By Ross Bennett-Cook, PhD Candidate in the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University
Four Seasons Hotels, the company behind the resorts in The White Lotus, is targeting the next generation of luxury travellers.
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By Emily Hauser, Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Exeter
Waves crash across Ithaca’s rocky shore. “The city of Troy has fallen,” we are told, as the shuttle on Penelope’s loom flickers across the screen. “On the island of Ithaca, Queen Penelope still longs for the return of her husband Odysseus.” The camera then cuts to the wreckage of a ship and the body of a man washed up on the beach – naked, dishevelled, scarred.
This is the beginning of the new Odyssey-inspired film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, The Return.
The Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic poem ascribed to the poet Homer, charts the return home of its eponymous…
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By Cédric M. John, Professor and Head of Data Science for the Environment and Sustainability, Queen Mary University of London
Nearly three fourths of Earth is covered by oceans, making the planet look like a pale blue dot from space. But Japanese researchers have made a compelling case that Earth’s oceans were once green, in a study published in Nature.
The reason Earth’s oceans may have looked different in the ancient past is to do with their chemistry and the evolution of photosynthesis. As a geology undergraduate student, I…
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By Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – Iranian authorities are preparing to carry out finger amputation sentences, as early as April 11, 2025, against three men imprisoned for theft following grossly unfair trials, Human Rights Watch said today. All United Nations member states should urgently call on Iran to abide by its human rights obligations and immediately revoke these sentences. An informed source told Human Rights Watch that on March 13, the office in charge of implementing sentences in Urmia Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province summoned Hadi Rostami, 38, Mehdi Sharifian, 42, and Mehdi Shahivand, 29,…
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By Jerry Paul Sheppard, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University
Before he stepped down as Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau called Donald Trump’s tariff policies “very dumb.” This might be an accurate description of many Trump administration policies — but the more objectively correct word is “stupid.”
In fact, Québec’s largest newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal, published a front-page photo of Trump in early February with the word “stupid”…
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By Lotanna Emediegwu, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Manchester Metropolitan University
When the wholesale prices of essential goods like food or oil suddenly rise, it can cause deep shifts in the economy that upend trade balances and hike inflation rates. This is known as a commodity price boom.
The outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022 spurred European and US sanctions on Russian oil companies which restricted global oil supply. The ensuing shock hiked energy prices in the international market and meant that the price of Brent crude, a global benchmark for oil prices, reached US$122 (£95) a barrel on March 21 that year, its highest…
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By Janine Natalya Clark, Professor of Transitional Justice and International Criminal Law, University of Birmingham
A project carried out at the University of Birmingham has collected recordings from Ukraine that can help outsiders understand how the war has damaged it.
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By Alice Kelly, Assistant Professor of Literature and History, University of Warwick
Last November, I flew to New York to see a play: Gatz, an eight-hour reading of the entire text of The Great Gatsby by the experimental theatre ensemble the Elevator Repair Service.
As a Fitzgerald enthusiast, I couldn’t miss it. My journey to the US felt like a gesture of such luxurious excess that it seems to belong in the book itself. But I was surprised to find that the production was only in part about the novel. It was simultaneously a commentary on the ability of literature to take us beyond our everyday lives – and the upcoming centenary of The Great Gatsby will be the same.…
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By April Rees, Lecturer, Biochemistry & Immunology, Swansea University
Menstrual blood has historically been overlooked in research – considered only to be a waste product.
But menstrual blood actually has a rich cellular and molecular makeup. It contains immune cells, stems cells and endometrial cells – as well as metabolites such as proteins and lipids (fat). This makes menstrual blood a potential goldmine for insights into many different…
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Defence expert Hugh White says Australia should leave AUKUS and plan to “take responsibility for our own security”, without relying on the US coming to our aid.
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