By Russell Mullett, Traditional Custodian — Kurnai, Indigenous Knowledge
Bruno David, Professor, Australian Research Council Industry Laureate, Monash University
Elle Grono, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University
Deeply etched into a cliff face in GunaiKurnai Country, near the township of Buchan in East Gippsland in rural Victoria, is a large limestone cave that hosts an extraordinary story.
Today, the area outside Cloggs Cave is mainly grassland and open woodland, with eucalypt forests further behind the cave. But this was not always so.
The environment changed as the last ice age came and went, and as the Old GunaiKurnai Ancestors managed Country through cultural burning and daily activities on the land. Photographs from the 19th century, as well as regional…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, bows to members of the House of Councilors after lawmakers passed a law prohibiting desecration of the national flag, Tokyo, July 17, 2026. © 2026 Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo (Tokyo) – The Japanese Diet on July 17, 2026, adopted a flag desecration law that criminalizes damaging Japan’s national flag, a violation of the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner Japan Innovation Party, and three opposition parties supported the bill during…
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By James Martin, Associate Professor in Criminology, Deakin University
Edward Jegasothy, Senior lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney
Paul Kelaita, Postdoctoral fellow, Drug Policy Modelling Program, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW
Last week, new data were released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) suggesting daily smoking prevalence has dropped to a record low of 5.6% in 2025 – down from 8.3% in 2022-23.
Taken at face value, this is the best news in the history of tobacco control in Australia.
But there are reasons for caution. The figures come from a self-report survey, and as the AIHW has previously…
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By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Since her press club address, media coverage of the One Nation leader has shifted from fawning to more sober – and revealed some dubious ethics in the process.
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By Scott Duncan, Professor of Population Health, Auckland University of Technology
Andrew Gibbons, Professor of Higher Education, Auckland University of Technology
Elizabeth Duncan, Research Officer, Human Potential Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology
New attendance targets focus on getting children into class. But evidence suggests understanding why they are absent is the more important question.
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By Henry Fraser, Research Fellow in Law, Accountability and Data Science, Queensland University of Technology
This week, a group of ministers issued a joint media release outlining a a series of artificial intelligence (AI) “safety priorities” for the Australian government. These include:
- introducing a digital duty of care to address risks from AI and digital services
- consulting on a second round of privacy law reforms
- AI safety in the workplace
- consumer risks such as surveillance pricing and AI agent-based commerce
- a framework to regulate government…
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By Samuel Cornell, Research Fellow in Public Health, The University of Queensland
Benjamin Bonenti, PhD Candidate, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland
Timothy Piatkowski, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, The University of Queensland
The United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered all active duty and reserve personnel aged 30 and over be screened for testosterone deficiency as part of their periodic health assessment. Those younger than 30 can opt in.
In a video called “The High T Department of War”, Hegseth said the initiative…
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By Andrew Rowland, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology; Human Performance, Exercise and Metabolism Group Leader, Flinders University
Ashley M Hopkins, NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Lead of the Clinical Epidemiology and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Flinders University
The Tour de France is not simply a battle of who can pedal fastest. It’s also a race made up of politics and priorities.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Busts of late Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh, in Hanoi, May 7, 2013. © 2013 Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images (Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities since late June 2026 have arrested and detained five people for their roles in the publication of a controversial book about Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese communism, Human Rights Watch said today.Hanoi police charged all five—Nguyen Thanh Nam, Tran Viet Anh, Nguyen Thuy Hang, Dao Ba Doan, and Nguyen Van Yen—with carrying out anti-state propaganda under the notorious national security law, penal code…
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By Michael J. Armstrong, Professor of Operations Research, Brock University
Provincial alcohol bans have drawn presidential notice. Ontario and Québec should now sell their U.S. inventories as a goodwill gesture while continuing to ban imports.
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