By Catherine Clarke, Professor in the History of People, Place and Community, School of Advanced Study, University of London
They weren’t always enemies. Before William of Normandy and Harold Godwinson were deadly adversaries on the battlefield at Hastings in 1066, vying for the throne of England, they were comrades and brothers in arms.
It’s a tragic journey from unlikely allies to mortal enemies. And it’s one of the lesser-known stories in the Bayeux tapestry, which opens for viewing at the British Museum in London this September.
As a medieval historian, I’ve seen the tapestry several times in Bayeux, and…
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By Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University
Forty years on, James Cameron’s transformation of Ridley Scott’s horror classic remains a masterclass in how to make a sequel.
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By Ross Walker, Lecturer in Sports Management, University of Stirling
A humanoid robot running 100 metres in 9.39 seconds sounds extraordinary. At this week’s World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, one machine reportedly beat the world record held by Usain Bolt, while another jumped higher than Javier Sotomayor’s long-standing high jump mark.
On the surface, these achievements appear to represent a new frontier in sport. But comparing robotic and human performance is fundamentally flawed. The World Humanoid Robot Games brought together more than 2,000 robots competing…
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By Adriana Marin, Lecturer in International Relations, Coventry University
For decades, discussions about Latin America’s cocaine trade have tended to focus on the same places. Colombia and Peru produce much of the world’s coca, while Mexico’s cartels dominate trafficking into the US. But between these known parts of the supply chain, another country has quietly become…
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By Taha Rezaei, Postdoctoral Researcher, Environment and Civil Engineering, University of Exeter
Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, UCL
Major flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have destroyed homes, roads, bridges and local hydropower projects. The flooding of the Bhote Koshi river is affecting 50,000 residents. More than 380 tourists are missing. At least 95 people have already died.
This region of the Himalayas had not yet recovered from the Bhote Koshi flooding in 2025 that killed nine people as it washed away a “friendship bridge” linking…
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By Guy Plint, Professor Emeritus, Earth Sciences, Western University
Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University
Imagine the Western Plains of North America, from Texas to Alaska, submerged under a broad, shallow seaway. To the west lay the ancestral Rocky Mountains. To the east were low-lying plains traversed by large, sluggish rivers.
This was the landscape of North America in the mid-Cretaceous period — a geological age with a time span of 105 to 75 million years ago — when the global sea level was around 100 metres higher than it is now.
A high concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to massive…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Zambian opposition leader and National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP) presidential candidate Brian Muntayalwa Mundubile speaks to members of the media after casting his vote in Lusaka, Zambia, August 13, 2026. © 2026 Moses Mwape/Reuters (Johannesburg) – Zambian authorities suddenly closed and cordoned off the courts without credible explanation on August 24, 2026, effectively blocking the filing of any legal challenges to the results of the August 13 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately…
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By Amnesty International
A counterterrorism law enacted in Kuwait in the wake of Iranian strikes on the Gulf, following the unlawful US-Israeli attacks on Iran, contains overly broad and vague provisions that threaten the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and movement, while significantly expanding the scope of the death penalty, Amnesty International said today. On 15 March 2026, the Emir of Kuwait issued Decree-Law No. 47 […] The post Kuwait: Counterterrorism measures introduced amid Iran war endanger fundamental rights, expand death penalty appeared first on Amnesty International.…
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By Marcus Mayers, Visiting Research Fellow, Intelligent Mobility, Manchester Metropolitan University
Britain’s rail regulator has given Virgin Trains approval to access HS1, the high-speed railway between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel. This is another step towards Virgin running trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030.
Virgin proposes to start services to Paris initially, with Brussels and Amsterdam to follow, eventually reaching around 20 daily return services.
The company now enters a very different market. Rail is already the established choice over flying between London and Paris.…
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By Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow, City Political Economy Research Centre, City St George's, University of London
Andy Burnham’s central vision is for a devolved system of local government that promotes economic growth and fosters local pride. The prime minister’s approach resonates with something known as the “municipal gospel” that swept through Victorian cities in the late 19th century. This history offers some useful insights into the current challenges.
By the middle of the 19th century, Britain’s rapidly industrialising northern cities began to recognise that they had to take direct action to improve infrastructure…
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