By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Students in a classroom in a state public school in Lauro de Freitas, Bahia, May 17, 2023. © Joa Souza/Imago via Reuters A new quantitative study from National Observatory on Violence Against Educators represents one of the most comprehensive efforts to date to measure the nature and scale of censorship and harassment of educators across Brazil.While previous analyses have documented the legal and political tactics to undermine or prohibit human rights education, this new report offers a nationally representative dataset showing the problem’s…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Indigenous people attend a protest to call for climate justice and territorial protection during the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belem, Brazil, November 17, 2025. © 2025 Anderson Coelho/Reuters In Belem, Brazil, as United Nations climate summit (COP30) convened, I marched alongside thousands of activists and Indigenous peoples calling on governments to urgently address climate change and protect human rights.As previous host countries restricted such demonstrations, the November 15 march was exhilarating. However, despite clear—and powerful—calls…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington DC, January 21, 2025. © 2025 Evan Vucci/AP Photo The US State Department’s annual human rights report was created to give Congress a clear accounting of how other governments treat their people, measured against international human rights law. Recent media reports indicate that the Trump administration is turning that purpose on its head by mandating reporting in support of ideological priorities at odds with governments’ human rights obligations.The 2024 version of…
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By Laura
Far removed from the major climate change meetings, some vulnerable groups bear the brunt of the climate impact. They are at the sharp end, often combining innovation with determination to cope.
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By Tracey Raney, Professor, Politics and Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University
Tuesday is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. It’s a global call to action by the United Nations to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.
This year’s theme — “End digital violence against all women and girls” — aims to draw attention to the rapid rise of hate directed at women online. Sadly, this problem is all too common in today’s political…
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By Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation and Professor, Western University
A new study finds farmers can enjoy increased crop yeilds under partial shade of solar panels long after they stop working decades from now.
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By Jessica Heesen, Head of Research Group, media ethics, philosophy of technology & AI, International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW), University of Tübingen
Tori Smith Ekstrand, Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The roll-out of the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act has hit a critical turning point. The act establishes rules for how AI systems can be used within the European Union. It officially entered into force on August 1 2024, although different rules come into effect at different times.
The European Commission has now proposed delaying parts of the act until 2027. This follows intense pressure from tech companies and from the Trump administration.
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By Jay Silverstein, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Forensics, Nottingham Trent University
Jane Draycott, Lecturer, Classics, University of Glasgow
Lars Laamann, Lecturer on the History of China, SOAS, University of London
Tim Penn, Lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture, University of Reading
In four episodes, the BBC’s Civilisations series tells the story of the fall of the Romans, Aztecs, Egypt’s Ptolemies and Japan’s Edo Samurais. The show tells these stories through a combination of recreated dramatic scenes, explanation from experts and discussions of objects from the British Museum. Here, four experts in each period have reviewed the episodes and shared their recommendations for further reading.
The Collapse of the Roman Empire
The canonical date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire is 476, when the general Odoacer deposed the last emperor, Romulus…
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By Alexander C. Lees, Reader in Ecology and Conservation Biology, Manchester Metropolitan University
Joice Ferreira, Researcher in Ecology, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA); Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa)
Jos Barlow, Professor of Conservation Science, Lancaster University
Extreme heat, fires and flooding – all hallmark consequences of climate change – directly influenced this year’s UN climate change conference Cop30 in Belém, Brazil.
For the first time, this annual climate summit was held in Amazonia, a place at the frontline of climate change. The pivot from the two previous conferences in petrostates Azerbaijan and UAE to a base in the world’s largest tropical forest (albeit in one the world’s largest oil producing countries) was jarring.
As Amazonian researchers, and past and present residents of the city, we saw the potential for
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By Felipe Tirado, PhD Candidate in Law, King's College London
Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was taken into custody on November 22 after it was determined there was a “high risk” of him attempting to flee to a foreign embassy. The arrest took place as the Brazilian supreme court was analysing Bolsonaro’s final appeal against a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup plot after losing the 2022 election.
Bolsonaro was…
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