National’s housing u-turn promotes urban sprawl – cities and ratepayers will pick up the bill

By Timothy Welch

By withdrawing its support for the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) it helped introduce in the first place, the National Party has essentially only made a soft policy even softer. Lauded by many as progress...

Summer fireworks can traumatize pets and cause wildlife to flee

By Kendra Coulter

Fireworks have become a fixture of many celebrations around the world, from weddings to national holidays. But there are many among us, including the furry, feathered and finned, who feel fear with every thundering...

Intergenerational Day: How bringing different generations together can support our mental well-being

By Jason Proulx Et Al

You old bag! Herb receiving birthday cards from students in the iGen program. Author provided To many, this phrase might spark confusion or concern. But, for Herb, a long-term care resident of Saskatoons...

Holograms and AI can bring performers back from the dead – but will the fans keep buying it?

By Justin Matthews Et Al

Fans can mourn the passing of music legends for years, the hits echoing long after the original voice is silenced. Little wonder, then, that recent advances in holographic technology and artificial intelligence have found...

I need a flu shot and a COVID booster. Can I get them at the same time?

By Vasso Apostolopoulos Et Al

Cases of influenza (the flu) and COVID are set to rise over winter, with many Australians looking to protect themselves from both of these respiratory viruses. For most adults, if it has been six months since you had...

30 years of winning love by daylight: why audiences are still obsessed with Sailor Moon

By Emerald L King

Sailor Moon has been with us for over 30 years, but the cartoon series is popular enough that brands are still producing themed merchandise everything from high end, crystal-encrusted Jimmy Choos to Black Milk leggings...

Ukraine war: why Putin's appeals to masculinity to recruit for the military will not work

By Charlie Walker

Hardliners in Russia have been calling for a full-scale mobilisation for some time, but so far Vladimir Putin has resisted the temptation for a full call-up due to its expected unpopularity. Instead, Russia is attempting...

South Africa's power blackouts: solutions lie in solar farms and battery storage at scale, and an end to state monopoly

By David Richard Walwyn

Rolling blackouts are costing South Africa dearly. The electricity crisis is a barrier to growth, destroys investor confidence and handicaps almost every economic activity. It has raised input costs for producers and...

Billions is spent on cancer research globally – but is it money well spent?

By Michael Head Et Al

In 2020, 19 million people around the world received a cancer diagnosis. By 2040, that number is expected to reach 28 million. Poorer countries will be especially hard hit, with an increasing number of cases and more...

Moscow drone attacks are a morale booster for Ukraine and a warning for Russia – here's why

By David Hastings Dunn Et Al

A wave of approximately 30 drones appeared in skies around the Russian capital, Moscow, on May 30. Though widely sensationalised as a major attack against the heart of the Russian government, they caused only minor damage,...

Why UK inflation is so high compared to EU and US and what to do about it

By Edward Thomas Jones Et Al

Britain has a bigger inflation problem than either the US or the eurozone, according to Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann. The latest official UK inflation figures show UK price rises have slowed from double...

Psychoanalysing Succession’s tense finale – a Freudian suspension of pleasure

By Daniel Brookes

Warning: the following article contains spoilers. Sigmund Freud, the 20th century titan of psychoanalysis, would doubtless have plenty to say about the Roy family, had the characters ever plopped down on his treatment...

How food insecurity affects people's rights to choose whether or not to have children, and how they parent

By Jasmine Fledderjohann Et Al

Food insecurity difficulties getting enough nutritious food for a healthy life is a growing problem globally. It has been linked to many health and social problems including malnutrition, difficulties managing diabetes,...

No, AI probably won’t kill us all – and there’s more to this fear campaign than meets the eye

By Michael Timothy Bennett

Doomsaying is an old occupation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a complex subject. Its easy to fear what you dont understand. These three truths go some way towards explaining the oversimplification and dramatisation...

Did 'wokeness' cancel Police Ten 7? New research suggests racial stereotyping was the real culprit

By Antje Deckert Et Al

When TVNZ cancelled reality TV show Police Ten 7 earlier this year, it certainly rattled some law-and-order cages. The shows former host Graham Bell, who described suspects variously as creeps, halfwits, low-lifes,...

Daniel Penny's GiveSendGo campaign: Crowdfunding primarily benefits the most privileged

By Jeremy Snyder

A former United States Marine was recently charged with second-degree manslaughter for fatally choking a 30-year-old Black man, Jordan Neely, on a New York subway train. A GiveSendGo crowdfunding campaign has raised...

