By Symon Braun Freck, PhD Candidate, School of Engineering, DeathTech Research Team, The University of Melbourne
This week, Nicole Kidman revealed she is training to become a death doula. She told an audience at the University of San Francisco it “may sound a little weird”, but she was inspired after her mother died in 2024.
Observing how her family wasn’t able to provide the support they hoped they could, Kidman wished there were “people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care”. This is how she came to explore the field of death doulaship.
The…
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By Murat Ungor, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Otago
There have been repeated calls for a food security strategy in NZ, but little progress. Will a global fertiliser shock now prompt leaders to act?
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By Annabel Blake, PhD Candidate, Human-Computer Interaction, University of Sydney
Eduardo Velloso, Professor, Computer Science, University of Sydney
Marcus Carter, Professor in Human-Computer Interaction, ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney
In 2022, the founders of chatbot startup Character.AI launched a platform where anyone could create interactive characters powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
The app exploded, quickly growing to more than 20 million users who created more than 10 million chatbot characters.
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By Ana Carolina Garriga, Professor or Political Science, Department of Government, University of Essex
Cristina Bodea, Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University
President Donald Trump has again threatened to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, putting at risk a keystone of good economic policy and inflation management: central bank independence.
The president said on April 15, 2026, that he would fire Powell if the Fed chair stayed on in that…
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By Hal Swerissen, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, La Trobe University
The number of complaints about assessments for home-based aged care are rising. Now, the ombudsman is getting involved. Here’s what needs to happen next.
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By Ali Mamouri, Research Fellow, Middle East Studies, Deakin University
Iran’s leaders are demanding sovereignty over the strait for a reason: it protects them from future attacks and can be a very effective bargaining chip.
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By John Hart, Emeritus Faculty, US government and politics specialist, Australian National University
The president’s recent behaviour has led to calls for the 25th amendment to be invoked, but it is a highly unlikely and complex process.
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By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland
In a decision described by the judge as “a half-win” for each side, mining magnate Gina Rinehart has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to the heirs of Peter Wright, the business partner of her father, Lang Hancock.
However, under the ruling, Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, will retain…
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By Samarth Kulshrestha, Research Fellow in Molecular Biology, University of Canterbury
Plants can tune into the sound of water to direct their roots towards it, or release toxins to make themselves less palatable to browsing animals.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image The Xishiku Catholic Church, in Beijing, China, May 9, 2025. © 2025 Andy Wong/AP Photo A decade into President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” of religion campaign, Catholic communities across China face tightened ideological control, strict surveillance, and travel restrictions. The 2018 Holy See-China agreement on bishops has helped the Chinese government to pressure underground Catholic communities to join the official church.The Holy See and other governments should press Beijing to end the persecution of Catholic communities and respect the rights to freedom…
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