Global population hits 8 billion

Global Population Hits 8 Billion, but Per-Capita Consumption Is Still the Main Problem

By Lorenzo Fioramonti, Ida Kubiszewski, Paul Sutton, Robert Costanza The world population has just hit a new record: 8 billion. As is often the case, there...

Delivering Aid During War Is Tricky − Here’s What to Know About What Gaza...

By Topher L. McDougal The 2.2 million people who live in Gaza are facing economic isolation and experiencing incessant bombardment. Their supplies of essential resources, including food and water,...
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Nobel Peace Prize 2023: Award for Iranian Women’s Rights Protester Highlights Fight Against Declining...

By Leïla Choukroune  One hundred days after Iranians first protested the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini for wearing her hijab incorrectly, Narges Mohammadi...

2019 Scorecard: The Trump Effect on Future International Business Disputes

By Charles H. Camp and Kiran Nasir Gore President Trump is now three-fourths through his initial term as U.S. President. Between the U.S. House of...

Disinformation is Often Blamed for Swaying Elections – The Research Says Something Else

By Magda Osman Many countries face general elections this year. Political campaigning will include misleading and even false information. Just days ago, it was reported that a robocall impersonating...

Coronavirus culture: the questions social scientists are asking about our new day-to-day life

By Alan Bradshaw Scientific analysis of COVID-19 is dominated by medical and pharmaceutical questions of vaccines and risk minimisation. But meanwhile, social scientists must track the emerging social...
2022 Headlines

Here are Some of the Political Events that Will Dominate Headlines in 2022

By Thomas Klassen Last year started out hopeful with the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, but quickly proved to be a challenging year for governments and...
Vaccine Nationalism Is a Multilateral, Neocolonial Failure

Vaccine Nationalism Is a Multilateral, Neocolonial Failure

By Dr. Dan Steinbock In the coming months, vaccine nationalism is likely to compound COVID-19 economic damage and penalize more lives. It reflects the utter...

Rebuilding Infected Economies: Without Deficits, Debt or Taxes

By Dr Shann Turnbull European national and local governments possess the power to rebuild their infected economies with self-liquidating “Stamp Scrip” money. This could be achieved...
inauguration

Post-inauguration, restoring the soul of Biden’s America must be truly inclusive

By Daniel McNeil Over the past few months, I’ve been editing a book about soulful beliefs, practices and feelings that overflow from their religious and...
beauty-premium-1

A Beauty Premium and a Plainness Penalty: Attractiveness at Work

By Adrian Furnham Are physically attractive people seriously advantaged at work? Are they more likely to be selected, promoted, and given higher salaries? Does being physically...
Online Safety

Online Safety: What Young People Really Think About Social Media, Big Tech Regulation and...

By Emily Setty Don’t say ‘just don’t go online’ because adults wouldn’t do that if something happened in the real world. If you got followed...
women pandemic

Psychological Effects of the Pandemic on Women

By Lea Laue and Michael Palocz-Andresen Measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic largely brought public life to a standstill from mid-March 2020 around the world....

Belarus – A Color Revolution of a Different Shade?

By Peter Koenig Belarus in turmoil, after an election where the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko – 25 years already in power (in office since 1994)...
The metaverse

The Metaverse: Three Legal Issues We Need to Address

By Pin Lean Lau The “metaverse” seems to be the latest buzzword in tech. In general terms, the metaverse can be viewed as a form...
Covid Vaccine

9 reasons you can be optimistic that a vaccine for COVID-19 will be widely...

By William Petri As fall approaches rapidly, many are wondering if the race for a vaccine will bear fruit as early as January 2021. I...
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Look to the Mainstream to Explain the Rise of the Far Right

By Aurelien Mondon Javier Milei in Argentina. Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. These are the two latest “populist shocks” – the tip of the “populist...

REVIVALISTICS: Why Should We Invest Time and Money in Reclaiming ‘Dead’ Languages?

By Ghil‘ad Zuckermann This article introduces revivalistics, the new science behind language reclamation, revitalization and reinvigoration. It explores the various benefits of language revival. Revivalistics Revivalistics...
ukraine flag above rubble

Ukraine Recap: Russia Targets Civilians as the World Argues about How to End the...

By Jonathan Este Ever since Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops across the border into Ukraine, the role of the UN as global problem solver has...

