Society

About one-third of U.S. nonprofit service providers experienced a disruption in their government funding in the first half of 2025.... Read more

Since 2013, a hidden and lucrative economy of ransom-based human trafficking has emerged in Libya, run by traders who attempt to bring migrants and refugees to Europe via the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. Based partly on interviews, Ph.D. researcher Morgane Wirtz reveals a system of imprisonment, (sexual) violence, and... Read more

A new study from University of California San Diego has found that while a third of Californians use cannabis regularly, there are significant gaps in knowledge around cannabis use and driving. The researchers found that even six years after the legalization of recreational cannabis use, adults in California demonstrate mixed... Read more

The European Union's legal ambiguity on the Western Sahara frozen conflict is an increasingly glaring source of vulnerability for Sahrawis, a new study shows.... Read more

Milk is one of the most familiar things in the world—comforting, wholesome, ordinary. But beneath this common perception lies something far more complicated.... Read more

A study led by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) confirms the rise in ideological polarization and biased or false news posted on Facebook. This research analyzed over 6 million news-related URLs—from 1,231 different domains in the United States—shared on Facebook between 2017 and 2020.... Read more

In a time of tariffs and political trade disputes, new UBC Okanagan research shows that it's not what you know but who you know—and how well you treat them.... Read more

In an era of heightened political polarization, merely longing for civility is no longer enough. Understanding just how to debate and respectfully disagree has become truly imperative, now more than ever and for a couple good reasons.... Read more

In Australia, where turning up to vote is mandatory, deliberately spoiling your ballot is one of the only legal ways to protest or opt out.... Read more

According to a new study, offline social networks, revealed by co-location data, predict U.S. voting patterns more accurately than online social connections or residential sorting. Michele Tizzoni and colleagues analyzed large-scale data on co-location patterns from Meta's Data for Good program, which collates anonymized data collected from people who enabled... Read more

Over the summer, the United States deployed warships to the Caribbean—ostensibly to menace drug traffickers but also as a none-too-subtle warning to Venezuela. Earlier in the year, a U.S. Navy destroyer bobbed along waters close to Iran for similar reasons. And in the Taiwan Straits and Pacific, China and the... Read more

The growing age imbalance in the duty solicitor scheme in England and Wales risks eroding trust in the criminal justice system, a new study warns. Most duty solicitors are aged 45 and over, putting at risk the ability of vulnerable suspects to access timely and effective legal representation at the... Read more

Minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin and tungsten, which are all abundant in central Africa, are essential to the comforts of everyday life. Our phones, laptops and electric vehicles would not function without them.... Read more

Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war in June. Although a ceasefire was declared the same month, news coverage of Iran continues to focus on the conflict's aftermath and the Middle East's tense political situation.... Read more

What happens now?... Read more

It's an almost universally accepted truth that walking in well-lit areas is safer. But Aaron Chalfin, associate professor of criminology in Penn's School of Arts & Sciences; John MacDonald, criminology professor and director of the Master of Science in Criminology, and Brian Wade, senior data scientist at Penn's Crime and... Read more

New research suggests that trying to change people's climate habits won't hurt support for big picture solutions.... Read more

A study in Management Science finds that public charities with corporate directors on their boards are significantly more likely to lobby on behalf of the connected firms' political interests. More to the point, the research found that nonprofit governance structures can quietly serve as extensions of corporate influence into the... Read more

Political attitudes and opinions can and do shift, sometimes drastically. Recent psychological research from Washington University in St. Louis offers insight into how emotional responses to threats contribute to shifts in political attitudes.... Read more

More than 300 ostriches have been threatened with destruction in eastern British Columbia after avian flu was detected in the flock. The birds' owners have argued this is a case of "unjust governmental overreach."... Read more

Pregnant women crossing borders to get an abortion. People who miscarry facing jail time or dying from infection. Doctors who won't perform lifesaving procedures on a pregnant patient for fear of prosecution.... Read more

The spread of illegally manufactured fentanyl has driven overdose deaths to unprecedented levels in the United States and Canada. It has also changed the production function for drug traffickers, most notably by radically reducing the costs of raw materials for those producing illegal opioids.... Read more

There is no popular support for imposing trade tariffs in Europe—not even in response to Trump's trade policies. This is according to a new study based on responses from 5,500 people in Germany and the UK.... Read more

Police are getting a boost from artificial intelligence, with algorithms now able to draft police reports in minutes. The technology promises to make police reports more accurate and comprehensive, as well as save officers time.... Read more

"The European Green Deal is something we owe to our children because we do not own this planet." These words date back to a few days before Christmas 2019. They defined Ursula Von Der Leyen's first presidency of the European Commission but belong to what now seems like a different... Read more

