Heatwaves are making toxic algae worse, but the real problem is what we are putting into our rivers and lakes
This summer’s heat brought warnings about harmful algal blooms across Britain and Ireland. In August, swimmers were warned not to enter a newly designated bathing site on the River Thames at Ham and Kingston after blue-green algae were detected. The swimming section of an Ironman event in Leeds was also cancelled because of a bloom […]
Six ways people have used magic to protect their homes throughout history – from witch bottles to ‘hag stones’
Woodcut of witches flying from The History of Witches and Wizards (1720). Wellcome Library Virtually all cultures and epochs fizz with magic. You might call it a secret ingredient of human life, because magic takes so many forms and serves so many functions. One relatively new area of research among historians and archaeologists focuses on […]
Cate Blanchett’s Electra/Persona at the National Theatre is a surreal triumph
Written and directed by Benedict Andrews, Electra/Persona is two plays conjoined. The first is a version of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Electra, and the second is a stage adaptation of the 1966 Ingmar Bergman film Persona. In Sophocles’ play, Electra seeks vengeance for her father, Agamemnon, who upon returning from war was murdered by her […]
Twenty-five years after 9/11: an over-reliance on technology is leaving us vulnerable
It has been 25 years since the devastating attacks of September 11 2001. Amid the reflection that followed emerged the most comprehensive examination of any terrorist attack in history, the 9/11 Commission Report. Several statements in this forensic diagnosis continue to shape our understanding of those events. These range from the intelligence systems that were […]
Why a small leftist party may help the radical right to power in Germany
The extreme right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has won a decisive victory in a regional election in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, gaining nearly 44% of the vote. However, it fell just short of the outright majority needed to govern alone, so negotiations are underway to determine who will run the state. One small party, […]
How Donald Trump’s war in Iran is failing the legitimacy test in the eyes of US voters
Donald Trump now has a new proposed timetable for his war with Iran, albeit without a clear purpose. Heading to the Republicans’ midterm convention in Texas this week, the US president told reporters the war would end “immediately after the election”. This is coming from a president seven months into a conflict that he predicted […]
Snakebites kill tens of thousands every year, could our new research change that?
Every year, between 80,000 and 140,000 people die from snakebites worldwide. Hundreds of thousands more are left with amputated limbs or permanent disabilities. India accounts for roughly half of these deaths, with around 58,000 people dying from snakebites each year. Many of the victims are farmers, labourers and children in rural communities, bitten while working […]
The next frontier is not artificial intelligence, it’s artificial societies
Inkoly/Shutterstock There is a temptation to divide the future of AI into two possibilities: utopia or catastrophe. Neither extreme is particularly helpful. The more interesting possibility is messier – and requires a step-shift in our thinking, from artificial intelligence to AI societies. When most people hear “AI”, they typically think of ChatGPT, Copilot or another […]
9/11 transformed our relationship with news – and laid the groundwork for today’s crisis of trust
Walter Cicchetti/Shutterstock Twenty-five years on, the legacy of the September 11 attacks continues beyond the initial physical and economic effects. The events of 9/11 and the subsequent “war on terror” severely undermined trust in mainstream news media in the US and around the world, laying the groundwork for today’s fractured, hyperpartisan information environment. In the […]
‘Blood olives’: the hurdles in enforcing UK’s ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
The key question about the UK’s decision to ban trade in goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is whether – and how – such a ban can be enforced. To answer this question, it’s worth looking at how such sanctions are already enforced in similar situations. Blood diamonds, the […]