The first line of vaccines was highly effective at restricting COVID-19’s damage

By Nana Wu Et Al

After more than three years of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that over 763 million infections, and nearly seven million deaths, have been attributed to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 vaccination was deemed...

It's not just climate – we've already breached most of the Earth's limits. A safer, fairer future means treading lightly

By Steven J Lade Et Al

People once believed the planet could always accommodate us. That the resilience of the Earth system meant nature would always provide. But we now know this is not necessarily the case. As big as the world is, our impact...

Closing the First Nations employment gap will take 100 years

By Reza M. Monem Et Al

In 2008 Australias federal, state and territory governments set the goal of halving the employment gap between First Nations Australians and others within a decade. That required, by 2018, lifting the employment rate for...

Making NZ's tax system fairer is a good idea – but this proposed new law isn't the answer

By Jonathan Barrett

Its no secret that Revenue Minister David Parker has long been interested in tax reform in New Zealand. In 2022, he announced plans for legislation requiring future tax policy changes to be measured against a set of tax...

Mr. Associated Press: How 20th-century journalism titan Kent Cooper transformed the news industry

By Gene Allen

On the day of Kent Coopers funeral in February 1965, the flow of news through the international Associated Press network the institution he spent a 40-year career building came to a complete stop. In scores of AP...

Recycling: what you can and can't recycle and why it's so confusing

By Matthew Derry

When it comes to recycling are you a wishcycler? No, I didnt know what this term meant until recently either apparently its when people try to recycle items that should be thrown away instead. And the government are...

Why 40°C is bearable in a desert but lethal in the tropics

By Alan Thomas Kennedy-Asser Et Al

This year, even before the northern hemisphere hot season began, temperature records were being shattered. Spain for instance saw temperatures in April (38.8C) that would be out of the ordinary even at the peak of summer....

How to hone your leadership skills, and what your company can do to help

By Zara Whysall

The UK labour market has finally started to see a fall in vacancies following a post-COVID spike in open positions. But there are still more than a million job vacancies, which are damaging the economy by preventing firms...

Kenya at 60: how the British used street names to show colonial power

By Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita

Place names, along with other urban symbols, were used as a tool of control over space in many African countries during the colonial period. This strategy was epitomised by the British, who applied it in Nairobi and other...

AI can replicate human creativity in two key ways – but falls apart when asked to produce something truly new

By Chloe Preece Et Al

Is computational creativity possible? The recent hype around generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E and many others, raises new questions about whether creativity is a uniquely...

Amid fears of Chinese influence, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has grown more powerful

By Amitrajeet A. Batabyal

A Chinese private equity firm, Primavera Capital Group, acquired the well-known test preparation company Princeton Review and an online learning platform, Tutor.com, in May 2023. The move, like other Chinese investments...

If we're going to label AI an 'extinction risk', we need to clarify how it could happen

By Nello Cristianini

This week a group of well-known and reputable AI researchers signed a statement consisting of 22 words: Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such...

Succession finale: HBO’s epic family drama comes to an end

By Gill Jamieson

Warning: the following article contains spoilers. Succession, HBOs searing indictment of late capitalism, has finally ended for good. And what an ending. The warring siblings Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah...

It's time to end Western Australia's $4 billion-per-year GST bonus

By Robert Breunig

The Morrison governments decision to give a special deal to Western Australia for the distribution of the income from the goods and service tax is one of the worst public policy decisions made in Australia in the past two...

Technology is far from a silver bullet for solving homelessness or child welfare issues

By Aron Lee Rosenberg Et Al

In 1921, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Christian Lous Lange stated: Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. A century later in a digital landscape where technology giants strive to move fast and break...

Disney's The Little Mermaid review: Ariel finally finds her feminist voice

By Robyn Muir

Warning: the following article contains spoilers. I was brimming with nerves and excitement as I took my seat to watch Disneys seventh live action princess film. As a Disney fan, their live action remakes help me...

South Africa has changed its electoral law, but a much more serious overhaul is needed

By Mashupye Herbert Maserumule

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed into law a change to the countrys electoral act to allow individuals to contest national and provincial elections independently of political parties. The change...

Automation risks creating a two-tier workforce of haves and have-nots

By Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay

The recent news that BT would reduce its workforce by as many as 55,000 by 2030, including about 10,000 jobs replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), is part of a growing trend of job losses globally due to various forms...

