Russia-Ukraine war spills into west Africa: Mali attacks signal dangerous times ahead

By Olayinka Ajala

Russia suffered significant blows to its reputation in mid-2024. An attack on its territory by Ukraine came as a surprise. In west Africa, the Wagner mercenary group, supported by Russia, suffered one of its heaviest...

A double whammy of winter fuel payment cuts and scrapping a planned cap on social care costs is set to hit older people

By Martin Powell

Before the general election, former prime minister Rishi Sunak was asked on TV why he hated pensioners. After her recent speech in parliament, the same question might be directed at Chancellor Rachel Reeves. She has...

Oil prices will whipsaw as we move to net zero, which could be disastrous for low-income producer countries

By Adi Imsirovic

One huge question for the future of the global economy is how oil will be affected by the transition to net zero. Any energy economist will tell you that predicting oil prices is something of a fools errand, given all the...

Banana apocalypse, part 2 – a genomicist explains the tricky genetics of the fungus devastating bananas worldwide

By Li-Jun Ma

Did you know that the bananas you eat today are not the same type as the ones people were eating a few generations ago? The banana you might have had with your breakfast today is a variety called the Cavendish banana,...

Ethiopia’s bold economic reforms target stability and growth, but they come with risks

By Tsegay Tekleselassie

Ethiopias recent macroeconomic reforms, supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, could have profound implications for the country and the region. The key reforms include the use of a floating...

Complicated app settings are a threat to user privacy

By Joseph K. Nwankpa

Default privacy settings in popular mobile apps seem like a convenience, allowing you to use a single setting to control the level of privacy who can see which actions you take across all of the apps functions. But...

Boeing Starliner astronauts: what six months stuck in space may do to their perception of time

By Ruth Ogden Et Al

Two astronauts marooned in space may sound like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, but for two Nasa crew members, it is now a reality. Commander Barry Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams are currently in limbo on the...

US military presence in Syria carries substantial risks, but so does complete withdrawal

By Sefa Secen

U.S.-backed forces in eastern Syria launched a major attack on three posts manned by pro-government gunmen on Aug. 12, 2024, killing at least 18 fighters in a rare provocation near the border with Iraq. The assault...

Gen Z has a trust problem with British institutions – especially the police

By Paolo Morini

The new government has come to power at a time when trust in politics is, in the Labour partys words, shattered. Keir Starmer has set out his governments aim to restore the highest standard of integrity and honesty in...

4 ways to cut down on meat when dining out – and still make healthy choices

By Laura Marchese Et Al

Many of us are looking for ways to eat a healthier and more sustainable diet. And one way to do this is by reducing the amount of meat we eat. That doesnt mean you need to become a vegan or vegetarian. Our recent...

Google monopoly ruling: where the tech giant goes from here

By Renaud Foucart

A US judge has found that Google is a monopoly and has used this dominance to reinforce its market position. This ruling, which is subject to appeal, brings the US regulator close to the European Commission in its...

What is mpox? A microbiologist explains what’s known about this smallpox cousin

By Rodney E. Rohde

On Aug. 14, 2024, the World Health Organization declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. There have been over 15,600 cases and over 530 deaths reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and...

Trees compete for space, light and resources, and those clashes can leave battle scars

By Wayne K. Clatterbuck

When you walk through a forest, it may feel like a static setting where very little is happening. But trees are constantly interacting and reacting to each other as they grow. Theres intense competition for light and...

Why not knowing what to do isn’t always a bad thing for leaders

By Clare Rigg Et Al

In 2002, after a Pentagon news briefing, the then US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld was widely ridiculed for his thoughts about knowledge. Discussing the issue of whether Iraq was supplying weapons of mass...

What is the abortion drug Donald Trump has been talking about? How is it used in Australia?

By Danielle Mazza

Donald Trump suggested he was open to revoking access to the abortion pill if he won the presidential race, after being asked by a reporter last Thursday if he would revoke access to the drug. The following day, Trumps...

Satellites are making the night sky brighter – as a launch site, NZ has a duty to combat light pollution

By William Grant

New Zealands space sector has been developing rapidly since the first rocket lifted off in 2017. It now contributes about NZ$1.7 billion in revenue, with plans to grow to $10 billion by 2030. Last year, New Zealand...

Elite athletes are generally smarter than us – cognitive sciences can explain why

By Alberto Filgueiras

The year was 1920. It was George Babe Ruths first season playing for the New York Yankees. During that season, he scored an amazing 54 home runs. He alone scored more home runs than any team. However, The Bambino, as...

