Circus Oz is to close after 44 years. They irrevocably changed Australian circus, and brought it to the world

By Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne

In 1980, I was in London and working at the Roundhouse performing arts centre.

Thelma Holt, the legendary director of the Roundhouse, told me she had booked an Australian circus to perform. She asked me had I heard of them. I said no. I had been in England for a few years, so I was out of touch with what was happening in Australia. I knew though, of some former peers at Flinders, who had formed something called the…

Read complete article

~	Cambodia: Scamming crisis survivors must be protected amid police crackdown

~	How the ‘big, beautiful bill’ will deepen the racial wealth gap – a law scholar explains how it reduces poor families’ ability to afford food and health care

~	‘People who spent years saving lives are now struggling to survive’ – how we witnessed Trump’s USAID cuts devastate health programmes in Kenya

~	Cynthia Erivo will be the most talked about Jesus of 2025 – but women have long retold the gospel

~	A brief art history of adultery

~	It doesn’t have to be welfare versus warfare. Changes that make tax fairer could fund both

~	Exercise could ease symptoms for people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) – new study

~	Testosterone gel: what happens if it rubs off on other people

~	Cognitive warfare: why wars without bombs or bullets are a legal blind spot

~	Decoding hints that Xi Jinping may be under pressure to relinquish some of his power