Independent Media Institute

It’s surprising that human infants as young as 10 months may be able to identify social rank. Research suggests that infants learn to distinguish who around them is dominant, using relative body size as a cue. By Marjorie Hecht Experiments by University…

Opposition party wins in South Korea’s election, posing challenges for President Yoon’s governance and foreign relations, notably with China. Despite this, Yoon’s alignment with the U.S. and Japan is likely to continue, amid domestic concerns like inflation and medical strikes.…

One of the foremost accomplishments of the industrial age is the “immense progress against extreme poverty.” “Extreme poverty” is defined by the World Bank as a person living on less than $2.15 per day using 2017 prices. This figure has…

Thailand’s lower house endorses historic same-sex marriage bill, paving the way for southeast Asia’s first marriage equality law amid evolving LGBTQ+ rights landscape. By Pranjal Pandey Legislators in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have decisively endorsed a marriage equality bill,…

The EU’s evolving common defense network is decades in the making, yet remains hindered by its inability to match NATO and apprehension by some member states. By John P. Ruehl At the European Defense Agency’s annual conference in November 2023,…

Flush with my newly minted university degree, I sat down for breakfast with my entrepreneurial grandfather who met me with the question, “So you want to study to be an archaeologist, go to graduate school, how do you plan to…

On March 19, 2024, the head of France’s ground forces, General Pierre Schill, published an article in the newspaper, Le Monde, with a blunt title: “The Army Stands Ready.” Schill cut his teeth in France’s overseas adventures in the Central…

When I began studying human prehistory in the mid-1990s, little did I know that I would witness a paradigm shift in our understanding of when the first humans settled in Western Eurasia firsthand. At the time, I was preparing my master’s thesis…

A short film and narratives project “Stories for Life” seeks to bring about the shift in culture that humanity needs to survive. By April M. Short The stories we do and don’t tell about ourselves and these times in which…

Architects and everyday people are teaching each other to build spaces for community and climate resilience using local, natural materials. By April M. Short The way we build our structures and organize our cities can have a significant impact on…