India and Pakistan’s 79-year rivalry has made the dangerous move into space
India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day war in May 2025. But while the media narrative was dominated by fighter jets, drones and missiles, the most consequential contest unfolded in orbit a few hundred kilometres up. That short war was, arguably, the first between two nuclear-armed states to be shaped decisively by the use of […]
Ceuta and Melilla: how the colonial legacies of these cities have shaped migration in the region
Ceuta, a small Spanish enclave on the Moroccan mainland, was unprepared for the arrival of more than 70,000 undocumented migrants on July 30. They arrived mostly by sea, from Morocco via the Tarajal breakwaters and its shoreline. The minuscule city of just seven square miles had few provisions for food, shelter or support for the […]
Europe’s stone age hunters made sea voyages to Malta – thousands of years before evidence of sails
The ability to cross oceans has long been a marker of human endeavour, but when did the seas change from being barriers to movement into the maritime highways we know today? For many years the answer was thought to lie in the Neolithic period – the time when humans made the profound transition from hunting […]
Monkeys keep pets too – animal specialist on the world of interspecies friendship
The first time I saw it, I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. A northern white-cheeked gibbon at Shanghai Zoo was holding and caressing a mouse that had wandered into its enclosure. It wasn’t trying to eat it or chase it away. Instead, the gibbon treated the tiny rodent with remarkable gentleness. I […]
Smart clothes will soon be on sale. But regulations are needed to prevent a new waste mountain
When you think of advanced futuristic clothing, what comes to mind? Perhaps shirts that can detect and alert users to low blood glucose levels or socks that can track your running form, step count and speed? What about pyjamas that observe subtle bodily changes while you sleep leading to early detection of cancer or warn […]
Edinburgh festival: how the city’s residents could benefit after the crowds leave
Edinburgh Festival image Euan Cherry Edinburgh Festival Fringe includes more than 3,600 shows this year. The world’s largest arts festival, once again transforming Scotland’s capital into a global stage. But this year, something else opened first. Just two weeks before the Fringe begins on Friday, Scotland’s first visitor levy came into effect: a 5% charge […]
What BTS’ Grammy boycott tells us about the problem with ‘Asian pop’ as a label
K-pop supergroup BTS has announced that they will not be entering their music for the 2027 Grammy awards. The decision seems to be a response to the addition for 2027 of the category “best Asian pop music performance”. The Grammy rulebook describes Asian pop as a “distinct and globally recognised form of popular music”. The […]
In Love Me Tender, a mother’s fight for her child reveals how queerness is still policed
Throughout Love Me Tender, French director Anna Cazenave Cambet’s new film about a mother’s fight for custody of her child, the audience is reminded of the body at the centre of the story – that of Clémence Delcourt (Vicky Krieps). The camera is almost cloyingly close, presenting her body in lingering shots that offer opportunities […]
Your bedroom could be the unhealthiest room in your home
Mialcas/Shutterstock.com Close the door, shut the windows and turn up the heating, and you have all the ingredients for a sick bedroom in your home – and you spend about eight hours in there every night. Kitchens and bathrooms usually take the blame for stale air and damp. But researchers spent a winter monitoring airtight, […]
Billions are spent on child mental health services without knowing if they work in the long term
SeventyFour/Shutterstock.com Modern medicine increasingly judges itself by long-term outcomes. In cancer care, we routinely compare treatments according to whether patients survive longer. In cardiology, we ask whether interventions prevent future heart attacks and extend life. This long-term data allows healthcare to continually improve. Child and adolescent mental health services are different. Long-term outcomes have received […]