On the Symphony of AI and Humans in the Work Context

By David De Cremer “AI and human employees will form the teams of the future and will have to be led in such ways that...
more innovation can creatively

More Innovation Can Creatively Destroy Firearm Violence

By Dan Prud'homme We need more investment in two types of technologies that could dramatically reduce gun violence in America: better non-lethal arms and a...
Fibonacci spirals

How a 400 Million Year Old Fossil Changes Our Understanding of Mathematical Patterns in...

By Sandy Hetherington and Holly-Anne Turner If your eyes have ever been drawn to the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem, the texture of...
Global Business and Biotech

Adapting In An Ever-Changing Business World: When Culture Meets Biology To Survive

By David De Cremer The world today is changing all the time. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were reminded that events and...

Capitalism in Intensive Care

By Graham Vanbergen As the COVID crisis grips the world economy, Graham Vanbergen concludes that capitalism itself has suffered a near-fatal heart attack and that the...
new generation of democracy protesters

Myanmar: memes and mantras of a new generation of democracy protesters

By Richard Dolan What do the internet memes Doge and Cheems, the Hollywood film franchise The Hunger Games, and a sachet of instant tea have in common? They...

Approaching Global Shock Waves

By Graham Vanbergen The Covid-19 pandemic has reached every one of us and is a history-defining moment. It will act as a brake on unsustainable...
Social Media

Asian Pop Culture May be Trending, But so is Anti-Asian Racism and Discrimination

By Katherine Lee From K-beauty to K-pop, Squid Game and Shang Chi, Asian pop culture is trending worldwide. Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist and author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors...
Chronic Stress

A Voyage Into Premature Aging: The Role of Chronic Stress and its Principal Correlates

By Prof. Simon L. Dolan and Prof. Mario Raich Introduction  The idea of stress and aging was born many years ago while one of the co-authors of...
UK

Are Inflation Alarm Bells Ringing True?

By Graham Vanbergen There are numerous reports in the US, EU and UK about the spectre of rising inflation, with world renowned economists disagreeing...
Human innovation

Human Uniqueness At The Dawn Of Intelligent Machines

By Mario Raich, Simon L. Dolan, Dr. Dave Ulrich and Claudio Cisullo Every generation wants to improve on the previous generation; however, this generation risks...
peace between global rivals

What moments of uncertainty mean for war – and peace – between global rivals

By Douglas B. Atkinson The coronavirus pandemic has inflamed existing tensions between China and the US. China blamed the US for spreading the virus across international...
World Food Programme

Nobel peace prize: hunger is a weapon of war but the World Food Programme...

By Susanne Jaspars By awarding the 2020 Nobel peace prize to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), the Nobel committee said that it wanted to “turn the...
ukraine war

Ukraine War: What Are The Risks That Russia Will Turn To Its Nuclear Arsenal?

By Mark Webber and Nicole Fasola Is Russia now led by someone who would contemplate using nuclear weapons without any great concern? Over Ukraine, Vladimir Putin...
lockdown

Why Another Lockdown Might be Needed in February 2021

By Dr Peter Sivey and Dr James Gaughan England recently emerged from a four-week lockdown into a series of tiered restrictions, and there is good...
paris olympics

Paris Olympics: With 365 Days to Go, Will This Mega-Event Clinch a Sustainability Gold...

By Jannsen Santana Mega-events such as the Coachella Music Festival, the pilgrimages to Mecca and the World Cup have become increasingly prominent in contemporary times, yet we often neglect to...
Post-9/11 War

Requiem for the Post-9/11 Wars, and those to Come

By Dr. Dan Steinbock For days, international media have been promoting the 20-year anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. That day, I...
Defi

Decentralised finance calls into question whether the crypto industry can ever be regulated

By Dr Iwa Salami As stock markets around the world struggle through the pandemic, Bitcoin has seen a steady rise in its price. The...
Christmas dinner

How to cook Christmas dinner in the most environmentally friendly way possible

By Dr Ximena Schmidt, Dr Christian Reynolds and Sarah Bridle By now, most of us are aware that much of the food we eat, in...
plastic recycling

Plastic Recycling Is Failing – Here’s How the World Must Respond

By Cressida, Keiron and Stephanie Recycling was once considered the obvious solution to the excessive amount of new (or virgin) plastic produced each year. This...
Christmas Tree

How Green is your Christmas Tree?

By Professor Ian D. Rotherham There’s no way around the fact that Christmas has a large carbon footprint, from the travelling we do to the presents...

The Coronavirus: Business Risks, Liabilities, and Force Majeure in the Face of a Global...

