By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation
This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
Robotic wolves rode on armoured vehicles. Alongside them stealth drones, unmanned submarines, and giant lasers for blinding pilots, accompanied by the lethal triad of air, sea and land-launched nuclear missiles made for a daunting array of Chinese military hardware…
(Full Story)
|
By Amnesty International
On 6 August, the Pakistani authorities announced they were shutting down mobile internet services in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province. The government cited security as a reason for the shutdown, cutting off a population of more than 14 million from the most accessible way to connect to the internet. These shutdowns impact daily life, as well […] The post “The Pakistani government shut down the internet. I couldn’t even tell my family I was safe” appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
(Full Story)
|
By Richard Milne, Senior Lecturer in Plant Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
The wildflowers of Britain include all manner of treasures – yet many people are only aware of a few, such as bluebells and foxgloves. A lot of its other flora are rare because of Britain’s location at the northern, western or even southern edges of their natural geographic – and hence climatic – ranges.
In fact, Britain has over 1,000 native species of wildflower, including 50 kinds of orchid, a few species like sundew that use sticky tentacles to eat insects, and others such as toothwort that live as parasites, plugging their roots into other plants to suck on their sap like botanical…
(Full Story)
|
By Jacqueline Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University
Losing weight is hard. Anyone who has tried to lose weight and keep it off will describe how difficult it can be. If your pet is a little more rotund than is healthy, then helping them regain and retain their waistline can be even trickier.
Drugs such as Ozempic (the brand name for the drug semaglutide) and Mounjaro (brand name for tirzepatide), both originally intended for treating type…
(Full Story)
|
By Oleksandra Osypenko, PhD Candidate in Linguistics, Lancaster University
Once reviled as a ‘humiliating’ Russified form of the language, now Surzhyk is emerging as a tool for Russian speakers to identify as Ukrainians.
(Full Story)
|
By Stuart Mills, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Leeds
Making AI quicker, smarter and better is proving to be a very expensive business. Companies like OpenAI are investing billions of dollars in hardware, and the likes of Meta are offering top (human) talent huge salaries for their expertise.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that these businesses have started exploring new ways of making money as well as spending it.
OpenAI,…
(Full Story)
|
By Cholong Sung, Lecturer in Korean, SOAS, University of London
Thanks to the runaway global popularity of Netflix’s new animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, cinemas around the world have picked it up and are now screening a sing-along edition.
Huntr/x, the musical girl group featured in the story, has topped charts…
(Full Story)
|
By Tim Lenton, Director, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
The collapse of a major system of ocean currents, the meltdown of major ice sheets or the dieback of the Amazon rainforest are all examples of negative climate tipping points. These are the big risks associated…
(Full Story)
|
By Timothy J Lombardo, Associate Professor of History, University of South Alabama
In August 2025, the city of Philadelphia agreed to return a statue of Frank Rizzo to the supporters that commissioned the memorial in 1992.
The 2,000-pound bronze tribute to the former police commissioner-turned-mayor had stood in front of the city’s Municipal Services Building from 1998 until 2020, when then-mayor Jim Kenney ordered it removed…
(Full Story)
|
By Ruohao Zhang, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Penn State
Jiameng Zheng, Assistant Professor of Agriculture Economics, Louisiana State University
Wendong Zhang, Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University
Xibo Wan, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut
PFAS exposure can vary significantly from one community to the next. A close-up view of three Great Lakes states offers some insights for everyone.
(Full Story)
|