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Every morning in Miami, our fieldwork begins the same way. Fresh Cuban coffee and pastelitos – delicious Latin American pastries – fuel our team for another day of evolutionary detective work. Here we’re tracking evolution in real time, measuring natural selection as it happens in a community of Caribbean lizards.

As an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Georgia Tech, my journey with these remarkable reptiles has taken me far from my London roots. The warm, humid air of Miami feels natural now, a far cry from the gray, drizzly and lizard-free streets of my British upbringing.

Our research takes place on a South Florida island roughly the size of an American football field – assuming we’re successful in sidestepping the American crocodiles that bask in the surrounding lake. We call it Lizard Island, and it’s a special place.

Here, since 2015, we’ve been conducting evolutionary research on five species of remarkable lizards called anoles. By studying the anoles, our team is working to understand one of biology’s most fundamental questions: How does natural selection drive evolution in real time?

Each May, coinciding with the start of the breeding season, we visit Lizard Island to capture, study and release all adult anoles – a population that fluctuates between 600 to 1,000. For the entire summer, female anoles lay a single egg every seven to 10 days. By October, a whole new generation has emerged.

The anoles of Lizard Island, clockwise from top left: Cuban knight anole, Hispaniolan bark anole, American green anole, Cuban brown anole, Puerto Rican crested anole.
Neil Losin/Day’s Edge Prods.

The secret lives of lizards

Anoles aren’t early risers, so we don’t expect much activity until the Sun strengthens around 9:30 a.m.; this gives us time to prepare our equipment. Our team catches anoles with telescopic fishing poles fitted with little lassos, which we use to gently pluck the lizards off branches and tree trunks. Ask any lizard biologist about their preferred lasso material and you’ll spark the age-old debate: fishing line or dental floss? For what it’s worth, we recently converted – we’re now on Team Fishing Line.

Picture yourself as an anole on Lizard Island. Your life is short – typically just one year – and filled with daily challenges. You need to warm up in the Sun, find enough food to survive, search for a mate, guard your favorite branch from other lizards and avoid being eaten by a predator.

Like human beings, each lizard is unique. Some have longer legs, others stronger jaws, and all behave slightly differently. These differences could determine who survives and who doesn’t; who has the most babies and who doesn’t.

These outcomes drive evolution by natural selection, the process where organisms with traits better suited to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more. These advantageous traits are then passed on to future generations, gradually changing the species over time. However, scientists still have an incomplete understanding of exactly how each of these features predicts life’s winners and losers in the wild.

To understand how species evolve, researchers need to crack open this black box of evolution and investigate natural selection in wild populations. My colleagues and I are doing this by studying the anoles in exquisite detail. Last year was especially exciting: We ran what we called the Lizard Olympics.

Catching an anole with a lizard lasso. Look closely – the anole blends in quite well with the tree.
Neil Losin/Day’s Edge Prods.

Tiny fishing poles

As the morning heat builds, we spot our first lizards: Cuban brown anoles near to the ground, and the mottled scales of Hispaniolan bark anoles just above them. Further up, in the leafy tree canopies, are American green anoles, and the largest species, the Cuban knight anole, about the size of a newborn kitten.

In 2018, a new challenger entered the arena – the Puerto Rican crested anole, a species already present in Miami but one that hadn’t yet made it to Lizard Island. Its arrival provided us with an unexpected opportunity to study how species may evolve in real time in response to a new neighbor.

Catching these agile athletes requires patience and precision. With our modified fishing poles, we carefully loop the dental floss over their heads. Each capture site is marked with bright pink tape and a unique ID number; all lizards are then transported to our field laboratory just a short walk away.

In the laboratory, Stroud weighs a green anole.
Neil Losin/Day’s Edge Prods.

The Lizard Olympics

Here, the real Olympic trials begin. Every athlete goes through a comprehensive evaluation. Our portable X-ray machine reveals their skeletal structure, and high-resolution scans capture the intricate details of their feet. This is particularly critical: Like their gecko cousins, anoles possess remarkable sticky toes that allow them to cling to smooth surfaces such as leaves and maybe even survive hurricanes.

We also measure the shape and sharpness of their claws, as both features are crucial for these tree climbers. DNA samples provide a genetic fingerprint for each individual, allowing us to map family relationships across the island and see which is the most reproductively successful.

