How close reading took over the internet via The Devil Wears Prada’s cerulean monologue
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is the sequel to a film that launched a thousand memes. For the film’s New York premiere in April 2026, fashion designer Evan Hirsh decided to commemorate one of the original 2006 film’s most celebrated scenes. He embroidered Meryl Streep’s infamous monologue on the fictional fashion history of the colour […]
Coolcations: why people are heading away from the sun this summer
Planning summer holidays in Europe is beginning to involve more focus on avoiding high temperatures. Destinations including the Greek islands and southern Italy have traditionally relied on warm, stable summers to attract tourists. But they have faced extreme temperatures causing mass evacuations, wildfires and putting lives in danger in recent summers. Even without those conditions, […]
Amid rising tensions, ‘friendshoring’ might keep global trade alive
Blossom Stock Studio/Shutterstock The world economy is at a crossroads. International trade is slowing, economic uncertainty is rising, and trade between the US and China – the world’s two largest economies – risks pulling apart. And it is not just trade: the two countries also invest less in each other than they did just a […]
How individual consciousness works – and makes us unique
Benjavisa Ruangvaree Art As we go through life, our brains run different processing modes. Some – the attention and sensory systems – result in very similar experiences of the world: what colour the sky is, how warm the day feels. But there is another, deeper side to the brain which weaves together your memories, goals, […]
Hokum review: a gothic chiller set in a creepy Irish hotel that expertly weaves horror tropes
We are used to seeing the excellent Adam Scott (Severance, Parks and Recreation) in likeable nice guy roles. In Hokum, however, he plays a curmudgeonly and prickly bestselling novelist called Ohm Bauman. Deliberating over the ending to his series of popular novels, Bauman has decided to take a trip to the rural Irish inn where […]
People who are blind from birth never develop schizophrenia – what this tells us about the psychiatric condition
Reshetnikov_art/Shutterstock.com In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn’t quite add up. Hector Chevigny, a writer who had lost his sight in adulthood, and psychologist Sydell Braverman were studying the psychological lives of blind people when they stumbled upon an intriguing pattern: schizophrenia, a serious mental illness affecting people across virtually every known society, appeared […]
How authoritarian regimes use education as a political tool
School students in a National Day parade, Asmara, Eritrea. Angela N Perryman/Shutterstock It’s often assumed that expanding access to education is progressive – that it’s a means of ensuring social, economic and political development. However, this is not always the case. We’ve carried out research examining the relationship between education and authoritarianism with a focus […]
War in the Gulf and on US free speech
Brent crude oil surged to US$126 (£94) a barrel after US president Donald Trump announced that he was willing to prolong the blockade of Iranian ports for “months if needed”. This conflict has been billed as a matter of who can absorb the most pain. And Trump is betting on it being the US. Trump […]
How to talk to children when terrorist attacks and violence dominate the news
When a man stabbed Jewish people in Golders Green, London, in what police declared a terrorist incident, the story spread fast – through news alerts, social media and the whispered conversations of anxious adults. When this happens, children notice. Whether they catch a fragment of a TV bulletin, overhear a parent on the phone, or […]
‘Executive power is subject to checks and balances’: why King Charles cited Magna Carta in the US Congress
In his speech to Congress during a trip to the US to mark the country’s 250th anniversary, King Charles made repeated references to Magna Carta, the medieval English charter that laid the foundations for the modern rule of law. Dating back to 1215, Magna Carta also established for the first time that the monarch was […]