By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Iraqi police patrol a street in Baghdad, June 28, 2026. © 2026 Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images (Beirut) – A 22-year-old man detained for drug use died in police custody in late June 2026, a day after Iraqi police removed him from a hospital in the southern city of Najaf while he was being treated for severe abdominal pain, Human Rights Watch said today. A family member of the man, Muhsin Ali Kani, said that the authorities told them to retrieve his body the following day.The Najaf General Directorate for Anti-Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, part…
(Full Story)
|
By Ahmed Elbediwy, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Biology & Clinical Biochemistry, Kingston University
Nadine Wehida, Senior Lecturer in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Kingston University
A viral post by a cancer specialist concedes there is no evidence of thyroid harm, while invoking hormone disruption and lifelong exposure. What does research show?
(Full Story)
|
By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; Victoria University
Five years after returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s rule remains as ultra-extremist as ever.
Acting in the name of a self-centred version of Islam, the group has made no effort to modify its hardline ideological beliefs in favour of a more humane and inclusive approach to governing.
Nor has it refrained from hosting many like-minded violent extremist groups. The United Nations has issued repeated warnings about the resurgence of terrorism from Afghanistan.…
(Full Story)
|
By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The assistant minister argues Australia needs to leverage its data centre advantage and translate that into benefits and growth for the broader economy.
(Full Story)
|
By Sven Buder, Astrophysicist, Australian National University
Look up on a dark night and the Milky Way appears as a calm band of stars across the sky. But our galaxy has a violent past.
For more than 13 billion years it has grown through star formation and mergers with other galaxies. We already know that several substantial galaxies helped build the young Milky Way.
A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, now brings one of the earliest of these events into much sharper focus. Led by astronomer Davide Massari from the Astrophysics…
(Full Story)
|
By Jess Hardley, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Edith Cowan University
From corded handsets to lockable pouches, a new wave of products promises physical distance from our devices. But who gets to, and under what conditions?
(Full Story)
|
By Chelsea R. Francek, PhD Candidate in Law, University of Waikato
The recent announcement of novel, viable viruses created by artificial intelligence (AI) was celebrated as a major advance in the fight against antibiotic resistance. But it also raised urgent concerns about regulation.
Alongside precision gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9…
(Full Story)
|
By Samuel Cornell, Research Fellow in Public Health, The University of Queensland
Krista Fisher, Research Fellow, Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne
Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolution, UNSW
Looksmaxxing, fibremaxxing, proteinmaxxing, T-maxxing. There are so many TikTok trends that promise to optimise our lives.
(Full Story)
|
By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image An immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand, February 26, 2025. © 2025 Jerry Harmer/AP Photo (Bangkok) – Thai authorities should halt the imminent deportation of 26 ethnic Karen villagers from Phetchaburi province to Myanmar and release them from immigration detention, Human Rights Watch said today.On August 10, 2026, district and forestry officials along with the Thai military raided the Karen community in Ban Pa Deng village in Phetchaburi province’s Kaeng Krachan National Park, targeting those without proof of Thai citizenship. The authorities…
(Full Story)
|
By Henry Maher, Lecturer in Politics, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
A push in California to tax billionaires will be an important test of the political power of the rich – and the health of US democracy.
(Full Story)
|