NT election: the Country Liberals claim a landslide victory in a contest decided in suburbia
By Rolf Gerritsen
The Northern Territory is a different place. On the day prior to this election, Speckles the Adelaide River crocodile was asked to predict the result of the election. He had replaced the previous crocodile, a spiv who got...
Mpox: African countries have beaten disease outbreaks before – here’s what it takes
By Oyewale Tomori
Barely over a year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that mpox was no longer a public health issue of international concern, it is back in the news. This time with a diversity of variants, new modes of...
‘Humanity is failing’: official report warns our chance to save the Great Barrier Reef is fast closing
By Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
The Great Barrier Reef will continue to deteriorate, largely to climate change, and the window to secure its future is rapidly closing. That is the sobering conclusion of a major new report into the state of the...
Rail shutdown: What the dispute tells us about labour relations and politics in Canada
By Gerard Di Trolio
The situation surrounding the nation-wide rail shutdown is evolving quickly as the Canadian government rushes to get workers back on the job and trains running again.
Canadas two largest freight railroads came to a...
Not even the boss of Starbucks needs to be doing a 1,000-mile commute if they can do the job from home
By Heejung Chung
New Starbucks boss Brian Niccol caused many to spit out their coffee with the news he will commute around 1,000 miles from his home in California to the companys HQ in Seattle. Its true that hell have the luxury of the...
Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats used ancient Greek rhetorical tricks to keep their audiences spellbound
By Richard Toye
The Democratic Party has had a good week. Ill start that again the Democratic Party has had an amazingly good week.
Not so long ago, the Democrats seemed down, if not actually out. Now, theyre not merely pulling ahead...
How Web3 and Blockchain Are Shaping the Future of Digital News
By Sonny Kwon
The digital media industry is at a crossroads, facing ongoing challenges in delivering trustworthy news in an era of information overload. Web3 and blockchain technology are emerging as potential game-changers, offering a...
Irish hip-hop, British K-pop and the best end-of-summer novels – what you should watch and read this week
By Anna Walker
This article was first published in our email newsletter Something Good, which every fortnight brings you a summary of the best things to watch, visit and read, as recommended and analysed by academic experts. Click here...
How we’re using ‘chaos engineering’ to make cloud computing less vulnerable to cyber attacks
By Amro Al-Said Ahmad
Cloud computing has emerged as a crucial element in todays technology, serving as the backbone for global connectivity. It empowers businesses, governments, and individuals to employ and construct cloud-based services and...
Can a new access scheme get more working-class people into the TV industry?
By Paul Tucker
TV was everything to me, said British playwright James Graham at this years Edinburgh TV Festivals MacTaggart lecture on August 20. The dramatist used his recollections of the television he watched in his youth together...
Tory leadership contenders would be wise to become the ‘heir to Keir’
By Stephen Barber
The Conservative leadership contest is something of a sideshow to the meaningful politics of government. Whoever wins will inherit a depleted party reeling from arguably its worst ever election defeat. It comprises only...
Kamala Harris: here’s what we’ve found out so far about the presidential nominee
By Thomas Gift
Who is Kamala Harris? Thats the question the Democratic nominee for president tried to answer in her highly anticipated acceptance speech at the partys national convention in Chicago.
Although she has been...
Rwanda: Paul Kagame’s fourth term as president – what his agenda will need to cover
By Jonathan Beloff
Paul Kagame started his fourth term as Rwandas president in August 2024. He first became president in April 2000. However, as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, he has been the countrys de facto head since his...
Project 2025: what is it and why does Trump say he knows nothing about it?
By David Hastings Dunn
Think-tank policy proposals rarely make the headlines, but 2024 is no ordinary year and Project 2025 is no usual set of plans for government. This is a not-very-secret set of plans that Republicans have put together in...
These colourful diagrams show how air quality has changed in over 100 countries around the world since 1850
By Jim McQuaid Et Al
Air pollution is an unseen menace that poses a major threat to human health and the climate. We have created the air quality stripes, a visual tool that captures global air pollution trends, to bring this hidden threat...
In Myanmar’s brutal war, the military is weaponising sexual violence against women, children and LGBTQI+ people
By Phyu Phyu Oo
The United Nations verified 3,688 cases of conflict-related sexual violence around the world last year, a significant increase of 50% from 2022. This is certainly a vast underestimate of the true number of cases.
A...
Investigation reveals global fisheries are in far worse shape than we thought – and many have already collapsed
By Graham Edgar
When fish are taken from our oceans faster than they can reproduce, their population numbers decline. This over-fishing upsets marine ecosystems. Its also bad for human populations that rely on fish for protein in their...