The Future of Journalism: Why Web3 Innovation is Crucial and the Role of PUBLISH 2.0

By Sonny Kwon

The modern media landscape is facing significant challenges. The increasing reliance on search engines and social media platforms, coupled with the rampant spread of fake news, has eroded public trust in journalism and...

Ukraine’s cross-border incursion challenges Moscow’s war narrative – but will it shift Russian opinion?

By Peter Rutland

On Aug. 6, 2024, Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border into Kursk province, marking the first invasion of foreign troops into Russian territory since World War II. In the days since, Russian television viewers and social...

3 years after fall of Kabul, US Congress has still not acted to secure future of more than 70,000 Afghan evacuees in US

By Kelsey Norman Et Al

Amid the chaos that followed the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, the Biden administration declared that evacuated Afghans would be allowed to enter the U.S. via humanitarian parole. The initiative would...

Americans love free speech, survey finds − until they realize everyone else has it, too

By John G. Geer Et Al

Americans views on free speech change directions every so often. One of those times was during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. As scholars of free speech and public opinion, we set out to find...

Offensive names dot the American street map − a new app provides a way to track them

By Derek H. Alderman Et Al

The racially motivated tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, when a white supremacist murdered nine Black worshippers, and the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, two years later...

Historians diving for balloons and hoping for hot dish: What Smithsonian curators will be doing at the Democratic National Convention

By Claire Jerry Et Al

Three political history curators from the Smithsonians National Museum of American History are heading to Chicago and the 2024 Democratic National Convention soon to collect stuff or as the professionals call it,...

Philly schools are in disrepair − the municipal bond market is 1 big reason

By David I. Backer

Many of Philadelphias schools are in terrible shape. The average public school building in the city is over 70 years old, and some are over 120 years old. The state of disrepair, including a lack of air conditioning and...

Fluid keeps your brain from crushing itself and shields your spine from shock – a neurologist explains what happens when it stops working

By Devoney Looser

Cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, is a clear, colorless liquid that plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and function of your central nervous system. It cushions the brain and spinal cord, provides nutrients and...

Kamala, a common name in India, is associated with several deities and is a symbol of wisdom

By Archana Venkatesan

Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became a presence on the national scene, her name a common one for women in India has attracted a lot of attention, most specifically for its pronunciation. The three-syllable...

Ukraine war: Kursk offensive has taken the war into Russia and put Putin on the back foot – for now

By Patrick Bury

The Ukrainian advance into Russias Kursk oblast took almost everyone by surprise. Perhaps not the Russians stationed on the border, who reportedly tried to warn of a Ukrainian troop buildup, but the rest of us who watch...

Bone-building drug which prevents fractures in people with osteoporosis approved for use in UK – here’s how it works

By Tatiane Vilaca Et Al

new anti-osteoporosis drug has just been approved for use in the UK. The drug, called abaloparatide, is licensed for post-menopausal women with osteoporosis and a very high risk of fractures. Abaloparatides approval could...

Why we don’t need more policing – even after the riots

By Andrea Brock Et Al

In response to the violent far-right riots across the UK, we have seen pledges from Keir Starmers Labour government to increase police resources, expand policing powers, and implement tougher and quicker sentencing to keep...

Is Australia ‘giving away’ its natural resources?

By Diane Kraal

Speaking on ABCs QA on Monday night, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz claimed Australia was giving away its natural resources, something he found mind boggling. He said that if Australia made the fossil...

What is the Online Safety Act and why have riots reopened debates about it?

By Olivia Brown

Recent rioting, and unrest in the UK has led to calls for the Online Safety Act to be revisited. Mayor Sadiq Khan has called it not fit for purpose and Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas Symonds suggested that the...

‘Killer robots’ are becoming a real threat in Africa

By Ezenwa E. Olumba Et Al

The use of drones in the Sahel, a region of Africa that has been plagued by violence driven by jihadist insurgency for much of the past decade, has become a real problem. In April, for example, Al Qaedas affiliate in the...

A bipartisan data-privacy law could backfire on small businesses

By John Lynch Et Al

Orion Brown started Black Travel Box to serve Black female travelers who find hotel lotions and shampoos inadequate. Randel Bennett co-founded the insurance startup Sigo Seguros for underserved Spanish-speaking drivers....

Dug up in Australia, burned around the world – exporting fossil fuels undermines climate targets

By Bill Hare

Australia is one of the worlds largest exporters of fossil fuels. While this coal and gas is burned beyond our borders, the climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions affect us all. My colleagues and I at global...

