By Deniz Torcu, Adjunct Professor of Globalization, Business and Media, IE University
The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on 19 March has put a spotlight on the state of democracy in Turkey. It marks a possible turning point in the gradual dismantling of the country’s secular and democratic pillars.
At its founding in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established as a secular state under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Secularism was seen as essential to modern development, as it decoupled state power structures from religious authorities.
However,
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By Jean-François Bureau, Professor, School of Psychology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Audrey-Ann Deneault, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal
Mainstream public discourse in the first months of 2025 have been dominated by tensions between Canada and United States. These include references to Canada becoming annexed as the 51st American state and the trade war, with threats and the application of tariffs…
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By Heather Aldersey, Professor and Canada Research Chair (Disability Inclusive Development), Queen's University, Ontario
Governments must ensure that caregiver support systems are in place, are flexible enough to respond to individual and family needs and enable natural support networks to flourish.
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By Nadiya N. Ali, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Trent University
Nadia Hasan, Assistant Professor, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, York University, Canada
An attack on a hijab-wearing woman in Ajax, Ont. reveals a pattern of Islamophobia. Racism plus changing demographics and anti-hijab policies can contribute to how Muslim women are seen in public spaces.
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By Aurelien Mondon, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Bath
Marine Le Pen, figurehead of France’s Rassemblement National (RN), one of the most established far-right parties in Europe, has been found guilty of embezzling funds from the European parliament.
During her time as an MEP between 2004 and 2017, Le Pen and her team paid party staff with funds that should have gone to European parliamentary aides. The ruling estimates that a total of €2.9 million (£2.4 million) in European parliament funds were involved…
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By Amnesty International
Responding to reports that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited and plans to host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hungary on Wednesday, Erika Guevara-Rosas the head of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy of Amnesty International said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally […] The post Hungary: Arrest and surrender Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
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By Aimee Grant, Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, Swansea University
Stimming – short for “self-stimulatory behaviour” – is a form of self-soothing commonly seen in autistic people. It can involve repetitive movements, sounds, or actions and is commonly regarded in medical literature as part of “rigid and repetitive behaviour”.
This type of framing tends to cast stimming in a negative light, leading health professionals, teachers and even parents to try to stop it. But stimming is a vital self-protective strategy for autistic people, and suppressing it can have serious consequences.
While stimming isn’t unique to autism, autistic people tend…
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By Muhammad Ali Nasir, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Leeds
Kausik Chaudhuri, Professor in Applied Econometrics, University of Leeds
Xinxin Wei, PhD Candidate in Economics, University of Leeds
Donald Trump is calling April 2 2025 “Liberation Day”. For the rest of the world it will just be the day when they discover the details of his latest round of tariffs.
Those tariffs have already become the stand out economic feature of Trump’s second term in the White House. And frankly, it’s been…
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By Alix Dietzel, Senior Lecturer in Climate Justice, University of Bristol
There have always been tensions between developed and developing countries in terms of what is ‘fair’. A new book explains what needs to shift.
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By Heshmat Borhani, Lecturer in Bioinformatics, University of Nottingham
When people talk about the coronavirus, they sometimes describe this invisible entity as if it has a personality and even a conscience. If you ask a biology or medical student what a virus is, they will tell you that a virus is not a living organism, or at most that it exists at the border between living and dead – a kind of walking dead.
For biologists who specialise in virology, however, this view is not clear-cut. Scientists still disagree on whether viruses are truly alive or not.
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