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
Ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s recently engaged in an unlikely exchange with the British government. In a series of tweets, the company pleaded with the home secretary to show more compassion towards immigrants who take on the dangerous journey across the English Channel to seek asylum in the UK,Continue Reading
Shutterstock/De Visu Across the world, domestic abuse affects one in three women, and every three seconds, someone develops dementia. Yet despite the prevalence of both these issues, little attention is given to what happens when they are combined. As a result, older people living with dementia are often the forgottenContinue Reading
The coronavirus pandemic has inflamed existing tensions between China and the US. China blamed the US for spreading the virus across international borders while the US president, Donald Trump, continues to focus the blame on China by referring to COVID-19 as the “China virus.” Tensions between them have also mountedContinue Reading
The process can be stressful and traumatic for survivors. fizkes/Shutterstock Earlier this year the ruling body for the Church of England voted in favour of compensating survivors who had been sexually abused by members of the clergy. This means the church could be forced to pay out £200 million asContinue Reading
