By Damian Tobin, Lecturer in International Business, University College Cork
After the US captured Venezuela’s president at the start of 2026, Donald Trump promised to “unleash” the country’s oil supply. He wanted companies to invest US$100 billion (£74 billion) to get hold of it.
Big oil though, seems less than keen on that idea, appearing to consider Venezuela too expensive or risky. Exxon Mobil’s unenthusiastic response, describing Venezuela as “uninvestible”, even earned a personal rebuke…
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By Meilan Yan, Senior Lecturer in Financial Economics, Loughborough University
Dalu Zhang, Lecturer in Finance, University of Leicester
Climate change is usually assessed in scientific terms – rising temperatures, sea levels and carbon emissions. But increasingly, it can also be measured in household bills – higher insurance premiums, steeper energy charges and growing costs to protect homes, travel and health. So when US President Donald Trump said recently that abandoning a key government ruling on greenhouse gases would make cars cheaper for Americans, he was focusing on a tiny piece of a huge picture.
That is because climate change…
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By Michiel van Elk, Associate Professor, Cognitive Psychology, Leiden University
Psychedelic therapy often promises transcendent mystical experiences. But research suggests context and expectation may matter more than the trip itself.
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By Steven Gillespie, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool
Psychopaths might account for only about 1% of the general population, but they account for a disproportionate share of violent crime.
Distinct from other conditions like sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths tend to show traits such as an absence of remorse or guilt, a lack of empathy and a charming and manipulative interpersonal style.
You may find it hard to imagine how someone without much empathy can change. And early psychological treatments were not successful. But advances in research are showing that a deeper understanding of psychopathy…
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By Nicole Whitworth, Lecturer in Linguistics, School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University
Talking is one of the most complex actions the human body performs, yet the process of turning thoughts into speech is coordinated on millisecond timescales. For some children, the brain struggles to plan the movements needed for speech, turning everyday conversation into hard work. Even forming a single word can affect learning, friendships and confidence.
UK guidance suggests around one in ten children experience some form of speech, language or communication difficulty,…
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By Sam Illingworth, Professor of Creative Pedagogies, Edinburgh Napier University
Most AI training teaches you how to get outputs. Write a better prompt. Refine your query. Generate content faster. This approach treats AI as a productivity tool and measures success by speed. It misses the point entirely.
Critical AI literacy asks different questions. Not “how do I use this?” but “should I use this at all?” Not “how do I make this faster?” but “what am I losing when I do?”
AI systems carry biases that most users never see. Researchers…
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By James Clark, Professor of Medieval History, University of Exeter
Henry VIII is not remembered as a loving husband. Any English schoolchild can recount the unpleasant fates of most of his six wives with the rhyme: “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” But though the end of his relationships are famous, less is known about Henry in love.
Now, a rare jewel discovered by an amateur detectorist and bought by the British Museum for the national collection may force us to reconsider the king’s brutal…
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By Bert Johnson, Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
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By Liam Cole Young, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Co-Director of the School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University
Sports betting isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Understanding how we got here, who the players are and what’s at stake are necessary for the future of sport.
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By David Mead, Professor of UK Human Rights Law, University of East Anglia
The High Court has ruled that the UK government’s proscription of the group Palestine Action was unlawful. This is a welcome decision for advocates of free speech and the right to protest, but it is not the end of this story.
Organisations can be proscribed (banned) if the home secretary believes they are “concerned in terrorism” under the definition…
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