A portable X-ray machine takes detailed measurements of a lizard’s skeleton.
James Stroud

The performance trials are where things get interesting. Imagine a tiny track meet for lizards. Using high-speed video cameras, we precisely test how fast each lizard runs, and using specialist equipment we measure how hard it bites and how strong it grips rough branches and smooth leaves.

These aren’t arbitrary measurements – each represents a potential evolutionary advantage. Fast lizards might better escape predators. Strong bites might determine winners in territorial disputes. Excellent grip is crucial for tree canopy acrobatics.

Each measurement helps us answer fundamental questions about evolution: Do faster lizards live longer? Do stronger biters produce more offspring? These are the essential metrics of evolution by natural selection.

The identification code lets researchers track the lizard’s growth and survival.
Neil Losin/Day’s Edge Prods.

As afternoon approaches, the team relocates each piece of bright pink tape and returns the corresponding lizard to the exact branch it was caught on. The anoles now sport two tiny 3-millimeter tags with a unique code that lets us identify it when we recapture it in future research trips, along with a small dot of white nail polish so we know not to catch it immediately after we let it go.

At 8:30 p.m., with the Lizard Olympics done for the day, we return to the island donning headlamps. Night brings a different perspective. Some of the most wily lizards are difficult to catch when fully charged by the midday Sun, so our nocturnal jaunts allow us to find them while they sleep. However, it’s often a race against time. Hungry lizard-eating corn snakes are also out hunting, trying to find the anoles before we do. As we wrap up another 16-hour day around 11:30 p.m., the team shares stories of the night.

Should a snake climb along a branch where a baby anole sleeps, the lizard will wake up and drop to the ground to escape.
James Stroud

Evolution on the island

Now spanning 10 years, 10 generations and five species, our Lizard Island dataset represents one of the longest-running active studies of its kind in evolutionary biology. By tracking which individuals survive and reproduce, and linking their success to specific physical traits and performance abilities, we’re documenting natural selection with unprecedented detail.

So far we have uncovered two fascinating patterns. Initially, it didn’t pay to be different on Lizard Island. Anoles with very average shapes and sizes lived longer compared with those that are slightly different. But when the crested anoles arrived, everything changed: Suddenly, brown anoles with longer legs had a survival advantage.

Anoles communicate with their dewlap, an expandable throat fan that signals other lizards.
Jon Suh

The Lizard Olympics is helping us understand why. The larger, more aggressive crested anoles are forcing brown anoles to spend more time on the ground, where those with longer legs might run faster to escape predators – allowing them to better survive and pass on their long-leg genes, while shorter-legged anoles might be eaten before they can reproduce.

By watching natural selection unfold in response to environmental changes, rather than inferring it from fossil records, we’re providing cutting-edge evidence for evolutionary processes that Charles Darwin could only theorize about.

These long days of observation are slowly revealing one of biology’s most fundamental processes. Every lizard we catch, every measurement we take adds another piece to our understanding of how species adapt and evolve in an ever-changing world. Läs mer…

Lula “Mae” Reeves, one of the first Black women in Philly to own her own business, created one-of-a-kind and custom hats for celebrities, socialites, professionals and churchgoing women in downtown Philadelphia for over 50 years.

She made hats for everyday wear, hats for special occasions, and magnificent “showstoppers,” as she called them. Her celebrity clients included Eartha Kitt, Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and members of the du Pont and Annenberg families.

A pink cartwheel-style hat with flowers from Mae’s Millinery.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift from Mae Reeves and her children Donna Limerick and William Mincey Jr., CC BY-NC-SA

I am a museum specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution and an expert in costumes, textiles and millinery fashion.

In 2009, I was called upon to visit Mae’s Millinery, her former store at 41 N. 60th St. in West Philadelphia, to help select objects for a new permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian that recreates Reeves’ shop and showcases some of her stunning designs.

I also met Reeves in person for the first time that day at a nursing home in Darby, Pennsylvania. She was 96 years old.

A few years later, I returned to Philadelphia to attend Reeves’s 100th birthday celebration. It was during that visit that I learned, to my surprise and intrigue, that Reeves had also used her millinery shop as a polling station.

