Wednesday, March 25, 2026
It’s day 26 of war in the Middle East. The UN chief says with the conflict now totally out of control, diplomacy must prevail. Ongoing strikes in Israel and Iran have included intensifying Israeli attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while some US troops are heading to the region, the Pentagon has confirmed. Meanwhile, Iran has told the UN maritime agency that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to “non-hostile” ships not associated with the US and Israel. UN News app users can follow coverage here.
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By Alejandro N. Flores, Professor of Geoscience, Boise State University
The 2026 water year has been anything but ordinary. In fact, its snow drought has few parallels in recent history.
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By Iona Astier, PhD Candidate in Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Quentin Lippmann, Professeur des universités en sciences économiques, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)
Léa Dispa, Chargée de médiation scientifique
A new study looks at how we tend to expect female politicians to smile more than their male counterparts. Is this a “given” that has an effect on the ballot box?
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By Brendan Daisley, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph
Elizabeth Mallory, MSc Student, Microbiology, University of Guelph
Queen bees typically imported from regions with warmer climates are not well-suited to cold Canadian winters and exhibit higher rates of diseases like chalkbrood.
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By Hossein Hashemi, Senior Lecturer, Division of Water Resources Engineering & Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University
In recent years, residents of Spain, France and the UK have looked up to see an eerie sight: deep orange sunrises and skies thick with a yellowish haze. These hazy skies often deposit “blood rain”, rust-colored precipitation that leaves a fine grit on cars and windows.
These events are caused by dust plumes from the Sahara desert that travel thousands of kilometres across the Mediterranean. As climate change alters the world’s largest desert, Europe is finding itself increasingly downwind of a shifting environmental…
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By Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Senior Researcher in Climate Change and Health, University of Oxford
The mental health effects of climate change are receiving growing attention, including how children and young people are uniquely affected. Supporting young people to build and sustain good mental health and wellbeing, and to feel prepared for life and work in an uncertain world, has never been more urgent. However, action is still lagging behind need – including in education.
My colleagues and I at the Compass Project, coordinated by…
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By Zander Simpson, PhD Candidate in Anthropology, Durham University
Editor’s note: The UK’s Food Standards Authority and Health Security Agency both advise against eating clay, soil or earth. Links to their guidance are included in this article.
When I ask people if they have ever eaten soil before, they tend to give me a strange look. But geophagy – the deliberate ingestion of any kind of soil – is a practice that archaeological evidence from Kalambo Falls in Zambia suggests has been part of human history for at least 2 million years.
British archaeologist…
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By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University
Interest in lithium’s effects on the brain is growing, but the science behind low-dose use and supplements is far from settled.
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By Vidya Mani, Associate Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia; Cornell University
US consumers, already feeling pain at the gas pump, can expect higher prices and prolonged shortages for goods of all sorts, including food, as additional consequences of slowed oil production.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image People moving through the Kurfurstendamm and Tauentzienstrasse shopping districts in Berlin, Germany, August 22, 2025. © 2025 Michael Kuenne/PRESSCOV/Sipa USA via AP Photo Amid a bleak political landscape of rising authoritarianism and anti-rights political agendas, the Council of Europe and its member states adopted a new declaration last week in Chișinău, Moldova, reinforcing their commitment to social rights.The Chișinău Declaration recognizes that “democratic stability and security are directly impacted by rising socio-economic inequalities and…
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