Reform UK polling sting: why even small donations matter in politics these days
Reform UK’s national conference has been rocked by allegations that senior members of the party plotted to circumvent rules on political donations. The reports centre on two payments – one real and one suggested, but both important. The two Reform staff members at the centre of the investigation have been suspended. The apparent plans were […]
War drama Pressure depicts D-day’s weather forecast – what we found when we recreated the challenge using modern systems
Meteorologist James Stagg gave what many regard as the most important weather forecast in history in June 1944. The fate of more than 150,000 allied troops preparing to invade the Normandy beaches on D-day and the future of the war in Europe depended on Stagg and his forecast teams. Get the forecast wrong and an […]
The Raw and the Cooked exhibition: art goes medieval in search of the aesthetic of the middle ages
Entering The Raw and the Cooked at the Saatchi Gallery in London, you are faced with a single enormous painting that occupies the whole of the opposite wall. The Punishment of Richard Roose (2026) is a magnificently anachronistic project: a museum-scale picture of a fairly obscure episode of English history. Stiff, stylised, life-sized figures stand […]
Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action?
Over the summer, Europe provided a stark new set of images of climate change. Wildfires raced across forests and grasslands, rivers and reservoirs dried up in droughts and extreme heat disrupted everyday life. Instead of the familiar photographs of people enjoying days at the beach, coverage of heatwaves increasingly comes with images of their consequences. […]
In re-releasing Avengers Endgame, Marvel is quietly admitting its Multiverse failures
The rumours have been swirling around for several months, and now they’ve been confirmed with a shiny new trailer: Marvel is re-releasing 2019’s Avengers: Endgame on September 25 2026 – three months before its epic Christmas showdown, Avengers: Doomsday. On the one hand, the encore edition of Avengers: Endgame makes perfect sense. Endgame was the […]
A mosquito that can transmit Zika has bred in London – but that doesn’t mean the virus is spreading in people there
khlungcenter/Shutterstock The discovery that a mosquito species capable of transmitting the Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses is breeding in east London may sound alarming, particularly to people living nearby. Yet finding the species is several steps removed from finding evidence that any of these viruses are circulating locally. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has […]
Syria: journey through a country in ruins
Just over a decade ago, at the height of Russia’s bombing campagn in Syria in 2015, an old friend who had spent much of his career teaching in the Middle East sent me two photographs of the city of Homs, which had taken a particularly heavy bombardment at the hands of Vladimir Putin’s warplanes. One […]
Science uncovers how the brain interprets artistic beauty – new research
Stand in front of Turner’s Sun Rising Over Water (1825-30) and something odd tends to happen. The painting holds you, even though observers might struggle to say why. Maybe it is the colour, the balance, the composition, or the strange stillness the artwork seems to carry. Whatever it is, you feel it long before you […]
Rebuilding in Nepal-Tibet will be challenging – communities in India are still recovering from 2023 glacial disaster
The city of Gangtok, India in June 2026. The devastating 2023 Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood triggered massive landslides, destroying infrastructure across the Teesta Valley. Soumitra Giri/Shutterstock Debris flowing down a Himalayan valley. Towns and villages washed away. Thousands of people affected. Not the recent devastating catastrophe on the Nepal-Tibet border, but a similar disaster […]
Ukraine’s labour market has been surprisingly resilient during the war with Russia
Construction workers repairing a road in Kyiv, Ukraine, in March 2026. aileenchik / Shutterstock Russia’s war in Ukraine has generated one of the largest labour supply shocks in recent history. From an estimated pre-war population of 41 million people, close to 6 million have now left Ukraine. This outward migration alone has reduced the country’s […]