A crackdown on online shopping tricks is welcome, but doesn’t go far enough
ViDI Studio/Shutterstock Hurry! Only two left! Fourteen people bought this in the last hour! Fifty people are looking at this item! Anyone who shops online will be familiar with these kinds of messages popping up on their screen. The online equivalent of a pushy salesperson, they are designed to create a sense of urgency around […]
Doing a short cardio session after weight training probably won’t boost your gains – here’s why
Ljupco Smokovski/ Shutterstock Spend long enough on fitness social media and you’ll see the same tip. Finish every weight training session with about 15 minutes of cardio to boost your “gains”. But does it actually work? Probably not as much as you’d think. Doing cardio and weight training in the same exercise programme is known […]
Can AI help ‘humanise’ museums? New report reminds us why art matters in a changing world
The cover of a new report on AI from a US museum thinktank restyles the Sistine Chapel’s Creation of Adam, with the hand of God replaced by a Terminator-style robotic one. So far so obvious. In Remuseum’s Five Ways AI Can Humanise Museums, AI has presumably replaced God as the enabler of all things. But […]
Winter of the Crow: this taut escape thriller explores life under martial law in cold war Poland
It’s surely no surprise that amid today’s geopolitical turmoil, filmmakers are turning to the events of the cold war for inspiration. A flurry of productions set in the 1980s have been released just this year. See, for instance, The Brink of War, a political drama focused on the 1986 summit at Reykjavik between Ronald Reagan […]
French school protests: a rite of passage – and the result of genuine concerns
Students protest in Paris, October 6 2026. Pierre Laborde/Shutterstock Across France, school students have taken to the streets to protest about teacher shortages, dilapidated school buildings and long school days. While the tradition of student protest has long roots in France, the country’s current fiscal crisis combined with entrenched structural problems with teacher recruitment, sickness […]
Early flu season: why you should get your jab sooner this year
Studio Romantic/Shutterstock.com Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows more flu activity in September than in the same month of the past four years. However, flu is still circulating at relatively low levels in the community. If cases continue to rise over the coming weeks, this would suggest the flu season is starting […]
Councils that restrict harmful advertising won’t lose out on profits
Abstract/Shutterstock For cash-strapped councils, turning away much-needed income by restricting adverts for junk food, fossil fuels or other harmful products might seem like a policy they can ill afford. But a new report, published by the advocacy alliance Sustain and carried out by our team at the University of Portsmouth, suggests otherwise. Our report found […]
Operation Vivaldi: success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive shows it has learned to manoeuvre on a drone-filled battlefield
Russia’s drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s population and infrastructure continue to dominate coverage of the conflict. But on the ground, Ukraine has been making significant, if still limited, gains. In mid-September, Ukraine formally announced the existence of Operation Vivaldi, which has retaken territory near Lyman and disrupted a Russian advance toward the fortified cities […]
Animal life may be far older than its most ancient fossils – here’s how we uncovered its hidden history
Frame Stock Footage/Shutterstock The question of when animals first evolved is one that has confounded scientists since the time of Charles Darwin. Studying rocks in north Wales in the mid-18th century, Darwin found the sudden first appearance of animal shells and skeletons in layers dating back over 500 million years perplexing. He had predicted a […]
Can memoirs ever tell the whole truth?
In July 2025 a literary scandal erupted when The Observer journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou claimed that Raynor Winn, author of the award-winning memoir The Salt Path, had omitted significant facts and invented key parts of her story. This much-loved account of Winn’s transformative and healing coastal walk with her terminally ill husband after they lost their […]