How can Congress regulate AI? Erect guardrails, ensure accountability and address monopolistic power

By Anjana Susarla

Takeaways: A new federal agency to regulate AI sounds helpful but could become unduly influenced by the tech industry. Instead, Congress can legislate accountability. Instead of licensing companies to...

Your body naturally produces opioids without causing addiction or overdose – studying how this process works could help reduce the side effects of opioid drugs

By John Michael Streicher

Opioid drugs such as morphine and fentanyl are like the two-faced Roman god Janus: The kindly face delivers pain relief to millions of sufferers, while the grim face drives an opioid abuse and overdose crisis that claimed...

Expert advice for budding UK entrepreneurs during a cost of living crisis

By Robert Crammond

Getting your foot on the career ladder can be a challenging experience. Looking for the right role within the right organisation or sector is often competitive, uncertain and stressful. These kinds of concerns may be...

Tobacco use is costly, but so is quitting. Surveys of 8 African countries show who needs help

By Sam Filby

Tobacco use imposes a large health and economic burden worldwide. Research estimates that, in 2019, about 8 million deaths were attributable to tobacco smoking. Tobacco also reduces years of healthy living: about 200...

Revenge, excitement, or profit: why do people commit arson?

By Xanthe Mallett Et Al

The huge blaze that struck Randle Street in central Sydney last week is now the subject of an arson investigation, authorities have confirmed. Many details remain unclear, including the safety and whereabouts of some of...

The FDA finally approved Elon Musk's Neuralink chip for human trials. Have all the concerns been addressed?

By David Tuffley

Since its founding in 2016, Elon Musks neurotechnology company Neuralink has had the ambitious mission to build a next-generation brain implant with at least 100 times more brain connections than devices currently approved...

What are the long-term effects of quitting social media? Almost nobody can log off long enough to find out

By John Malouff

Being on social media has become synonymous with living in the 21st century. Year after year, we see new platforms and smarter algorithms roping us into highly addictive online worlds. Now, a growing number of people...

Rupert Murdoch: how a 22-year-old 'zealous Laborite' turned into a tabloid tsar

By Sally Young

In September 1953, Rupert Murdoch arrived in sleepy Adelaide to take up his inheritance of News Limited. He was only 22 and had little experience of working at a newspaper, let alone running one, but his family had...

NATO must tread carefully in Southeast Asia, where painful memories of colonialism remain

By Shaun Narine

NATOs incursion into the Indo-Pacific region is a move that will exacerbate regional conflicts and tensions. Thats because NATO cannot be separated from the history of European colonialism and imperialism that shaped...

China in Africa: Kenya railway study shows investment projects aren’t a one-way street

By Gediminas Lesutis Et Al

China is an important economic player in Africa. In 2021 alone, China accounted for nearly US$5 billion in foreign direct investment in African countries. The rapidly increasing Chinese presence across Africa has become a...

Kids missing school: Why it's happening -- and how to stop it

By Joshua Childs

Chronic absenteeism defined as a students missing approximately 18 days of the school year is on the rise. Compared with the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, almost three-quarters of U.S. public schools are now...

What really started the American Civil War?

By Robert Gudmestad

What really started the Civil War? Abbey, age 7, Stone Ridge, New York The U.S. citizenship test which immigrants must pass before becoming citizens of the United States has this question: Name one problem that...

Can high-stakes debt-ceiling brinkmanship in the US lead to unprecedented political unity?

By Jared Mondschein

Congress appears to be on the cusp of passing legislation that would not only avoid an unprecedented US government default and economic catastrophe but also provide some much-needed political stability in...

Is it true the faster you lose weight the quicker it comes back? Here's what we know about slow and fast weight loss

By Nick Fuller

When people decide its time to lose weight, theyre usually keen to see quick results. Maybe they have an event coming up or want relief from health problems and discomfort. But expert guidelines typically recommend...

Why taxing the world's biggest companies at 15% won't fix the gaping hole in global tax rules

By Kerrie Sadiq Et Al

Australias federal government has a plan to discourage companies from shifting profits to tax havens. The idea is to impose a global minimum tax on large Australian and foreign-owned companies with subsidiaries in low or...

Over half of eligible aged care residents are yet to receive their COVID booster. And winter is coming

By Hassan Vally

As Australia heads towards the fourth winter of the pandemic, we have once again started seeing an increase in the level of COVID circulating. With this comes an increased risk of infection and serious illness. Elderly...