insert_link World Australia’s lower house of Parliament passes laws in response to the deadly Bondi Beach shooting Australia's Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke (Photo by: The West Australian) Australia’s lower house has passed sweeping new legislation introducing a national gun buyback scheme and stricter background checks, in response to the deadly Bondi Beach attack that left 15 people dead. The measures mark one of the country’s most significant firearm policy shifts in recent years, reinforcing Australia’s long-standing emphasis on gun control. Alongside the gun reforms, parliament also […] today20 January, 2026
insert_link Opinion Pieces Social media: Disinformation expert offers 3 safety tips in a time of fake news and dodgy influencers Boniface Muthoni/SOPA Images/LightRocke By Fabrice Lollia, Université Gustave Eiffel Social networks have revolutionised the way we communicate, stay informed and share moments of our daily lives. We use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to keep in touch with our friends and family, share our experiences, keep informed, and express our opinions. But beyond these personal and often superficial uses, social networks play a much more complex […] today9 August, 2024
insert_link Science & Technology ‘Gun control is dead and we killed it’: unmasking the ‘lonely incel’ who designed the world’s most popular 3D-printed firearm This anonymised image of FGC-9 creator ‘JStark1809’ was posted online with the gun’s designs in 2020. JStark1809/Deterrence Dispensed via Wikimedia, CC BY-NC By Rajan Basra, King's College London Every year, on Easter Sunday, Irish republicans commemorate their martyrs, remembering lives lost during the 1916 Easter Rising and in the years since. Such events have a pattern: a street parade, speeches and flowers at the cemetery. The […] today1 July, 2024
insert_link World Trump’s post-conviction windfall shows democracy is increasingly a pay-to-play game By Daniel Drache, York University, Canada and Marc D. Froese, Burman University In the hours immediately following Donald Trump’s recent hush-money conviction in a Manhattan courtroom, his presidential campaign raked in US$53 million from small donors. Why are regular people without deep pockets throwing so much money at a convicted felon? In the United States today, as in many other countries with a populism […] today10 June, 2024
insert_link Africa Sudan’s descent into chaos sets stage for al-Qaida to make a return to historic stronghold By Sara Harmouch, American University “Sudan’s moment has come; chaos is our chance to sow the seeds of jihad,” warned Abu Hudhaifa al-Sudani, a high-ranking al-Qaida leader, in an October 2022 manifesto. His words may have seemed premature at the time, but a year of brutal civil war has now plunged Sudan into the kind of chaos in which terrorist groups thrive. The risk of […] today14 May, 2024
insert_link World Putin’s Russia: first arrests under new anti-LGBT laws mark new era of repression By Sergey Katsuba, University College Dublin Just over three decades after Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, three people have been arrested and charged under the country’s harsh new anti-LGBT laws and could face ten years in prison for membership of an “extremist organisation”. The arrests are a clear indication of how Russia has come full circle on its persecution of sexual minorities under Vladimir Putin. On March […] today10 April, 2024
insert_link World Australia suggests it could recognise Palestinian state Australia on Tuesday became the latest country to advocate formal recognition of a further shattering a long-standing diplomatic taboo in the West. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that recognising a state of Palestine could restart the moribund Middle East peace process and undermine extremist forces in the Middle East. "Recognising a Palestinian state -- one that can only exist side by side with a secure Israel -- doesn't […] today9 April, 2024
insert_link Africa Slums and guns in Bamako: what’s driving the illegal weapon trade in Mali’s capital city By Oluwole Ojewale, Institute for Security Studies As west Africa urbanises, many cities have become interconnected through trade, travel and technology, and crime has increased in complexity and scope. The proliferation of arms in west African cities, especially in the aftermath of conflicts in Libya (2011) and Mali (2012), has added to these challenges in Bamako, Mali’s capital. In 2018, the Small Arms Survey estimated that roughly […] today19 February, 2024
