Wednesday, January 21, 2026
From Davos, the President of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday warned that the world has entered a “make‑or‑break” moment for multilateralism, saying the rules‑based order can survive only if states speak the truth and act when it’s hard. She called for a cross‑regional alliance to push back against growing lawlessness, disinformation, and power‑based politics.
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By Yanyan Hong, Adjunct Fellow in Communication, Media and Film Studies, Adelaide University
In Hamnet, Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) asks William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to introduce himself by telling her a story. It is her way of seeing who this man really is.
Here, storytelling becomes a mirror held up to the heart. Are we, as human beings, moved by the same things? Are our hearts shaped from the same material?
Chloé Zhao knows how to make people feel. Hamnet sees a new phrase in her artistry, turning a Western literary classic into a quiet meditation on grief, love and the enduring power of art.
From Beijing to the world
Born in Beijing…
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By Chad Gibbs, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston
Students respond to history that feels local and personal. There are ways to do that even as Holocaust survivors pass away, one professor writes.
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By Saskia Sivananthan, Affiliate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McGill University
Dementia today occupies the same stigmatized, system-neglected space that cancer did half a century ago. And history shows us that stigma, not simply the absence of cures, delays progress.
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By Eric Van Rythoven, Instructor in Political Science, Carleton University
Looking at headlines around the world, it seemed like United States President Donald Trump’s annexation of Greenland was imminent. Buoyed by the success of his military operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric and is now threatening tariffs on any nation that opposes him.
Adding insult…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Malian tanker trucks drive at the entrance of Boundiali, northern Côte d'Ivoire, on the way to Yamoussoukro and Abidjan to load oil, October 30, 2025. © 2025 Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images Truck drivers in Niger now face a stark choice: risk your life or lose your livelihood.On January 6, Niger’s transport minister issued a decree punishing at least 34 fuel transport operators and long-haul truck drivers who refused to deliver fuel to neighboring Mali. Since September 2025, an Al Qaeda-linked armed group, known as Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin…
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By Maxime Aubert, Professor of Archaeological Science, Griffith University
Adam Brumm, Professor of Archaeology, Griffith University
Adhi Oktaviana, Research Centre of Archeometry, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN)
Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Professor in Geochronology and Geochemistry, Southern Cross University
When we think of the world’s oldest art, Europe usually comes to mind, with famous cave paintings in France and Spain often seen as evidence this was the birthplace of symbolic human culture. But new evidence from Indonesia dramatically reshapes this picture.
Our research, published today in the journal Nature, reveals people living in what is now eastern Indonesia were producing rock art significantly earlier than previously demonstrated.
These artists were not only among the world’s first image-makers,…
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By Joshua Gonzales, PhD Student in Management at the Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
New research reveals that when we outsource the effort of finding the right words, we strip our relationships of their value.
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By Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University
People have become used to living with AI fairly quickly. ChatGPT is barely three years old, but has changed the way many of us communicate or deal with large amounts of information.
It has also led to serious concerns about jobs. For if machines become better than people at reading complex legal texts, or translating languages, or presenting arguments, won’t those old fashioned human employees become irrelevant? Surely mass unemployment is on the horizon?
Yet, when we look at the big numbers…
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By Prachi Agarwal, Research Fellow in International Trade Policy, ODI Global
Jodie Keane, Senior Research Fellow, International Economic Development Group, ODI Global
Maximiliano Mendez-Parra, Researcher at the Centre for the Analysis of Regional Integration at Sussex (CARIS), University of Sussex
The use of tariffs to try to rebalance trade has been a central plank of Trump 2.0 economic policy. But has it worked?
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