Mae Reeves, pictured in first row on right, poses with models wearing her designs.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift from Mae Reeves and her children Donna Limerick and William Mincey Jr., CC BY-NC-SA

Black velvet turban on display

During my first meeting with Reeves, she shared her memory of the first hat she created after she opened her 60th Street store, a beautifully decorated shop, in 1941. Her original millinery shop was at 1630 South St., and many of her famous clients followed her to the new location in West Philadelphia.

Reeves recalled creating a black velvet turban that she placed in the window. A young woman walked by on her way home from work and was enthralled. The woman returned to try it on and, Reeves told me, visualized the impressive fashion statement she would make. She purchased the turban for about US$20 – roughly $430 in today’s dollars.

To open her West Philly millinery store, Reeves had secured a $500 business loan in 1940 from the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust. The Black-owned bank catered to Philadelphia’s African American community, as most white-owned banks refused to loan money to Black customers.

Reeves was proud to tell me how she had secured the loan entirely on her own – with no co-signer – by maintaining a reputation of “good standing” and having sound business plans. She was also extremely proud that she “paid back all of the loan.”

A business card for Mae’s Millinery in West Philadelphia.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift from Mae Reeves and her children Donna Limerick and William Mincey Jr., CC BY-NC-SA

From millinery shop to polling station

To transition her millinery shop to a polling station, Reeves told me that she and her second husband, Joel Reeves, who sold newspaper advertisements, would remove the beautiful furniture and decorative items to accommodate the polling machines.

To get the word out about the designated polling station, the couple distributed handbills and hung posters throughout the neighborhood. Reeves offered plates of food to politicians who stopped by and cake to the voters. She wanted to create a safe and welcoming polling place while also emphasizing the importance that Black Philadelphians exercise their right to vote.

Reeves was also a longtime member of the Freedom Day Association, a group formed in 1941 in Philadelphia to ensure younger African Americans understand the importance of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S; and the 15th Amendment, which prohibits denying any citizen’s right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

The association was started by Maj. Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former U.S. Army paymaster, educator, politician, civil rights advocate and founder of the Citizens and Southern Bank – the bank that had offered May that $500 loan. Reeves admired Wright, who had been born into slavery, and considered him a close friend and business associate. She kept a copy of his portrait photo on display in her millinery shop.

A turquoise turban-style hat with brooch made by Mae Reeves.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift from Mae Reeves and her children Donna Limerick and William Mincey Jr., CC BY-NC-SA

Barbecues and beach trips

In March 2025, I spoke with Reeves’ daughter, Donna Limerick, by phone. She told me Reeves had been a member and president of the 60th Street Business Association, which promoted good business practices, shared marketing strategies and encouraged support for other businesses in the association.

Reeves was also active in the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, a Black trade group sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women. The group’s purpose was to promote Black women in the fashion industry by developing their business skills and fostering collaboration and access to mainstream fashion. The Philadelphia chapter was formed in 1950.

Despite her many professional and civic commitments, Reeves also took care of those closest to her. Limerick shared with me how her parents would take neighborhood kids to their summer home in Mizpah, New Jersey. They would ply the children with delicious homemade meals and desserts, organize regular barbecues and beach trips, and teach the kids to fish.

Reeves passed away in 2016 at the age of 104. I hope her story encourages others – as it has encouraged me – to be brave enough to dream; to be diligent enough to actualize your dreams; to be mindful to support your community; to be a person of grace; and to be careful to always expect, seek and give joy.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia. Läs mer…

The legal profession accounts for approximately 20 million jobs worldwide, including 12 million lawyers, around 4 million paralegals, and 4 million operational and administrative workers. Additionally, it involves another 14 million jobs within its broader ecosystem, encompassing notaries, translators, and other related professionals.

Law, like many other professions, is undergoing a major transformation with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Law firms use both open AI tools and specialised platforms tailored for legal services. Specialist tools provide precision, real-time updates, and legal-specific functionalities that generic AI tools do not.

A recent survey found that, out of 333 respondents, 210 law firms reported using AI in their operations. Larger firms are leading this shift: among firms with over 500 lawyers, 100% reported AI integration, whereas smaller firms (those with 1–100 lawyers) showed a much lower adoption rate, with 68% not yet using AI. AI use is most prevalent in Europe (including the UK) and the US, as well as among firms operating in multiple jurisdictions.

