By Or Graur, Associate Professor of Astrophysics, University of Portsmouth
The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead for initial work on a mission to visit an asteroid called (99942) Apophis. If approved at a key meeting next year, the robotic spacecraft, known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses), will rendezvous with the asteroid in February 2029.
Apophis is 340 metres wide, about the same as the height of the Empire State Building. If it were to hit Earth, it would cause wholesale…
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By Anupama Sen, Head of Policy Engagement, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford and Fellow in Environmental Change, Reuben College, University of Oxford, University of Oxford
Sam Fankhauser, Professor of Climate Economics and Policy, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford
Labour’s first budget in 15 years included a highly anticipated change to the so-called fiscal rules which constrain how much the government can borrow or spend. By relaxing the rules, chancellor Rachel Reeves has opened the door for additional capital spending, much of which has been earmarked for low-carbon investment.
While there has been immense scrutiny of the budget’s £40…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Newspapers for sale outside a store in Lusaka, Zambia, on February 23, 2024. © 2024 Luke Dray/Bloomberg via Getty Images On October 16, police in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, arrested investigative journalist Thomas Zgambo and detained him without charge for nearly two weeks. Zgambo writes for the online news outlet Zambian Whistleblower, which has exposed alleged corruption, human rights abuses, and abuse of power under President Hakainde Hichilema.A day into his detention, Zgambo, 52, wrote on Facebook that the police had demanded access to his phones…
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Friday, November 1st 2024
In a landmark move towards ending statelessness, Thailand’s cabinet has approved an accelerated pathway to permanent residency and nationality for nearly half a million stateless people, marking one of the region’s most significant citizenship initiatives.
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By Dafydd Townley, Teaching Fellow in International Security, University of Portsmouth
The 2024 US presidential election is proving to be one of the most violent in recent history. It has already been marked by two assassination attempts on the former president and Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly claimed…
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By Stephen Lezak, Programme Manager at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford
Barbara Haya, Senior Fellow at the Center for Environmental Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
The Cuyahoga River, which runs through downtown Cleveland, Ohio, used to catch fire every decade or so. It started in the 1860s, when the river became choked with industrial waste, and the conflagrations continued all the way until the 1960s – the same decade that Americans got serious about environmental protection.
People in the US now take for granted their clean water, clean air, and healthy forests. And when those are jeopardised,…
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By Benjamin Wild, Reader in Fashion Narratives, Manchester Metropolitan University
The fashion industry is mobilising its marketing machine to encourage Americans to vote in November’s presidential election, and it’s clear they want Kamala Harris to win.
The industry’s intervention in the race to the White House has increased since 2016, when US Vogue endorsed Hilary Clinton. This was the first time in its 100-year history that the fashion bible had put its weight behind a presidential candidate.
In this year’s tight and polarised contest between Harris and former president…
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By Steven Rawle, Professor of Film, York St John University
Japanese Godzilla movies reflect the country’s complex history as victims of the only nuclear bombings and as a rapidly developing economy in the 20th century.
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By Stephen Barber, Professor of Global Affairs, University of East London
In the long line of UK government budgets, this first one from Labour in 14 years will be remembered as one of the more significant. Perhaps not like those of Geoffrey Howe in 1981, which controversially cut spending in the middle of a recession, or Hugh Dalton in 1946, which heralded the massive expansion of the welfare state.
But it was certainly on a par with Gordon Brown’s in 1997 when he signalled a change in direction after 18 years in opposition. Or more ominously, the crisis management budget of Norman Lamont in 1993, delivered in the aftermath of sterling
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By Robert Muggah, Co-founder of Igarapé Institute and Lecturer, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
The threat and incidence of political violence has intensified in this election year. The axis has largely shifted to the far right and is more deeply intertwined with gun culture and paramilitary groups.
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