By Steve Dunne, PhD researcher, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
As in life, trust matters in international politics. Vital for cooperation and reciprocation, trusting someone nevertheless leaves one vulnerable should they break faith and pursue self-serving goals. As US political scientist Andrew Kydd recognised, trust is the belief that someone “prefers mutual cooperation to exploiting and suckering others”.
Two versions of trust matter in international relations. Strategic trust, in the form of institutionalised agreements and organisations which provide certainty – as well…
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By Peter Gammon, Professor of Power Electronic Devices, School of Engineering, University of Warwick
Silicon microchips underpin our modern lives. They are at the heart of our smartphones and laptops. They also play critical roles in electric vehicles and renewable energy technology.
Today, more than three-quarters of microchips, also known as semiconductors, are produced in Asia. But in the 1990s, chip production was more widely distributed across the globe – and the UK punched above its weight.
Scotland’s central belt – the area of highest population density, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and the towns surrounding them – became known as “Silicon Glen”,
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By Scarlette Nhi Do, Sessional Academic, The University of Melbourne
The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was more than just a chapter in the Cold War.
For some, it was supposed to achieve Vietnam’s right to self-determination. For others, it was an attempt to found a nation-state independent of both capitalist and communist influences.
In the 50 years since the war ended, the stories we’ve heard about it have struggled to convey these many different views. Cinema – in Hollywood and in Vietnam – offers some insight into this struggle, which we continue to face today.
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By Liz Evans, Adjunct Researcher, English and Writing, University of Tasmania
In her ninth novel, The Buried Life, Andrea Goldsmith explores ambitious themes of death, denial and uncertainty. She examines the illusion of emotional security among the educated middle classes of inner-city Melbourne. Familial dysfunction and destructive relationships define the intersecting lives of Adrian, Laura and Kezi, as each struggles with the anxiety of the unfamiliar.
These are grand topics, but Goldsmith treats them with grace rather than high drama. She employs an emotional, rather than a…
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By Berhane Elfu, Lecturer in Finance, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
In the face of U.S. tariffs, the new Canadian government should take prudent, urgent and bold steps to strengthen the nation’s economy.
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By Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – US forces struck a migrant detention center in Saada, Yemen, on April 28, 2025, reportedly killing over 68 civilians and injuring dozens more. Human Rights Watch verified a video posted by the Houthi-run news channel, Al-Masirah, also verified by the newswire service Reuters, that showed migrants and asylum seekers dead and injured in the aftermath of the strike. Those killed and injured were reportedly all of African nationalities who were being held in the detention center in the Houthi-controlled area. This airstrike is one of over 800 that the United…
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By Human Rights Watch
On April 15, 27-year-old Mei Shilin (梅世林) put up three banners on an overpass outside Chengdu’s Chadianzi Metro Station in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. The banners stated: “There can be no national rejuvenation without political system reform”; “The people do not need a political party with unrestrained power”; and “China does not need anyone to show the way, democracy is the direction.” The authorities reportedly detained Mei soon afterward. His current situation and whereabouts are unknown. Click to expand Image Three pro-democracy banners hang from an overpass…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Police outside the building of Toplum TV, independent online media outlet, where law enforcement searched the offices and detained journalists, in Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6, 2024. © 2024 Aziz Karimov/Getty Images In an effort to annihilate independent activism, Azerbaijani authorities have reopened a 2014 criminal investigation that led to the country’s most sweeping crackdown on human rights defenders and journalists in recent history.The 2014 investigation, reopened last month, targeted international donors and their grantees that operated in Azerbaijan with bogus…
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By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University
At 71, Tina Knowles – the fashion designer, businesswoman, and mother of Beyoncé – made headlines not for her career, but for a deeply personal revelation: her breast cancer diagnosis. In 2023, a routine mammogram uncovered two tumours in her left breast, one benign and the other malignant. Diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, she underwent surgery and is now cancer-free.
Knowles had initially hesitated to share her story, even considering leaving it out of her
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By Ella Jeffries, Lecturer in linguistics, University of Essex
From the moment we are born (and even before that, in utero), we tune into the languages around us. This includes the accents they are spoken in.
Studies have found that infants show a preference for a familiar accent from as young as five months old. Fast forward to adulthood…
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