (AP: Adam Gray)

A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it is not clear where it came from. Multiple officers back off. More shots are heard. Officers back away, and the man lies motionless on the street.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander leading Mr Trump's crackdown, was repeatedly pressed on CNN's Sunday State of the Union for evidence that Mr Pretti did anything illegal or assaulted law enforcement, as officials have claimed.

Mr Bovino said it was "very evident" that Mr Pretti was not following the the officers' orders.

"It's too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene," he said.

"He made the decision."

Alex Pretti's death has further inflamed tensions between the Minneapolis community and federal authorities. (Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost via AP)

Mr Walz said he had no confidence in federal officials and the state would lead the investigation into the shooting.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference that federal officers blocked his agency from the scene even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.

Protests continue

Demonstrations broke out in several cities across the country, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

In Minneapolis, protesters converged at the scene of the shooting despite dangerously cold weather with temperatures around -21 degrees Celsius.

An angry crowd gathered after the shooting and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them "cowards" and telling them to go home.

Protesters dragged garbage bins from alleyways to block streets, and people chanted "ICE out now" and "Observing ICE is not a crime".

As darkness fell, hundreds of people mourned quietly by a growing memorial at the site of the shooting.

A doughnut shop and a clothing store nearby stayed open, offering protesters a warm place as well as water, coffee and snacks.

Caleb Spike said he came from a nearby suburb to show his support and his frustration.

"It feels like every day something crazier happens," he said.

"What's happening in our community is wrong, it's sickening, it's disgusting."

AP

What does the rise of digital devices and decline of handwriting mean for how we live and learn?

Extract from ABC News

By Ned Hammond

• Topic:Education

1 hours ago

Experts say there is still a place for handwriting in schools. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)

Link copied

By all metrics, handwriting is going the way of the dodo.

Schools across the country, and the world, are increasingly moving away from traditional pen and paper work and toward a system incorporating an endless array of technology and digital devices.

Indeed, the biggest-ticket item for many families returning to school is a laptop or tablet.

The days of copybooking and cursive lessons are behind us.

So why is handwriting dying out, and what effects will it have on how people learn and live?

A handwritten love letter written by Nance Hooper to her husband Alan during World War II. (Supplied: State Library of Queensland)

The history of written thought

The State Library of Queensland maintains voluminous archives of written work over the decades, including war correspondence, personal letters, and the diaries of young people.

Gavin Bannerman is director of memory at the library, and said the story of handwriting was the story of communication for hundreds of years.

An 1825 letter by NSW attorney-general Saxe Bannister from the Library's Colonial Secretary's Correspondence collection. (Supplied: State Library of Queensland)

"The history of pen and paper, there's a dependency between handwriting and literacy," Mr Bannerman said.

"It's only really in the last 200 years that the majority of the population could read and write.

"And what reading and writing means was very different in the 1800s compared to now, because our technologies for communication are so different."

The library's collection exhibited the way people altered how they communicated depending on who they were trying to communicate with, Mr Bannerman said.

Letters and official communications had a "tightness" and efficiency to them, he said, which was very different to the more "loose" way people wrote their diaries.

"They're all done in somebody's hand. And what that hand is … and how that hand appears to us generations later was influenced by lots of things like their social standing," Mr Bannerman said.

A WWII diary entry by young woman Daphne Baetz on the day Japan surrendered shows the "loose" style of personal diaries. (Supplied: State Library of Queensland)

He said the move from physical mediums to the digital space made archival efforts more complicated for organisations like the library.

"But I think it also is a lack of diversity of thought … different thoughts arise through different mechanics of putting your words down."

A lot of what is being lost through the decline of handwriting, Mr Bannerman said, is the intangible and subjective allure of ritual and physicality.

"You hear authors say they like to write their first rough-and-ready manuscript in a particular way, which might be different from how they answer emails," he said.

"There's a ritual to it. The smell of the paper kind of readies them for the creative process.

