The Conversation

Drug captagon: What it is, how it links to Syria's fallen Assad regime

The drug has the active ingredient fenethylline and was initially marketed for conditions including ADHD and the sleeping disorder narcolepsy

Hamas finds itself with few options for the day after the Gaza war

Israel's recent ceasefire agreement in Lebanon has further damaged Hamas' prospects by curbing Hezbollah's direct support in Gaza and by extension that of Iran

When AI goes shopping: AI agents promise to lighten your purchasing load

The next evolution in artificial intelligence is AI agents that are capable of autonomous reasoning and multistep problem-solving

Here's why older people are among the biggest users of social media

Facebook remains the most popular among this demographic, serving as a gateway to reconnect with family and long-lost friends

Large language models: How AI behind likes of ChatGPT actually works

LLMs are a particular type of language model, which is a mathematical representation of language based on probabilities

Syrians, in a triumph of hope, turn the page on horrors of Assad's regime

Some analysts trace how Assad's main backers - Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, became too weakened or preoccupied to come to his aid as in the past

Surging global tourism emissions are driven by just 20 countries: Study

The study draws together multiple datasets, including those published directly by 175 governments over 11 years

Arctic faces drastic changes, 2024 report highlights worrying trends

The Arctic of today looks stunningly different from the Arctic of even one to two decades ago

Young people in China evade video game ban, face growing troubles

In China, strict regulations limit children under 18 to just one hour of online gaming on specified days

Syria at crossroads after 54 yrs: Four priorities to avoid yet another war

With Assad's departure, the pressing question now is what lies ahead for Syria's immediate future

Bluesky isn't new Twitter, its resemblance to old one is drawing users

Though media and popular attention has been focused on Bluesky, Threads, which has nearly 300 million users, saw even more new sign-ups in November than Bluesky's entire user base. Nevertheless, even

Trump may cancel Nasa's moon rocket: What it means for Musk & space travel

No official announcements have been made. However, such a move could be in line with previous speculation that the Trump administration could gut Nasa

Canadian news media sue OpenAI for copyright violations, but will they win?

A closer look at how chatbots are trained suggests that OpenAI may be right that 'scraping' isn't copying, but it may not be 'fair dealing' either

Parents should set screen time too for better health, reveals study

But when parents use their smartphones a lot, this is associated with lower responsiveness and attention towards their children, particularly when this screen time occurs during routines such as meal

$368 bn question: Will Trump renegotiate the AUKUS treaty or walk away?

This illustrates the enduring Australian government support for AUKUS and its centrality to our defence planning, as well as the significant concern this enthusiasm is not shared by Trump or his team

Love him or loathe him, Elon Musk is champion, could save US govt a fortune

Musk is not the first American business leader to offer private sector expertise to the world of politics

Study shows severe Covid infection may shrink cancer tumours in mice

The implications of this study extend beyond COVID and cancer. It shows how our immune system can be trained by one type of threat to become more effectiCancerve against another

Italy ban on int'l surrogacy part of push for conservative family values

In the UK, the surrogate is the legal parent at birth but courts can transfer parenthood to the intended parents through a parental order, a surrogacy-specific mechanism designed to be less burdensome

Why did US change its mind on Ukraine firing missiles into Russia? Impact

This has been a source of huge frustration to Ukraine, particularly as it could not use them against bases inside Russia that have launched ceaseless missile and drone assaults on Ukrainian cities

All you need to know about challenges Trump govt will impose on Brazil

Trump's latest win provoked immediate reactions in Brazilian politics