After a change of government at the 2023 elections, 2024 saw the new three-party coalition government of National, ACT and New Zealand First advance its policy agenda. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's government continued to unwind many of the policy reforms of the previous Labour government, while making a range of rapid policy decisions. Its economic agenda delivered tax relief to the ‘squeezed middle’ and restored tax advantages to landlords but also cut public service budgets. While this policy programme caused significant consternation, opposition parties did not manage to offer clear alternatives. The government's actions in relation to Māori and the Treaty of Waitangi provoked substantial opposition and set up regular clashes with Māori leaders, most notably with the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill late in the year.

We show that maximal analytic Hardy fields are $\eta_1$ in the sense of Hausdorff. We also prove various embedding theorems about analytic Hardy fields. For example, the ordered differential field $ {\mathbb T} $ of transseries is shown to be isomorphic to an analytic Hardy field.

La Saint-Barthélemy fait l’objet d’une actualité éditoriale dans laquelle s’inscrit un nouveau livre de Denis Crouzet, Paris criminel 1572, qui peut être considéré comme une défense et illustration des thèses de l’auteur sur le sujet. L’auteur renouvelle ses critiques envers une approche factuelle (« facticiste ») de l’événement et s’affronte à l’ouvrage de Jérémie Foa paru en 2021 sur le massacre. Ce faisant, il réaffirme une vision de la place du « religieux » dans les sociétés de cette époque qui pose question. Surtout, il affiche des propositions méthodologiques qui paraissent contestables, ce essentiellement sur trois éléments : un rapport problématique aux sources ; une causalité excessivement fondée sur une forme spécifique d’imaginaire des acteurs ; la construction arbitraire d’une catégorie diachronique du ‘massacre’, dont les traits invariants aussi bien que les éléments factuels, au premier chef desquels ceux des grands massacres du xxe siècle, sont censés permettre de mieux comprendre la Saint-Barthélemy.

Gerschenkron (1962) argued that public institutions such as the State Bank of the Russian Empire spurred the country’s industrialization. We test this assertion by exploiting plant-level variation in access to State Bank branches using a unique geocoded factory data set. Employing an identification strategy based on geographical distances between banks and factories, our results show improved access to public banking encouraged faster growth in factory-level revenue, mechanization, and labor productivity. In line with theories of late industrialization, we also find evidence that public credit mattered more in regions where commercial banks were fewer and markets were smaller.

This article examines historical evidence to analyze how the standardization and globalization of bank credit cards transformed the competitive framework of European retail banking. This process was facilitated by the deployment of a new business model with significant implications for the profit-and-loss accounts of banking institutions. The change occurred in the context of growing synergies between technological and organizational developments in the United States and Europe in bank cards, which encouraged the progressive universalization of the system. This historical analysis explains how intense market competition, specific European market conditions, mass tourism, and consumer society acted as drivers of change, as exemplified by the transition from Eurocheque to plastic card. The globalization of cards reveals that competition in markets with a high technological base generated important network externalities, a phenomenon that has been pronounced in Europe and Japan, which have had a less fragmented payment model than in the United States. The shift toward service banking transformed the structure of retail financial markets. Ultimately, the transformation of the retail banking sector tells us about the narrative of globalization in financial markets.

Despite the considerable attention paid to Adam Smith’s ethical theory over the past quarter of a century, at least one area of his thought remains outstanding for the lack of interest it has received: Part V of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, “Of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon the Sentiments of Moral Approbation and Disapprobation.” This is unfortunate, however, insofar as there are good reasons for thinking that Part V is important to Smith’s project. This essay substantiates this importance by placing Smith’s intervention in the context of David Hume’s earlier attempts to wrestle with the problem of moral relativism. The connections between Hume and Smith on this matter have not previously been explored, yet doing so is crucial for gaining a more complete appreciation of Smith’s moral thought. Beyond this historical intervention, however, I also contend that neither Smith nor Hume offer satisfactory answers to the philosophical challenge posed by moral relativism. Despite remaining the two outstanding theorists in the tradition of ethical sentimentalism, both Smith and Hume fall short on this score. Insofar as moral relativism remains a challenge to ethical sentimentalists today, proponents of this tradition must look elsewhere for solutions.

The lessons of ancient rhetoric teachers encompassed not only the art of effective content and delivery, but also the skill of utilizing gestures and facial expressions to maximize the emotional impact of speeches. In this study, we present the outcomes of an analysis examining the visibility of rhetorical hand gestures performed at the speaking platforms of the Forum Romanum during the Late Roman Republic and the reign of Augustus. We consider the visibility of gestures as a proxy for the capacity of the speaking platforms, enabling us to delve into the oratorical taskscape of the Forum Romanum and its transformations. The results not only relate to specific events but also illuminate general trends. Our analysis reveals that the changes in the built environment of the Forum between the Late Republican period (ca. 54 BCE) and Augustus’s era reduced the number of individuals able to perceive the speakers’ gestures. The same changes led to a greater spatial division between audiences at the various venues at the Forum, potentially explaining the shifts observed in the oratorical taskscape there. Our methodology has the potential to contribute to comprehensive analyses of public rituals and ceremonies regardless of their location in space or time.

