news, new scholarship & more from around the world
By the end of the month, the Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ), founded by two former members of the SS, Anton Reinthaller and Friedrich Peter, is expected to form an anti-immigration, pro-Russian government. It will cement a new hard-right axis across Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and more importantly, Italy, where step by step the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni (who met Keir Starmer on Monday), is accused of taking control of the press and the judiciary.
The United States is a leading consumer of beef with only Argentina and Zimbabwe consuming more per capita. That’s according to 2022 data, the latest available, from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Americans account for about 83 pounds of beef per year, per person. And while that number is lower than in recent decades, it’s still four times more beef than the global average.
My research examines the role of perceived threats to national status in domestic and international politics. I ran an experiment in March 2024 with 1,079 Americans, aimed at trying to understand how their concerns about national decline affect their foreign policy opinions.
Millions of Americans are endangered by extreme heat due to federal policies that steer billions of dollars away from the nation’s hottest regions…. The programs treat extreme heat as a discomfort rather than today’s deadliest weather events by denying millions of people federal aid to cool their homes and barring homeowners from using tax credits and government-backed mortgages to pay for window air conditioners.
What can pull people on opposite sides of the political spectrum to cooperate with one another, if they cannot agree on what is factually correct?
The Liberation Health Model is a clinical framework that acknowledges the sociopolitical factors that contribute to a person’s mental health challenges. The model posits that the problems of individuals and families can only be understood with a rooting in the political, economic and social conditions of the person’s context.
In the face of shrinking populations, many of the world’s major economies are trying to engineer higher birth rates. Policymakers from South Korea, Japan and Italy, for example, have all adopted so-called “pronatalist” measures in the belief that doing so will defuse a demographic time bomb. These range from tax breaks and housing benefits for couples who have children to subsidies for fertility treatments.
The Chat-Tea Train initiative, which started in October 2023, was led by Shona McEleney, a Social Work Assistant based at Glendermott Medical Practice.
At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.
At least 50 U.S. lawmakers or members of their households are financially invested in companies that make military weapons and equipment—even as these firms “receive hundreds of billions of dollars annually from congressionally-crafted Pentagon appropriations legislation” a report published Thursday revealed.
The study by Heriot-Watt University and funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation looked at those with No Recourse to Public Funds – those subject to immigration control – or other restricted eligibility for state support. They include asylum seekers, people who have arrived on spousal or student vias, and people from the European Economic Area who cannot access housing and welfare benefits after Brexit, even if they have lived and worked in the UK for many years. Above: Refugees from Syria arrive at the train station in Dortmund, Germany
Migrants wait in line for clothes and supplies in a makeshift camp in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico
The Slovenian Democratic Party manifesto announced: ‘We must protect our European way of life by preserving our Christian values and fundamental principles’
“The truth is not a lot of governments are moving as proactively as the one in Thailand,” Suen Yiu-tung, Associate Professor of Gender Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Above: Participants march during the Bangkok Pride Parade in Thailand’s capital on June 1, 2024.
A strong belief in their own academic ability can help children from low-income families defy the odds and achieve academic success, according to new research from Trinity College Dublin.
Proponents of white Christian nationalism continue to seek a religiously run, white-dominated government. A recent PPRI study also found that white Christian nationalists were twice as likely to support political violence. Above: Supporters of Donald Trump attacking the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
If Senator JD Vance of Ohio had a moral compass, a shred of decency or a belief in anything other than his own ambition and will-to-power, he would resign his Senate seat effective immediately, leave the presidential race and retire from public life, following a mournful apology for his ethical transgressions.
Aberlour Children’s Charity joined with Govan Law Centre, urging politicians to make transformational changes to the way public debt is collected in Scotland to help end child poverty.
NHS Digital figures show 30,030 under-18s were in contact with mental health services at the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board. This was up from 20,170 in June 2019, the latest comparable period before the pandemic, and means the number of children receiving mental health support in the area has risen by nearly half in the last five years.
University of Southern Indiana social work faculty are thrilled to celebrate the remarkable milestones of the USI Social Work Program—50 years of social work at USI, 40 years of the Bachelor of Social Work degree and 30 years of Master of Social Work (MSW) degree.
Fordham University has filed an objection to 2U’s bankruptcy restructuring, claiming the online program manager was “negligent” and cannot carry out its contract…. “2U’s repeated breaches and its inability to cure them, much less give adequate assurance of future performance, renders 2U unable to assume the agreement with Fordham,” the filing states.
UNISON has written to the charity to say that if its workers back industrial action there could be mass walkouts by Enable Scotland’s social care staff later in the autumn. The union says this is the first strike ballot for over a decade in Scotland’s charitable social care sector and shows the deep dissatisfaction that exists over pay.
All but the poorest pensioners will no longer receive the winter fuel allowance after MPs voted to make cuts to the payments. After a Conservative motion to prevent the change was defeated by 348 votes to 228, only those in receipt of benefits such as pension credit, universal credit or income support will receive the £200-300 payment to help with their heating bills.
It’s time finally to jettison the convenient claim that taxing the rich more would only reduce tax revenue. Above: The consumption patterns of the 1 per cent contribute disproportionately to greenhouse-gas emissions
Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe, has called for urgent employment of 55,000 social services professionals to tackle the ongoing problem of gender-based violence, poverty, and crime due to rising social services demands in the country.
In Ecuador, urban farms have long been a way to create sustainable access to food. But they’re also helping women flourish as gardeners and entrepreneurs. Above: Maria Achiña and Alegria Irua are part of a group of local women who till the land beside the neighborhood’s health clinic.
