By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Queen Mother and Founder of the VFF Foundation, Viola Ford Fletcher, at the Oldest Living Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre Survivors Celebrated And Book Cover Revealing at The City Club of Washington in Washington, DC, US, February 28, 2023. © 2023 Brian Stukes/Getty Images The recent passing of Queen Mother Viola Ford Fletcher, at age 111, marked a profound loss in the ongoing fight for justice for survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the racist attack that left hundreds of Black people dead and more than 1,200 Black-owned houses burned to the ground. As the oldest…
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By Andy Levy, Reader in Psychology, Edge Hill University
Vaping among teenagers is a growing global health problem.
In the UK, schools are reporting a surge in young people struggling with dependence, including cases of students needing medical attention after vaping in class. In the Netherlands, researchers have found that many teenagers wake up at night specifically…
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By Roman Birke, Assistant Professor in Modern European History, Dublin City University
The new US national security strategy marks a significant historical turn. It shifts the focus from global overpopulation to anxieties around population decline in the western world. Coupled with renewed criticism of Europe’s military weaknesses, the strategy updates longstanding anti-European narratives.
US-European relations have so profoundly influenced the course of the 20th and 21st centuries that New York University historian Mary Nolan refers to this era as the “transatlantic…
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By Mark Chadwick, Lecturer in Law, Nottingham Trent University
US forces have seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, a move Caracas has called an ‘act of piracy’.
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By Julia Toppin, Senior Lecturer, Music Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, University of Westminster
Musician, mother, widow: this moving account of an extraordinarily creative life details the highs and lows of walking the earth as a woman.
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By Samantha Ward, Professor of Zoo Animal Welfare & Legislation, Nottingham Trent University
Imagine sipping a latte while stroking an owl or watching an otter play at your feet. This is the promise of exotic animal cafes, a trend that blends coffee culture with wildlife encounters. But behind the Instagram-worthy photos lies a troubling reality – the welfare of the animals themselves.
Since the mid-2000s, animal cafes have increased in popularity with customers paying low-cost entrance fees, ranging from £8 to around £15, depending on the location and animals housed there. The concept seemed to have started with cat cafes but…
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By Robin Bailey, Assistant professor, University of Cambridge
Picture a busy A&E department on a winter evening. Among the emergencies – heart attacks, broken bones, severe injuries – sits someone with a sore throat. Another with an ingrown toenail. Last winter in England, over 200,000 people turned up to emergency departments with complaints like these, leading many to ask: are people misusing A&E – or is something else going on?
A perspective not always considered in this discussion is that the sore throat (or other seemingly minor ailment) isn’t really the problem. The problem is the terror that it might be something worse. Unfortunately, the…
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By Caroline Brophy, Professor in Statistics, Trinity College Dublin
Farmers have increasingly sown a single type of grass in their fields over the past 100 years, and then added chemical fertiliser to increase their harvest. But new research suggests that there are alternatives that are cheaper and can increase the potential of these grasslands to feed livestock.
My research team and I were particularly interested in the potential of mixing up the species of plants grown in agricultural grasslands and what the benefits might be.
This meant the sowing of two grasses, two legumes (for instance, red clover and white clover) and two herbs…
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By Steven Daniels, Lecturer in Politics, Edge Hill University
The UK’s employment rights bill will usher in major changes for workers from April 2026. But beyond promising improved rights for employees over unfair dismissal and sick pay, one of the most controversial aspects of the bill concerns the rights of trade unions.
Millions of UK workers belong to a trade union. They are found in virtually every key industry in the UK, including healthcare, education and transport. This new legislation promises to strengthen their rights – notably by forcing employers to…
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By Yaz Iyabo Osho, Director of Academic Professional Development, University of Westminster
Naomi Alormele, Senior Lecturer in Social Care, University of Northampton
Black women are underrepresented in senior roles in British academia. As of May 2024, there were only 70 Black women professors.
This is less than 1% of all female professors in the UK. Black women are also more likely to be employed on fixed-term…
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