By Mary Dzon, Associate Professor of English, University of Tennessee
Manger scenes displayed around Christmastime usually feature an ox and an ass beside the infant Jesus. According to the Gospel of Luke, Mary placed her child in a manger – an animal feeding bin – “because there was no room for them in the inn.”
No mere babysitters, the ox and ass harken back to the Book of Isaiah 1:3, a verse early Christians interpreted as a prophecy of the birth of Christ.…
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By Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University
In the absence of comprehensive federal AI regulation, states have stepped in. The Trump administration, at Big Tech’s urging, is attempting to roll back many of those laws.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Migrants entering a detention center for processing at the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, January 28, 2025. © 2025 Vlasov Sulaj/AP Photo Following a gathering of Council of Europe states on International Human Rights Day, 27 countries called for “migration reform”, attacking the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights for their role in upholding the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. This latest anti-migrant rhetoric comes at the same time as the EU’s wave of regressive and cruel measures.Earlier…
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By Nicky Hudson, Professor of Medical Sociology, De Montfort University
Around 200 children in several countries were conceived with sperm from a single donor who unknowingly carried a rare genetic mutation linked to early onset cancers, it has been revealed. The consequences have been devastating. Several children have already died and many families across Europe are now facing a risk they never expected.
The case has prompted urgent questions. How was one donor used so widely? Why did standard safeguards fail to identify a mutation that can have such severe consequences? And how did a system created to create families allow a tragedy of this scale?
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By Matt Jacobsen, Senior Lecturer in Film History in the School of Society and Environment, Queen Mary University of London
Despite a wonderful central performance from June Squibb, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut is a sentimental, tonally uncertain drama about grief and holocaust survival
Eleanor Morgenstein, a 94-year-old Midwesterner living in Florida, moves to New York after the death of her close friend and roommate Bessie, a Holocaust survivor. She joins a Jewish seniors group and accidentally finds herself part of a meeting of Holocaust survivors.
Eleanor, at first buoyed by the prospect of new friends,…
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By Max Western, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science, Co-Director, Centre for Motivation and Behaviour Change, University of Bath
Afroditi Stathi, Professor of Physical Activity and Community Health, School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham
To many people, crossing a road at a traffic light is a mundane task requiring little thought or effort. But for the growing population of senior citizens with limitations to their mobility, strength or balance, crossing the road can be a stressful and sometimes life-threatening experience.
The reason? Cities simply aren’t designed for older people and others with restricted mobility – as our latest research demonstrates. We found that only 1.5% of the older people with reduced mobility in our…
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By Samantha Newbery, Reader in International Security, University of Salford
One man is widely suspected of working as an IRA enforcer and a British informer at the same time. But it’s risky for the government to confirm the rumours.
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By Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor, Defence Studies Department, King's College London
Fighters aligned with the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group in southern Yemen, raised their flags in the provinces of Hadramout and Marah in early December. The seizures mean the STC now controls all eight of the provinces that make up the south of the country.
The new status quo looks like a fait accompli for the creation of a separate southern state. It has left Yemen’s internationally recognised government, the Presidential Leadership Council…
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By Jennifer C. Greenfield, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Denver
Kaitlyn M. Sims, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Denver; Institute for Humane Studies
Stefan Chavez-Norgaard, Teaching Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Denver
In Colorado, full-time workers need to earn an hourly wage of at least $36.79 to afford $2,000 in monthly rent, which is below the federal fair market rate for a Denver-area two-bedroom unit.
More than 87% of low-income Coloradans spend more than one-third of their pretax income on housing — a common…
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By Seth T. Kannarr, Ph.D. Candidate in Geography, University of Tennessee
US coins showcase American identity and public memory through their designs. The America 250 coins just unveiled reflect the nation’s divided politics and history.
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