Mecca pact: Pakistan and Turkey have answered Saudi Arabia’s call for help – but don’t expect them to fight the Houthis
Within two months of it being signed, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan invoked the Mecca mutual defence pact in response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces. The three countries agreed on October 5 to activate what Saudi defence minister Khalid bin Salman called collective deterrence measures against the Houthis. Islamabad and Ankara have undertaken […]
When Burnham went to Berlin: Germany the key to future UK-EU relationship
Andy Burnham’s decision to choose Berlin for his first trip to an EU member state on October 8 will have delighted many in the German capital’s political circles. In our recent analysis of the UK-Germany relationship, we noted some disappointment among political figures in Berlin that it took Rishi Sunak 18 months to make a […]
Zack Polanski loses his byelection bid – and the Green party’s Zionism motion has outraged its closest allies in Europe
It has been a rollercoaster year for the Green Party of England and Wales. It’s little more than 12 months since the election of the charismatic Zack Polanski as party leader. And months later, the equally charismatic Hannah Spencer became the Greens’ fifth MP. But Polanski couldn’t repeat this win in Keir Starmer’s former constituency […]
England made organ donation the default, so why are fewer families saying yes?
True Touch Lifestyle/Shutterstock England changed its organ donation law in 2020. All eligible adults are now presumed willing to donate their organs after death unless they opt out. The change was intended to increase the supply of donated organs, but 8,746 people in the UK are still waiting for a transplant, and just 1,650 transplants […]
Loved The Uprising? Discover the real story of the peasants’ revolt in these ten reads
Just as Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster The Odyssey sent sales of Homer’s original text surging, cinematic epics have a way of reigniting our appetite for the history behind the drama. Paul Greengrass’s medieval epic The Uprising, starring Andrew Garfield, brings the chaos, tension and raw fury of the peasants’ revolt straight to the screen. The film […]
American military bases in the UK – controversial, but seen as vital
RAF Fairford was recently home to a number of American B-52 bomber planes. Shutterstock/sam_whitfield1 The recent incidents concerning RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire have highlighted that fact that the US military does have quite a significant presence on UK soil. What this presence fully amounts to, though, is unclear. According to news reports there are “at […]
How military exercises help the UK and its allies prepare for a future war
The past few weeks have seen aerial duels being fought over the North Sea and a naval vessel being sunk off Scotland’s west coast. Fortunately this was not a case of hostile combat – these episodes took place during two major multinational military exercises: Exercise Atlantic Thunder and Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2. Further north, across […]
‘Tenzing biopic made me wonder what he would think if he could return to the mountain today’ – glaciologist and mountaineer
Seventy three years ago Tenzing Norgay stood on top of Everest, known as Chomolungma in Tibetan, which roughly translates as “Goddess Mother of the World”. A new biopic of Norgay’s life and that first ascent, along with Edmund Hillary, of the highest mountain in the world portrays beautifully, and with compassion, his humility, and intimate […]
Women are more emotionally intelligent than men, and that’s a problem – landmark study
PeopleImages/Shutterstock Who comes to mind when you think of someone emotionally intelligent? Someone who can read a room, defuse an argument, and who knows exactly what to say when a friend is struggling? For many people, that person is a woman. It’s such a widely held belief that popular psychology treats it as fact. We […]
How to meal prep safely: a microbiologist’s step-by-step guide
amenic181/ Shutterstock Meal prepping is a great way to save money, spend less time in the kitchen and stick to a meal plan. But while cooking meals for the week ahead may be convenient, there can be real risks associated with eating bulk-cooked meals. It’s not that bulk-cooked meals are inherently a food safety issue. […]