Dua Lipa is a poet too – on National Poetry Day, let’s celebrate the power of words to move us
By Siobhan Harvey
The significance and solace of poetry is closer than you think, I tell budding authors as they arrive at class with headphones on, glued to TikTok trends, or scrolling through Instagram feeds.
Given their youth, they...
US is unlikely to stop giving military aid to Israel
By Dov Waxman
The Democratic National Convention has been packed with prominent speakers and musical interludes that all focus on unity and moving forward into a more hopeful future.
But this cheerfulness is shadowed by a split...
Gaza update: US politics and the fate of Palestinians increasingly bound up together
By Jonathan Este
It would be a brave or foolhardy analyst who presumes to predict the outcomes of the talks which continue in Doha. But the fate of Gaza and its 2 million inhabitants as well as the 109 remaining Israeli hostages being...
Disney wrongful death legal case exposes potential pitfalls of automatically clicking ‘I agree’
By Stergios Aidinlis
Disney has U-turned on a bid to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit in the US by relying on the terms of service for a simple streaming trial.
The suit was filed by a man whose wife allegedly died after experiencing an...
How your festival wee could disrupt soil health and water quality
By Jess Davies
Festival season is in full flow, and like any self-respecting plant-soil biogeochemist attending a local music festival, Im curious about how these outdoor events might modify important nutrient cycles.
With crowds...
Bayesian yacht disaster: how specialist search and rescue teams work underwater
By Jamie Pringle Et Al
Search and rescue for missing persons is always challenging for the specialist recovery teams involved, regardless of the environment theyre working in.
But the teams looking for the missing aboard the Bayesian yacht...
The truth about Tasers: what the statistics and research tell us
By Sophie Chambers
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently urged the police to take all necessary action in response to unrest across cities and towns in England and Northern Ireland.
One of the most contentious tools at the polices disposal...
How Twitter — now X — helps us understand Canadian values and attitudes toward asylum seekers
By Laura French Bourgeois Et Al
The treatment of asylum seekers is an important issue for many countries as they grapple with polarized public views on the issue. Some policymakers focus on the need for border security to keep asylum-seekers out and...
Why eating seaweed might help prevent Parkinson’s disease
By Marine Krzisch
Eating the seaweed Ecklonia cava may be able to slow down or prevent Parkinsons disease, according to a 2024 study.
Researchers found that antioxidants in the seaweed which is often used in soups and salads in Asian...
How debt and taxes conspired to rob Nairobi’s slum-dwelling youth of the promise of a better life
By Angela R. Pashayan
Throughout the summer of 2024, young Kenyans have taken to the streets of the capital, Nairobi, in a series of anti-government demonstrations.
Dubbed the Gen Z protests, the unrest was sparked by the introduction of an...
How Israel-Gaza will affect the US election campaign
By Scott Lucas
As delegates assembled in Chicago for the start of the Democratic National Convention on August 19, something surreal was happening 6,000 miles away in Israel. In Tel Aviv, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken,...
Solar above, batteries below: here’s how warehouses and shopping centres could produce 25% of Australia’s power
By Bruce Mountain
Imagine if Australian cities became major producers of clean energy, rather than relying on far-flung solar and wind farms.
Far fetched? Hardly. Our cities and towns are full of warehouses, commercial areas, shopping...
Study shows video games can improve mental wellbeing – but you can have too much of a good thing
By Katarina Fritzon Et Al
A study of almost 100,000 people in Japan aged 10 to 69 found playing video games or even owning a console can be good for mental health. But playing too much each day can harm wellbeing.
Video games and other forms...
New ABC show The Assembly highlights how neurodivergence can enhance jobs or study
By Sandra Thom-Jones
The Assembly, a new ABC documentary series, introduces us to a diverse group of autistic people who are interested in pursuing journalism careers.
The first episode strikes a nice balance between introducing the...
A city at the crossroads: how Gaza became one of the great intellectual hubs of the Roman Empire
By Christopher Mallan
The years 2023 and 2024 will certainly be remembered as some of the darkest in the long and often violent history of Gaza.
The recent destruction of schools and universities in the Gaza strip has attracted the attention...
NZ’s white-collar crime gap: just 1% of serious fraud complaints result in prosecution
By Lisa Marriott
Despite long being considered one of the least corrupt countries ranked third in the world by Transparency International New Zealand is lagging behind when it comes to handling white-collar crime.
This can be loosely...
