Ensuring victims’ rights: The federal ombudsperson’s office is necessary but insufficient
By Alain-Guy Sipowo
Are victims rights well protected in Canada?
When the Act for the Recognition of Victims Rights, also known as the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, was adopted in 2015, it raised expectations and hope among victims of...
High interest rates aren’t going away anytime soon – a business economist explains why
By Christopher Decker
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its May 1, 2024, policy meeting, dashing the hopes of potential homebuyers and others who were hoping for a cut. Not only will rates remain at their current level a...
Trump-proofing Nato: why Europe’s current nuclear deterrents may not be enough to face biggest threats since WWII
By Natasha Lindstaedt
Though a second Trump presidency is not a foregone conclusion, Nato members are gearing up to Trump-proof the organisation and reviewing their defence strategies.
Natos concerns about Trumps re-election were heightened...
Why it takes so long to simulate the climate in a supercomputer
By Samar Khatiwala
Climate models are some of the most complex pieces of software ever written, able to simulate a vast number of different parts of the overall system, such as the atmosphere or ocean. Many have been developed by hundreds of...
US election: why it’s not the protesters’ votes that the Democrats should worry about
By Thomas Gift
As hundreds of New York police officers in riot gear were called in to clear away a student protest at Columbia University on Tuesday night, the university president Nemat Shafik was saying she had no choice but to take...
More price rises and empty shelves on the cards as UK brings in Brexit border checks
By Kamran Mahroof Et Al
New import checks on foods arriving from the EU could affect supplies at Britains local delis, high-street greengrocers or independent cafes. Worse, they could lead to shortages that affect the very viability of these...
The biblical character who goes ‘down the rabbit hole’ into an alternate reality − just like Alice in Wonderland
By Ryan M. Armstrong
The Bibles Book of Job opens on an ordinary day in the land of Uz, where a man carefully performs religious rituals to protect his children. This routine has never failed Job, who is described as the most righteous person...
‘Britain could soon lose control of its defence industry’ – expert Q&A
By Keith Hartley
Miltary spending is surging in the face of heightened geopolitical tensions. The UK plans to hike its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, amounting to 87 billion a year. This is an increase from around 2.3% today,...
Business and management graduates can become climate change and sustainability champions
By David Ssekamatte
There is no doubt about it: the world is in the grips of a climate crisis. The headlines are full of reports about extreme weather events and the negative effects of the fossil fuel industry.
This reality means that...
Gen Zers and millennials are still big fans of books – even if they don’t call themselves ‘readers’
By Kathi Inman Berens Et Al
Identifying with an activity is different from actually doing it.
For example, 49% of Americans play video games, but only 10% identify as gamers.
According to a recent survey we conducted, theres also a small gap...
Electric vehicles are usually safer for their occupants – but not necessarily for everyone else
By Jingwen Hu
The future of automobiles is electric, but many people worry about the safety of todays electric vehicles.
Public opinion about EV crash safety often hinges on a few high-profile fire incidents. Those safety concerns...
US long-term care costs are sky-high, but Washington state’s new way to help pay for them could be nixed
By Marc Cohen1
If you needed long-term care, could you afford it?
For many Americans, especially those with a middle-class income and little savings, the answer to that question is absolutely not.
Nursing homes charge somewhere...
The French identify as Europeans – and yet are also notoriously Eurosceptic
By Pierre Bréchon
In less than two months, more than 400 million people will be eligible to vote in the European elections. If the record turnout of 2019 elections is anything to go by, many will be seizing their voting rights, allowing...
What are heart rate zones, and how can you incorporate them into your exercise routine?
By Hunter Bennett
If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more popular in recent years partly because of the boom in...
Ghosted, orbited, breadcrumbed? A psychotherapist breaks down some perils of digital dating and how to cope
By Danielle Sukenik
Buzzwords describing the digital dating scene are all over social media. Have you been ghosted? Is someone orbiting you? Are you being breadcrumbed? While these dating patterns may not be new, the words to describe them...
LVMH succession planning: keeping it in the family when you’re the world’s richest man
By Qing Wang
In the high end world of luxury and heritage, many brands are still owned and managed by the original founding family. The issue of succession planning, therefore, can be particularly important. This recently came to the...
How the Mandela myth helped win the battle for democracy in South Africa
By Jonny Steinberg
Political history scholar Jonny Steinbergs 2023 book Winnie Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africas most famous political figures Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela and their role...
Why the potential for another Donald Trump presidency is making Iran very nervous
By Amin Naeni
Theres been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russias war in Ukraine, the Israel-Palestinian conflict and China. But theres one more...
The planetary orbit in Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ is random and chaotic, but could it exist?
By Peter Watson
Note: The following article contains spoilers about the Netflix series 3 Body Problem.
I first encountered the three-body problem 60 years ago, in a short story called Placet is a Crazy Place by American science fiction...
China’s money only goes so far – Kokoda shows why history binds PNG and Australia in a far deeper way
By Ian Kemish
There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the gruelling Kokoda Track towards Isurava, high...
How visas for social care workers may be exacerbating exploitation in the sector
By Caroline Emberson
The health and social care visa route was introduced in August 2020 as a response to labour shortages after Brexit and the COVID pandemic. Now, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration has found that the...
Nature conservation works, and we’re getting better at it – new study
By Joseph William Bull Et Al
To work in nature conservation is to battle a headwind of bad news. When the overwhelming picture indicates the natural world is in decline, is there any room for optimism? Well, our new global study has some good news: we...
What is meaningful work? A philosopher’s view
By Caleb Althorpe
Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a significant portion of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a 2019 report,...
