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Domestic violence in sub-Saharan Africa could triple by 2060, warns report
Tens of millions of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa will experience catastrophic levels of intimate partner violence because the world is failing to make progress on the climate crisis, according to new projections by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency.... Read more
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Do women candidates have a harder time being elected? A political scientist explains
In Congress this term, 25% of senators and 28% of representatives are women, near record highs for both houses, but far below equal representation with men. As Kamala Harris runs for president, will being a woman cost her votes?... Read more
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Report documents paths to prison for those experiencing intimate partner violence
A new study provides extensive documentation of the "IPV-to-Prison Pipeline"—the pathways through which women who are survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) find themselves serving long prison sentences for acts of survival.... Read more
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Study finds nine UK fathers accused of child sexual abuse given legal access to their alleged victims
Content warning: Please note the article contains distressing content.... Read more
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What is societal collapse? Lessons from the past can help us understand our future, but only to a point
As the climate crisis accelerates, it's hard not to wonder if today's societies can adapt. Growing worries over climate change have sparked interest in the collapse of ancient civilizations and the rise of the (often apocalypse-themed) "cli-fi" genre in popular culture. But before turning to the past for answers, it... Read more
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How to get the housing we need: Healthy, affordable and resilient to climate change
Imagine coming home after a long day at work. It is winter. You step inside your home. It is warm, quiet and dry.... Read more
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Conservative governments protect more land while socialists and nationalists label more species as 'threatened'
The dire state of biodiversity across the globe suggests that not all governments are willing to act decisively to protect nature. Why is that the case, and is a country's political ideology a factor?... Read more
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US disinformation researcher laments 'incredible witch hunt'
Understanding disinformation has emerged as a lightning rod in the United States ahead of the November election, with academics and think-tanks facing lawsuits by right-wing groups and subpoenas from a Republican-led congressional committee.... Read more
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Tackling food insecurity requires more than charity—governments must also act, say researchers
As more households in Canada experience food insecurity, food banks and other organizations are struggling to meet demand for their services. In 2023 alone, around 23% of Canadian households experienced some form of food insecurity. That translates to 8.7 million people, including 2.1 million children, who struggled to access sufficient,... Read more
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Researchers: J.D. Vance got 'single cat women' all wrong—our study shows they wouldn't vote for him anyway
The Trump/Vance ticket seems to have a problem attracting the support of women voters. In fact, recent polling shows women in the battleground states report 17 points less support for the Trump/Vance ticket than men.... Read more
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Disinformation thrives on division in our cities
In extraordinary times of rapid information production and sharing, distrust and disruption, disinformation is having an increasing impact on cities. And cities are on the front line of disinformation response strategies.... Read more
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Few anti-immigration users dominate most UK-based Twitter anti-immigration content with rapid spread, high polarization
A study of more than 200,000 tweets from 2019 and 2020 finds that anti-immigration content spreads faster than pro-immigration tweets, and that a few users disproportionally generated most of the UK-based anti-immigration content. Andrea Nasuto and Francisco Rowe of the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool, UK... Read more
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Do crypto enthusiasts actually make up a significant voting bloc in the US?