The report identifies several primary challenges associated with AI implementation in the legal profession:

Developing AI policies and governance frameworks to foster trust, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.
Rigorous testing and ongoing assessment of AI tools before and during their deployment.
Training lawyers and administrative staff to effectively integrate AI into their workflows.
Addressing client concerns regarding the use of data for AI training.
Ensuring compliance with legal and ethical obligations.

The speed of AI adoption in the legal sector varies, leading to disparities in legal service quality and access to justice. However, legal education institutions cannot afford to wait for all these challenges to be resolved – they must actively contribute to shaping the future of AI in the profession.

Read more:
Lawyers are rapidly embracing AI: here’s how to avoid an ethical disaster

Legal education and AI

While law firms and legal departments are rapidly integrating AI, many law schools have been slow to adapt. Some AI tools are not even accessible to academic institutions yet, creating a gap between legal training and professional realities.

For legal education to evolve and prepare students for an AI-intensive profession where many tasks will be automated, law schools can integrate AI at three different levels:

Content: Adding courses on AI ethics and regulation in different regions is important, but it is only the first step – law curricula need to be completely overhauled to align with an increasingly AI-driven profession.

They must also be analysed to determine the how each legal discipline will be impacted by AI. Constitutional law, for instance, will not be affected in the same ways as commercial and labour law.
Methodology: Teaching staff must make deliberate choices about when students are allowed to use AI tools or not. They should also design debates and assignments in the knowledge that students will likely use AI in the way legal professionals increasingly do. Both faculty and students should use AI to make learning more efficient (more accurate feedback, research, and so on), and treat it as an ally rather than an adversary.
Skills: Far from just learning statutes and codes by rote, legal education is about developing students’ skills. AI should be a tool that enhances legal analysis, and its proper use should strengthen students’ ability to evaluate different perspectives, construct rigorous arguments, and make well-founded decisions.

The case method has traditionally been used by many law schools around the world to make students “think like a lawyer”. It is time to review this methodology, which was first implemented by Professor Langdell at Harvard Law School in 1870.

Law schools must become centres of innovation, equipping students not only to work with AI but to lead its ethical and responsible implementation in the legal profession.

Read more:
We asked ChatGPT for legal advice – here are five reasons why you shouldn’t

Balancing AI with human expertise

AI will not replace lawyers, but it will change the nature of legal work, requiring professionals who can navigate new types of transactions, regulatory landscapes, and legal conflicts.

As society becomes more complex and unpredictable, legal expertise will be in higher demand. A society increasingly driven by AI and automation will probably need more, not fewer, lawyers to interpret and shape the evolving legal framework. However, to fully realise AI’s potential for accessibility and efficiency in the legal profession, universities must redesign their curricula to ensure future lawyers can use these technologies ethically and effectively.

The greatest challenge for legal education today is striking a balance between leveraging AI for efficiency and preserving the core skills that define legal expertise. Law schools must take proactive steps to ensure that future lawyers are not only AI-savvy, but also capable of critical judgement and ethical decision making. The future of legal education – and indeed the legal profession itself – depends on how well this balance is achieved. Läs mer…

Canadians are currently learning tough lessons about national security thanks to United States President Donald Trump’s repeated annexation threats.

It’s clear that American proclamations of support for universal human rights, national sovereignty and a rules-based international order can vanish with a change of leadership. These ideals, though tarnished by some past U.S. actions, have now been replaced by the predatory dictum known as “might makes right.”

Although it seems unthinkable that Trump will invade Canada, we live in an increasingly unstable world and Canadians need to be prepared for the worst. In the midst of a federal election campaign, party leaders need to present innovative ideas to fight Trump and potential American aggression.

Read more:
An American military invasion of Canada? No longer unthinkable, but highly unlikely

More than military defence

Unfortunately, the common assumption is that national security depends wholly on military strength and alliances. But the emergency Canada is now facing demands a rethink.

Of course, Canada would not dispense with its military. It’s needed, especially to defend Canada’s northern frontier. However, Canada cannot match the U.S. in military power, nor would anything be achieved if it broke its commitments to the United Nations’ Non-Proliferation Treaty — a pact designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons — by acquiring nukes.

