People want data privacy but don't always know what they're getting
By Gabriel Kaptchuk Et Al
The Trump administrations move to ban the popular video app TikTok has stoked fears about the Chinese government collecting personal information of people who use the app. These fears underscore growing concerns Americans...
A no-deal Brexit could damage the UK's ability to cope with pandemics
By Andrew Glencross
As the UK-EU deal or no-deal drama limps on, most attention focuses on the economic consequences of a new trade relationship. But UK health security in the sense of measures to prevent and mitigate health emergencies such...
Why sovereign credit downgrades no longer matter as much as they used to
By Ghulam Sorwar
The decision by credit ratings agency Moodys to cut the UKs sovereign credit rating has been a gift to the governments critics. The agency downgraded the UK from Aa3 to Aa2 on the rationale that its heavy reliance on...
How much of Barack Obama's legacy has Donald Trump rolled back?
By Clodagh Harrington Et Al
Throughout Donald Trumps first term in office, the US president has harked back to the Obama years. From blasting the horrible Iran nuclear deal to blaming Barack Obamas administration for the obsolete, broken system that...
Indonesian media have gone mobile but the development of mobile journalism is still slow
By Albertus Magnus Prestianta
At least 65% of Indonesians, or 175 million people, are connected to the internet. Nearly all of them (98%) access the internet via their mobile device and they spend around four hours a day online.
Indonesia has the...
When too much news is bad news: is the way we consume news detrimental to our health?
By Evita March
Humans are curious and social creatures by nature. The news helps us make sense of the world around us and connects us with our local, national and international community. So its no wonder were drawn to it.
Objective,...
Proposed student visa policy could hinder US competitiveness
By David L. Di Maria
In an effort to crack down on international students and scholars who overstay their visas, the Trump administration is seeking to implement a new set of rules that would make it more difficult for them to remain in the...
The budget promises jobs, but does little for workers in the gig economy
By Nat Kassel
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg promised a federal budget focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. In one sense he didnt disappoint. His budget speech mentioned jobs 37 times an average of about once a minute.
This budget is all about...
You’ve probably heard of the Green New Deal in the US — is it time for one in Australia?
By Kate Crowley
After the 2008 global financial crisis, Green New Deals were proposed in various countries as a way to pick up the pieces of the economy. The general idea is to create jobs while rebuilding societies, by targeting...
Five things to know about the Antichrist
By Philip C. Almond
In the history of the West over the last 2000 years, there has never been a time when someone hasnt been predicting the end of the world.
And now, with a seemingly insoluble climate crisis, pandemic surges, savage...
Bottle-fed babies may consume millions of microplastic particles, our research suggests
By Dunzhu Li Et Al
Microplastics can now be found in almost every environment on Earth, but scientists know surprisingly little about how the products we use every day shed these tiny plastic particles.
If you drink from a plastic water...
Teachers in France, on the front line of defending the values of the Republic
By Charles Hadji
On October 16, 2020, Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, was murdered outside his school a few days after showing his students caricatures of Mohammed as part of a class on freedom of...
NASA's OSIRIS-REx will land on an asteroid to bring home rocks and dust – if it can avoid Mt. Doom
By Elizabeth Cantwell
Imagine parallel parking a 15-passenger van into just two to three parking spaces surrounded by two-story boulders. On Oct. 20, a University of Arizona-led NASA mission 16 years in the making will attempt the astronomical...
How conservative groups will advance their agendas before a Supreme Court with Amy Coney Barrett
By Paul M. Collins, Jr.
Amy Coney Barretts nomination to the Supreme Court has highlighted the ways interest groups use the legal system to pursue their goals. Barrett is closely tied to the conservative Federalist Society, whose members have...
New modelling finds investing in childcare and aged care almost pays for itself
By Janine Dixon Et Al
In the absence of an official analysis of the impact of the budget by gender the National Foundation for Australian Women has this morning published its own gender analysis of the budget, across multiple dimensions.
It...
Will Victoria be the first place in the world to fully decriminalise sex work?
By Larissa Sandy
The Victorian government has just received a landmark review into the states sex work laws.
This is the first large-scale review of Victorian sex work laws since 1985 and presents a huge opportunity for change.
With...
United States' standing wanes on Lowy Asia power index
By Michelle Grattan
The United States has registered the largest fall in relative regional power of any country in the Indo-Pacific during the last year, according to the Lowy Institutes Asia Power Index.
The index, started in 2018, ranks...
