By Martin Brook, Professor of Applied Geology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
After the fatal landslides at Mount Maunganui, attention has focused on recent tree removal from Mauao. But landslides rarely have simple causes.
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By Melissa Conley Tyler, Honorary Fellow, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne
Despite a complicated history between Australia and Timor-Leste, there appears to be plenty of goodwill as Anthony Albanese visits the new democratic nation.
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By John Hawkins, Head, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra
Inflation has risen further above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 2–3% target. There is now a very real prospect the Reserve Bank will feel it needs to increase interest rates at its meeting next week, with an announcement due on Tuesday afternoon.
Inflation rose 3.8% in the year to December, up from 3.4% in the year to November, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics consumer price index (CPI) report.
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By David S G Goodman, Director, China Studies Centre, Professor of Chinese Politics, University of Sydney
Removing top military leaders may suggest the Chinese military is undergoing a culture change. But it’s difficult to know in a system as opaque as China’s.
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By Ali Mamouri, Research Fellow, Middle East Studies, Deakin University
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, minority groups in Syria have been targeted with violence. The US and other regional powers have largely stayed silent.
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By David Blair, Emeritus Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, OzGrav, The University of Western Australia
Last year, astronomers were fascinated by a runaway asteroid passing through our Solar System from somewhere far beyond. It was moving at around 68 kilometres per second, just over double Earth’s speed around the Sun.
Imagine if it had been something much bigger and faster: a black hole travelling at more like 3,000km per second. We wouldn’t see it coming until its intense gravitational forces started knocking around the orbits of the outer…
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By Emily Hunt, PhD Candidate, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney
David Raubenheimer, Leonard P. Ullman Chair in Nutritional Ecology, Nutrition Theme Leader Charles Perkins Centre, Chair Sydney Food and Nutrition Network, University of Sydney
Ezequiel M. Marzinelli, Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney
A great white shark is a masterwork of evolutionary engineering. These beautiful predators glide effortlessly through the water, each slow, deliberate sweep of the powerful tail driving a body specialised for stealth, speed and efficiency. From above, its dark back blends into the deep blue water, while from below its pale belly disappears into the sunlit surface.
In an instant, the calm glide explodes into an attack, accelerating to more than 60 kilometres per hour, the sleek torpedo-like form cutting through the water with little resistance. Then its most iconic feature is revealed:…
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By Hal Pawson, Emeritus Professor of Housing, UNSW Sydney
Vivienne Milligan, Honorary Professor – Housing Policy and Practice, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
Australia shares many of the issues the European Commission’s plan tries to tackle, from lack of housing construction to taxation. Here’s are some lessons.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A South Sudanese soldier monitors the area as troops belonging to the South Sudanese Unified Forces take part in a deployment ceremony at the Luri Military Training Centre in Juba on November 15, 2023. © 2023 Peter Louis Gume/AFP via Getty Images On January 25, South Sudan’s military called on civilians, aid workers, and United Nations personnel to evacuate from opposition-controlled areas in Jonglei state. Key army officials and allied forces have ramped up incendiary rhetoric amid ethnic based mobilization by all sides, elevating the risks of new atrocities. The…
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By Harshit Gujral, Ph.D. Student, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Meredith Franklin, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto
Sagnik Dey, Head and Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Chair Professor in Policy Studies at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Steve Easterbrook, Director, School of the Environment, University of Toronto
Parts of India, including the capital Delhi, were once again covered in thick smog recently as toxic pollution from industry and crop-burning engulfed the region. Even though India’s National Clean Air Programme has advanced clean air action, air pollution remains a reoccurring problem.
Reliably protecting public health will require tighter co-ordination across orders of governments and departments. Air…
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