By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
The right-wing populist party continues to climb in polling following the Bondi terror attack, mostly at the expense of the Coalition.
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By Human Rights Watch
On January 19, a court in Makhachkala, the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan region, sentenced women’s rights defender and journalist Svetlana Anokhina to five years in prison for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces. Click to expand Image Svetlana Anokhina, personal archive, Dagestan, Russia, 2016. © 2016 Private The sentence was handed down in absentia: Anokhina left Russia in 2021 after a shelter her organization Marem ran for abused women and girls in Makhachkala was ransacked by Chechen and Dagestani police. The charges against Anokhina stemmed from…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image M23 forces patrol the streets of Uvira, Democratic Republic of Congo, on December 13, 2025. © 2025 Jospin Mwisha / AFP via Getty Images (Kinshasa) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s sudden withdrawal from the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 17, 2026, has put civilians at grave risk from abusive Wazalendo militias, Human Rights Watch said today.After the M23 and Rwandan forces captured Uvira on December 10, M23 forces threatened, harassed, and assaulted people in the city. Fears that the Banyamulenge, Congolese Tutsi from…
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By Maria Lucia Passador, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Bocconi University
For the UK after Brexit, it is tempting to imagine that regulation no longer comes from Brussels. Yet one of the most significant pieces of digital legislation anywhere in the world – the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act – is now coming into force, and its effects will reach UK companies, regulators and citizens.
AI is already threaded through daily life: in how loans are priced, how job applications are sifted, how fraud is detected, how medical services are triaged, and how online content…
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By Juliane Kaminski, Associate Professor of Comparative Psychology, University of Portsmouth
Imagine Max, a well-trained border collie, manages to ignore a squirrel in the park when his owner tells him to sit. His owner says, “Max, stop chasing that squirrel and sit down,” and Max obeys. Can dogs learn and understand words the way humans do?
A new study found dogs like Max may have learnt the names of objects (like a squirrel) from overhearing their owners talking. The study is the latest to try and understand whether intelligent dogs and humans can have real conversations.
A widely…
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By Marc Hudson, Visiting Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex Business School, University of Sussex
The Trump administration recently announced it would pull out of around 150 international and global organisations, including two foundational pillars of global climate organisations: the political United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In terms of media coverage this was a one-day wonder, understandably overshadowed by mass government killings in Iran and the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
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By Trish Lalor, Professor in Experimental Hepatology, University of Birmingham
Every January, the same wave of “detox” promises rolls in. Juice cleanses, detox teas, charcoal capsules and liver “resets” all sell a familiar story: you overdid it over Christmas, your body is full of toxins, and you need a product to flush them out.
Here is the inconvenient truth. Your body already has a detox system. It is called your liver, supported by your kidneys and gut, and it has been doing this job your entire life.
I am a liver researcher. I study how this organ works, how it gets damaged…
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By Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University
The key difference between Donald Trump’s first and second presidencies can be summed up by his two official portraits. The first after his victory in 2016 shows a smiling Trump, probably delighted to have won against the odds and, at least in theory, willing to work with his opponents.
The second shows a more brooding figure glaring into the camera – a man who recognises that a sizeable chunk of the country is never going to like him and does not care. This second image encapsulates what I see as the twin themes of Trump’s…
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By Dafydd Townley, Teaching Fellow in US politics and international security, University of Portsmouth
The so-called ‘Golden Circle’ was to be an empire of slave-owning states stretching from the Deep South of the US, across Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
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By Sarah Trott, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and History, York St John University
The US president Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policy has surprised much of the world, particularly US allies. It breaks with expectations about how the US has traditionally behaved.
This is mainly due to Trump’s speed and bluntness of decisions, his breaks with longstanding norms and his unpredictable style. But the capture of Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and the mounting tension over America’s threatened occupation of Greenland are not isolated events. Neither is the government’s…
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