Former President Donald Trump is making a push to appeal to so-called "crypto" voters this election cycle, promising to unveil a plan that would turn the U.S. into the "crypto capital of the planet."... Read more
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Voting as a social determinant of health
Approximately 244 million Americans will have the opportunity to vote in the 2024 elections. In the 2020 election, an unprecedented 67 percent of those eligible turned out to vote. If turnout reaches that level again, it will result in over 162 million ballots being cast by November, reports the Bipartisan... Read more
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How strategic litigation for asylum seekers can be effective
The rights of asylum seekers are under pressure. Nevertheless, politically this group has very little to gain. We can, therefore, expect a further rise in strategic litigation, a tactic that interest groups are increasingly using to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.... Read more
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Locking up young people might make people feel safer but it doesn't work, now or in the long term
The treatment of Australia's children and young people is back on the national agenda.... Read more
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Warning labels from fact checkers work—even if you don't trust them—says study
Do you trust fact-checkers? It might not matter. A new Nature Human Behaviour paper from MIT Sloan School of Management Ph.D. candidate Cameron Martel and professor David Rand reveals a surprising truth: fact-checker warning labels on social media can significantly reduce belief in and spread of misinformation, even among those... Read more
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Perception and deception in times of crisis: Characteristics of messages and sources that allow information to spread
The COVID-19 pandemic not only gave us a global health crisis but also an infodemic, a term coined by the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the overwhelming flood of information—both accurate and misleading—that inundated media channels. This information complicated the public understanding and response to the pandemic as people... Read more
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Study suggests gun-free zones do not attract mass shootings
Gun-free zones have often been blamed for making schools, malls and other public areas more attractive to shooters; however, there have been no quantitative studies examining those claims. Now, in a first of its kind study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, researchers at UC Davis Health and... Read more
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Researchers call for more tailored approach to dealing with different types of sex offenders
Community attitudes to sex offenders who are in positions of trust—such as teachers, coaches, or clergy members—are significantly more negative than those towards general sex offenders (SOs) and could lead to reoffending, a new study finds.... Read more
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Q&A: Author explores the toll of QAnon on families of followers
The 1969 moon landing? Fake. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy? Cuba really did it. Thomas Jefferson's bitterly contested election in 1800? Choreographed by hidden hands.... Read more
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Twenty-six states may soon need to regulate cannabis—here's what they can learn from Colorado and Washington
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has made moves to reclassify marijuana, making it a type of legal but regulated medicine, like Tylenol with codeine or some steroids.... Read more
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Researcher: Apps, 911 services and mobile phones don't offset deadly consequences of more restrictive border policies
The U.S.-Mexico border is once again dominating a U.S. presidential election.... Read more
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Is there such a thing as an objectively beautiful building? Here's the science
Some people assume that there's a type of beauty that everyone can agree on. But did early humans really admire slender bodies the way we do today? After all, fashions come and go—there have been plenty of fads throughout history that we find hard to understand today.... Read more
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Opinion: The real issue at the heart of Canada's meat processing industry isn't labor shortages—it's low wages
A United Nations special rapporteur recently released a damning report describing Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker program as a "breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery." The report detailed the many ways migrant workers have been mistreated in Canada, including excessive work hours, limited breaks and physical abuse.... Read more
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Opinion: AI should not be allowed to adjudicate cases in Canada's Federal Court
Canadian society is progressing deeper into the digital age. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—like the generative AI ChatGPT and the legal platform Harvey—are increasingly shaping judicial processes and legal systems, including in the adjudication of intricate cases.... Read more
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Ukraine recap: Drone warfare brings new phase to battlefront
Like many people, I first encountered drones when they looked like toys, something fun to play with and be entertained by. Not long afterward, I was waiting for a boat on my commute to work, and a drone hovered overhead, not far above me, and with no sign of an... Read more
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From harmony to civil war: When language turns deadly
For years, Jaroslav Tir has been pondering a perplexing mystery: Why do some countries where a multi-ethnic populace once lived together in harmony devolve into civil war, slaughter and ethnic cleansing?... Read more
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2018 to 2021 saw no change in rates of intimate partner homicide among women
U.S. rates of intimate partner homicide involving female victims did not significantly change from 2018 to 2021, according to research published in the Aug. 29 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.... Read more
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Spot AI images this election: Fact vs. fiction tips
On Aug. 18, former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump posted an unusual endorsement to his social media account on Truth Social. Amid a series of photos, he included an image of pop megastar Taylor Swift wearing an Uncle Sam hat and declaring: "Taylor wants you to vote for... Read more
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Researcher studies how violent policies spread among governments
Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Kerice Doten-Snitker studies how government-sanctioned violence in medieval Germany diffused from one community to another. More specifically, she wants to know what sometimes prevented the spread of targeted ethnic or racial policies.... Read more
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Political posts on X could harm academics' credibility, new study finds
