The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ideas from leading academics and researchers.

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Berlin.

What the US midterms result means for the Ukraine war

Michael Cox, London School of Economics and Political Science

JD Vance singled out Iran War for midterm rout – he didn’t say what should happen next in conflict

Javed Ali, University of Michigan

A protesters holds aloft a photo of men in traditional Iranian garb in front of a projection of four other men.

Young men and Latino voters helped drive the Democrats’ blue wave. Why did they abandon Trump?

Listen

A man puts his ballot in the ballot machine

Justice, accountability, more questions: what Russell Brand’s guilty verdict means for victim-survivors

Anastasia Powell, RMIT University

Why Mark Carney is still betting big on Europe

Katerina Sviderska, University of Cambridge

Two men and a woman walk along a boardwalk with a Canadian and EU flag behind them.

NASA’s Swift telescope has burned up, months after a robot sent to save it failed – here’s why it’s so hard to boost a satellite

Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba, University of Florida

An illustration of the Swift Observatory in space. It looks like a metal box with two solar panels jutting off either side.

Why do blind people and musicians hear pitch better? New research suggests they have less internal noise

Woon Ju Park, Georgia Institute of Technology

Blind person sitting on park bench holding cane

We need to talk about Meta: Political interference and interests in the Brazilian elections

R. Marie Santini, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); Bruno Mattos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and Debora Salles, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

A woman in Tuvalu waits to sell souvenirs to customers outside the Funafuti International Airport during the Pacific pre-COP31 summit.

Climate change is undermining our health and the burden falls heaviest on women

Veronica Le Nevez, George Institute for Global Health and Laura Emily Downey, George Institute for Global Health

China, US, Russia flags on small flagpoles on a desk.

Why Trump, Xi, and Putin can’t carve up the world like the ‘big three’ leaders of 1945

Nicholas Westcott, SOAS, University of London

Godzilla Minus Zero is incredibly loud. Who decides on the cinema volume? And is it safe?

Alison Cole, University of Sydney

King Arthur and Ramayana: ancient stories that speak to the moral dilemmas of today’s leaders

Harsh Trivedi, University of Sheffield

King Arthur by Charles Ernest Butler (1903) and Ranbir Kapoor in Ramayana: Part 1 (2026).

Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery is a brilliant exploration of the life of the queen of crime

Nadia Atia, Queen Mary University of London

UK and US first editions of Agatha Christie's novels and a portrait of her from circa 1950.

Ales stenar (Ale’s Stones) in southern Sweden

We used ancient DNA to track the origins and spread of the Germanic and Celtic languages – new research

Guus Kroonen, Leiden University; University of Copenhagen; Eske Willerslev, University of Copenhagen; University of Cambridge, and Hugh McColl, University of Copenhagen

Human speech follows the same patterns as birdsong — new research

Logan S. James, McGill University; The University of Texas at Austin; Jon Sakata, McGill University, and Kendra Oudyk, University of British Columbia

Two green/purple coloured hummingbirds looking at each other on a branch, one with its mouth wide open.

How the Sphinx is helping answer a riddle about extinct crocodiles

Philip Mannion, UCL

Illustration of fossil crocodiles and the Great Sphinx

Why AI cannot ‘think’ like humans do

Didier Camilo Olarte Gonzalez, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Pier-Luc de Chantal, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

A short green robot with bright eyes holds a coffee cup in each hand.

From Wales to Finland, minority language speakers still face prejudice

Kaisa Pankakoski, Cardiff University

An orchestra on stage in a wood-lined auditorium.

What makes music truly ‘Russian’? The forgotten debate between Tchaikovsky and his star pupil

Stacy Olive Jarvis, University of Birmingham

The Binance hack exploited familiar weaknesses – all organisations should learn from it

Bogdan Księżopolski, Kozminski University

Delayed international support has hampered efforts to contain and treat Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, Fayetteville State University

Woman in PPE takes man's temperature at a clinic entrance

Who mapped Africa? Debunking the myth that Europeans alone plotted the continent

Thomas J Bassett, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Why Québec separatism is unlikely despite the Parti Québecois election win

Gavin Furrey, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

A bearded man speaks at a podium with blue and white flags behind him

How North Korea became a world leader in state-sponsored hacking

Jinkyung Baek, King's College London

Kim Jong-un inspects a munitions factory surrounded by military officials.

Understand what's going on in the world

Get the best of The Conversation in your inbox

Life and art

Harry Kane wins Ballon d'Or – a victory for sportsmanship over celebrity

Josh Bland, University of Cambridge

Born in Aussie or NZ, playing for the Pacific: the startling demographics of the Rugby League World Cup

Jesse Whitehead, University of Waikato and Polly Atatoa Carr, University of Waikato

The upside of untidiness: why a little mess can be good for your home

Hokusai’s Great Wave is one of 46 prints of Mount Fuji – seeing them together changes everything

Environment

Indonesia’s El Niño-driven peat fires are choking the region – and releasing centuries of stored carbon

Gareth Roberts, University of Southampton and Martin Wooster, King's College London

People riding scooters through reddish haze

300 glaciers have disappeared from the American West since the mid-20th century – the survivors have a few things in common

Scientists on skis stand on a glacier with mountains in the background.

Africa’s rhinos often get the spotlight – but Indonesia’s two rhino species are far closer to extinction

A female Sumatran rhino with her newly-born calf, surrounded by forest.

Rising CO₂ is making African savanna grasses grow more – what this means for grazing, fire and carbon storage

A grassy patch of land with blue skies and white fluffy clouds behind it.

Health

Why old dogs might be able to teach Alzheimer’s researchers new tricks

Julie Moreno, Colorado State University

Close-up of dog's face as a person cups its jaw with their hands and kisses the top of its head.

One in eight cancers are likely caused by an infection worldwide – new study

Bangladesh has lost 900 children to measles – a warning to other countries where vaccine rates have slipped

A child receives treatment after showing measles-like symptoms at DNCC Dedicated Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 18 September 2026.

The International Olympic Committee wants mental health screening in elite sports. Here’s why

An athlete holds his head in his hands, surrounded by teammates.

Science and Technology

Traces of dinosaur blood found in world-first discovery

Kliti Grice, Curtin University

Anthropic’s record US$2 trillion stock market listing highlights the growing risks for all of us

A laptop keyboard and Claude on App Store displayed on a phone screen

What animal bones in Malawi teach us about the social lives of people long ago

Alex Bertacchi, University of Kiel and Jessica C. Thompson, Yale University

A vertical peak of bare rock rises from an otherwise mostly flat landscape

From elite spies to ‘gig-economy’ operatives: the changing face of Russian sabotage

A Russian military operative analyses surveillance data on a laptop.

Business and economy

How ‘egalitarian’ Sweden became more comfortable with wealth

aerial view of island chain and assembled yachts off the coast of stockholm, sweden.

The idea of the ‘company man’ was forged decades ago. Its problems still haunt leaders today

A group of businessmen laughing while looking at a chart

These 3 charts show female-dominated jobs are actually the most exposed to AI

Generic stock view of an empty office with desk and chairs and monitors.

Why you should live your life like an accountant – and how you probably already do

Jack Campbell, Dublin City University

Man wearing glasses in suit sitting at desk holding pen and paper in front of abacus

The Conversation Weekly Podcast

Australia’s ‘barking mad’ bet on nuclear submarines – the AUKUS deal five years on