Either of these tactics would be suicidal. Canada’s real strength is its unity and institutions.

Canadians can paralyze military might through civil, non-violent resistance. Familiarity with these techniques could empower Canadian citizens to preserve a vibrant democracy.

Non-violent resistance can not only a more effective defence, but also much less devastating in terms of lives lost and property destroyed. Responding to an invasion with military force would only mean widespread casualties and the destruction of Canada’s largest cities.

Canada should therefore aim to subvert the will of the occupying force, not drive it, through armed defence, to fear, hatred and further violence.

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces stand at attention during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Montréal on Nov. 11, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

What is civil defence?

Non-violent resistance involves using a country’s citizens and institutions to deter an invasion, and if that fails, to defeat and drive out the invaders. It has a long history both as a spiritual practice and a strategic weapon.

Civil defence, however, only emerged as a strategic concept in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a system of deterrence and defence that relies on a united and resolute citizenry employing only non-violent tactics.

An early American proponent was the Albert Einstein Institution’s Gene Sharp, an American political scientist. Recent advocates from around the world — Srdja Popovic, Erica Chenoworth and Michael Beer — follow in Sharp’s footsteps.

Civil defence is not merely a theory. There is a long history of improvised civilian resistance to invasions, most recently in Ukraine.

Ukrainians undertook many inspirational acts of non-violent resistance following the Russian invasion in 2022. They blocked tanks and convoys, berated or cajoled Russian soldiers to undermine their resolve, gave the wrong directions to Russian convoys, refused to co-operate and mounted spontaneous protests in occupied towns. But then the bloody carnage on both sides overwhelmed civilian defence.

Ukrainian protesters hold banners against Russia in Lviv, Ukraine, in August 2022.
(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Countries that include Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Germany and Lithuania have institutionalized civil defence at various times. In Canada, civil defence was part of the mandate of Public Safety Canada during the Cold War. The idea then faded, being replaced by emergency management.

Public Safety Canada protected Canadians from both human-made and natural disasters. The agency, now the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, should be resuscitated. The toll being exacted by climate disasters is reason enough.

Making Canada ungovernable

Non-violent resistance involves determined citizens deterring an aggressor by signalling that the targeted country is united in opposition to a takeover.

A potential aggressor fears contagion from the democratic ethos of these citizens. If invaded, the civilians defeat the invaders by rendering their society ungovernable by the aggressor.

When the Warsaw Pact army invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” in 1968, the commanders soon learned that tanks and heavily armed soldiers were useless against unarmed civilians who refused to comply. The country was unruleable. Soviet troops were also infected with the democratic spirit and had to be rotated out of the country. It took several months and concessions from the Soviet Union before order could be restored.

A Soviet tank and armored personnel carrier move into downtown Prague as part of the occupation of the Czech capital and other parts of the country in August 1968.
(AP Photo)

The invader cannot consolidate control if citizens and their institutions refuse to comply with its rule. The tactics involve a complete refusal to co-operate with the occupying force along with open defiance.

That means that governments at all levels in the invaded nation continue to supply only basic services: clean water, electricity and policing, for example. Governments resign and civil servants find ways to subvert every order issued by the invader.

Crowds fill urban squares in silent or derisory defiance of orders, making it apparent to all — the occupiers, the dictator’s audience back home, less committed citizens and global observers — who are the true purveyors of violence against non-violent people

Throughout the occupation, citizens and non-governmental organizations focus on subverting the loyalty and morale of the occupying troops and functionaries and rallying international support.

People gather outside of the U.S embassy in protest of President Trump in Vancouver B.C., on March 4, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

In Canada’s case, the long history of friendship with Americans would likely mean that the morale of the occupiers would be low. The aim is to encourage defections by soldiers and functionaries, and erode the support base of the dictator. This erosion of support could lead to the overthrow of the leader, or at least to his concoction of a compromise to cover a retreat.

Attracting international support to Canada’s cause would not be a challenge. Trump has already alienated most of humankind and foreign governments during his first weeks in office.

Obstacles

Non-violent resistance is most effective with nation-wide training, organization and leadership. The national government is best equipped to provide the facilities. Training of volunteers could include responding to natural disasters and emergencies, as well as implementing a civil defence strategy.

