By Oiwan Lam
DoD’s public document describes Alibaba as indirectly affiliated with China State Council's supervision body, and a “military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base”.
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Thursday, October 8, 2026
Afghan women and girls are being arrested, detained and threatened with arrest by Taliban authorities, the UN warned on Thursday as record numbers of returnees struggle to rebuild their lives back home.
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Thursday, October 8, 2026
Older women around the world face violence, exploitation and neglect, yet remain largely invisible in the laws, policies, data and services designed to protect women overall, a UN independent human rights expert said on Thursday.
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By Esther Katz, Anthropologue, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Eating insects is often seen as a last resort when people are starving, and yet, in the countries where they are widely consumed, they are often a rare delicacy, even a luxury.
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By Hannah Sarah Wauchope, Lecturer in Ecology & Conservation, University of Edinburgh
Gary David Powney, Quantitative Ecologist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Nick Isaac, Macroecologist, Biodiversity Modelling & Analysis Group, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
The WWF’s Living Planet Index is one of our best measures of biodiversity loss. But the populations it counts may not be representative of wildlife as a whole.
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By Tony D Sampson, Reader in Digital Communication, University of Essex
In 2010, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network charted the birth of social media. Sixteen years later his sequel, The Social Reckoning, is tracing the mutation of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg in the first film and Jeremy Strong in this sequel) from an awkward nerd into a sinister billionaire.
It’s a remarkable film. But Sorkin’s obsession with his monstrous characterisation of Zuckerberg at times obscures…
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By Gemma Ware, Head of Audio, The Conversation UK, The Conversation
From algae to a Nobel prize: listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast to hear Karl Deisseroth explain his brain science breakthrough.
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By Eoghan Kelly, Postdoctoral research fellow, Queen Mary University of London
For the first time in its history three of the four nations of the UK are led by parties that advocate holding referendums on breaking away from the UK.
Recently, the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland signed an agreement to work together on this agenda. (Michelle O'Neill did so in her capacity as vice president of Sinn Féin rather than as Northern Ireland’s first minister, as that office is held jointly with the DUP).
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has made devolution one of his guiding principles, although at the Labour party conference he was clear…
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By Kezia Barker, Associate Professor of Environmental Futures, Liverpool John Moores University
In online “prepper” communities – where people discuss ways to prepare for potential emergencies and disruptions – members often jokingly refer to their “zombie apocalypse” skills.
These are the capabilities they would bring to catastrophic or post-apocalyptic worlds,…
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By C. Scott Watson, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, School of Geography, University of Leeds
Milan Shrestha, Teaching Professor and Senior Global Futures Scientist, Arizona State University
Satellite data shows roads, settlements and infrastructure are expanding into the same valleys that are vulnerable to floods and landslides.
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