By Viliame Kasanawaqa, Doctoral Researcher, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury
When the United States recently escalated its confrontation with Venezuela – carrying out strikes in Caracas and capturing President Nicolás Maduro – the moves were framed as political intervention.
But the raid also reflected a deeper contest over oil and critical mineral supply chains.
For Washington, controlling energy and strategic materials is now inseparable from power projection. That…
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By Shokoofeh Shamsi, Professor in Veterinary Parasitology, Charles Sturt University
Recent shark attacks may be linked less to shark behaviour – and more to the pollutants, pesticides and parasites humans send into the ocean.
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By Human Rights Watch
(Johannesburg) – Mozambique authorities need to urgently and impartially investigate the killing of three dozen artisanal gold and gemstone miners during clashes with the police on December 29, 2025, in Nampula province, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities need to hold all those responsible to account and ensure justice for victims and their families.Local civil society organizations said that the police killed at least 38 people during clashes in the Marraca mining area in Iuluti, Mogovolas district. Iuluti Community Radio reported that the victims’ relatives notified…
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By Ben Mather, ARC Early Career Industry Fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Adriana Dutkiewicz, ARC Future Fellow, Sedimentology, University of Sydney
Dietmar Müller, Professor of Geophysics, University of Sydney
Sabin Zahirovic, ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing “icehouse” periods and warm “greenhouse” states.
Scientists have long linked these climate changes to fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, new research reveals the source of this carbon – and the driving forces behind it – are far more complex than previously thought.
In fact, the way tectonic plates move about Earth’s surface plays a major, previously underappreciated role in climate. Carbon doesn’t just emerge where tectonic plates meet. The places where…
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By Cassandra Mudgway, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury
Andrew Lensen, Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Elon Musk finally responded last week to widespread outrage about his social media platform X letting users create sexualised deepfakes with Grok, the platform’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
Musk has now assured the United Kingdom government he will block Grok from making deepfakes in order to comply with the law. But…
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Monday, January 19, 2026
Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region are spreading from town to town in an organized campaign of violence that includes mass executions, rape and ethnic targeting, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council on Monday.
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Monday, January 19, 2026
Despite a downward trend in the use of the death penalty globally, 2025 saw an ‘alarming’ increase in the number of executions in a small number of retentionist countries, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned on Monday.
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By Donald Heflin, Executive Director of the Edward R. Murrow Center and Senior Fellow of Diplomatic Practice, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
How the US treats its allies has been a crucial question for every president. What evolved over the centuries into an official embrace of friendly nations is now being reversed by Donald Trump.
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By Wouter Poortinga, Professor of Environmental Psychology, Cardiff University
Dimitrios Xenias, Research Affiliate of the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University
Dimitris Potoglou, Professor of Transport and Applied Choice Analysis, Cardiff University
Cities across the UK are investing in new cycle lanes and traffic restrictions to cut congestion, improve air quality and promote active travel for better health. Yet, if recent debates are anything to go by, you might think such measures were deeply unpopular.
The introduction of protected cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) often sparks vocal opposition from local groups, who call for schemes…
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By Ipshita Basu, Associate professor (Reader) in Global Development and Politics, University of Westminster
Sudheesh R.C., Assistant Professor of Social Sciences, National Law School of India University
In the early hours of July 30 2024, a landslide in the Wayanad district of Kerala state, India, killed 400 people. The Punjirimattom, Mundakkai, Vellarimala and Chooralmala villages in the Western Ghats mountain range turned into a dystopian rubble of uprooted trees and debris.
A coalition of scientists that quantifies the links between climate change and extreme weather, known as World Weather Attribution, highlighted that human-induced climate change caused 10%…
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