By Regina Smyth, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
Russia’s parliamentary elections will take place on Sept. 18-20, 2026, amid the ongoing war with Ukraine. Given the backdrop of an energy crisis, battlefield failures in Ukraine and fears of more…
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By Alex Simpson, Associate Professor in Criminology, Macquarie University
Sydney appears to be facing an escalation of organised crime violence. The shootings this month of 23-year-old university student Marco Tapia and, two days later, 40-year-old Joshua Macdonald in the city’s west, highlighted the often hidden world of organised crime and its violence.
It led…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image An Air China Boeing 777-300 at Beijing Capital International Airport, April 10, 2025. © 2025 Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images (New York) – A new Chinese government decree expands the discretion of administrative authorities to arbitrarily bar people from leaving China, violating the internationally protected right to leave a country, Human Rights Watch said today. The State Council’s 19-article Regulations on Exit-Entry Administration, known as Decree No. 841, took effect on September 15, 2026.The new decree restricts nationals and non-nationals from leaving…
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By Reed Berger-Fleishman, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Surgery, University of Illinois Chicago
Most people on GLP-1 drugs can safely fast for Yom Kippur or other religious observances, but they may need to plan ahead, take certain precautions or be ready to call it quits if they feel ill.
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By John W. Diamond, Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute, Rice University
From mortgages to auto loans to credit cards, borrowing is set to get even pricier.
But the Federal Reserve’s decision on Sept. 16, 2026, to hike its baseline interest rate also highlighted an increasingly confounding dilemma: It can raise the price of money across the economy, but it can’t determine which sectors are most affected.
That means the rate increase may further slow the weaker parts of the economy, such…
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By Todd Miller, PhD Candidate in Emergency Management, Auckland University of Technology
Following a series of major disasters and inquiries that questioned New Zealand’s capacity to deal with them, the new Emergency Management Act 2026 is the most significant improvement in more than two decades.
But legislation only tells part of the story.
Our research…
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By Marion Burgess, Honorary Associate Professor, School of Built Environment, UNSW
John Davy, Adjunct Professor, School of Science, RMIT University
Noise concerns have tanked several data centres proposed in residential areas in Australia. But is the noise just annoying, or is it bad for our health?
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By Jemima Kang, PhD Candidate, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Alsa Wu, PhD Candidate, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Naomi Baes, PhD Candidate and Computational Social Science Researcher, The University of Melbourne
Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of Melbourne
How should we refer to people with mental ill health, disability, or neurodivergence?
Terminology should be respectful, apt and avoid carrying stigma. It’s also important to listen to people’s preferences about how they refer to their condition. But how much consensus is there and how has terminology changed?
Our new study – the largest of its kind – explores how this language has evolved over the past 45 years to reflect our shifting views of mental illness and disability.
We found preferences…
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By Olaf Meynecke, Research Fellow in Marine Science and Manager Whales & Climate Program, Griffith University
It was a tragic sight.
One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless on the seafloor, just a kilometre off Australia’s Gold Coast. The encounter was captured through underwater video.
For more than an hour, the mother repeatedly returned to the same spot, gently touching the calf with her head and pectoral fin and resting beside it eye-to-eye. Our new research suggests this is the first described case of a humpback whale mother…
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By Andrew James Couzens, Lecturer in Digital Media, CQUniversity Australia
Jim Picton, Head of Course Digital Media, CQUniversity Australia
In the final moments of Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the mystical Ark of the Covenant is stored in an enormous, box-filled warehouse.
How did the filmmakers create such a huge set? The truth is, there is no set: it’s a painting.
The technique of matte painting has been used in some of cinema’s most incredible moments – and it can leave you doubting what’s in front of your eyes.
What is matte painting?
Matte…
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