English local elections 2026: a story of a new kind of politics
Every election is a storytelling contest, with campaigning parties competing to frame the plot. This year’s local elections, the largest test of voters’ mood since the 2024 general election, have been dominated by two master-narratives. The first is about the demise of the old two-party system under which Labour and Conservatives have been the battling […]
Iran war has shown the limits of US power
Donald Trump in the Mar a Lago situation room overseeing the launch of Operation Epic Fury on February 28. White House gallery In his 1873 book On War, the great Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz wrote that: “War is the realm of uncertainty.” He would have been at home in Washington this week where […]
How Pakistan became the primary mediator between the US and Iran
Pakistan has emerged as a central diplomatic broker in the conflict between the US and Iran. When announcing a pause to the US operation to guide stranded vessels through the Strait of Hormuz on May 6, Donald Trump said he had made the decision “based on the request of Pakistan”. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz […]
The AI scientist: now academic papers can be fully automated, what does this mean for the future of research?
whiteMocca/Shutterstock Until recently, AI’s role in research felt like having a useful assistant. It could summarise a paper, clean up a dataset or draft an abstract. Researchers were still in charge of the thinking. That changed in late 2025 when cutting-edge “frontier” AI models became capable of reasoning and planning reliably by themselves. A key […]
Iran war has become a lesson in how power really works
For months, the Iran war was framed through the language of military success. This was shaped in part by longstanding orientalist assumptions reflected in the rhetoric of leaders such as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu about the relative weakness and fragility of states such as Iran. Encouraged by Israeli intelligence capabilities, precision strikes and overwhelming […]
Trump administration claiming a ‘win’ against Iran – here’s a report card
Two months into the war in Iran, the reasons the US gave for launching this conflict – and Washington’s minimum criteria for claiming success – now appear unintelligible. So much so that US officials are now arguing the war had actually ended in America’s favour almost a month ago, when the ceasefire came into effect. […]
Legends: new undercover drama explores tense clash between state loyalty and criminal credibility
Netflix’s latest drama Legends offers a compelling window into the criminology of undercover policing, covert surveillance and organised crime. Inspired by a real UK customs investigation, the six-part drama follows ordinary British customs officers sent deep undercover to infiltrate drug trafficking gangs. Written by Neil Forsyth (also creator of Brink’s-Mat robbery drama The Gold), Legends […]
Why supplements aren’t a shortcut to healthy ageing
Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock The use of dietary supplements has increased sharply in recent years. Vitamins, minerals and other nutritional products are often marketed as simple ways to boost energy, support immunity, protect brain health or even promote longevity. For many people, taking supplements can feel like a sensible, proactive health habit. But this perception can be […]
China’s ability to weather Trump’s trade war was two decades in the making
As Xi Jinping prepares to host Donald Trump for a delayed summit in Beijing on May 14-15, a lot has changed since the US president’s last visit to China in November 2017. Trump’s first trade war with China began in earnest the following year, ushering in a new era of trade tensions between the world’s […]
Ultra-processed food: why the debate needs less fear and more clarity
Highly moralised food messaging may encourage disordered eating patterns. superbeststock/Shutterstock For many people interested in health and wellbeing, the idea of ultra-processed food, or UPF, has become more than a technical term in nutrition research. In public debate, it often serves as shorthand for wider concerns about modern, industrially produced food. Those concerns are not […]