By Jordi Diaz Marcos, Profesor departamento materiales y microscopista , Universitat de Barcelona
As good citizens, we diligently fill the recycling bins provided by our local authorities with all manner of plastic trays, boxes, bottles and bags. But as these bins fill up quicker and quicker each week, an awkward question arises: is all this effort actually doing any good?
Many of us would answer with a sceptically resigned “of course not”. The facts unfortunately support this increasingly common view. In Europe, only around 15% of plastics are recycled, while in the United…
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By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham
Mark Webber, Professor of International Politics, University of Birmingham
Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin
Tetyana Malyarenko, Professor of International Security, Jean Monnet Professor of European Security, National University Odesa Law Academy
Four years ago, on February 24 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that his forces had begun a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – the reasons for which we have explored here. Within minutes, explosions were heard in major Ukrainian cities as Russian troops flooded across the border.
Russian forces made swift gains, capturing key areas near the capital of Kyiv. But the offensive soon stalled and, by December,…
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By Andrew Gawthorpe, Lecturer in History and International Studies, Leiden University
History tells us that a lack of understanding of war on the part of US presidents has often causec friction with their military commanders.
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By Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University
New US tariffs set at 10% have come into effect, days after the country’s Supreme Court blocked the bulk of President Donald Trump’s sweeping import taxes. The shock move came as a major blow to the president’s determination to rebalance US trade and bring manufacturing back home.
For more than 30 years, the United States has been importing substantially more goods and services from the rest of the world…
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By Philip Murphy, Director of History & Policy at the Institute of Historical Research and Professor of British and Commonwealth History, School of Advanced Study, University of London
The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was, without a doubt, a shocking moment. The release by US officials of 3.5 million pages of documents regarding Mountbatten-Windsor’s longtime friend, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, have led to multiple allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the eighth in line to the throne – which he denies.
But as an expert in British…
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By Neil Mabbott, Personal Chair of Immunopathology, University of Edinburgh
A nasal spray vaccine that puts your immune system on permanent high alert – and could one day protect against flu, COVID and future pandemics.
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By Sara Brown, Grant Chair of Dermatology, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Illegal skin-lightening creams containing mercury and steroids are appearing on British high streets. Here’s what’s in them and why they’re dangerous.
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By Andrew McInnes, Reader in Romanticisms, Edge Hill University
A review which posed the question – causing a storm in a teacup of Austenian proportions in 1995 – has now been set to music.
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By Dorje C. Brody, Professor of Mathematics, University of Surrey
When deciding whether to invest in environmental projects, it’s important to consider the economic value of any long-term benefits.
Whether climate solutions (such as offshore wind power or solar farms) are recognised as valuable or worthless depends very much on which economic model is used to evaluate it.
If the present value of the benefit (calculated by using a widely accepted financial model…
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By Frances Hand, DPhil Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Morganne Wilbourne, DPhil Candidate, Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford
Assisted births are common, but many first-time mothers say they lack information before labour and struggle to make decisions in the moment.
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