New research, published in a CESifo working paper reveals that expressing political views on social media can erode public trust in academics. The paper is a collaboration from Dr. Eleonora Alabrese from the University of Bath; Francesco Capozza, Research Associate at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Prashant Garg,... Read more
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Study links gentrification to reduced crime, but downsides of gentrification can't be ignored
Neighborhood gentrification in Buffalo between 2011 and 2019 was associated with a decrease in property crime, independent of a general decrease in similar crime city-wide during those same years, according to a University at Buffalo study.... Read more
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Easing bail policy does not lead to increased crime, report finds
A new report by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab (CPL) shows the estimated effects of several bail policy changes in the City and County of Los Angeles, including removing the emergency bail schedule that was implemented at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.... Read more
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Public opinion of new justices affects views on entire Supreme Court
A new study finds that the extent to which U.S. adults support newly appointed justices to the Supreme Court strongly influences the extent to which they support the high court as an institution.... Read more
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Talk isn't enough: Pacific nations say Australia must end new fossil fuel projects
This week, one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters went to a meeting of island states strongly affected by human-induced climate change.... Read more
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LGBTQI+ Australians are tired of being ignored—here's why counting them in the census is so important
The 2026 Census presented a crucial opportunity to count the LGBTQI+ population in Australia for the first time.... Read more
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Labor or leisure? Why a universal basic income might foster well-being but not productivity
The current cost-of-living crisis, high interest rates and the ensuing economic contraction have disproportionately hit low-income households. And for many low-income workers, the future remains uncertain.... Read more
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Why Americans do political speeches so well (and debates so badly)
The recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago was a showcase of impressive speeches. Presidential nominee Kamala Harris jupstified the newfound enthusiasm of Democrats with a strong acceptance speech, but even she couldn't match the oratorical power of Michelle and Barack Obama two nights earlier.... Read more
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Reports reveal untapped potential for mobilizing voters of color in battleground states
With swing states playing a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election, new reports from the Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID) at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy have found significant voter turnout disparities between white, non-Latino voters and voters of color in all nine battleground states.... Read more
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Red flag laws may reduce the growing burden of firearm homicides
A recent study from researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has found that Florida's red flag gun law, which was enacted in response to the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, was associated with an 11% reduction in firearm homicide rates from 2019 to 2021. Firearm homicides are a... Read more
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Geographic differences in US homicide rates have decreased since the 1970s, study finds
A new study finds that, counter to expectations, geographic disparities in rates of homicides in the US have decreased in recent decades. Richard Boylan of Rice University in Houston, Texas, US, presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 28, 2024.... Read more
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Study finds people are consistently and confidently wrong about those with opposing views
Despite being highly confident that they can understand the minds of people with opposing viewpoints, the assumptions humans make about others are often wrong, according to new research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in partnership with the University of Oxford.... Read more
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Environmental policy in Brazil leads to less violence, researchers find
In December 2007, the then Brazilian government passed a law to curb the illegal destruction of the rainforest. A study by researchers from the Insper Research Institute in São Paulo and the University of Bonn now shows an interesting side effect: where the measures were implemented, not only did deforestation... Read more
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Gaps in firearms relinquishment laws may weaken court orders, increase illegal gun possession
State and federal laws across the United States prohibiting firearm possession in cases of domestic violence often lack enforcement mechanisms, which may lead to continued possession of firearms despite court orders, according to a University of Michigan study appearing in Criminology & Public Policy.... Read more
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While some cities clear homeless encampments, others are granting a 'right to shelter'
At the end of June, the US Supreme Court upheld an Oregon city's ban on outdoor camping. The court's decision means that people experiencing homelessness can be arrested, ticketed and fined for sleeping outside, even when there are no alternatives.... Read more
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Q&A: Rwanda is creating shiny, modern cities after the genocide—but this won't help communities heal from the past
Over the past 17 years, Rwanda has cleared informal settlements to make way for modern urban construction. Kigali's ambitious city master plan is expected to be fully realized by 2050. But what about the people who are pushed out in the process, and their memories? Shakirah E. Hudani presents some... Read more
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Should misogyny be treated as a form of extremism?
The UK government has recently announced a review into their counter-terrorism strategy, focusing on responses to "extremist ideologies." This announcement named misogyny as one of its extremist ideological trends of interest.... Read more
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A world mired in conflict calls for international tribunals that play multiple roles
The International Court of Justice in The Hague has been busier than ever in recent years: it has been asked to render judgments and issue advisory opinions on conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar, among others, and it settles border disputes all over the world. What roles does this Court... Read more
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In domestic violence cases, police are more likely to make arrests when pets are abused too
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. households have at least one pet, and almost all see their pet as a family member.... Read more