Oil in Global Economy Series

How to deal with fossil fuel lobbying and its growing influence in Australian politics

Aug 21, 2022 17:31 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Will climate action undermine Australias democracy? This question might not be as outlandish as it seems. A recent investigation details a campaign by the car industry to have its (low) voluntary standards on fuel...

Filthy habits: medieval monks were more likely to have worms than ordinary people

Aug 21, 2022 17:29 pm UTC| Insights & Views

In the middle ages, monks, nuns, and friars had it relatively easy. They lived quiet lives within friaries and monastic complexes, reading manuscripts, praying, and tending to gardens in which they grew their own food....

Indonesia's ‘Super Apps’: will they be another waste of state budget?

Aug 21, 2022 17:16 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The Indonesias Ministry of Communication and Informations (Kominfo) plan to merge around 24,000 government apps into just eight apps, which they call Super Apps, is worth closer scrutiny. As of today, the government has...

The Taliban shifts tactics in its determination to control and oppress women

Aug 15, 2022 17:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan a year ago, it has barred girls from school, required women to wear burqas in public and banned women from travelling without a male chaperone. The Taliban first ruled Afghanistan...

The COVID lab leak theory is dead. Here's how we know the virus came from a Wuhan market

Aug 15, 2022 17:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

My colleagues and I published the most detailed studies of the earliest events in the COVID-19 pandemic last month in the journal Science. Together, these papers paint a coherent evidence-based picture of what took...

Energy crisis: why French households are largely protected from soaring costs while British families struggle

Aug 15, 2022 17:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

British households are bracing for a winter of massive energy price increases. The average annual bill is forecast to rise above 4,000, which is more than three times what Britons were paying just 12 months ago. French...

How centuries of self-isolation turned Japan into one of the most sustainable societies on Earth

Aug 10, 2022 15:32 pm UTC| Insights & Views

At the start of the 1600s, Japans rulers feared that Christianity which had recently been introduced to the southern parts of the country by European missionaries would spread. In response, they effectively sealed the...