This article is a comparative study of Fedor Dostoevskii and Martin Heidegger’s messianic nationalism as understood in terms of their conceptualization of primordialism and racial purity. It offers, and further invites, a critical lens especially on Dostoevskii’s prejudices, viewing them as systematic rather than isolated. This article endeavors to offer a comprehensive exploration of the novelist’s essentialist premises through Heidegger’s philosophical framework of similar views on the “other.” Both authors claim that certain “truths” could only spring from the people, whether narod or das Volk. I argue that Dostoevskii and Heidegger arrive at similar warped visions of national destiny due to their formulation of the so-called primordial “call of conscience” and its attachment to their preferred poets. The point of my interdisciplinary effort here is to demonstrate that their racial bias is not limited to incidental remarks but that these biases are deeply embedded in the authors’ broader intellectual projects.

Precision agriculture technology (PAT) is often viewed as a potential driver of future efficiency gains in farming. Using within-farm variation from an unbalanced panel of Kansas farms, this study examines the impact of PAT bundles on efficiency in generating gross revenue. On average, we find little evidence that these technologies improve efficiency. However, among less efficient farms, several bundles are linked to notable efficiency gains, underscoring the importance of accounting for farm heterogeneity.

Social media has become a strategic driver of sponsorship effectiveness in major sporting events. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, digital platforms transformed how sponsorship relationships are formed, sustained, and activated for audience engagement. Yet, the mechanisms through which social media management influences sponsorship outcomes remain underexplored. This study examines the mediating role between core sponsorship antecedents – sport involvement, event attachment, brand familiarity, and sponsor-event congruence – and engagement outcomes. A quantitative survey of 7,412 Greek spectators was analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the proposed framework integrating sponsorship management and digital strategy. Results confirm that social media substantially amplifies the impact of sponsorship factors, fostering stronger sponsor–spectator connections and enhancing sponsorship returns. This is the first empirical model to link social media usage as a mediating variable between sponsorship antecedents and engagement outcomes in the context of mega-events, with a focus on the Paris 2024 Olympics. The research contributes to theory by positioning social media as a critical mediator in sponsorship strategy and offers actionable insights for managers seeking to optimize sponsorship effectiveness across diverse cultural and event contexts.

Three early Imperial reliefs with architectural façades, found in Rome’s Via Lata and referred to as the Valle-Medici reliefs, include representations of the temples of Mars Ultor and the Magna Mater. A third relief showing a tetrastyle Ionic temple is identified here as the aedicula of Victoria Virgo, constructed between the temples of Victoria and the Magna Mater on the Palatine. All three reliefs belong to a monumental altar, similar in scale to the Ara Pacis, that included scenes of sacrifice in the Forum of Augustus and on the southwest Palatine. The figural pediment of the Ionic temple shows three scenes representing different moments in the Trojan War. The design was probably intended to complement the adjacent temple of Magna Mater, whose cult was closely connected to Rome’s Trojan ancestry.

Centring the voices of music professionals who labour offstage, including managers, live sound technicians, and festival organisers, this article critically examines gendered labour in the music industry, focussing on Belgium in the 2020s. This investigation of how intersectional gendered expectations are negotiated in musical workplaces identifies mechanisms of alienation, delegitimisation, and the sexualisation of labour that constrain professional agency. At the same time, the study finds resonances between the ways participants engage with mentorship and existing literature on such programmes, notably as professionals seek role models, navigate pay disparities, and plan improvements to training. The article theorises the function of mentorship as strategic response to structural precarity. By positioning human-scale festivals as pedagogical spaces, the study explores how underrepresented labourers navigate these environments in response to inequity. This research contributes to a qualitative understanding of how intersectional gendered workplace dynamics are experienced, contested, and reshaped in contemporary European music markets.

This paper presents excavation results from Nyabusora, northern Tanzania, conducted by M. Posnansky and W.W. Bishop (1959) and M. Posnansky (1961). Only preliminary reports have previously been published. It synthesises the site’s history, incorporating previously unpublished analyses and information from Posnansky’s original field notes, and presents new 2014 field survey results and new archival research. Nyabusora holds particular significance as the only Early to Middle Stone Age (ESA/MSA) site in the region to have yielded both lithic and faunal remains, which gain new relevance in light of recent developments in ESA/MSA archaeology in eastern Africa. Nyabusora’s ‘Sangoan’ lithic assemblage is now largely decontextualised and associated finds have been lost, so this study presents the only available lithic and faunal analyses, alongside interpretations of the stratigraphic sequence and site. Such stratified assemblages are exceptionally rare and are generally attributed to the Middle Pleistocene. This research enhances understanding of Plio-Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Kagera River and western Lake Victoria-Nyanza Basin. It contributes important new data on ESA/MSA lithic variability and, via ongoing investigations by Basell within the Kagera catchment, offers huge potential for clarifying Middle Pleistocene palaeoenvironments.