"There is something about the physicality of doing that, the ritual of doing that, which helps them collect their thoughts in a busy, fractured kind of world."

Writing and learning

A recent peer-reviewed study of existing literature in the scientific journal Life compared the effects of handwriting and typing on a person's brain.

It found while typing was faster and more convenient, handwriting engaged a broader group of brain regions, improving memory retention and learning.

Beryl Exley is a professor of English curriculum at Griffith University, and said handwriting needed to find its place in a crowded agenda for school kids.

Beryl Exley says handwriting slows down learning processes, allowing information to be better absorbed. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)

"It's not so much that handwriting has fallen off the agenda, it's that a lot more things have come onto the agenda," Dr Exley said.

While handwriting and typing both involve fine motor control, memory, and language, Dr Exley said, the true difference is in the pace.

"When we [write by hand], we actually slow down our thinking," Dr Exley said.

"And that's actually considered to be a good thing, because it allows the cognition of what we're working with to actually move through the visual processes, move through the physical processes of handwriting, and it allows us to have that time to think about the content that we're writing about."

The handwriting of a year five student in 1999 shows the hallmarks of traditional penmanship. (Supplied: State Library of Queensland)

Children needed a hybrid model of learning incorporating handwriting instruction and technology, Dr Exley said, because the modern world requires varied skills.

"They need to develop confidences and competencies in both handwriting and in expressing themselves through the digital medium," she said.

"It's not that one replaces the other, it's that more comes onto their plate.

"But as teachers, we're really interested in … what are the apparatus and what are the tools and cognitive and physical processes that weave together that give us the best outcomes."

Cutting out handwriting entirely was a flawed approach to the modern world, Dr Exley said.

"The cognitive processes are different, and what we find with handwriting is that it enhances learning retention. It fosters the development of fine motor skills essential for life," she said.

She said replacing the "deeper thinking time" involved with handwriting with "twitch speed, surface level" work on digital devices would harm students' ability to maintain focus over time.

"There's going to be a shift in students' capacity to think deeply, independently, because they've not had a long and nourished apprenticeship in what slow, deep thinking looks or feels like," she said.

Schools across the country, and the world, are increasingly moving away from traditional pen and paper work. (ABC News: Brooke Chandler)

When things are getting messy on the screen, Dr Exley moves back to pen and paper.

"Doing it on pen and paper is slowing down my thinking, and it's actually allowing me to just get some clarity of thought that I wasn't able to get with the busyness of the digital interface," she said.

"But we also need to have that efficiency and confidence and competence with the digital interface, because we also know that it serves a different function and it does allow us to do things that handwriting won't allow us to do."

Thousands of examples of historical handwriting can be found on the State Library of Queensland's catalogue.

How much power does China really have in the Arctic amid Trump's Greenland claims?

Extract from ABC News

By China correspondent Allyson Horn in Beijing

• Topic:World Politics

17 hours ago

There has been increased interest in the Arctic in recent decades, including from China. (Getty: Liu Shiping/Xinhua)

Link copied

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed the United States needs to take control of Greenland to protect the region from security threats from China and Russia.

"World peace is at stake! China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it," the US president wrote in a social media post earlier this year.

The battle for the Arctic

Donald Trump has long been obsessed with Greenland. This is why the Arctic is of such global interest.

China has made no secret of its ambitions to invest and gain economic and governance influence in the Arctic region.

But the reality of Chinese advancements on the ground is quite different.

So how founded are Mr Trump's claims about a China "security threat"?

China's ambitions for the Arctic

Nearly a decade ago, China unveiled an ambitious blueprint to get a major foothold in the economic, security and governance future of the Arctic region.

The 2018 policy paper spectacularly claimed China was a "Near-Arctic State" and, as such, needed to be a key stakeholder in the area.

Beijing's big plan was to establish a "Polar Silk Road" — developing Arctic shipping routes and pumping investments into transport infrastructure.

It also sought to become an economic and governance partner in everything, from mineral exploration and mining, through to research and environmental protection.

