Thursday, February 12, 2026
This speech was delivered by Megan Rock, Head of the ICRC’s Regional Delegation in the Pacific, at the Commonwealth Law Minister’s Meeting on 11 February 2026 in Nadi, Fiji
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By Jane Steventon, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Screenwriting; Deputy Course Leader & Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Production, University of Portsmouth
Water covers over 70% of our planet, so it’s no wonder that it flows through our storytelling. Biblical rain offered divine judgement either in the form of a blessing and rewards, or retribution and vengeance. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste the fool issued the melancholic refrain: “For the rain it raineth every day.” It reminded the audience of the persistence of suffering in life.
Filmmakers worldwide have revered the visual beauty and the metaphorical value of rain on screen, letting it augment…
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By Michael Woods, Professor of Human Geography, Aberystwyth University
Charles Musselwhite, Professor of Psychology, Aberystwyth University
Political parties are lining up to talk about where they stand on the 20mph urban speed limit in the Welsh election campaign.
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By Martin Graff, Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Relationships, University of South Wales
As Valentine’s Day approaches, restaurant bookings fill up and couples exchange cards, flowers and carefully chosen gifts. For some, it’s a day of closeness and connection. For others, it can bring anxiety, disappointment or emotional distance.
These different reactions may feel deeply personal. But in terms of psychology, they may reflect something much deeper – how we learned to attach to other people in childhood.
Attachment theory offers a powerful way of understanding why romantic relationships…
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By Henry Somers-Hall, Professor of Philosophy, Royal Holloway, University of London
Let’s begin with a story from the beginnings of western philosophy that doesn’t sit well with existentialist thought.
In Plato’s Symposium, a character called Aristophanes gives an account of love. He tells us that human beings originally had doubled bodies, with two heads, four arms and four legs. As a punishment for threatening the gods, however, Zeus cut each of them in half.
Now, these half humans,…
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By Travis Van Isacker, Senior Research Associate, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol
The deaths of at least 31 people in the Channel on November 24 2021 were “avoidable”, an independent inquiry has found. The final report of the Cranston inquiry highlights known problems at HM Coastguard that were not resolved, calling them a “significant, systemic failure on the part of government”, which led to this crossing becoming Britain’s deadliest small boat disaster.
The report…
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By Thomas Keegan, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, Lancaster University
A whistleblower has raised safety concerns about working inside Porton Down, which has a long history of conducting dangerous biochemical research.
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By Eric Yttri, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
At the Winter Olympics, skiers, bobsledders, speedskaters and many other athletes all have to master one critical moment: when to start. That split second is paramount during competition because when everyone is strong and skilled, a moment of hesitation can separate gold from silver. A competitor who hesitates too much will be left behind – but moving too early will get them disqualified.
Though the circumstances are…
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By Filippo Menczer, Professor of Informatics and Computer Science, Indiana University
A simulation shows that social media bots powered by today’s AI can infiltrate human networks on social media and influence what people believe.
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By Tucker J. Gregor, Doctoral Candidate in Religious Studies, University of Iowa
Love and hate seem like obvious opposites. Love, whether romantic or otherwise, involves a sense of warmth and affection for others. Hate involves feelings of disdain. Love builds up, whereas hate destroys.
However, this description of love and hate treats them as merely emotions. As a religious ethicist, I am interested in the role love plays in our moral lives: how and why it can help us live well together. How does our understanding of the love-hate relationship change if we imagine love not as…
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