By Joanna Woronkowicz, Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Instead of treating creative work as a legitimate field, US labor policy, copyright law and the tax code have failed to offer artists stability or protection.
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By Joel Gray, Associate Dean, Sheffield Hallam University
There can be no doubt that any conversation about British girlbands of the last 30 years would be dominated by Spice Girls.
In whichever corner of the globe you are, they were the defacto pop force of the late 1990s – and their impact has been long-lasting. From Adele…
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By Alex Heffron, PhD Candidate in Geography, Lancaster University
Tom Carter-Brookes, Leverhulme Doctoral Scholar, Sustainable Rural Futures, Keele University
Sean Matthews, the Reform UK leader of Lincolnshire County Council, has said he’ll “lie down in front of bulldozers” to stop Britain’s largest solar farm being built in the county. He’s taking sides in a new rural culture war that pits green energy against the countryside’s traditional image of food and farming.
Reform’s opposition to renewables isn’t surprising. Fossil fuel interests have provided around 92% of the party’s funding according to research by DeSmog…
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By Sarah Singer, Professor of Refugee Law, School of Advanced Study, University of London
A convicted sex offender has been deported from Britain to Ethiopia after being accidentally released from prison. Following a national manhunt, home secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed that Hadush Kebatu – an asylum seeker who came to the UK without authorisation on a small boat – would be returned to his home country.
Kebatu was convicted in September of sexual offences against a woman and 14-year-old girl and sentenced…
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By Jane Wright, Commissioning Editor, Arts & Culture, The Conversation
The more I see Benedict Cumberbatch on screen the more I marvel at his talent as an actor. Recently I have watched him in Eric on Netflix, as an unravelling Sesame Street-style puppeteer looking for his abducted son; in old re-runs of smartypants Sherlock Holmes on the BBC; and as a humiliated husband in The Roses with a truly ghastly Olivia Colman.
His latest film, The Thing With Feathers, promises another affecting performance, this time as a bewildered father struggling to look after his two small sons after the sudden death of his wife.
Based on Max Porter’s beautifully…
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By Damian Bailey, Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of South Wales
Angelique Van Ombergen, Visiting Professor in Translational Neurosciences, University of Antwerp; European Space Agency
Spaceflight rewires the human body. Muscles shrink, bones thin and fluids shift towards the brain – but these changes may help improve life on Earth.
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By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
The United States and China are locked in a contest to be the first country to send humans to the lunar surface in half a century. But there’s a developing twist: an emerging competition between American companies to build the landing vehicle that could win this new Moon race for the US.
The dust-up over the lunar lander could pit Elon Musk against his billionaire rival Jeff Bezos. And it has already sparked a war of words between Musk and Nasa’s acting chief, Sean Duffy, which exposes fault lines over the direction and leadership of the US…
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By Laura Elin Pigott, Senior Lecturer in Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation, Course Leader in the College of Health and Life Sciences, London South Bank University
Beauty standards have always evolved, but in today’s social media age, they shift at lightning speed. From “clean girl” minimalism to the “quiet luxury” aesthetic, each new ideal promises perfection few can reach – fuelling comparison and self-doubt.
It isn’t just social media trends that fuel these feelings of inadequacy. Our brain also plays a role.
Neuroscience shows us the brain is hardwired to…
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By Sophie Heywood, Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Cultures, University of Reading
Emma Page, PhD in Children's literature, University of Reading
The buzz around the newly announced Children’s Booker has focused on its potential to “tell kids they matter”, as they get their own version of this prestigious literary prize. With children actually included in the judging process, the prize has the power to bring thousands more young people “into the wonderful world of reading,” in the words of children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
As Cottrell-Boyce noted in an article for The…
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By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation
This newsletter was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
It was “12 out of ten”, Donald Trump reported on emerging from his meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Busan, South Korea, this morning. It was the first time the two leaders have sat down face-to-face in since 2019 and a lot has happened to change the relationship…
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