Hey Google ... what movie should I watch today? How AI can affect our decisions
By TaeWoo Kim
Social media algorithms, artificial intelligence and our own genetics are among the factors influencing us beyond our awareness. This raises an ancient question: do we have control over our own lives? This article is part...
South Africa needs a fresh national imagination: here are some ideas
By Njabulo S. Ndebele
Imagine that during the COVID-19 lockdown South Africans woke up one morning to TV shows, radio broadcasts and pamphlets announcing a declaration by white South Africans: WE ARE NO LONGER WHITE!
In their statement they...
England's metro mayors and the new politics of coronavirus
By Georgina Blakeley
The anger was evident in Andy Burnhams voice as he declared that Greater Manchester would stand firm in the face of any UK government attempt to impose a tier three restriction on the northern English city-region without...
New Zealand's new parliament turns red: the 2020 election results at a glance
By Finlay Macdonald Et Al
Labour is celebrating a landslide victory tonight after winning 49% of the vote. The result means Labour could govern alone the first time this has happened since New Zealand introduced a mixed member proportional (MMP)...
Drive-throughs are busier than ever during the pandemic – but they're hotspots for air pollution
By Anitha Chinnaswamy
Over 90% of EU citizens each year are exposed to levels of outdoor air pollution that are above the World Health Organizations air quality guidelines. In Birmingham, the UKs second largest city, air quality in 2018...
How Japanese research became the centre of a conservative culture war
By Karin Narita
The Japanese research community is in turmoil. On October 1, after less than three weeks as prime minister, Yoshihide Suga rejected the appointment of six scholars to the governing body of the Science Council of Japan...
Facebook ban of QAnon is only a first step in the battle against dangerous conspiracy theories
By Marc-André Argentino
The decision by Facebook to remove any pages and groups associated with the far-right conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon will disrupt the ability of dangerous online communities to spread their radical messages, but...
Apple releases fast 5G iPhones, but not for Australia. And we're lagging behind in getting there
By Stanley Shanapinda
Following in the footsteps of Samsung, Apple has released its first high-spectrum 5G smartphone, the iPhone 12. But only US customers will benefit.
High-spectrum 5G uses millimetre-wave frequencies in the 26GHz range...
We need to restart immigration quickly to drive economic growth. Here's one way to do it safely
By Anna Boucher Et Al
Faced with a difficult economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia needs to act quickly with creative solutions to reestablish immigration into the country, even before a potential vaccine is found.
Over the...
Europe's second wave is worse than the first. What went so wrong, and what can it learn from countries like Vietnam?
By Maximilian de Courten Et Al
Europe is again in the grip of a COVID-19 resurgence, with outbreak hot-spots in the United Kingdom, Spain and France each reporting thousands of new daily cases.
The level of infections are now higher than in March and...
Robot take the wheel: Waymo has launched a self-driving taxi service
By James Jin Kang Et Al
The age of the driverless taxi has arrived at least in parts of Phoenix, Arizona. Self-driving car company Waymo, owned by Googles parent company Alphabet, announced its autonomous vehicles are now available to the...
Ballet dancers should absolutely think about becoming computer programmers – here's why
By John Bryson
There has been quite a backlash since the UK government launched an advert encouraging dancers to think about retraining in cyber security. The ad, which has since been withdrawn, depicted a female ballet dancer with the...
New evidence suggests that swapping tobacco for e-cigarettes can save lives
By Jamie Hartmann-Boyce Et Al
Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are a popular aid for quitting smoking, but it is taking time for scientific research to catch up and provide clear answers on how well they work, and whether they are safe to use...
How do pandemics end? History suggests diseases fade but are almost never truly gone
By Nükhet Varlik
When will the pandemic end? All these months in, with over 37 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths globally, you may be wondering, with increasing exasperation, how long this will continue.
Since the...
What happens when senators die or are incapacitated?
By Nicholas G. Napolio Et Al
What happens if U.S. senators get sick or, even worse, if they die? Its happened before and our research shows that national policies, and even the course of history, can change as a result.
At least three U.S....
WeChat: why Donald Trump's push to ban the app would be so hard on the Chinese diaspora
By Yan Wu Et Al
Chinese Americans are waiting nervously to hear whether the Trump administrations efforts to ban the app WeChat in the US will be successful.
Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 6 placing the Chinese-owned...
Boris Johnson's offshore wind pledge is positive, but protecting UK jobs requires more
By Jamie Stewart Et Al
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, some countries have announced significant spending pledges to support a green recovery. Germany leads the way with a 40 billion (36 billion) commitment to climate-related...