By Kiran Nasir Gore and Charles H. Camp On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a Public Health...
new zealand

Jacinda Ardern Says Goodbye to Parliament: How Her Politics of Kindness Fell on Unkind...

By Grant Duncan Jacinda Ardern’s resignation as prime minister in January was a courageous and pragmatic decision for herself, her family and her party. Although many said...

Agile Anarchy is the Name of the Future

By Guido Stein and Alberto Barrachina To build agile organizations you must understand human relationships 1. Change> Transform Your Approach to Transformation This technical note explores some...
woman sitting and relaxing on the chair with the alarm clock on the side

The Millions of People Not Looking for Work in the UK may be Prioritising...

By David Spencer Around one in five British people of working age (16-64) are now outside the labour market. Neither in work nor looking for work, they...
US withdraws from Afghanistan

The US withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years of war: 4 questions about this...

By Mark R. Jacobson Mark R. Jacobson, a foreign policy expert at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, served in Afghanistan as a reserve officer...
2024

2024: Predictions for the New World Disorder

By Graham Vanbergen The Cold War peace dividend is disintegrating, geopolitical alliances are shifting, democracy is set to be challenged, AI is exponentially accelerating, and legacy...

ICC debacles – and the Philippines

By Dr Dan Steinbock  After the Philippine withdrawal from the ICC, the battlelines against the Duterte government are politicized – and messy. In the first half...

The Dark Forces behind American Insurrectionists

By Dr Dan Steinbock On January 6, 2021, a mob of white supremacists stormed the U.S. Capitol, presumably to overturn Trump's defeat. Their final goal...

Smashing the ‘Concrete Ceiling’: Black Women Are Still Missing From Corporate Leadership

By Oludolapo Makinde While white women may speak of breaking through the “glass ceiling,” for many Black women, it’s more like a “concrete ceiling.” Black...
A woman dealing with mental disorder

Have You Ever Met a Psychopath? The Anatomy of the Corporate Psychopath

By Adrian Furnham When we think of psychopaths, we think of blood-thirsty crazed killers who spend their lives in chains at maximum security prisons after...
What The War In Ukraine Means For Business

What The War In Ukraine Means For Business

By Paul Bracken The war in Ukraine has far reaching implications for business. Companies will face more complicated political and social issues than the stark,...
wealthy

Are Rich People More Intelligent? Here’s What the Science Says

By Giovanni Sala and Fernand Gobet From White Lotus to Succession, there’s high demand for television dramas about the super rich. The characters on these shows are typically...
Dollar Is Internationalizing the Yuan

How A Weaponized Dollar Is Internationalizing the Yuan

By Dan Steinbock The multipolarization of the global reserve currency system is accelerating. Ironically, Western sanctions against Russia have intensified the move away from the...
Biden Harris

Who is Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s pick for vice president?

By Bryan Cranston Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has announced Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 election — the first woman of colour to...
freedom

Flawed human information processing, magic pipers and our conscience

By Bernard Yeung Fierce competition between dominant countries leads to accusatory narratives, creating intense but dysfunctional crowd emotions. Flawed human behaviour allows a big gap...
British Imperialism

British Imperialism, Religion, and the Politics of ‘Divide and Rule’ in the Indian-Subcontinent

By Dr. Kalim Siddiqui I. Introduction Recently India’s Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi again brought the issues of India’s partition and tried to blame it on...
Why Many Modern Psychology Test Publishers Fail

Why Many Modern Psychology Test Publishers Fail

By Adrian Furnham In the midst of the razzmatazz surrounding AI, we hear a lot about its potential for the recruitment process. But is it really...

The Most Comprehensive Predictions Guide to 2021

By Graham Vanbergen The year 2020 will inevitably be etched into our memories no matter how forgettable we want it to be. It was a...
Generative AI

Does Generative AI Generate Jobs?

By Jacques Bughin The evolution of AI and its quick adoption by organisations has predisposed many workers to the fear of losing their jobs to...
indian women struggle

Indian Women’s Struggle Against Sexual Violence has had Little Support from the Men in...

By Severyna Magill Two recent instances of vicious sexual violence against ethnic minority women in the Indian state of Manipur involving gang rape and murder have highlighted...
Art in the Time of Coronavirus

The Importance of Art in the Time of Coronavirus

By Louis Netter People are dying, critical resources are stretched, the very essence of our freedom is shrinking – and yet we are moved inward,...

