Archive for July 2025

19-year-old Charles Pugsley, left, and Joseph Boam, 22, have secured roles for Reform at Leicestershire county council.

Over the past 50 years, many countries have reported an increase in higher university grades. This includes the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. For example, a 2024 Australian report found a 234% increase in the number of distinction grades awarded to students at the University of Sydney between 2011 and 2021. But are grades improving due to changes in teaching and student performance, or rather is marking generally more lenient to keep students happy?

Activists in Seattle gather signatures to put a social housing initiative on the ballot. In early 2025, voters passed the measure, which implements a payroll tax on high incomes to fund the program.

Callie Jones, a social worker for Mayo Clinic Health System (MCHS) in Mankato, Minnesota, spends her days helping patients and their families navigate their healthcare journeys. She takes pride in living by Mayo Clinic’s primary value — the needs of the patient come first. In early February, however, Callie’s role quickly flipped from social worker to patient when she began experiencing life-threatening symptoms and complications related to her baclofen pump

Necks are alarmingly fragile. Blocking the jugular vein requires less pressure than opening a can of Coke. Evidence suggests that strangulation is now the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40. According to one piece of sobering research, it’s more dangerous than the torture known as waterboarding, because strangulation affects blood flow as well as airflow. Though some cases can cause loss of consciousness in seconds and death in minutes, in others consequences can be delayed by weeks. It can cause a change in voice, difficulty swallowing, incontinence, seizures, problems with memory, decision-making and concentration, depression, anxiety, miscarriage.

Mural by artist Elías Taño in the central El Carmen neighbourhood of Valencia featuring another common anti-tourism slogan: ‘+1 turista = -1 veïna’, One more tourist = one less neighbour.

Abbie documents her recovery on TikTok and gives support to other young people