Immigration in Sweden: how the country went from one of Europe’s most welcoming, to one of its most restrictive
For decades, Sweden was known as one of Europe’s most welcoming countries for refugees. It took pride in pursuing one of Europe’s most generous asylum policies, and often presented itself as a humanitarian role model. But today it has one of the continent’s most restrictive migration policies. That transformation has taken little more than a […]
Star Trek used wormholes to jump through space – what’s the science behind them?
Since Star Trek began sending its crews out to explore strange new worlds 60 years ago, the franchise has both imagined and inspired new concepts for travel across the vast distances of space. Among the most intriguing are “wormholes”: mysterious tunnels through spacetime that connect otherwise distant places. Star Trek always has a difficult balance […]
Reform UK polling sting: why even small donations matter in politics these days
Reform UK’s national conference has been rocked by allegations that senior members of the party plotted to circumvent rules on political donations. The reports centre on two payments – one real and one suggested, but both important. The two Reform staff members at the centre of the investigation have been suspended. The apparent plans were […]
War drama Pressure depicts D-day’s weather forecast – what we found when we recreated the challenge using modern systems
Meteorologist James Stagg gave what many regard as the most important weather forecast in history in June 1944. The fate of more than 150,000 allied troops preparing to invade the Normandy beaches on D-day and the future of the war in Europe depended on Stagg and his forecast teams. Get the forecast wrong and an […]
The Raw and the Cooked exhibition: art goes medieval in search of the aesthetic of the middle ages
Entering The Raw and the Cooked at the Saatchi Gallery in London, you are faced with a single enormous painting that occupies the whole of the opposite wall. The Punishment of Richard Roose (2026) is a magnificently anachronistic project: a museum-scale picture of a fairly obscure episode of English history. Stiff, stylised, life-sized figures stand […]
Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action?
Over the summer, Europe provided a stark new set of images of climate change. Wildfires raced across forests and grasslands, rivers and reservoirs dried up in droughts and extreme heat disrupted everyday life. Instead of the familiar photographs of people enjoying days at the beach, coverage of heatwaves increasingly comes with images of their consequences. […]
In re-releasing Avengers Endgame, Marvel is quietly admitting its Multiverse failures
The rumours have been swirling around for several months, and now they’ve been confirmed with a shiny new trailer: Marvel is re-releasing 2019’s Avengers: Endgame on September 25 2026 – three months before its epic Christmas showdown, Avengers: Doomsday. On the one hand, the encore edition of Avengers: Endgame makes perfect sense. Endgame was the […]
A mosquito that can transmit Zika has bred in London – but that doesn’t mean the virus is spreading in people there
khlungcenter/Shutterstock The discovery that a mosquito species capable of transmitting the Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses is breeding in east London may sound alarming, particularly to people living nearby. Yet finding the species is several steps removed from finding evidence that any of these viruses are circulating locally. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has […]
Syria: journey through a country in ruins
Just over a decade ago, at the height of Russia’s bombing campagn in Syria in 2015, an old friend who had spent much of his career teaching in the Middle East sent me two photographs of the city of Homs, which had taken a particularly heavy bombardment at the hands of Vladimir Putin’s warplanes. One […]
Science uncovers how the brain interprets artistic beauty – new research
Stand in front of Turner’s Sun Rising Over Water (1825-30) and something odd tends to happen. The painting holds you, even though observers might struggle to say why. Maybe it is the colour, the balance, the composition, or the strange stillness the artwork seems to carry. Whatever it is, you feel it long before you […]