Taliban patrol the streets of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, in late August 2021. EPA In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to two Afghan experts about the origins of the Taliban and what’s happened over the last 20 years that enabled the group to retake control ofContinue Reading
Kittrat Roekburi/Shutterstock For many people, the social restrictions experienced during lockdown will have long-lasting effects. These include stress, depression, insomnia, fear, anger, frustration, boredom and stigma associated with quarantine. But during the pandemic, NHS staff had to face all these things and deal with working on the frontline. As aContinue Reading
With the Taliban back in Kabul, thousands of Afghan nationals who serviced the ousted government, the US and its allies are desperately attempting to seek asylum. Many attempted to board US jets at an airport in Kabul, some even clinging to the outside of aircraft as they took off. VideosContinue Reading
Dora Penny, despite being doubly-penalised, is clear ‘best-in’ on my time-handicap for the 2-y-o Restricted Novices Stakes over six furlongs of Wolverhampton tapeta tonight which will be staged under glorious floodlighting; it’s quite a sight, in stark contrast to forty-one years ago this month when I drove to Dunstall ParkContinue Reading
Halfpoint/Shutterstock When COVID-19 arrived, it quickly became clear that older age was the biggest risk factor for developing severe disease. Indeed, there are few diseases for which age is so clearly the most important risk factor. NHS doctors have seen this daily. There have been over 131,000 UK deaths fromContinue Reading
Battaash, why didn’t he run in the ‘Nunthorpe’ and indeed why isn’t he in training? There is nothing wrong with the big-strapping seven-year-old and so the questions have to be asked; can you really retire a gelding which loved racing and was undeniably the best and most imperious sprinter around?Continue Reading
The most powerful tool for combating COVID is not a drug or a vaccine, but a method. A randomised trial is the best way to discover what works and what doesn’t. This method underlies much of the progress in modern medicine, including the development of effective COVID vaccines. However, developingContinue Reading
The pace of acute therapy and vaccine development for COVID have been dizzying. But even as we hope a route to bringing the pandemic under control is within sight, we’re now facing the possibility of another urgent public health emergency thanks to what’s known as long COVID, a group ofContinue Reading
Latin Lover, so unlucky earlier this week, over six furlongs of fast ground Catterick, is strongly-fancied to go one better in another compelling, fiercely-competitive nursery at ‘good to firm’ Sandown today, under the same jockey, George Wood. Harry Eustace’s charge, a strapping Starspangledbanner colt, finished strongly at the North YorkshireContinue Reading
After an incredible start, the UK’s vaccination programme is now slowing down. Over 80 million doses have been administered, but more than 10% of the UK adult population still hasn’t been vaccinated. With COVID-19 cases once again rising, the question of how to boost vaccine uptake among the hesitant isContinue Reading
