By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Al-Safat Square, a location where public executions used to take place, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, August 18, 2022. © 2022 Johannes Sadek/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images (Beirut) – Saudi authorities executed at least 356 people in 2025, setting a new record in the country for the highest number of executions in one year since monitoring began, Human Rights Watch said today. This is the second year in a row that Saudi authorities have set a new execution record, with 345 registered in 2024. “The close of 2025 crystallized a horrifying trend in Saudi Arabia…
(Full Story)
|
By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp. © Instagram/Zaida Catalán; John Sharp In March 2017, grainy video footage revealed that armed men walked Zaida Catalán, a 36-year-old Swede, and Michael Sharp, a 34-year-old American, through a savanna, sat them down and shot them. The brutal murders of the two United Nations investigators—and the disappearance of their Congolese interpreter and the three motorbike drivers who accompanied them—sent shockwaves across the Democratic Republic of Congo and the broader international community, especially among researchers and…
(Full Story)
|
By Tylor Cosgrove, Lecturer in Psychology, Adelaide University
New research shows highly educated people are just as likely to believe conspiracies as those with less education if they have these psychological traits.
(Full Story)
|
By Cristina Bodea, Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University
The Department of Justice’s decision to open a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has reignited concern over the independence of the central bank.
In unusually blunt remarks, Powell described the unprecedented probe as part of a political attack by the White House over the Fed’s refusal…
(Full Story)
|
By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Rudd is leaving his post as Australian ambassador to the US early to return to his previous role of president of Asia Society.
(Full Story)
|
By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
While Labor’s support has flagged since the Bondi terror attacks, support for One Nation appears to be continuing to rise.
(Full Story)
|
By Amin Naeni, PhD Candidate in International Relations, Deakin University
Iran’s clerical leaders have long tried to control the narrative when protests break out. So far, protesters are continuing to risk their lives for freedom.
(Full Story)
|
By Roy Ebel, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Our bones did not begin deep inside the body. They started in the skin, not long after the first complex animals took shape.
Ever since, skin bones have remained a recurring motif in evolution. Yet we still know surprisingly little about them. Why do they keep reappearing in groups as varied as turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes and even dinosaurs? And was there a single ancestor with skin bones that gave rise to them all?
In a…
(Full Story)
|
By Shirvin Zeinalzadeh, Graduate Teaching Associate, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University
Information is still getting out despite an almost total internet blackout, especially with the help of diaspora groups. That poses a big problem for the government.
(Full Story)
|
By Ari Chand, Senior Lecturer in Illustration and Animation, Adelaide University ; University of Newcastle
Adapting the much beloved and best-selling picture book series The Pout-Pout Fish is no easy feat.
Staying core to the source material, the new Australian animated movie follows surly Mr Fish (Nick Offerman) as he goes on a journey with youthful and bombastic leafy sea dragon Pip (Nina Oyama) to have a wish granted by the mysterious Shimmer (Jordan Sparks).
The film is one of emotional self-discovery. It uses a classic narrative structure that introduces obstacles, a wide variety of side characters,…
(Full Story)
|