When a politician uses emotionality on social media to engage with his or her constituents, two things happen. One is that the politician sees an increase in engagement with individual constituents and then at scale. The second outcome is that the politician may actually expand his or her following.... Read more

Detroit is seeing decline in violent crime, but 33% more young people were victims of gun violence in the city so far in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to local police.... Read more

In her final speech as Wellington mayor, Tory Whanau spoke candidly about the relentless online abuse she faced during her term, much of it racist and sexist. None of it would have been reassuring for hopeful candidates waiting for the weekend's results.... Read more

A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior has found that discontinuing universal free school meal (UFSM) policies significantly increases school meal debt, student stigma, and declines in participation. The research, based on a survey of nearly 1,000 school food authorities (SFAs) across eight states, also... Read more

Poorer health is linked to a higher proportion of votes for the populist right wing political party, Reform UK, indicates an analysis of the 2024 general election voting patterns in England, published online in the open access journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research.... Read more

The spate of public demonstrations against unemployment, corruption and low quality of life around the world is striking because of who is leading them. Young people have used social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to spread information and arrange their demonstrations.... Read more

At a testy meeting in Banff recently, the American ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, mused about the future of pre-clearance in Canada. Cross-border travel numbers are down, he complained, which makes the cost of the program less appealing to Americans.... Read more

A new update to an influential economic theory called "Doughnut Economics" shows a global economy on a collision course with nature.... Read more

Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earth elements, and platinum group metals are essential for modern technologies. They are key to industries ranging from electronics and telecommunications to renewable energy, defense, and aerospace systems.... Read more

As the Israel-Hamas war erupted in late 2023, a Northeastern University researcher found pro-Palestinian posts on TikTok vastly outnumbered pro-Israeli posts.... Read more

Governments which employ private military companies, such as Wagner and Africa Corps, can be held liable for any human rights violations committed by these firms, research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has highlighted.... Read more

The global increase in migration—with approximately 3.6% of the global population living as expatriates—has resulted in many countries extending external voting rights to their overseas citizens. This has prompted scholarly interest in understanding the electoral participation of immigrants in their countries of origin.... Read more

Withdrawing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), once a fringe idea, has become a defining issue for political parties. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who previously opposed leaving, has now said the Conservatives will take the UK out of the convention if they win an election.... Read more

In 2024, approximately 3.1 million Californians 12 and older directly experienced a hate act in the previous year, according to the newest California Health Interview Survey data, which was a half million more than the 2.6 million people in 2023 who said they experienced a hate act in the previous... Read more

In Canadian society, the narrative of multiculturalism can lean toward a "color-blind" ideology—a comforting idea that race doesn't matter and everyone is treated the same—even though such narratives mask persistent inequalities. They may also undermine efforts to address structural racism.... Read more

Put on your tinfoil hats: New research finds that belief in conspiracy theories might be more common in the U.S. than you might think.... Read more

Is the news media broken? According to a survey released last October by Gallup, Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media—with less than one-third expressing trust in the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly."... Read more

New research led by The University of Manchester has uncovered a significant and lasting link between the subjects young people study in secondary school and their political preferences.... Read more

After a slight delay, Australia and Papua New Guinea formally signed a defense treaty this week committing the two nations to come to each other's aid if one is faced with an attack.... Read more

At the start of September 2025, US president Donald Trump sent a naval task force into the Caribbean to tackle drug trafficking in the region. The initiative has led to strikes on four alleged drug boats off the Venezuelan coast so far, killing at least 21 people.... Read more

As a researcher of police occupational culture, I was horrified, but not at all surprised by the recent Panorama program in which an undercover reporter exposed sexism, racism and general thuggishness among some Metropolitan Police officers.... Read more

New research by Dr. Laure Humbert from The University of Manchester and Dr. Raphaële Balu from Sorbonne University has revealed how Britain's vital contribution to the French Resistance during the Second World War was largely forgotten in France—and why this silence lasted for decades.... Read more

New research from the University of Kansas asks if mental health issues like depression and anxiety are associated with specific charges faced by juveniles incarcerated in the United States.... Read more

National security officials are "overwhelmingly overconfident," which hinders their ability to accurately assess uncertainty, according to new research by a Dartmouth government professor. When they thought statements had a 90% chance of being true, the statements were only true about 60% of the time, according to the study.... Read more

As Moscow's military offensive grinds on at Europe's eastern edge, tensions are skyrocketing on the continent due to repeated, brazen violations of European airspace deliberately orchestrated by Russia. Europe has announced counter-measures, in the form of a "drone wall" to combat this new threat.... Read more