The policy paper clearly outlined that Beijing had big plans to cement itself in the region, based on a Chinese investment model that has been replicated in many regions across the world.

The Polar Silk Road

When China unveiled its vision for engagement in the Arctic, the cornerstone cooperation project was to build a Polar Silk Road that would give Beijing freedom of movement and operation through increased shipping routes.

"[China] encourages its enterprises to participate in the infrastructure construction for these routes and conduct commercial trial voyages in accordance with the law to pave the way for their commercial and regularised operation," the policy paper said.

Advancements on this plan had been limited until last October, when a Chinese vessel travelled from a port in eastern China to Suffolk in England, through the Arctic region.

It was the first time a Chinese-based ship had travelled to Europe through the Northern Sea Route that runs alongside Russia's Arctic coastline.

According to Chinese state media, the shortcut took about 20 days to complete — about half the time of a more traditional voyage through the Suez Canal.

That one trip alone took three years to plan and accommodate, according to state media. But China has said it is preparing for similar voyages in 2026.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that a large number of Chinese and Russian ships are operating near Greenland.

Greenland and Denmark have said the island is not for sale. (Reuters: Guglielmo Mangiapane)

"Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," he told a press gaggle in early January.

But according to analysts, authorities, and publicly available data, there is no evidence to support that claim currently, because it's winter and the area is frozen solid.

Shipping information from around the region shows no Chinese or Russian vessels in the waters near Greenland, and Greenlandic officials have also refuted Mr Trump's claims.

China's presence in the Arctic thwarted

Over recent decades, China has made repeated attempts to build up its presence in the Arctic region, but without much success.

In Greenland alone, multiple major Chinese investment bids in infrastructure projects have been blocked by Denmark for so-called "security reasons".

Donald Trump has cited China and Russia's Arctic presence among his reasons for his interest in Greenland.   (Reuters: Sarah Meyssonnier)

In 2018, a Chinese state-owned company tried to invest in upgrading and expanding a network of Greenlandic airports, but the business bid was stopped, reportedly with US influence.

Another attempt by China to acquire a decommissioned Danish naval base in Greenland was also quashed, reportedly to stop Beijing gaining a military foothold in the area.

It was a similar story when China tried to buy a satellite ground station and offered other financial incentives to build infrastructure.

China has managed to build and operate several space bases across the Arctic, but overall, analysts in the region conclude that the level of investment by China is still very low.

Meanwhile, China has said it wants to "participate" in minerals exploration in Greenland.

Greenland is home to massive reserves of rare earth elements and minerals, and is generally ranked about eighth globally for rare earth reserves.

China has the world's largest reserves and currently dominates the industry, holding a 70 per cent global market share, according to Chinese state media.

Rare earth elements are used in everything from electric vehicles to fighter jets and lasers, and China's economic dominance of the industry is something the US wants to disrupt.

China is a key shareholder in an Australian company that was given a rare exploration licence for one of Greenland's few mines — although the project is now stalled.

So China hasn't been able to make significant inroads into acquiring any of Greenland's natural reserves.

Even so, Mr Trump has made no secret of his ambition to keep the Greenlandic minerals out of China's control.

Access to minerals emerged as a key component of the president's Greenland deal reached this week — which some analysts say reveals Mr Trump's true ambitions in his acquisition quest.

Is China a 'security threat' to Greenland?

A wide range of analysts and political figures in the region have debunked many of Mr Trump's claims about China's presence in and around Greenland.

European leaders stand up to Trump

European leaders will be breathing a sigh of relief that the extraordinary threat of a US invasion of Greenland has receded. But some things cannot be undone.

And Beijing has hit back against Washington's repeated security claims, saying the "so-called China-threat is baseless".

NATO's secretary-general Mark Rutte said the alliance would take steps to ensure "the Chinese and the Russians will not gain access" to Greenland's military or economic infrastructure.

And while there is no doubt China would like to establish more governance, infrastructure, and economic ties with the Arctic region, it appears any actual progress by China on these goals, has been limited.