By Mei Li, Lecturer in Strategic Public Relations, University of Sydney
For many in the West, China still feels hard to fully understand. Public debate and media coverage too often focus on the “China threat”. Critics highlight the flaws of China’s political system and limits on freedom, yet China has still managed to rise as a major power that can now compete with the United States.
One reason for this gap in understanding is that the media often interprets China through a Western-centric perspective.
US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, for instance, will be analysed in the West very differently from…
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The treasurer joined us on the podcast to defend his fifth budget, explaining the ‘new architecture’ to make future tax cuts easier ‘when the budget can afford it’.
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says a Coalition government would restrict access to welfare benefits to Australian citizens.
Taylor will include the controversial policy in his Thursday night budget reply. It will be seen as an obvious pitch to those voters who are currently supporting One Nation. But the policy, which would hit permanent residents as well as other non-citizens, will be highly controversial.
The payments that would be affected range from the family tax benefit and carer payment to Austudy and the farm household allowance.
Under the plan, access…
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By Lisa Bennett, Associate Professor in Creative Writing and English Literature, Researcher in Old Norse Literature, Flinders University
Images of the sleek keels, elegant planks, and dragon-headed prows of Viking longships have been reproduced countless times on postcards, book covers, souvenirs and in television shows and movies.
These vessels are, quite literally, the poster-ships for the Viking Age, which was between around 750 and 1100 CE.
So what made these ships so special? And why were these advanced shipbuilding techniques so crucial to the Vikings’ success?
What drove this shipbuilding boom?
In Old Norse, there are two…
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By Sam Ryan, PhD Candidate, Literary Studies, University of Tasmania
In Yñiga, Glenn Diaz gives readers a glimpse into his country’s history in the only way that would do it justice.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Activists demand the Indonesian parliament pass a bill to protect domestic workers outside the parliament building in Jakarta, August 14, 2023. © 2023 Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo Two female domestic workers, ages 15 and 18, jumped from the fourth floor of a Jakarta boarding house on April 22 in a desperate attempt to escape their employer. One died; the other was severely injured.The tragedy came just a day after Indonesia’s parliament finally approved the long‑awaited Domestic Workers Protection Law, granting domestic workers long denied legal safeguards. But passing…
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By Jayanthan Sriram, PhD Candidate, Centre for Sensory Studies, Public Scholar, Concordia University
Neslihan Sriram-Uzundal, PhD Candidate in the Department of Education, Concordia University
Racism is not only a set of individual prejudices or isolated acts of violence. It is a multisensory, structural system that shapes how minorities experience the world, both enabled and reinforced by institutional failures.
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By Noah Eliot Vanderhoeven, PhD Candidate, Political Science, Western University
As Canada prepares to co-host the 2026 World Cup, its men’s soccer team offers a more diverse and inclusive vision of national identity than the country’s traditional sports have provided.
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By Amira Jadoon, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Clemson University
Saif Tahir, Doctoral Student and Research Assistant, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
A long-running insurgency has recently flared up again in Pakistan’s restive southwest province – complicated by instability in Iran and resource interest by the US.
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By Ihsan Badshah, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Auckland University of Technology
Prasad Hegde, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Auckland University of Technology
Sara Ali, Research Fellow and Academic Database Advisor, Auckland University of Technology
While NZ softens disclosure rules for large companies, investors are still factoring climate risk into decisions – with observable effects on capital flows.
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