How Cryptocurrency Can Help Non-profits and Investors Thrive in the ‘New Normal’

By Thomas Cauley A decade ago nonprofit leaders were talking about the ways donors could change the world through social media. Today we’re talking about cryptocurrency. The...

The Power of Big Tech Platforms Has Gone Too Far

By Andreas Kornelakis The shift in the regulatory context globally compels tech giants to become more responsible There is a global shift in policies to curb...
Geo-Tracking Apps

Geo-Tracking Apps: How Are Parent-Child Relations Bearing Up?

By Yann Bruna Geo-tracking apps such as Find My Kids, Google Family Link and Apple’s FindMy are fast growing in popularity, handing parents unprecedented powers to monitor their offspring. But...
David De Cremer

Transforming to Hybrid Work: The Importance of Cloud-Based Solutions

By David De Cremer With the arrival of the pandemic, a new way of working also arrived: working remotely. Companies were forced to keep their...

Pandemic Debt and the Battle over MMT

By Graham Vanbergen Some governments around the world are making a strategic economic gamble to solve the problem of managing unsustainable debt. In a world...
Working---Metaverse

Working in the Metaverse: What Virtual Office Life Could Look Like

By Sam Gilbert In the context of work, the digital divide has become less about access to devices and connectivity and more about skills and mindset. Many...
Chips Everywhere and with Everything

Chips Everywhere and with Everything

By Elizabeth Stephens Until recently, Taiwan’s central position in the global supply chain of advanced semiconductors was not seen as an issue. But today, in...
NFT-8BIT

NFT: Beyond the Hype, There is the Future

By Terence Tse, Andrea Maria Cosentino and Mark Esposito Non-fungible tokens – much has been said and written about them, but what is the truth?...
digital journalism

Buzzfeed News: Sad Demise of a Clever, Innovative Site that Led the Way in...

By Sean Dodson Buzzfeed News, once a shining star of digital journalism, has announced it will shut its award-winning news division for good, laying off about 60...
energy crisis

Global Economy 2023: How Governments Could Make the Energy Crisis Worse This Year

By Adi Imsirovic This is the second instalment in our series on where the global economy is heading in 2023, which started with this article on global...
supermarket business model is too fragile

Inflation: The Supermarket Business Model is too Fragile to Shield Customers from Rising Food...

By Lisa Jack royalbet Food prices, like almost everything else, are rising fast. There have recently been warnings of “apocalyptic” costs, and a declaration that the “era...
Dhaka

City Liveability Rankings Tell a Biased Story – Our Research in Dhaka Explains Why

By Shreyashi Dasgupta and Annemiek Prins Like many fast-growing megacities in Asia and Africa, Dhaka, in Bangladesh, is often stigmatised as one of the most unliveable cities...
Finland

Happiness Is A Place Between Too Little And Too Much

By Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen School meals are never termed “free” in Finland; they are simply called “lunch”. Alongside Sweden; Finland is one of...
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From the Paris Agreement to COP28, How Oil and Gas Giants Try to Influence...

By Alain Naef There is “no science” behind demands to phase out fossil fuels, according to the current COP president. This level of cynicism at the...

Technology to Fracture Global Trade and Relations

By Graham Vanbergen The article "Data Overtakes Oil as Leading (Geopolitical) Global Commodity" published three years ago became the subject of much debate and deliberation....
Climate-Induced Terrorism

Climate-Induced Terrorism — the New Global Business Risk

By Matt Ince While countries around the world struggle to meet the manifold challenges posed by climate change, there are those who would use the...
Kyiv’s suburbs

Ukraine War: Evidence of Atrocities in Kyiv’s Suburbs Strengthens Case for a Harder Line...

orisbet By Dr Anastasiia Kudlenko When Ukraine learned on April 2 that the whole Kyiv region had been liberated from Russian troops, there was barely any...
internet ban

Nigeria’s Twitter ban could backfire, hurting the economy and democracy

By Jeff Conroy-Krutz bbetra.com Nigeria’s decision to suspend Twitter indefinitely could backfire for the government and cost the country economically in terms of new investments into...
Tokyo_Olympics

Tokyo Olympics: no spectators is bad for business, but hosting could still bring long-term...