For college freshmen, the first 6 weeks of the school year are typically a vulnerable time for underage drinking due to social pressures, increased freedom, and other factors. Underage and binge drinking are both serious public health problems and are common on many college campuses and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Binge-drinking rates are higher among college students than their noncollege peers.
During the pandemic, myths and misconceptions about sex flourished, said Jessica Wood, who conducts research about those aged 18 to 24 for the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada. Youth turned to each other for information, Wood said, when classes stopped, sexual and reproductive health clinics closed (new window) and school nurses or social workers weren’t available.
Young says that’s an aim of the rules. “You can expect to see higher payment rates that may make it more attractive for providers to come in-network,” Young says, meaning therapists should be getting paid more for insurance-covered visits. “You can also expect to see insurers investing in networks for providers other than physicians,” Young says. That means insurance might cover more mental health providers than they did before, such as non-MD therapists, social workers, or telehealth services.
The US and Canada are in the middle of an opioid epidemic. But opioid use is a growing problem in other countries too. Opioid-related deaths make up the largest proportion of drug-related fatalities across the UK, with an average of 40 a week. From patients who have become dependent on prescription painkillers to people addicted to newer, more potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes, new treatments for opioid abuse are desperately needed.
According to two psychologists, the field of psychological science has a problem with the concept of self-control. It has named self-control both a “trait” — a key facet of personality involving attributes like conscientiousness, grit and the ability to tolerate delayed gratification — and a “state,” a fleeting condition that can best be described as willpower. These two concepts are at odds with one another and are often confused, the authors report.
Why is there so much job instability? For the most prosperous corporations, it’s not due to a lack of profits, technology, or foreign competition. Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft laid off more than 40,000 workers in 2022-23 despite booking hundreds of billions of dollars in profits. These high-tech behemoths kill jobs because of what “the economy” means to their CEOs and to their major Wall Street investors. Their economy values higher stock prices, which translates into enormous incomes for investors and the company executives who are mostly paid through stock incentives.
When it was time to say goodbye, a group gathered with Pagonis and Rosie for support, including Augusta O’Reilly the college’s veterinary social worker.
Teachers described frequently breaking up hallway fights, handling classroom disruptions, and struggling from a lack of additional staffing support including paraprofessionals, social workers, and security guards.
“Last year, we saw more incidents of emotional distress, student dysregulation, and mental health crisis among students. But, we’ve been sounding the alarm for years,” Chapin said.
Dr. Helen Whincup, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling, who led the study, said, “Despite the numbers of children and families involved, there have been gaps in what is known about children’s pathways through the care system, their route and time to living in permanent families, and what influences outcomes and well-being. Since 2014, the research team have been addressing these gaps by gathering and analyzing data.”
Recruiting new social workers at a council criticised over the death of a six-year-old remains the biggest challenge to improving its children’s services, its director says. Widespread failings were identified at Solihull Council after the killing of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in June 2020 at the hands of his father and his partner.
The damning final report from the Grenfell inquiry lays bare the failings that led to the deadly fire. It has been rightly praised for highlighting the “systematic dishonesty” of companies, decades of government failure and the tenant management organisation’s culture of hostility towards residents. Although broadly well received, there is a glaring omission in the report. It is yet another example of failure to address race and class in the discussion of housing.
A rainstorm passes over Interstate 94 in Morton County, North Dakota… Inclement weather and long travel distances to medical providers present serious access barriers for seniors here, many of whom are not able to drive or are uncomfortable driving in low-visibility conditions.
Striking taxicab drivers wave strike notices in New York, on January 3, 1939.
As Americans all across the country report feeling increasingly pressed by inflated food prices, an explosive new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveals that about 18 million families — or 13.5% of U.S. households — struggled to access enough food, marking the highest levels of food insecurity in nearly a decade.
GMB Scotland organiser Keir Greenaway said changes were not forthcoming from the Scottish government
The NWAG is a group of sector leaders, established by the last government, to “consider drivers of unnecessary workload and to develop solutions so that social workers have enough time to spend working directly with children and families”. The initiative came out of the Conservatives’ Stable Homes, Built on Love children’s social care reform agenda and was based on a recommendation from the 2021-22 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (the “care review”).
Veteran social worker Eddie Tse (above) said he had been a member of the Social Workers Registration Board’s disciplinary committee since 2020, but found his name was absent from the updated list.
Over the past two years, a record number of Venezuelans have come to the U.S. seeking a better life. Instead, they’ve found themselves in communities roiling over how much to help the newcomers — or whether to help at all. Unable to legally work without filing expensive and complicated paperwork, some have found themselves sleeping on the streets — even those who are pregnant.
“We know from the research that people who were closest in physical proximity to the event itself were most affected by it,” says Dr. Mark Macgowan, an Associate Dean and Professor of Social Work in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. His research, teaching, and clinical work focuses on survivors and responders to mass casualty events.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee’s main revenue comes from two casinos: Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Valley River Casino. The casinos bring in the majority of the tribe’s revenue and employ over 4,000 people in Western North Carolina. In recent years, the tribe has focused on diversifying its income – especially after having to briefly close the casinos during the 2020 pandemic.
I was brought on by Vermont Public and VTDigger last year to report on Vermont’s housing crisis. I’ve spent hundreds of hours talking to researchers, politicians, government officials and housing advocates to understand the situation here. And I’ve spent a lot of time with people who don’t have a permanent home right now.
Have we reached an acceptable level of poverty where programmes such as hot meals in schools tinker around the edges of the crisis but still leave families disempowered and struggling? This was among questions raised during End Child Poverty Week — questions given heightened urgency by new ESRI findings showing 250,000 young children and their parents live below the poverty line.
Colchester-based charity Headway Essex provides advice and practical assistance to adults with an acquired brain injury (ABI), as well as their families and carers.