Yet partisan divides and apathy make such nationwide training difficult. It would likely be viewed with suspicion by right-wing populist forces in this era of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Read more:
How conspiracy theories polarize society and provoke violence

Apathy might also be a problem.

These considerations suggest that top-down, apolitical training in civilian defence may not work. If so, training and organization should be the goal of as many existing civil society associations as possible: churches, synagogues, temples, civil rights groups, unions, Indigenous rights organizations, peace advocates and climate groups, for example.

The manual authored by Michael Beer, the longtime director of the Nonviolence International non-governmental organization, includes more than 300 tactics. Widespread training and organization can not only deter aggression but ensure countries remain free of tyrants.

Canada’s leverage

Amid the ongoing threats against Canadian sovereignty, Canada is an ideal candidate for effective civil defence. Although it might be unlikely Trump will order a military invasion of Canada, a united country capable of non-violent resistance decreases the risk.

Canada cannot match the U.S. in firepower or economic strength. But it shares with America a language, a history of common struggles, myriad cross-border personal relationships and basic democratic values still considered important by many Americans, if not Trump.

All of these factors give Canada considerable leverage. Läs mer…

It is hard nowadays to find topics on which people agree. Ironically, though, all agree on one point: that disagreement has reached peak levels. People are united in recognising that society has become polarised.

Why has this happened? In a new study, I examined which characteristics of a country fuel polarisation – and whether economics is a factor. I found that poorer countries such as Ethiopia, Myanmar, Guatemala and Zimbabwe are indeed usually more polarised than richer countries. In fact, the poorer the nation, the greater the division on attitudes towards the economy, gender equality and immigration.

This helps explain why poorer countries are also more vulnerable to revolutions and civil wars. They are more divided and slide more easily into actual armed conflict. It is not a coincidence that communist revolutions, which are often sparked by economic polarisation, have never occurred in rich countries, but in those at an early stage of industrialisation – think of Russia in 1917, China in 1949 and Ethiopia in 1974.

However, people in rich countries such as France, Germany and the US report more polarised opinions on abortion, divorce, suicide and homosexuality. It is social norms, rather than economic views, that divide. Anyone who has paid attention to the culture wars raging in the west can attest to this. Think of the anti-abortion stance of evangelical Christians in the US and to the traditional family cherished by European parties like the Alternative for Germany and Brothers of Italy, and compare them with the growing importance of LGBTQ issues among liberals in the west.

Why are rich countries more polarised on social customs? The study shows that people in poor countries have conservative views on these issues – for example, claiming that abortion and divorce are never justified. There is little margin for disagreement in these countries as far as social norms are concerned. By contrast, opinion on social norms in rich countries is split between liberals and conservatives. Conformity pressures are weak on these topics, boosting polarisation.

Education may also play a role. I found that poorly educated people prefer redistribution and state intervention in the economy more than the highly educated. This divergence is greater in poor countries, partially explaining why attitudes on the economy are more polarised in poor countries.

Meanwhile, my study found that highly educated people profess more liberal opinions on social norms than the poorly educated, but the divergence is greater in richer countries. In other words, in poor countries education is more divisive on economic attitudes, while in rich countries it is more divisive on social norms.

Inequality and polarisation

A 2021 study found that polarisation is higher in countries where the income distribution is more unequal. Interestingly, this applies across various domains, including opinions about the economy, immigration and social norms. This adds another important layer to the picture. It suggests that the increase in polarisation is linked to the increase in economic inequality over the past few decades.

Wealthier nations polarise along social lines.
norbu gyachung/unsplash

Some researchers predict that, as people get richer, polarisation over social norms is destined to fade in the west. In their view, the west is polarised because the population is gradually shifting from a conservative to a liberal stance on social customs. In this view, our current polarisation is essentially an epochal shift. Economic prosperity, the argument goes, will ultimately lead western societies to converge to liberal views, deflating polarisation.

There are two reasons to be cautious about such an assessment. First, the multiple crises faced today by the world, and by the west in particular, may stunt economic prosperity, implying that people may continue to be divided on social norms rather than converging on liberal views.

