By Toby James, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of East Anglia
The UK government has announced planned changes to elections which it claims to be “the boldest and most ambitious change to our democracy for decades”. This includes extending the franchise to 16-…
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Friday, July 18, 2025
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
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By John Hawkins, Head, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra
Selwyn Cornish, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of History, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University
John Owen Stone AO was a legendary leader of the Commonwealth Treasury. He was secretary (departmental head) from January 1979 to September 1984 but was an intellectual driving force before then as deputy secretary from 1971 to 1978.
Over those years he dealt with eight treasurers: Billy Snedden, Gough…
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By Ana Montero Bravo, Profesora Titular. Grupo USP-CEU de Excelencia “Nutrición para la vida (Nutrition for life)”, ref: E02/0720, Departamento de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y de la Salud, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, CEU Universities, Universidad CEU San Pablo
With summer in full swing, many people will be tempted by supposedly miraculous dieting tricks to lose those excess kilos that prevent them from enjoying the perfect physique. Among them are so-called “mono diets”: restrictive regimes that consist of exclusively eating one type of food for a period of time, with the aim of quickly losing weight and “detoxing”.
Popular examples include pineapple, apple, watermelon, peach or artichoke, as well…
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By Mira Manini Tiwari, Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute
If you choose to buy a sustainable product at the supermarket, or invest in a sustainable portfolio at your bank, how far does that sustainability reach? Does the product’s “sustainable” label account for the environmental and labour costs where the raw materials were extracted? Does the portfolio include renewable energy in countries where the investment is needed most?
In the EU, whether you are an individual or represent a company or financial institution, these questions are governed by the bloc’s non-financial reporting (NFR) regulations. The latest ones include the
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By Rachael Kent, Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy & Society Education, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
Listening to sunscreen misinformation risks sunburn, skin damage and cancer risk – so why does this content keep going viral?
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By Alexandros Antoniou, Senior Lecturer in Media Law, University of Essex
When thousands of Afghans were quietly flown to the UK under a secret relocation scheme, few knew it was triggered by an error. A defence official had accidentally leaked the personal data of nearly 19,000 Afghan nationals who had worked with British forces and were at risk of Taliban reprisals.
It has now also been revealed that the leaked list contained the identities of UK special forces and spies.
Even fewer knew that this misstep was being kept from the public by a rare and powerful legal…
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By Ryan Leack, Assistant Professor of Writing, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
In my writing and rhetoric courses, students have plenty of opinions on whether AI is intelligent: how well it can assess, analyze, evaluate and communicate information.
When I ask whether artificial intelligence can “think,” however, I often look upon a sea of blank faces. What is “thinking,” and how is it the same or different from “intelligence”?
We might treat the two as more or less synonymous, but philosophers have marked nuances for millennia. Greek philosophers may not have known about 21st-century…
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By Derek R. Peterson, Ali Mazrui Professor of History & African Studies, University of Michigan
Fifty years ago, Ugandan President Idi Amin wrote to the governments of the British Commonwealth with a bold suggestion: Allow him to take over as head of the organization, replacing Queen Elizabeth II.
After all, Amin reasoned, a collapsing economy had made the U.K. unable to maintain its leadership. Moreover the “British empire does not now exist following the complete decolonization of Britain’s former overseas territories.”
It wasn’t Amin’s only attempt to reshape the international…
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By Melissa Melough, Assistant Professor of Nutrition Science, University of Delaware
Vitamin D has long been known to play essential roles in boosting immune health and protecting the nervous system. New research now points to its critical importance in fetal development as well.
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