By Patrick Flanery, Chair in Creative Writing, Adelaide University
Julian Barnes, author of 14 previous novels, ten volumes of nonfiction, and three collections of short stories under his own name, plus four crime novels under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, has announced that his new novel, Departure(s), will be his last. The narrator – who both is and is not Barnes – tells us this directly and the information has accompanied advance notice from his publisher. This kind of framing necessarily invites the reader to judge the book as a…
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By Oscar Bloomfield, PhD Candidate in Film Studies, Deakin University
The Safdie brothers films are known for their antiheroes. Marty Supreme is particularly unlikeable – but the audience champions him all the same.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony, center, addresses participants at the Pride march in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, June 28, 2025. © 2025 AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi This week, prosecutors filed criminal charges against Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony for organizing the city’s 2025 Pride march. They are seeking a criminal fine and proposing the case be decided without a trial. The mayor’s prosecution is another example of the erosion of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms in Hungary.The charges follow a Budapest police ban on the June 19,…
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By Niloofar Hooman, PhD candidate, Communication Studies and Media Arts, McMaster University
What began on Dec. 28 in Iran as a revolt against economic hardship and the collapse of the national currency quickly spread across dozens of other Iranian cities and provinces. People from diverse socioeconomic, religious and ethnic…
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By Oliver Taherzadeh, Assistant Professor, Environmental Economics, Leiden University
Who grows our food? This seemingly simple question is getting harder to answer in a world where our food crosses borders to get to our plate.
As countries increasingly rely on food imports, the mention of distant countries on our food labels is commonplace. Today, only one in seven countries are food self-sufficient across key food groups. So to understand who…
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By Sarah Annes Brown, Professor of English Literature, Anglia Ruskin University
Ali Smith’s Glyph is the companion novel to her earlier novel, Gliff (2024). Gliff was set in a surreal near-future dystopia. Glyph, meanwhile, is set in the present. But like Smith’s earlier Seasonal Quartet, it offers the reader an uncanny version of our world, haunted by ghostly voices from the past.
The novel focuses on two sisters, Petra and Patricia (aka Patch). The action moves between scenes from their childhood in the 1990s and their present-day estrangement.
Two chance family anecdotes…
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By Kamran Matin, Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex
Kurds are the casualties of a US Syria strategy that aims to keep America afar, Iran out and Israel and Turkey apart.
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By Peter Watt, Lecturer in Organisation, Work and Technology, Lancaster University
The series has always been about how work is where self-worth is measured in real time, loyalty is a liability, and the promise of power demands everything.
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By Christopher J. Parker, Senior Lecturer in UX Design, School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University
Apple introduced Liquid Glass in June 2025 in a self-declared attempt to bring “joy and delight to every user experience”. The visual design style – which is being applied to all Apple products from iPhone to watch to TV – is named for the company’s new type of screen designed to look like translucent liquid.
Standing out by design has been paramount for Apple ever since Steve Jobs co-founded the company half a century ago. He was…
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By Olivia Roth-Delgado, Cheffe de projets scientifiques, Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (Anses)
Thomas Bayeux, Chef de projet socio-économique, Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (Anses)
Tik Tok, Instagram, Youtube… Social Media is driving offline disorders among teenagers, suggests a large-scale report by French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses).
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