US drugs regulator gives LSD ‘breakthrough’ status for treating anxiety – why this is so significant
By Colin Davidson
LSD was accidentally discovered by Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz pharmaceutical company in Switzerland in 1938. It was apparently useless, but from 1947 it was marketed as a cure for everything from schizophrenia to...
Male baldness is often trivialised – our research shows it should be taken seriously
By Paul Hodkinson Et Al
Male pattern baldness, or hereditary hair loss, has not always been taken seriously. Celebrity hair loss and transplants are greeted with fascinated amusement while, in popular media, bald men have often been absent,...
Jordan has long been a beacon of stability in the Middle East – but that looks to be changing
By Simon Mabon
Sat in the Wadi Araba in the baking midday sun, senior Jordanian officials and their Israeli counterparts signed a historic peace agreement in 1994 that ended decades of conflict between the two states. Witnessed by the...
Tarantino abandons his tenth film – five other times Hollywood giants cancelled big projects
By Kieran Foster
Quentin Tarantino has reportedly scrapped what was supposed to be his tenth and final feature film, The Movie Critic, deep into pre-production.
This decision is one in a long line of cancelled or unproduced projects...
The politics stopping the UK from opening a youth mobility scheme with Europe
By Erica Consterdine
Earlier this week, it seemed possible that young people in the UK might soon be able to travel freely to work and live in Europe again. The European Commission laid out proposals to open mobility to millions of 18- to...
Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light
By Andrea Gallo Rosso
A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...
Nigerians throw naira notes around to show love: but it could land you in jail
By Abiodun Odusote
The legal implication of physically damaging the naira, Nigerias currency, came into focus recently with the prosecution of at least two celebrities by the countrys Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Nigeria has a...
Ukraine recap: US$60 billion aid package brings fresh hope to desperate Kyiv
By Jonathan Este
Across the broad sweep of history, its usually overly simplistic to talk about a single event as a turning point. This is especially the case in a conflict such as the one in Ukraine. So many factors geopolitical,...
Sudan’s civil war is rooted in its historical favouritism of Arab and Islamic identity
By Hamdy A. Hassan
The current civil war in Sudan goes beyond a simple power struggle between two generals. It reflects a deep-rooted crisis within the countrys governing structure thats been present since it gained independence from the...
Nigeria is pioneering a new vaccine to fight meningitis - why this matters
By Idris Mohammed
Nigeria recently became the first country to roll out a new vaccine (called Men5CV) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which protects people against five strains of meningococcus bacteria.
The...
Large retailers don’t have smokestacks, but they generate a lot of pollution − and states are starting to regulate it
By Johnathan Williams
Did you receive a mail-order package this week? Carriers in the U.S. shipped 64 packages for every American in 2022, so its quite possible.
That commerce reflects the expansion of large-scale retail in recent decades,...
The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system
By Peter A. Coclanis Et Al
Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...
Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’
By Raymond Hogler
Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...
The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup
By Chris Impey
A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects
By Doug Cowen
About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...
Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems
By Sarah Florini
When President Joe Biden signed a US$95 billion foreign aid bill into law on April 24, 2024, it started the clock on a nine-month window for TikToks China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. The president can...
Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance
By Elizabeth Simon Et Al
Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2.
One poll we commissioned as part of our...
New ‘cold war’ grows ever warmer as the prospect of a nuclear arms race hots up
By Becky Alexis-Martin
Champagne corks popped on December 3 1989 as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US president George H.W. Bush met on the cruise ship, Maxim Gorky, off the coast of Malta to declare the end of the cold war.
Gorbachev...
Social media companies can’t be immune from the need for a social licence
By Michelle Grattan
In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner.
Most people would have little sympathy with Musks vociferous opposition to being told to...
South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study
By David Everatt
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...
Vaping now more common than smoking among young people – and the risks go beyond lung and brain damage
By Amira Guirguis
Vaping is now more common than cigarette smoking among young people, according to a new report coordinated by the University of Glasgow and commissioned by the World Health Organization.
This echoes research that has...
Ancient nomads you’ve probably never heard of disappeared from Europe 1,000 years ago. Now, DNA analysis reveals how they lived
By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury Et Al
How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been pottery sherds, burial sites and ancient texts.
But the study of ancient DNA is changing what we know about the human past,...
If plastic manufacturing goes up 10%, plastic pollution goes up 10% – and we’re set for a huge surge in production
By Kathryn Willis Et Al
In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon emissions...
How marketing classes can rescue ‘ugly produce’ from becoming food waste
By Narmin Tartila Banu Et Al
At a time of rising food costs and growing food insecurity, a large percentage of food grown for consumption never reaches our tables.
Indeed, some estimates suggest that approximately 40 per cent of fruits and...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left the entire region at a heightened risk of radioactive pollution
By Nino Antadze
Russias invasion of Ukraine has put the countrys nuclear facilities at considerable risk. For example, on April 7 a drone attacked Ukraines Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. This attack on the largest nuclear power plant...
Our laser technique can tell apart elephant and mammoth ivory – here’s how it may disrupt the ivory trade
By Rebecca Shepherd
In recent years, the global trade in elephant ivory has faced significant restrictions in an effort to protect dwindling elephant populations. Many countries have stringent controls on the trade of elephant ivory. The sale...
Economic growth tops the priority list for Canadian policymakers — here’s why
By Michael M. Atkinson Et Al
Canada is currently experiencing anemic economic growth, meaning there is a slowdown in the total production of goods and services per capita. The real GDP growth forecast for 2024 is 0.7 per cent.
Despite this,...