By Onyekachi E. Nnabuihe, Senior Lecturer, Department of Criminology, Security, Peace and Conflict Studies, Caleb University
Border closures don’t always produce the intended objectives. The idea is usually to control illegal movements and prohibited goods, lessen informal trade, reinforce customs operations, and regain control of national borders. But history shows that in cases as diverse as England, the Asante Kingdom, the US and colonial Nigeria/Benin, stiffer border regulations can instead bring about smuggling and multiply criminal networks.
Where people share ethnic, language and kinship ties…
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By Amanda Bisong, Policy Leader Fellow, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute
Effective migration policy is not about imposing new patterns of movement, but about making existing ones safer, fairer, and more beneficial for all.
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By Kevin Winter, Senior Scholar in Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape Town
A test case in Franschhoek, South Africa has used natural filtering of polluted water to produce 50,000 litres a day that is safe for irrigation.
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By Vidya Diwakar, Deputy Director, CPAN; Research Fellow, IDS, Institute of Development Studies
Multiple and often overlapping crises such as floods or drought due to climate change, violent conflict and economic instability are creating new forms of vulnerability. Collectively they’re known as a polycrisis. These have severe effects on countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high poverty levels where weak…
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By Rachel Woods, Associate Professor, University of Nottingham; University of Lincoln
Struggling to get children to drink enough in hot weather? Water-rich foods can help top up their fluid intake alongside regular drinks.
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By Md Azmeary Ferdoush, Lecturer in Human Geography, Loughborough University
Sarah Mills, Professor of Human Geography, Loughborough University
Where can you score 12 points for killing a Russian soldier in a drone attack, 20 for damaging a tank and up to 50 for destroying a mobile rocket system? Not on the latest video game, but rather through Ukraine’s Army of Drones Bonus (ADB) programme.
Launched shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, before being revamped in 2025, the ADB programme is where points win prizes. Military units can use the points and virtual tokens they have accrued to buy drones and other frontline equipment…
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By Helena Goodwyn, Assistant Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing, Northumbria University, Newcastle
In 1906, the journalist W.T. Stead warned in A Plea for the Revival of Reading that Britain faced a reading crisis. People, he complained, no longer read books. Instead, they skimmed newspapers on trains, forgot what they had read by lunchtime and increasingly preferred distraction to sustained attention. His proposed solution? A national revival of reading.
One hundred and twenty years later, 2026 is the UK’s National Year of Reading. After years of concern about declining rates…
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By Stuart Thompson, Emeritus Fellow in Plant Biochemistry, University of Westminster
Fields, parks and lawns across Europe have turned to straw this summer. Landscapes thousands of years old have been revealed as green outlines against yellow backgrounds, where ancient underground walls and ditches retain enough water to sustain pockets of grass above them. Lawns and parklands have been especially affected because what water is available is being directed to homes and farms.
July was the driest…
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By Mohammed Elmorsy, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, MacEwan University
Samuel Mugo, Professor & Associate Dean, Development, Department of Physical Sciences, MacEwan University
The advantage of virtual reality training is scalability. The same experience can be delivered in many countries simultaneously, without need for travel.
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By Josh Arbon, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Zoology, University of Cambridge
Battles between rival groups are a story as old as time. This sounds like a human story, but it is also one that is playing out across nature.
Conflict between groups of animals competing for territory and resources is widespread, and contests between animals can be dangerous. Getting ambushed, especially by a larger or more powerful group, can have disastrous consequences.
However, conflict is sometimes unavoidable.
Emerging research shows war preparations are not a trait unique to humans.
A…
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