Indonesia and China inks deal to promote the use of the Yuan and Rupiah
By Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
Last month, China and Indonesia signed an agreement to promote the use of local currencies Chinese Yuan (RMB) and Indonesian Rupiah (Rp) in trade and investment transactions between the two countries.
Yuan has...
James Bond is more than a (sexist) secret agent. He is a fertility god, a Dionysus of the modern era
By Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan
History isnt kind to people who play God, quips James Bond to supervillain Safin in the trailer for No Time to Die. The films release has been delayed yet again, to April 2021. It will mark Daniel Craigs swansong as 007...
The underappreciated and critical Catholic vote in the 2020 US presidential election
By Mark J. Rozell Et Al
In the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, political analysts focused considerable attention on white Evangelicals support for Donald Trump. Less examined was the critical role of the Catholic vote in the three...
Restoring California's forests to reduce wildfire risks will take time, billions of dollars and a broad commitment
By Roger Bales Et Al
As California contends with its worst wildfire season in history, its more evident than ever that land management practices in the states forested mountains need major changes.
Many of Californias 33 million acres of...
Election 2020 sees record $11 billion in campaign spending, mostly from a handful of super-rich donors
By Richard Briffault
Total spending in the 2020 federal elections is projected to set a new record of almost US$11 billion by November.
When adjusted for inflation, thats over 50% higher than 2016 election spending. This years federal...
Appealing to evangelicals, Trump uses religious words and references to God at a higher rate than previous presidents
By Ceri Hughes
Speaking from the hospital while undergoing treatment for COVID-19, Donald Trump faced the camera and touted therapeutics that look like miracles coming down from God.
The choice of words shouldnt come as a surprise....
Nobel economics prize: Wilson and Milgrom's insights into auctions could drive down carbon emissions
By Robin Mason
Many would argue that the global financial crisis of 2007-09 taught us not just the irrelevance but the dangers of economic theory. Yet the Nobel committee has awarded its economic prize for 2020 to two high theorists ...
Do social media algorithms erode our ability to make decisions freely? The jury is out
By Lewis Mitchell Et Al
Social media algorithms, artificial intelligence, and our own genetics are among the factors influencing us beyond our awareness. This raises an ancient question: do we have control over our own lives? This article is part...
Fact check US: Is Joe Biden really 'lax on security'?
By Jean-Éric Branaa
Law and order. One of the most-shared tweets of the US president in recent months was a three-word slogan, repeated loudly and often, that has gradually become his sole platform for re-election. Accordingly, Donald Trump...
Thai food, living 'hygge'… What drives us to consume products from other cultures?
By Catherine Demangeot Et Al
When was the last time you went out for a Thai meal, got items from the ethnic isle of a supermarket, wore a pashmina, or watched a foreign film? Many of us consume culturally-cued offerings, either recurrently or for...
An autoimmune-like antibody response is linked with severe COVID-19
By Matthew Woodruff
In the earliest days of the pandemic, many immunologists, including me, assumed that patients who produced high quantities of antibodies early in infection would be free from disease. We were wrong.
Several months into...
Managers must listen to workers of all ages on COVID-19 safety
By Nick Turner
The workplace is full of psychological hazards, including abusive supervisors and mistreatment from customers. But there are also physical hazards like falls from heights, working with faulty equipment and exposure to...
Combating lifestyle diseases can make a big difference in the lives of older people
By Razak M. Gyasi
Noncommunicable diseases account for about 71% of the 57 million deaths reported around the world every year. Most of these deaths are caused by diabetes, cancers, heart disease and lung disease. Over 85% of these...
Pulmonary hypertension: why creating awareness is key in Africa
By Gerald J. Maarman
Pulmonary hypertension is elevated blood pressure that occurs exclusively in the lungs. It is a deadly condition that affects an estimated 75 million people worldwide. Around 80% of them live in low- and middle-income...
North Sea oil: new owners for twilight years raise questions of national interest
By Gavin Bridge Et Al
The changing of the guard in the UK North Sea has reached a symbolic turning point. The reverse takeover deal between Chrysaor and Premier Oil overhauls BP to create a new number-one oil and gas operator, producing some...
Widening access to shared ownership is not enough to solve England's housing crisis
By Gavin Parker Et Al
Housing inequalities have been laid bare by COVID-19, further exposing a housing crisis in England that is already severe. Unless some genuine steps are taken, it will only get worse for millions living in inadequate...
