By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Nepali lawyers stage a protest against the Supreme Court administration's refusal to register writ petitions and applications in Kathmandu, Nepal, on May 19, 2026. © 2026 Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto via AP Photo (Geneva) – Recent actions by the government of Nepal that threaten the independence of the country’s judiciary are a source of serious concern, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today. In particular, political pressure has reportedly been applied to alter the composition of the Supreme Court…
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By Lucy Bennett, Lecturer in Popular Music, Digital Culture and Fandom, Cardiff University
Pop has always thrived on reinvention, with artists moving through distinct phases that reconfigure both their sound and sense of self.
David Bowie moved through personas such as Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, each marking a distinct shift in sound and identity. Madonna similarly built her career through…
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By Philip Broadbent, Wellcome Multimorbidity PhD Fellow & Public Health Registrar, University of Glasgow
After years of grim records, the NHS in England finally has some good news to report. The waiting list for planned hospital care has begun to edge down, and the share of patients treated within the 18-week target has climbed, from 59.8% in March 2025 to around 63% a year later. Ministers, who have promised to restore the 92% standard by 2029, are keen to claim momentum.
Until recently, it was difficult to say whether that recovery was reaching everyone equally. That changed in July last year when NHS England…
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By Charles Lees, Executive Dean, City St George's, University of London
If he were alive today, Machiavelli would have enjoyed watching the first days of Andy Burnham’s premiership. An enemy of the Medicis, the Florentine diplomat (full name Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli) was a student of power. He would have appreciated the clarity, focus and – yes – the brutality of Burnham’s move against loyalists of former prime minister Keir Starmer.
This was not a purge comparable to Harold Macmillan’s “night of the long knives” in the 1950s. Back then, Macmillan sacked one third of…
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By Anna Turns, Senior Environment Editor, The Conversation
Rachael Jolley, Environment Editor, The Conversation
Anna Turns (AT), senior environment editor and Rachael Jolley (RJ), environment editor, showcase climate-friendly ways to transform your living spaces.
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By Chiara De Gregorio, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Humans are not the only animals that communicate. Birds sing to attract mates, dolphins use signature whistles that identify individuals, and many primates produce complex vocalisations that help them coordinate their social lives.
By studying these communication systems, researchers can reconstruct some of the evolutionary steps that eventually led to one of our defining traits: language.
Language doesn’t just mean making sounds – it requires an extraordinary ability to control them. Human speech…
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By Elliot Convery-Fisher, Research Fellow in Socio-Ecology of Fire Management, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Kate Parkins, Bushfire Risk Analyst, The University of Melbourne
Wildfires are becoming a feature of the UK’s hotter, drier climate.
In July 2026, major fires swept through parts of the UK in a matter of days – notably setting Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano in the centre of Edinburgh, alight. The Scottish Greens labelled wildfires a “national emergency”…
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By Irit Katz, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge
Israel is gearing up for an election at the end of October. And, with the Likud party of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, trailing in the polls, his government is pushing through measures which aim to dramatically expand Israeli control over Palestinian land on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The October 27 poll will be the first since Hamas’s October 2023 attack, the bloodiest…
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By Susanna Phillippo, Senior Lecturer in Classics, Newcastle University
Sally Waite, Senior Lecturer in Greek Art and Archaeology History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University
Homer’s Odyssey, with its fabulous monsters and intense tale of human endurance, was a natural candidate for Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster. But amid all the fantasy and heroic human drama, there are two far more homely scenes in the poem which remain among the epic’s most memorable. Both involve animals.
One is the touching, tragically brief reunion of the hero (played in the film by Matt Damon) with his faithful dog Argos. It’s a deceptively low-key episode which reflects powerfully on the…
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By Minakshi Raj, Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Caregivers often don’t recognize how much time, energy and effort is dedicated to their nutrition-related responsibilities, and many feel unprepared for them.
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