By Guest Contributor
Africa has 11 percent of the world’s population and 24 percent of the global disease burden, yet only 3 percent of the world’s health workers and less than 1 percent of global health expenditure.
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By Sangeeta Khorana, Professor of International Trade Policy, Aston University
The recently concluded EU-India free trade agreement is notable for the huge scale and ambition of the deal. Labelled the “mother of all deals” by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, it comes as India has overtaken Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Bilateral trade in goods and services between the EU and India is already worth €180…
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By Avidesh Seenath, Course Director, MSc Environmental Change and Management, University of Oxford
Scott Mahadeo, Lecturer in Economics, University of Reading
Recent storms washed away large sections of roads in the UK after sea defences were damaged. For residents, it was a shock. But for coastal scientists, it was not unexpected.
Parts of the A379 between Torcross and Slapton, in south Devon, collapsed leaving a 200-metre stretch of road broken apart and part of a nearby car park destroyed. Engineers say even steel-reinforced protection failed under repeated wave action.
The road runs along the crest of a shingle barrier beach, with the sea on one side and Slapton Ley, a freshwater lake, on the other. Recent…
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By Joan Monras, Labor Economics, IESE Business School (Universidad de Navarra)
With an upcoming amnesty for an estimated half a million undocumented workers, Spain is charting its own course on immigration policy, while also reinforcing its dependence on migrants to fuel economic growth.
“We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration and coexistence, and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion,” said Elma Saiz, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, on announcing…
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By Maria C. Scott, Associate Professor of French Literature and Thought, University of Exeter
In May 2025, I came across an extraordinary photograph on the English Wikipedia site devoted to Jeanne Duval. Duval was the supposedly un-photographed Haiti-born long-term mistress and muse of the French poet Charles Baudelaire.
The portrait, showing a seated woman dressed in fine, bourgeois clothing, had been posted to Wikipedia by a student of art historian Justine de Young. De Young writes about the portrait as an example of self-fashioning in…
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By Stuart McDonald, Professor of Gastrointestinal Biology, Queen Mary University of London
When we think about iron imbalance, most people are familiar with iron deficiency and the health problems it can cause. What many may not realise is that the opposite problem, iron overload, can be just as serious – yet many aren’t even aware of the condition.
Haemochromatosis is an inherited genetic condition that affects the amount of iron the body absorbs. The condition disproportionately affects people of Irish, Scottish and Welsh…
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By David Reid, Professor of AI and Spatial Computing, Liverpool Hope University
A new social network called Moltbook has been created for AIs, allowing machines to interact and talk to each other. Within hours of the platform launching, the AIs appeared to have created their own religions, developed subcultures and attempted to evade human efforts to eavesdrop on their conversations.
There is some evidence that humans, operating spoof accounts, have infiltrated the site. This complicates the picture, because some of the behaviour attributed to AIs could be devised by people.
Nevertheless, the results have sparked interest among…
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By Hal Swerissen, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, La Trobe University
More than 3,000 patients are stranded in hospital waiting for discharge to a more appropriate aged care facility. Here’s why.
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The next few months may be the most crucial Jim Chalmers has faced as treasurer, at least for judgements about his ability to drive change.
They could tell us whether Chalmers really is as committed to serious economic reform as he claims, and how much influence he has to take Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with him on a journey that might involve spending political capital.
As the education year gears up, think of it as Chalmers preparing for his first personal assignment of Labor’s second term.
The background to Chalmers’ test is economically grim, but…
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By Nadira Irdiana, PhD Student, Monash University
Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) remains a threat to the rights of women in Southeast Asia, often religiously and culturally justified. Yet, despite lasting physical and psychological impacts, governments have not mounted a coordinated regional effort to address it.
From about 4.1 million of FGM/C cases worldwide, which involves cutting…
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