How and where global 2 billion barrels of strategic oil reserves are stockpiled
The U.S. stores its strategic oil reserves in subterranean salt caverns along the Gulf Coast, like this one in West Hackberry, Louisiana, photographed on June 1, 1980. Robert Nickelsberg/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Drive on Interstate 10 along the Gulf Coast of the United States, through Louisiana and into Texas, and you’ll see signs of […]
Trump’s call to expand Abraham accords is destined to fail
As negotiations to end the Iran war continued on May 25, Donald Trump made a series of phone calls in which he pressed key leaders from the Middle East to join the Abraham accords. Announced in 2020, these accords established diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states, beginning with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) […]
Greater Israel: the origins of the settler movement now threatening to annexe the West Bank
A big increase in violence on the West Bank has prompted the EU to issue sanctions on several individuals and groups that allegedly organise and finance illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory. Under the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank and Gaza were designated as Palestinian […]
Magistrates courts are already under huge amounts of pressure – cutting jury trials will make things worse
chrisdorney/Shutterstock Proposals to cut the use of jury trials for most offences would be one of the most significant legal reforms in UK history. The government’s plans have prompted much debate in legal circles and beyond – mainly around whether they go against the UK’s democratic principles. The government’s hope is that reducing jury trials […]
Why safer spaces matter for young people’s physical activity
Sabrina Bracher/Shutterstock The 2026 Commonwealth Games come to Scotland this summer, showcasing elite athletes at the top of their game. But for most of us, physical activity looks much more ordinary: walking to school, joining a PE lesson, dancing in the kitchen or going to the gym. Now think about how that kind of movement […]
The Enhanced Games set out to ‘transform sport’ but the results looked surprisingly ordinary
The Enhanced Games promised a revolution. Athletes on supervised drug regimens, unshackled from the anti-doping rules of the Olympics, were going to show us what the human body was truly capable of. The event was transhumanism in practice – a glimpse at humanity’s athletic future. What it actually delivered was a single world record, broken […]
The story of Pope Leo’s ‘landmark’ text on AI technology – by a member of its launch panel
For the last few years, I’ve been seconded to assist the Catholic Church’s unprecedented global grassroots listening initiative. Just as that process drew to a close, I received a surprise request: would I help Pope Leo XIV launch his first social encyclical, focused on what it means to be human in a time of artificial […]
Moss & Freud: this anodyne portrait of their artist-muse friendship lacks dramatic bite
Filmmakers have long found artistic creation both a compelling and a frustratingly elusive dramatic subject. In the right cinematic hands, artworks can be made to speak for themselves – think of the dazzling sequence of canvasses that concludes Vincente Minnelli’s 1956 biopic of van Gogh, Lust For Life. In the wrong hands, the artist’s character […]
Heatwaves: older people less likely to follow safety advice
Government advice is to stay in the shade if going out in very hot weather. hobiemarcgldi/Shutterstock Extreme heat is now considered the deadliest weather and climate-related hazard in Europe, causing more deaths than floods or storms. Research shows there are high levels of heat-related deaths in European countries. For instance, in 2022 Italy (18,010 deaths), […]
Unearthing Namibia’s forgotten genocide through forensic archaeology
The Namibian genocide was one of the first genocides of the 20th century. Between 1904 and 1908, tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people were killed under German colonial rule. Despite the scale of these events, the material and human legacy of this genocide remains less understood than later atrocities. Historical accounts exist, but […]