The Latest Breaking News from The Conversation

It seems to come earlier every year: publishers and dictionaries choosing their “word of the year”. Initially intended to sum up a meaningful trend or feeling that represents the past year, the exercise is now becoming a competition to identify and highlight fashionable slang.

Many critically acclaimed video games were launched in 2024, but the judges of the video game industry’s biggest awards ceremony didn’t have a difficult job crowning the year’s best. Of the five games nominated, none managed to capture fans and critics as much as Team Asobi’s Astro Bot, which celebrates…

On my way to the Scottish Highlands for the first time, I was mesmerised by the beauty of the landscapes and struck by its resemblance to the North American wilderness, albeit without the wildlife.

As the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held his carefully stage-managed annual phone-in and press conference to answer questions from journalists and ordinary Russians, EU leaders were hosting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels at their final meeting of the year. Unsurprisingly, the war in Ukraine loomed large at both events.

Although the gender pay gap is not as big as it used to be, women still earn less than men. In the UK, it currently stands at 7% for full-time workers.

Valencia, a city and province in south-east Spain, became synonymous with disaster in October 2024 when floods killed at least 231 people. Extreme rainfall will happen more often as the climate warms and the cost to coastal cities like Valencia is expected to reach up to US$63 billion (£50 billion)…

Billionaires played an unprecedented role in the 2024 US elections, with 150 of the world’s wealthiest families contributing nearly US$2 billion (£1.57 billion) trying to influence the outcome. This included donations from the likes of Elon Musk (US$133 million for the Republicans) and Michael Bloomberg (US$45 million for the Democrats).

With the passage of Amendment 79 in November 2024, Colorado voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution. The amendment solidifies the state’s status as one of the most liberal in the country on the issue.

I’m a Gilded Age historian who has drawn parallels between our current moment and the late 19th century, two periods known for staggering economic inequality and sweeping technological change.

“I am definitely not following the news anymore,” one patient told me when I asked about her political news consumption in the weeks before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

After Macy’s announced in November 2023 its plans to close approximately 150 locations across the United States, some Philadelphians fretted – not so much about the fate of the Center City department store, but about a local treasure housed inside.