By Lynda Yorke, Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Critical Physical Geography, Bangor University
Giuseppe Forino, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Salford
A century after a dam burst in Dolgarrog, killing 16 people, the Welsh village still lives with the legacy that reshaped UK safety laws and its own identity.
(Full Story)
|
By Femi Owolade, Research Associate, Sheffield Hallam University
Every few years, a familiar anxiety resurfaces in British public discourse: that sharia law is establishing a parallel legal system and threatening the sovereignty of English law. Those fears were reignited following Donald Trump’s recent speech to the UN, where he claimed that London wants “to go to sharia law”.
Such claims ignore two realities. First,…
(Full Story)
|
By Abi Crane, Postgraduate Researcher in Palaeontology, University of Southampton
A new specimen of one of the most controversial species of dinosaur has the potential to overturn decades of research on the T rex.
Nanotyrannus, the “miniature T rex”, has been the centre of one of the fiercest debates in palaeontology. Scientists have long argued over whether the Nanotyrannus is a separate species or just a young T rex.
The controversy
(Full Story)
|
By Adriana Marin, Lecturer in International Relations, Coventry University
A massive anti-drug raid in Rio de Janeiro left 132 people dead in the early hours of October 28 as Brazil’s security forces confronted one of the country’s biggest crime gangs. It was one of the deadliest security operations in modern Brazilian history.
Around 2,500 officers descended on the favelas…
(Full Story)
|
By Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex
The results of the Caerphilly Senedd byelection held on October 23 were certainly a shock to Labour and to the Conservatives, but they also cast doubt on the reliability of polling as well. It had for some time appeared that Reform was in the running to win the seat but it ended up trailing some way behind Plaid Cymru.
A Survation telephone poll published on October 16 suggested Plaid Cymru would come second with 38%, and the election…
(Full Story)
|
By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has met with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, for their first face-to-face talks in six years. Trump emerged from the meeting in South Korea in a buoyant mood, describing it as a 12 on a scale of one to ten. He is now saying the US will lower tariffs on Chinese imports, with Beijing giving the US better access to rare earths in return.
The Chinese government’s response was, in comparison, relatively muted. In a statement, the foreign ministry declared…
(Full Story)
|
By Alex Dittrich, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, Nottingham Trent University
If you’re scared of spiders, Halloween certainly doesn’t help. People decorate their homes with monstrous-looking fake cobwebs and horror movies depict giant spiders hunting humans or creeping around spooky abandoned houses. Spiders’ long association with witches can also make their presence seem a little ominous.
In reality though, spiders are much more likely to be minding…
(Full Story)
|
By Catherine Bannister, Visiting Researcher at The University of Sheffield, Social research of children’s play and cultural worlds / archives of cultural tradition and childhood, University of Sheffield
All About Ghosts by Christopher Maynard is a non-fiction book for children curious about spectral beings. First published in 1977, this book grabbed many children with the vice-like grip of a reanimated hand from a mouldering grave.
The book is one of several 1970s spooky releases that left many British children of the time with an abiding curiosity about all…
(Full Story)
|
By Jamie Woodward, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Manchester
Jeff Warburton, Professor in the Department of Geography, Durham University
Stephen Tooth, Professor of Physical Geography, Aberystwyth University
One hundred years ago, a catastrophic flood carrying enormous boulders swept through part of Dolgarrog village, north Wales, destroying several homes, a bridge and the local chapel. Ten adults and six children lost their lives. The tragedy was widely reported and King George V sent a message of condolence.
This was not a natural flood. It was caused by the failure of two dams impounding the Eigiau and Coedty reservoirs on the Carneddau plateau,…
(Full Story)
|
By Jan Machielsen, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
Paul Webster, Lecturer in Medieval History and Co-Ordinator, Exploring the Past Pathway, Cardiff University
As long as we live in a world where people are persecuted for perceived differences, memorialising accused witches will reveal the deadly consequences of ‘othering’.
(Full Story)
|