Second, there is no evidence that economic inequality is going down in the west, and as the research shows, this is not a promising sign in terms of decreasing polarisation. So, citizens of western countries better get used to culture wars for the foreseeable future. Läs mer…

Tax cuts are the centrepiece of the Albanese government’s cost-of-living budget bid for re-election in May. The surprise tax measures mean taxpayers will receive an extra tax cut of up to A$268 from July 1 next year and up to $536 every year from July 1 2027.

Delivering his fourth budget on Tuesday night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the tax relief as “modest”. It will cost the budget $3 billion in 2026-27, $6.7 billion in 2027-28 and just over $17 billion over the forward estimates.

From July 1 2026 the 16% tax rate – which applies to taxable income between $18,201 and $45,000 – will be reduced to 15%. From July 1 2027, this will be further reduced to 14%.

The opposition immediately declared a fight over tax, saying it would oppose the budget tax cuts.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor declared the Coalition would not support the budget tax changes, saying they “do nothing to address the collapse in living standards under Labor.”

“Seventy cents a day, in a year’s time, is not going to help address the financial stress Australian families are currently under. This is an election bribe by a weak prime minister,” Taylor said.

While cost of living is at the heart of the budget, apart from the tax changes, almost all the other measures have been announced. These include about $8.5 billion to strengthen Medicare (mostly to boost bulk billing) and $150 per household to extend energy relief until the end of the year. The government has also previously announced measures on cheaper medicines and improved access to childcare.

The opposition has so far refused to say what a Coalition government would do on tax. It will now be under pressure to quickly produce a counter tax policy for the election, which is likely to be called this weekend.

Chalmers presented a cautiously optimistic picture on the economy, while stressing the uncertain international times ahead.

“Our economy is turning the corner,” he said. “This budget is our plan for a new generation of prosperity in a new world of uncertainty.”

“It’s a plan to help finish the fight against inflation [and] rebuild living standards.”

Read more:
A ’modest’ tax bribe, delivered against dark clouds of Trump-induced uncertainty

After delivering two budget surpluses, this budget has deficits for the foreseeable future.

This financial year’s deficit is estimated at $27.6 billion, rising to $42.1 billion in 2025-26 (in the December 2024 update it was expected to be $46.9 billion). The cumulative deficits across the forward estimates reach $179.5 billion.

The budget predicts 335,000 in net migration in 2024-25, which is a fall of 100,000 from the previous year. It projects 260,000 for 2025-26.

Chalmers described the global economy as “volatile and unpredictable” with “storm clouds” gathering. “Trade disruptions are rising China’s growth is slowing, war is still raging in Europe and a ceasefire in the Middle East is breaking down,” he told parliament.

“Treasury expects the global economy to grow 3.25% for the next three years, its slowest since the 1990s. It’s already forecasting the two biggest economies in the world will slow next year – with risks weighing more heavily on both,” he said.

Chalmers said Australia was “neither uniquely impacted nor immune” from the international pressures. “But we are among the best placed to navigate them.”

Australia’s economic growth is forecast to increase from 1.5% this financial year to 2.5% in 2026-27, with the private sector “resuming its rightful place as the main driver of this growth.”

Read more:
The 2025 budget has few savings and surprises but it also ignores climate change

Unemployment is projected to peak at 4.25%, lower than previously anticipated. Employment and real wage growth will be stronger and inflation was coming down faster, Chalmers said.

“Treasury now expects inflation to be sustainably back in the [2%-3%] target band six months earlier than anticipated,” he said. “The worst is now behind us and the economy is heading in the right direction.”

Chalmers told his Tuesday afternoon conference the budget is a “story of Australian exceptionalism”.

He called the tax cuts “top up tax cuts” that built on the recalibrated stage 3 tax cuts. He claimed the average household with two earners would save $15,000 over four years through a combination of all these tax cuts and energy bill relief.

Read more:
Tax cuts are coming, but not soon, in a cautious budget

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry attacked the budget, saying it “lacks strategy and vision.”

ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar said “This is a budget which seems preoccupied with the short term, lacking a longer-term strategy to drive stronger economic growth by strengthening productivity and competitiveness,” Läs mer…

What’s the theme?

Many budget measures are aimed at easing cost of living. The headline announcement is tax cuts: everyone will get one, but not until July 1 2026. Other major spends are on Medicare, medicines and energy bill rebates. If this seems familiar, it’s because the government has already announced most of these measures before budget day.

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Key announcements:

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