By Nicholas John Wheeler, Professor of International Relations Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham; BASIC
Marcus Holmes, Professor of Government; Faculty Affiliate, Global Research Institute, William & Mary
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s Washington summit has been billed as a discussion of major issues surrounding the development and possible regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as trying to find common ground over Taiwan and trade. What everyone wants to know is whether – and how – the leaders of the two biggest world powers can get over their rivalry through face-to-face diplomacy to achieve a positive outcome in what is surely the most urgent question facing global leadership.
The importance Beijing attaches to such encounters was underlined on September 17 when, in a…
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By Daniel Waktola, Associate Professor, Austin Community College
Maps are an essential technology of modern life. They help navigate streets, follow deliveries and track storms. They’re embedded in election coverage, humanitarian emergencies, military briefings, and development reports. They underpin the “location intelligence” that governments and businesses use to understand where people, services, risks and opportunities are.
Most of the time, we barely notice them. Which may be exactly why they’re worth noticing.
Maps carry unusual authority. Put an argument into a paragraph and readers may question it. Draw the same argument as…
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By Garhe Osiebe, Research Fellow, Rhodes University
If there was any doubt that “billing” has become central to Nigerian conversations about dating, money and gender, eLDee the Don has supplied a new soundtrack with the song I Wish You Well.
I study the intersection of popular music and politics in Nigeria. eLDee’s 2011 youth mobilisation…
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By Mathias Alubafi Fubah, Senior Research Specialist, Human Sciences Research Council
South Africa has made strides in integrating immigrants into local communities. The country is home to an estimated 2.4 million to 3.1 million foreign-born residents. This represents roughly 4% to 5.1% of the total population.
Acceptance of immigrants as neighbours in the neighbourhoods where they live and work is, however, not a given. Suspicion and tensions…
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By Alberto Caracciolo, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Iceland
Maurizio Petrelli, Professor of Igneous Petrology, Università degli Studi di Perugia
Teresa Ubide, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor in Igneous Petrology/Volcanology, The University of Queensland
By observing the tree-ring-like growth records present in volcanic crystals, geologists are able to track volcanic activity and reconstruct the steps leading up to eruptions.
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By Kinda Ibrahim, Associate Professor, Primary Care, University of Southampton
Around 8 million people in the UK take five or more medications each day (known as polypharmacy), with a further 2 million people taking ten or more prescription drugs daily. The majority of people who take multiple medications each day are aged over 65.
Taking multiple prescription drugs is not necessarily a problem. But it can become problematic when a
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By Gemma Ware, Head of Audio, The Conversation UK, The Conversation
AI expert Nick Jennings speaks to The Conversation Weekly podcast about calls for an slowdown in the development of frontier AI models.
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By Jacopo Gnisci, Lecturer in Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South, UCL
A high-stakes cultural dispute has erupted over the promoted sale of an important 18th-century Ethiopian manuscript at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
The Magdala Gospel is a large manuscript, probably dating to the second half of the 18th century. It measures approximately 360 x 290 x 100mm and contains the Gospel of Luke and most of the Gospel of John.
The manuscript is written in Ge’ez or ancient Ethiopic, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It would have originally been…
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By Martin Waehlisch, Associate Professor, University of Birmingham
Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham
UN secretary-general, António Guterres, used his final address to the general assembly to recast the world’s crises as a single problem. War, inequality, the climate emergency and artificial intelligence, he argued, are not separate crises but chapters of the same story. That story, as he told it, is the story of power: who has it, who is denied it, how it is used and how it is changing.
Guterres identified three shifts. Among states, new centres of economic, political and technological influence have emerged.…
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By Eef Hogervorst, Professor of Biological Psychology, Loughborough University
A study has raised a question that many women would understandably want answered: could hormone replacement therapy (HRT) protect against dementia? The research found that women who had used HRT were less likely to receive a dementia diagnosis during follow-up, particularly if they had undergone surgery involving their reproductive organs. But the results do not establish that HRT caused the difference.
The researchers analysed data from 183,450 postmenopausal women in the
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