By Mike Duigan Japanese Olympics minister Tamayo Marukawa has confirmed that, due to COVID, no spectators will be allowed to attend Tokyo 2020. This comes after initial announcements in...
student in class

Ethiopia’s blockchain deal is a watershed moment – for the technology, and for Africa

By Iwa Salami At the launch of bitcoin in 2009 the size of the potential of the underlying technology, the blockchain, was not fully appreciated. What has not...
Carbon-Free Transportation

Carbon-Free Transportation Saves Money

By Dr. Daniel Sperling President Biden and the European Union are proposing to spend trillions of dollars to decarbonize our economy – with a special...

As more climate migrants cross borders seeking refuge, laws will need to adapt

By Katharine M. Donato, Amanda Carrico, and Jonathan M. Gilligan nisanbet Climate change is upending people’s lives around the world, but when droughts, floods or sea level rise...
social media use

Thinking of Breaking up with Twitter? Here’s the Right Way to do it

By Daniel Angus and Timothy Graham After a few chaotic weeks it’s clear Elon Musk is intent on taking Twitter in a direction that’s at odds with...
the appeal of America is diminished

As the World Watches US Election, the Appeal of America is Diminished

By Liam Kennedy A US presidential election always draws intense worldwide interest, in part due to the spectacle, but also because the leadership of the...

COVID-19 Vaccines are Coming – How will we Know they Work and are Safe?

By Adam Kleczkowski Pfizer and BioNTech have just released interim results of their COVID-19 vaccine trial. Although it is not the only vaccine in the late stages of...
drones

Make Drones Sound Less Annoying by Factoring in Humans at the Design Stage

By Dr Antonio J Torija Martinez These days almost everyone has either flown a drone or listened to the nasty whining sound they produce. Although...
Global-biodiversity

Five Options for Restoring Global Biodiversity After the UN Agreement

By Henrik Svedäng To slow and reverse the fastest loss of Earth’s living things since the dinosaurs, almost 200 countries have signed an agreement in Montreal, Canada,...

Regulating Content Won’t Make the Internet Safer – We Have to Change the Business...

By Julia Hörnle An upheaval of the law governing what can be published online is taking place in the shape of the online safety bill. The bill,...

Turning Back Migrant Boats: What Does the International Law of the Sea Say?

By Hayley Roberts The Home Office has unveiled plans to use “turnback” tactics in the English Channel, with the border force compelling small boats carrying migrants to...
Israel flags with a star of David over cloudy sky background on sunset. Banner with place for text.

Deadliest Day for Jews Since the Holocaust Spurs a Crisis of Confidence in the...

By Avner Cohen Living for 75 years within a hostile neighborhood has required the state of Israel to provide security against external threats to all its citizens. That...
the world over a precipice

COVID-19 has shown that following the same road will lead the world over a...

By Ian Goldin Despite the tragic deaths, suffering and sadness that it has caused, the pandemic could go down in history as the event that rescued...

The Rise of the Chinese Economy and Growing Concerns in the United States

By Kalim Siddiqui I. Introduction The article discusses recent global economic changes and will largely focus on two of the worlds’ largest economies, namely China and...

Venezuela – A Tribute for Her Endless Pursuit of Democracy

By Peter Koenig Venezuela is again the shining light of Democracy – pushing ahead with the 6 December 2020 National Assembly (NA) elections – despite...
swab testing

How COVID-19 Transformed Genomics and Changed the Handling of Disease Outbreaks Forever

By Angela Beckett and Samuel Robson If the pandemic had happened ten years ago, what would it have looked like? Doubtless there would have been...
information exhaustion

3 Reasons for Information Exhaustion – and What to Do About It

By Mark Satta An endless flow of information is coming at us constantly: It might be an article a friend shared on Facebook with a...
How the shadow of slavery still hangs over global finance

How the shadow of slavery still hangs over global finance

By Philip Roscoe When the infamous Zong trial began in 1783, it laid bare the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. It was an unusual and distressing...
climate change

Two Hundred Years Of Talking About Climate Change

By Joseph Mazur Back in the 1970s, when I was a graduate student at MIT, there were a few weeks of cafeteria conversations among earth...
pride march

Expanding Gay Sex Pardons to Women Won’t Help Most Prosecuted Lesbians

By Caroline Derry More than a decade after launching a scheme to disregard and pardon convictions for historic “gay sex” offences, the government has now announced the...
google search engine

Google Turns 25: The Search Engine Revolutionised How We Access Information, but Will It...

By Mark Sanderson, Julian Thomas, Kieran Hegarty, and Lisa M. Given Today marks an important milestone in the history of the internet: Google’s 25th birthday....