Urban growth is leading to more intense droughts for most of the world’s cities – and Sydney is a case study for areas at risk

By Ian A. Wright

The growth of cities worldwide is contributing to more intense drought conditions in many cities, including Sydney, a new Chinese study has found. This is adding to urban heat and water stress. These important findings...

Giving feedback can be daunting for new leaders — here’s how to provide it thoughtfully

By Leda Stawnychko Et Al

Giving performance feedback at work can be a stressful experience, especially for new leaders and their employees. It often evokes feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and defensiveness. Leaders might worry about how their...

Women are less interested in AI than men, but using it would help them advance at work

By Louise Champoux-Paillé Et Al

Women use generative artificial intelligence tools less than men do. The World Economic Forum recently published an article on the subject. It reported that 59 per cent of male workers aged between 18 and 65 use...

Cameroon spends 90% of Chinese development loans on its French region: this could deepen the country’s divisions

By Afa’anwi Ma’abo Che

In Cameroon, violent clashes between government forces and separatists from the English-speaking parts of the country started in 2017. Since then, at least 598,000 people have had to leave their homes and about 2 million...

Raising revenue from land: what African cities might learn from Hong Kong’s unique land-lease system

By Astrid R.N. Haas1

Land prices across many African cities are soaring. This is because land is a citys key asset. As urbanisation progresses, demand for land will rise, and therefore so will land prices, because the supply of land in cities...

Wagner Group setback in Mali challenges Moscow’s strategy in Africa and the region’s faith in Russian mercenaries

By Christopher Faulkner Et Al

While Russias army is bogged down in Ukraine, its mercenaries are faring no better in Africa. In late July 2024, mercenaries from the the Wagner Group, a Moscow-aligned private military company, accompanied the Malian...

A carry crash also kicked off the global financial crisis 17 years ago — here’s why it’s unlikely to get as bad this time

By Charles Read

Many casual readers of the financial press will have learned a new term in the past few days: the carry trade. This is the culprit for the rollercoaster state of markets, many market commentators and journalists have...

AI could be the breakthrough that allows humanoid robots to jump from science fiction to reality

By Daniel Zhou Hao

Humanoid robots have long been a staple of science fiction, but there is now real progress being made. A range of new models made by or backed by the likes of Boston Dynamics, Tesla and OpenAI are able to walk and move...

Rat poison is moving up through food chains, threatening carnivores around the world

By Meghan P. Keating

Rats thrive around humans, for good reason: They feed off crops and garbage and readily adapt to many settings, from farms to the worlds largest cities. To control them, people often resort to poisons. But chemicals that...

The problem with pronatalism: Pushing baby booms to boost economic growth amounts to a Ponzi scheme

By Emily Klancher Merchant

In the face of shrinking populations, many of the worlds major economies are trying to engineer higher birth rates. Policymakers from South Korea, Japan and Italy, for example, have all adopted so-called pronatalist...

Why Olympic success can come at the cost of mental health for youth athletes

By Lisa O'halloran

Skateboarder Zheng Haohao is 11. She is also one of the youngest competitors at the Paris Olympics. That may be an impressively tender age to be an elite athlete but Zheng isnt unique in her youth: shes one of a clutch of...

Paris Games herald a new anti-corruption era, but carrying the torch may pose an Olympic challenge for the US

By Andy Spalding

The world has grown cynical about the integrity of major international sports, and not without reason. From the Olympics bribery scandal of the 1990s which implicated the hosts of Nagano 1998, Sydney 2000 and Salt Lake...

‘Fake news of the highest order’: Donald Trump team refutes racism revelations in new family memoir

By Alexander Howard

Donald was pissed. Boy, was he pissed. This is how Fred C. Trump III describes the moment, sometime in the early 1970s, when his uncle, Donald J. Trump, came stomping back into the family home in Queens, New York. As...

Do plastics cause autism? Here’s what the latest study really says

By Elisa Hill-Yardin

A study out recently has prompted much media attention about the role of plastics in developing autism. In particular, the study focused on exposure to a component of hard plastics bisphenol A, or BPA in the womb and...

Disaster season looms, but the senate inquiry has failed to empower communities

By Monica Taylor Et Al

This week, a Senate committee examining Australias disaster resilience tabled its long-awaited report in parliament. The 151-page report makes ten recommendations. These concern funding arrangements, mental health...

Only 100 years ago the Milky Way was visible from central Paris. Here’s how we can get the night sky back

By Brad E Tucker

For the more than 100,000 years humans have been on Earth, we have looked up at night and seen the stars and our celestial home, the Milky Way galaxy. Cultures all around the world have stories and records incorporating...