Spice Girls at 30: how girl power changed pop
The Spice Girls (L-R) Melanie C, Emma Bunton, Mel B, Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell. Featureflash Photo Agency/Canva Thirty years ago, five young women from the UK redefined what a pop group could be. When the Spice Girls burst onto the scene in 1996 with their debut single Wannabe, they helped to reshape discussions around […]
Why the EU economy should embrace digital currencies to become less dependent on the US
Ink Drop/Shutterstock Compared to other parts of the world, the EU on the whole has been fairly reluctant to embrace digital economic innovation. The bloc has been suspicious of cryptocurrencies, and treated them as a potential threat to a financial system where stability is paramount. But the first half of 2026 has been full of […]
Could the war in Ukraine bring political change to Russia?
Volodymyr Zelensky recently suggested that the war in Ukraine was beginning to turn in his country’s favour. The Ukrainian president insisted that Russia was “losing the initiative each day”. These comments came days after Zelensky wrote an open letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in which he called for direct talks to end the […]
US defies forecasts of economic slowdown, but its growth isn’t making ordinary people better off
US economic growth is picking up again after a slowdown towards the end of 2025. According to price data released on May 28, US GDP grew by 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. This is despite energy prices rising and consumer confidence falling since the US president, Donald Trump, went to war with […]
Why impressionists loved to paint gardens
Woman with a Parasol in a Garden by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1875). Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Dahlias thrust their colours skywards; hollyhocks frame a child at play; peasants tend cabbages; water lilies dot the surface of a pond. The “impressionist garden” captures all of these moments and more. But why were Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Pissarro and their colleagues […]
Megacolon: when constipation becomes something more serious
9dream studio/Shutterstock The colon is about one and a half metres long and plays a vital role in moving waste through the body. In rare cases, it can become so stretched that it begins to lose its ability to work properly, like an elastic band that has lost its spring. This is known as megacolon. […]
How gaps in education, work and welfare support can push neurodivergent into homelessness
Jonathan Tallon/Shutterstock Homelessness in the UK is reaching critical levels, with more than 380,000 people estimated to be without a home in England alone as of late 2025. There is also a growing recognition that neurodivergent people are over-represented among homeless populations. But much of this comes from anecdotal reports from service providers or localised […]
How positive tipping points may be the key to protecting tropical rainforests
Tarcisio Schnaider/Shutterstock The world’s tropical rainforests are edging towards collapse. But knowing how to stop deforestation isn’t enough to drive action. The challenge is aligning all the pieces of the puzzle to initiate substantial change. Now our research suggests the key is to persuade enough people to make the system tip in the right direction. […]
Pizza lovers and savoury snackers: what secondary school pupils choose to eat
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Changes are on the horizon for the food that students can choose in English schools. The government is proposing updates to the school food standards, which set out what schools can serve. The changes are aimed at increasing fibre and reducing fat, sugar and salt in school food. These will, for example, […]
Wes Streeting’s health bill brings back ‘democratic control’ of the NHS in England – but what does it mean?
repic/Shutterstock.com Most NHS patients never think about who has legal responsibility for the health service. They notice waiting times, whether local services disappear and whether they can get treatment when they need it. But Wes Streeting’s new health bill changes who has the ultimate power to make those decisions, and may make the NHS far […]