Despite the exceptional circumstances of 2020, it is just like any other year in one way. Like clockwork, just as summer arrives, we are bombarded with stories of the “migrant invasion”. This year the pictures are of people crossing the channel in flimsy boats. Priti Patel, the UK’s home secretary,Continue Reading
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock More young people in the UK are reporting mental health problems, and there are also apparent increases in self-harm – particularly among girls and young women. The coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdown has further added to these worries. School closures across the UK have provided a uniqueContinue Reading
“He’s following the radical left agenda, take away your guns, destroy your second amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God … He’s against God,” President Donald Trump told supporters during a recent trip to Ohio. Trump was speaking about Joe Biden, the Democrat challenger for the WhiteContinue Reading
China's campaign from the 1950s to eradicate schistosomiasis, or 'snail fever', has been lauded ever since. US National Library of Medicine In early April, with much of the world under lockdown, China was already celebrating its purported victory in keeping the new coronavirus under control. In an effort to boostContinue Reading
The debacle that saw tens of thousands of young school-leavers having their A-level results downgraded by an algorithm and missing out on their first choice university illustrates what can go wrong when ministers try to offload responsibility for important policy decisions on government agencies. It also puts into sharp focusContinue Reading
Mass protests, strikes and calls for Alexander Lukashenko to step down after a disputed election have raised the prospect that his long grip on power in Belarus may be coming to an end. But Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is widely expected to play a decisive role in what happens nextContinue Reading
In the summer of 1940, with the threat of German invasion in the air, some of the wealthy and influential of Britain began privately evacuating their children to the USA and Canada. The result was an impression of grave social injustice. When the Conservative MP and socialite Henry “Chips” ChannonContinue Reading
Alexei Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition politician and activist, has been hospitalised after a suspected poisoning. Navalny’s spokeswoman suggested he was poisoned by something in tea he drank on the morning of August 20 before boarding a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. While on the flight,Continue Reading
Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a historic agreement which makes the Emirates only the third Arab state to recognise Israel after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. As part of the deal, dubbed the Abraham Accord, Israel has suspended highly controversial plans to annex theContinue Reading
Five years after they voted in their first free and fair elections for quarter of a century, the people of Myanmar will go to the polls this November. A country with a troubled and violent history, Myanmar gained independence from the British in 1948. In its formative years, the countryContinue Reading
