wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock Adverse birth outcomes in England – which include stillborn babies, premature birth, low birth weight and the death of the mother during pregnancy or after birth – are closely linked to inequality. A report on maternal deaths in the UK has found that in comparison to white women, blackContinue Reading
When the Syrian refugee crisis began in 2011, the journeys of thousands of people fleeing their home country to cross the Mediterranean were widely documented in the media. But the public response was tepid until 2015, when a photograph of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach wasContinue Reading
Artist's impression of the viking camp established in 873 at Repton (Derbyshire, England). Compost Creative, Author provided For many years, archaeologists and historians have provided an increasingly informed insight into the dynamic world of the vikings, chipping away at the clichés of a crazed, capricious people preoccupied with beards andContinue Reading
Modern guided missiles and bombs are capable of incredible, almost science-fiction-like precision. To research my book, Reaper Force, about the lives of drone operators, I was allowed to watch RAF MQ-9 Reaper drones in real-time action in Syria. I sat with a three-person crew at a ground-control station in CreechContinue Reading
Alamy/PA The “Teflon premier” has finally encountered something that may stick: the revival of a word first heard the last time a British Conservative government entered its second decade – but with a twist that’s very much of the age of Boris Johnson. “Sleaze” is squarely associated with the “shortContinue Reading
The HSE’s chief clinical officer has called on the public to wear masks in outdoor congregated settings such as sporting events. Dr Colm Henry also said that people did not have to go out every night just because bars, restaurants and nightclubs were open. Speaking on RTÉ radio, Dr HenryContinue Reading
Richard Ratcliffe’s efforts to secure the release of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Iran, where she has been detained for over five years for “national security-related” offences, have failed to bear fruit, despite his recent 21-day hunger strike outside the UK Foreign Office. The sticking point, according to many observers,Continue Reading
Stefano Buttafoco / Shutterstock Not so long ago, in a galaxy not so far away… democracy was in danger. Our current political environment is filled with threats to democracy, from the rise of authoritarian populism around the world, to the massive expansion of state power during the COVID-19 pandemic thatContinue Reading
Pupils from a German 'Napola' at Ballenstedt before a football game with a visiting side from an English public school. Author provided In spring 1936, teenage schoolboy – and later war hero – Dick Hargreaves was given the chance to go on an all-expenses-paid exchange trip to Germany. But thisContinue Reading
Artist's impression of HS2 train. HS2 Following leaked reports that the UK government would be scrapping plans for the UK’s long-awaited high-speed rail network to extend to Leeds, transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced in the House of Commons that the eastern leg of HS2 will now reach only fromContinue Reading
