By Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago
Nikki Turner, Professor, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
COVID-19 risk might be much lower than in past summers, but it’s not gone - making a pre-Christmas booster for some a good idea.
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By Leonora Risse, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra
Men are earning on average A$9,753 more than women each year in the form of performance bonuses, allowances and overtime pay.
That’s according to the latest gender pay gap data released on Thursday by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. It covers more than 8,000 private companies for 2024–25, employing more than 5.4 million workers across Australia.
The overall gender pay gap fell to 21.1%, compared to 21.8% in 2023–24. But the gap in discretionary pay makes up a big…
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By Nathan Garland, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Physics, Griffith University
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman – perhaps the most prominent face of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom that accelerated with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 – loves scaling laws.
These widely admired rules of thumb linking the size of an AI model with its capabilities inform much of the headlong rush among the AI industry to buy up powerful computer chips, build unimaginably large data centres, and re-open shuttered nuclear plants.
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By Oleksa Drachewych, Assistant Professor in History, Western University
Expectations for peace between Russia and Ukraine should be tempered until there’s a presidential summit between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin and until their signatures are on a treaty.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Ali Abdullah Fath Ali al-Khaja. © Emirati Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC) (Beirut) – A political prisoner died on November 19, 2025, in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) notorious al-Razeen Prison after more than a decade of unjust imprisonment and torture allegations, Human Rights Watch and the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC) said today. Ali Abdullah Fath Ali al-Khaja, 59, was found dead in his prison cell the day after prison authorities informed him that his father had died on November 8, EDAC said. He spent more than 13 years in arbitrary imprisonment…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A worker inspects a machine processing color for plastic products at a factory in Malaysia, October 9, 2024. © 2024 Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images United Nations human rights experts have highlighted “widespread and systematic” exploitation, deception, and deepening debt bondage of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.Over 800,000 Bangladeshis have Malaysian work permits, making them the largest group of documented foreign workers in the country. According to information received by the UN, thousands of workers are stranded in Bangladesh or face exploitation in…
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By Liam Anderson
Indigenous peoples rely on natural indicators to assess the impacts of the climate crisis. The signs show in the forests, the plants, and the waters.
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By Chantal Gautier, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Sex and Relationship Therapist, University of Westminster
If you’re looking for a film that’s daring and emotionally layered, then Harry Lighton’s debut feature Pillion absolutely hits the mark. The film follows Colin (Harry Melling), a shy suburban guy stuck in routine and Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a magnetic unreadable biker whose presence exudes both aloofness and intrigue.
What starts as a rough transactional alleyway hook-up, quickly shifts into a 24/7 BDSM (best understood when read…
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By Andrew Burlinson, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sheffield
Alper Kara, Head of Department of Economics, Finance & Accounting, Brunel University of London
Ruth Patrick, Professor in Social Policy, University of Glasgow
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has made some significant reforms in her latest budget. Notably, she has committed to easing living cost pressures with widespread energy bill support, higher taxes for the most expensive homes, and axing the two-child cap on certain benefits.
In a speech to Labour MPs a couple of days before the announcement, she made clear that her tax and spend decisions were a package and not a “pick-and-mix” from which backbenchers could choose the measures they liked. While Reeves will no doubt face further opposition, it may be that many of the things…
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By Jennifer Mathers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Aberystwyth University
In 1994 Russia and Kyivs western allies signed the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty. It wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
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