By Susan Thorp, Professor of Finance, University of Sydney
While discussion was focused on the federal government’s economic reform roundtable last week, a significant change that will mainly affect age pensioners flew under the radar.
For the first time in five years, the government will adjust the rates it assumes pensioners earn from their savings and investments, which for many will mean a change their social security payments.
The rates have been fixed since May 2020, when they were reduced in line with the record low interest rates set…
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Tuesday, August 26, 2025
The killing of five more Palestinian journalists in Gaza by Israeli forces – bringing the total killed overall to 247 since the war began – should shock the world into action, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2025
More civilians have been killed and injured in Ukraine following recent hostilities and attacks across the country, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday in an update.
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By Global Voices Brazil
Felca, a popular influencer with 4.2 million subscribers, makes the case that overexposed children online are being exploited for views and profit, while also attracting potential abusers to comment sections.
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By Adriana Alcaraz-Sanchez, Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh
For some people, sleep brings a peculiar kind of wakefulness. Not a dream, but a quiet awareness with no content. This lesser-known state of consciousness may hold clues to one of science’s biggest mysteries: what it means to be conscious.
The state of conscious sleep has been widely described for centuries by different Eastern contemplative traditions. For instance, the Indian philosophical school of the Advaita Vedanta, grounded in the interpretation of the Vedas – one of the oldest…
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By Ming Gao, Research Fellow of East Asia Studies, Lund University
The country recently pulled out of the UN’s gender equality committee over its refusal to change the male-only royal succession.
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By Alex Chepstow-Lusty, Research Associate, Geography, University of Sussex
Many tropical glaciers in the Andes are expected to disappear in the next few decades. Their meltwater sustains millions of people, feeding crops in the dry season, supplying Peru’s capital Lima and other big cities, and even boosting the Amazon river. As glaciers vanish, floods and droughts are becoming more extreme.
But my new research with colleagues suggests…
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By Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Hull
Manuel Eisner, Professor of Comparative and Developmental Criminology, University of Cambridge
A recent YouGov poll found that the word that Americans most associate with the middle ages is “violent”. Medieval towns may appear to be full of random violence, every alleyway a potential crime scene, every tavern brawl ending in bloodshed. But our recent research reveals a more complex, and in some ways familiar, reality.
In 14th-century London, York and Oxford, lethal…
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By Vanessa Newby, Senior Lecturer, Politics & International Relations, Monash University
Chiara Ruffa, Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is seen by many as an essential peacekeeping buffer between Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. But Israeli pressure, US doubts over Unifil’s cost-effectiveness and the fragile state of Lebanon’s politics means there is a risk that instead of being renewed on August 31 the mission could be ended. The stakes are high: an abrupt…
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By S. Mehmet Ozsoy, Assistant Professor of Finance, Concordia University
Erkan Yonder, Associate Professor of Finance and Real Estate, Concordia University
New research has found that a two-year drought can have the same economic impact on a region as a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate.
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