By Marinei Herselman, Lecturer, University of Fort Hare
When a child is raped, abandoned or removed from a violent home in South Africa, a child protection social worker is assigned to the wellbeing of that child. They listen to the details, assess the danger, make urgent decisions. Once the child has been placed somewhere safe, the social worker moves on to the next case.
I am a social work researcher and educator, and have worked in the field of trauma for more than three decades. Protecting children has been at…
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By Zoe Groves, Lecturer in Modern Global, Colonial and Postcolonial History, University of Leicester
Anusa Daimon, Senior Lecturer in History
Henry Dee, Research Fellow in History
Julie Weise, Associate Professor of History, University of Oregon
Anti-immigrant violence began to sweep across South Africa once again in March 2026. Over the following months an estimated 56,000 Malawians and 115,000 Zimbabweans were forced to flee their homes. At…
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By Giulio Lucarini, Senior Researcher, Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council (CNR)
Cyprian Broodbank, Disney Professor of Archaeology, Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
Toby C. Wilkinson, Assistant Research Professor, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
In the hills of north-west Morocco, overlooking the river that gives the site its name, research at Oued Beht is bringing to light a previously unknown chapter of the region’s past. The discovery of a substantial built structure suggests that, during the second millennium BC, communities in north-west Africa were actively shaping their environment. They were also engaging in broader networks of interaction across the Mediterranean world.
Previous research by the Oued Beht Archaeological Project had already
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By Mia Cobb, Research Fellow, Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne
Donald Maurice Broom, Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare, University of Cambridge
This year, greyhound racing in Britain turns 100 years old. The first race ran on July 24 1926 in Manchester, where six dogs chased a mechanical hare around a track.
Recently, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) published its 2025 welfare figures, under a reassuring headline: licensed racing “maintains high welfare standards”.
Look closely, and those same…
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By Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Node Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Flinders University
Alan N Williams, Partner Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, James Cook University
Lynette Russell, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor, Monash University. Deputy Director ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Monash University
Sean Ulm, Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, James Cook University
Shane Ingrey, Postdoctoral research fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF) and Gujaga Foundation, UNSW
Genetic, archaeological and environmental evidence suggest the Indigenous population fell by more than 90% In the 70 years after the British invaded.
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By Aris Katzourakis, Professor of Evolution and Genomics, Paleovirology Lab, University of Oxford
Smallpox DNA from two people buried in Chile reveals the virus’s arrival through European colonisation – but recreating it would require deliberate laboratory work.
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By Nils Pauliks, PhD Candidate, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University
Throwing something away that is urgently needed, expensive and difficult to source sounds crazy. Yet out of the 60 metals contained in old electronic devices like phones, screens or washing machines, only a few get recycled. That includes precious metals like gold or silver and some other metals like aluminium or copper. The rest are effectively single-use metals, used once then lost during collection or through incineration.
Metals are mined from ore and refined by using a lot of energy and resources as part…
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By Guest Contributor
“Democratic freedoms depend not only on protection from direct state violence but on citizens being able to organise without assuming their participation is permanently recorded.”
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By Amnesty International
Algeria’s authorities must immediately abandon any plans to expand the scope of the death penalty or resume executions after more than three decades without carrying one out, said Amnesty International as the government examines amendments to the penal code that would broaden the use of the death penalty. The organization calls on Algeria’s authorities to immediately establish an official moratorium as a first step […] The post Algeria: Threats to resume executions after 30 years severe blow to human rights appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
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By Alex Burchmore, Senior Lecturer, Art History and Curatorial Studies, Australian National University
I first fell under the spell of David Hockney’s prints as a student of printmaking and life drawing. Australia had been my home for only a few years and I found a key to my experience of movement and growth in the series A Rake’s Progress (1961–63), completed after Hockney’s first journey from London to New York and back.
There was something about images such as The Arrival – with its promise of a new world, etched in floral plumes of red ink and spidery black lines dancing on the edge…
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