Archive for September 2025

Until recently, the student-absenteeism epidemic wasn’t a major focus of academic research. The good news is chronic absentees are now viewed through a much different lens than they were in the ’70s, thanks in part to groups like the Canadian School Attendance Partnership, established to correct the dearth of data in this country. We’re now aware that there are different types of absenteeism—skipping, social-anxiety avoidance, parent-excused absences and school-sanctioned absences. Some students are struggling with mental issues or juggling their studies with a part-time job to supplement their family’s income. Others simply exhibit what’s known as “school refusal behaviour”—or just not wanting to go.

Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”

The day the paper was published should have been a moment of pride. Instead, it felt like a quiet erasure. There it was: the data set I had helped shape, the computer scripts I had debugged and refined, the analytical framework I had spent months developing—all neatly embedded in a peer-reviewed journal article. But my name was absent. The feeling of exclusion was painful enough—but what stung more was that I had seen it coming, yet had felt powerless to stop it.

We also have a new generation of children who are increasingly reliant on AI to inform them about the world, but who controls AI? That is why I am calling on parliament to act now, by making it a criminal offence to create or distribute AI-generated content without clearly labelling it. What I am proposing is that all AI-generated content be clearly labelled; that AI-created content carry a permanent watermark; and that failure to comply should carry legal consequences.

Lucy Hayward has called for ongoing compensation for Australian authors whose work has been used to train AI models.

The first week following sweeping changes to anti-vaping laws has seen the authorities apprehend 32 people across Singapore for suspected abuse of etomidate. Above: E-vaporisers and related components were found in an alleged trafficker’s vehicle.

A new approach to economic organization is urgently needed, one that doesn’t rely on endless growth and that respects both human needs and the environment. Degrowth offers such an alternative: an economy grounded in sufficiency, where production focuses on fulfilling needs and promoting wellbeing in harmony with the natural world. Achieving this requires an equitable reduction in our material and energy consumption, bringing us back within the planet’s ecological limits. Under the logic of degrowth, harmful and less-necessary production (fast fashion, planned obsolescence, advertising, weaponry, private jets, luxury yachts, SUVs) is curtailed while necessary production (food, housing, health care services) occurs in alignment with ecology. Research has shown that a solid foundation for a good life for all is possible with a much smaller footprint.

The hearing had originally been scheduled for Kennedy to talk about the president’s health agenda, but in light of a gunman firing on the CDC last month, the FDA’s decision on COVID vaccines and Monarez’s ouster, several senators used it to excoriate Kennedy for weakening the American public health system. Many public officials and health-related organizations have called for Kennedy’s resignation.