By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Deforestation due to plant palm oil plantations near Sandakan city, State of Sabah, North Borneo Island, Malaysia, August 5, 2019. © 2019 Emy/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images (Brussels) - The European Parliament should reject proposed amendments to the European Union’s Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR), Human Rights Watch said today. The regulation requires companies in EU countries to ensure that the wood, oil palm, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and cattle they export or import have been produced in conditions that respect human rights and local…
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By Katharina Karcher, Senior Lecturer with a research focus on political violence, University of Birmingham
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has sacked his finance minister Christian Lindner escalating a long conflict in the German government and ultimately causing the fragile coalition between Social Democrats, Greens, and the Free Democratic Party to collapse. For once, Scholz, often mocked as a robotic speaker without emotion, appeared to be angry – even resentful.
In a speech, Scholz blamed Lindner for the government’s collapse, and portrayed his former finance minister as petty, uncompromising and untrustworthy.…
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By Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, University of Leicester
Demand for secondhand and vintage clothing has surged within the last few years. Pre-owned fashion is seen by many consumers as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly way to expand their wardrobe.
But as excited as you might be to wear your next secondhand purchase, it’s important you disinfect it properly first. This is because clothing can actually be an important reservoir for many infectious diseases.
The skin is naturally coated…
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By Mike Jeffries, Associate Professor, Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
As we tidy away the Dracula capes and glow-in-the-dark plastic fangs for another winter, one notorious blood sucker has had a particularly good year.
For the first time the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis has been bred in captivity at London zoo, part of a longer-term project to help this fascinating if unloved creature. Once widespread in the UK, the medicinal leech is now rare due mainly to habitat…
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By Alix Dietzel, Senior Lecturer in Climate Justice, University of Bristol
Alice Venn, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law, University of Bristol
Katharina Richter, Lecturer in Climate Change, Politics and Society, University of Bristol
Every autumn, the UN holds its international climate summit or “Cop” (Conference of the Parties). Between each Cop, a smaller, lower-profile gathering takes place. Called the SB – short for “subsidary bodies” of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – these smaller meetings matter but don’t draw as much public attention.…
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By Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University
Keir Starmer may well have gone to bed on Tuesday night hoping to wake up on Wednesday morning to find himself teamed professionally with Kamala Harris – a fellow state prosecutor of the centre-left who happens also to be the leader of both the free world and his country’s closest ally.
His reverie might even have extended to envisage a mutually-beneficial two-term relationship of harmony and even intimacy, not unlike that of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
But shocking (if explicable) as it may seem, Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States for…
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By Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass Boston
AI is already widespread and garnering billions of dollars in investment. But that doesn’t mean its ubiquity is predetermined. Society can decide when and how it’s used.
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By Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton
Many followers of the New Apostolic Reformation − a Christian religious movement − claim they receive divine guidance in reconstructing modern society based on Christian spiritual beliefs.
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By Jordan Cash, Assistant Professor of Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, Michigan State University
The lame-duck period in the US is longer than in other Western democracies, which tend to make the transition over a period of just days.
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By Zachary Gillen, Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology, Mississippi State University
Strength training programs for young people can improve muscle tone, prevent obesity and develop good exercise habits that last into adulthood.
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