By Max Crowley, Professor of Human Development, Family Studies and Public Policy, Penn State
Since early 2025, several large federal health grants to states have been suspended and then restored after legal challenges. On Feb. 13, 2026, for example, the federal government moved to suspend about US$600 million in public health grants to four states before a federal court temporarily blocked the action. Hundreds of…
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By Richard Washington, Professor of Climate Science, University of Oxford
When Saharan dust reaches the UK and Europe, as a huge country-sized cloud did over the past few days, it can transform the sky. Tiny particles drifting in the atmosphere scatter blue light while allowing reds and oranges to reach us intact, producing beautiful sunsets.
But these striking displays are also a reminder of how connected the Earth is. Dust drifting over my head in England may have rested on the dry surface of the Sahara…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image The City Court in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 24, 2026, when the ruling against Coming Out was handed down. © 2026 AP Photo Last week, a St. Petersburg court in a closed door hearing, designated a leading Russian LGBT rights group, Coming Out, as an “extremist organization.” The ruling delivers another severe blow to a community that has become a key target of the Kremlin’s harmful “traditional values” crusade. Coming Out is the first LGBT rights organization to be formally designated “extremist” since Russia’s Supreme Court in 2023 prohibited…
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By John Calabrese, Assistant Professor, School of Public Affairs and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute, American University
Beijing has denounced US-Israeli action in Iran, but has not rushed to come to the aid of its regional ally.
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By Nicole Westmarland, Professor of Criminology, Durham University
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of violence against women and girls that we see in the news on a daily basis. Horrific cases such as that of survivor Gisèle Pelicot can make us wonder how such distressing crimes can still be happening.
Violence against women and girls accounts for almost 20% of all recorded crime in England and Wales. That’s more than one million crimes a year. At…
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By Amy Wilcockson, Research Fellow, English Literature, Queen Mary University of London
Ever since pen was first put to paper, literary heroines have leapt off the page, often as literature’s most nuanced characters. Whether plucky and confident, pushing the boundaries of society, or increasingly empowered in their own quiet ways, it is no surprise that fictitious females reveal much about the world.
So, to celebrate International Women’s Day 2026, we’ve picked ten of our favourite literary luminaries (in no particular order) to uncover what they can teach us about living.
1. Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë
“I am no bird; and…
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By Louise Kettle, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of Nottingham
Operation Epic Fury is a US military operation. It will not be possible for the UK to exert any significant influence in planning.
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By Hind Elhinnawy, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University
For more than three decades, Iran tried and failed to silence Women Without Men (Zanan bedun-e Mardan in Persian). Shahrnush Parsipur’s novella exposed the brutality of Iranian patriarchy with rare clarity. It did so long before global audiences recognised that violence.
Published in 1989, the book was banned almost immediately and Parsipur was imprisoned twice for writing openly about women’s sexuality and autonomy – an act of artistic courage the Islamic Republic…
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By Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History, Trinity College Dublin
Irish politician Thomas Gould has become a bit of star in the Caribbean after a video of him speaking in the Irish parliament drew comments for the surprising similarity of his Cork accent to the Jamaican one.
His viral speech is a powerful reminder of the shared histories of Ireland and Jamaica, which date back to the mid-17th century and lasted for the next 200…
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By Mira Al Hussein, Research Fellow at the Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World, University of Edinburgh
Missiles and drones have rained down on cities across the Gulf since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
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