‘Gig workers’ get minimum standards from Monday. Here’s what will change
By Juan Diaz-Granados Et Al
Monday August 26 is when the governments updated Fair Work legislation comes into force.
The new laws will offer new rights to so-called gig workers who take on jobs through platforms such as Uber, Menulog and...
Concerned about your early reader? Why ‘wait and see’ isn’t advised for reading struggles
By Katelyn Bryant
At Western Universitys Mary J. Wright Child and Youth Development Clinic, I work on a team training future school psychologists. In our work, we encounter parents concerned about their childrens learning on an almost daily...
Five things that can help autistic students settle into university
By Harriet Axbey
As the summer draws to a close, the start of your very first term looms if you are starting university. You will hopefully be looking forward to going, although you may be feeling a little apprehensive and may even be very...
A more varied diet would help the world’s economy as well as its health
By Shonil Bhagwat Et Al
More than 75% of the food consumed in the world today comes from just 12 plant and five animal species. The over-dependence on this small selection, which includes rice, maize and wheat, damages the environment and human...
How fly fishing strengthens our connection with wildlife and fosters conservation efforts
By Avi Shankar Et Al
Whether its to reset our mental health or simply to take time out from the hurly-burly of work and urban life, many of us head for oceans and rivers to enjoy their restorative capacities.
Encountering wild animals in...
What your nose can tell you about your health
By Dan Baumgardt
Thanks to a quirk known as unconscious selective attention, your brain has learned to ignore your nose. A prominent feature thats positioned closely to the eyes, the schnoz could get in the way of our vision but the...
Learn how to budget with the help of psychology
By Amr Saber Algarhi Et Al
Developing an understanding of how to manage personal finances can be even more crucial in the early stages of your career when your salary may be relatively low.
But traditional financial advice often falls short of...
Bali gives a snapshot of what ‘overtourism’ looks like in the developing world
By Rama Permana
Barcelona residents marched against tourists in July after similar protests in Venice earlier in 2024. Recently, residents of Santorini in Greece were in uproar after a Facebook post reportedly asked them to stay home and...
How Russian gender-based disinformation could influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election
By Owen Wong
Most people have a general understanding of disinformation false information that is intentionally created to cause harm. Disinformation becomes gendered when deliberately false information draws on common understandings...
The WHO has declared Mpox a ‘public health emergency of international concern.’ Is it time to worry?
By Kiffer George Card
On Aug. 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified Mpox virus, which is surging across several African countries, as a public health emergency of international concern. This action will help mobilize global and...
Hope on the horizon? What Bangladesh’s regime change could mean for Rohingya refugees
By Sarah Nandi
Bangladesh is experiencing a seismic shift after 18 years of Awami League rule ended abruptly due to intensive student protests. This upheaval, and the crackdowns that resulted in the deaths of more than 300 protesters,...
Russian flags waved during Nigeria protests: why it’s a cause for concern
By Olayinka Ajala
The #EndBadGovernance protest in Nigeria from 1 August to 10 August took a rather unexpected dimension when some protesters in Kano and Kaduna states, both in the countrys north-west region, were seen waving and sharing...
Slingshot in space: the tricky manoeuvre that will use Earth and the Moon to send the Juice mission to Jupiter
By Nicola Baresi Et Al
A European spacecraft is about to zip by both Earth and the Moon in the space of 24 hours. In the early 2030s, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission will be the first European probe to orbit Jupiter. But first, it...
Biden administration’s negotiated price cuts for 10 common prescription drugs likely to save Medicare billions, beginning in 2026
By Simon F. Haeder
The Biden administration announced on Aug. 16, 2024, the reduced prices of the first 10 drugs it has negotiated with pharmaceutical companies over their Medicare prices.
Provisions authorizing these negotiations were...
Astronomers have warned against colonial practices in the space industry − a philosopher of science explains how the industry could explore other planets without exploiting them
By Mary-Jane Rubenstein
The past decade has seen a rapid expansion of the commercial space industry. Rival nations are competing for prime military and economic positions beyond the Earth. Public and private entities are clamoring to mine the...
Could we use volcanoes to make electricity?
By David Kitchen
Turning red-hot lava from an active volcano into electricity would be dangerous and unreliable. Volcanoes dont erupt on predictable schedules, and lava cools too quickly. But many countries, including the U.S., have found...
Who is the ‘Laughing Buddha’? A scholar of East Asian Buddhism explains
By Megan Bryson
With his delighted expression, round belly, bald head and monastic robes, the Laughing Buddha is instantly identifiable. However, astute observers might wonder why this buddha does not look like the historical Buddha, who...
