By Amnesty International
Reacting to news that the Finnish government has initiated the process of withdrawing from the Ottawa convention, a landmark treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel mines, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said: “The Finnish government’s move to leave the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is a disturbing backward step that further […] The post Finland: Move to leave convention banning anti-personnel mines could put civilian lives at risk appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
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By Amnesty International
There must be an independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances in which at least 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers, who went to southern Gaza for a rescue operation, were shot dead after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicles, said Amnesty International today, reiterating calls for independent monitors to be granted immediate access […] The post Israel/ OPT: Investigate killings of paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
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By Sara Safransky, Associate Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University
Elsa Noterman, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Queen Mary University of London
Madeleine Lewis, Doctoral Student, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University
‘40 acres and a mule’ never happened. Now governments and communities across the US are redistributing land and wealth, from Evanston, Illinois, to Athens, Georgia.
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By Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University
Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity. These planned shutdowns are called public safety power shutoffs, abbreviated to PSPS, and they’re increasingly common. So far this year, we’ve seen…
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By Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond
Congress may soon consider whether to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the main way the government helps low-income Americans put food on the table. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched the history of government nutrition programs, to explain what’s going on and why the effort to reduce spending on SNAP benefits, which can be used to…
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By David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, University of Notre Dame
Geoffrey C. Layman, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans with no religion has leveled off. For the past few years, the share of adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has stood at about 29%, according to a major study the Pew Research Center released Feb. 26, 2025.
But this hardly means that the “nones,” or their impact on American life, are going away. In fact, their sheer size makes it likely that they will increase…
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By Emily Godwin, Senior Research Associate in Digital Marketing and Virtual Environments, University of Bristol, and PhD Candidate in Conspiracy Theories, University of Bath
“I am become meme,” declared Elon Musk at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, just after hoisting a chainsaw – a gift from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei – above his head. The tech billionaire and head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was correct. Within hours, images of the moment had spread across social media, spawning countless edits, humorous remixes and sharp commentary.
This moment was more than just a spectacle. It exemplified…
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By Samuel McKee, Associate Tutor and PhD Candidate in Philosophy of Science, Manchester Metropolitan University
A field known as synthetic biology has become one of the most highly anticipated in science. Its outputs range from golden rice, which is genetically engineered to provide vitamin A, to advances stemming from the Human Genome Project, which successfully mapped the entire human genome. Prominent voices in biotechnology have heralded it as the next wave of the future of innovation.
Synthetic biology is the use of genetic engineering and other advances in biotechnology to…
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By Kevin Riehle, Lecturer in Intelligence and Security Studies, Brunel University of London
Aleksandr Dugin, sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” because of his ideological influence on Russian politics, endorsed the policies of Donald Trump in a CNN interview aired on March 30. Dugin said Trump’s America has a lot more in common with Putin’s Russia than most people think, adding: “Trumpists and the followers…
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By Caitjan Gainty, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King's College London
In his new book, No More Normal, psychiatrist Alastair Santhouse recalls an experience from the 1980s when he was a university student in the UK helping deliver supplies to “refuseniks” – Soviet citizens who were denied permission to leave the USSR. These people often faced harsh treatment, losing their jobs and becoming targets of harassment. Some were even diagnosed with a psychiatric condition called “sluggish schizophrenia”.
By the time Santhouse encountered this diagnostic category, sluggish schizophrenia…
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