King Charles embarks on state visit to the US – can he repair the special relationship?
King Charles’s four-day state visit to the US is going ahead as planned, after a shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner raised doubts about security. The royal trip, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of American independence, is the first since 2007, when the late Queen Elizabeth II was hosted by President George W. […]
Here’s what we know about the climate cost of white trails aircraft leave in the sky
Ciprian23/Shutterstock Contrails, short for condensation trails, are the white streaks often seen in the sky behind aircraft. The international cloud atlas, which classifies clouds, has a category just for them: cirrus homogenitus, an example of man-made clouds. Contrails contribute to climate change, adding to the warming by the carbon dioxide emitted by aviation. Although the […]
The cost of toxic leadership in the workplace – and how to avoid it
You will probably recognise toxic leaders when you encounter them. They are the ones whose presence shifts the atmosphere, whose emails create unease, or whose behaviour limits the thinking of others. They often interrupt, frequently overlook contributions and hamper other people’s growth. While this behaviour is often seen as unfortunate but acceptable, the impact on […]
The BBC is axing Football Focus – here’s what it means for sports broadcasting
The BBC has announced the end of one of its longest-running programmes, Football Focus. It’s been a fixture of Saturday lunchtimes since 1974. But the final whistle will blow when this season finishes. The BBC has blamed a decline in audience for the BBC One broadcast as fans now get their pre-match news and views […]
Ukraine’s killer robots show how war is changing
The Droid TW 12.7, made by Devdroid, has been used in many of the attacks involving ground robots in Ukraine. Devdroid, CC BY For the first time, Ukraine has captured a Russian position using only ground robots and aerial drones, reports suggest. In a message posted on social media on April 14, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr […]
Could the Strait of Malacca be the next global flashpoint?
Tanker ships off the coast of Singapore, a key port in the Strait of Malacca. Adwo / Shutterstock While recent global attention has focused on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively held closed since late February in a move that has disrupted world energy supplies, a quieter but also important development has been […]
Claim check: does your pint of beer really come with a ‘surprising health benefit’?
Face Portraits/Shutterstock.com Beer could come with a “surprising health benefit”, according to a new report from the BBC. This must be pleasing news for beer drinkers everywhere. But what did the new study the BBC report was based on actually say? And does it stand up to scrutiny? The study, published in the Journal of […]
Arandora Star sinking: a lesser known Nazi war crime that spawned generations of conspiracy theories
Just days before the Battle of Britain began in July 1940, more than 800 civilians were killed off the coast of Ireland when a German U-Boat sank a converted five-star cruise ship. The people on board were German, Austrian and Italian internees – deemed enemy aliens by the UK government – who were being deported […]
How freak weather and an old-fashioned grid exacerbate energy insecurity
F01 PHOTO/Shutterstock The Iran crisis is reshaping how the world produces, uses and secures energy. This is no temporary shock. It has become a structural stress test of energy systems, industrial production and government strategy. We’ve seen this in the recent past: household energy bills in 2024 were still about 4% higher than in 2019, […]
Healthy life expectancy falls in the UK – and the decline is worse among women
LittlePigPower/Shutterstock.com Healthy life expectancy in the UK – the years we can expect to live in good health – has fallen by more than two years over the past decade, according to a new Health Foundation analysis. The decline has been larger for women than for men – a finding the report says raises “concerns […]