Light is the science of the future – the Africans using it to solve local challenges: Light-based technologies have wide practical applications. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Light is all around us, essential for one of our primary senses (sight) as well as life on Earth itself. It underpins many technologies that affect our daily lives, …
UK local elections delivered record-breaking fragmentation of the vote: If there were such a thing as landslide victories for local elections, Reform could easily claim to have won one in 2025. Out of the 1,641 seats available, Nigel Farage’s party came away with 677 – that’s more than 41%. The Liberal Democrats came second with …
Local elections: what would a good night look like for Nigel Farage’s Reform?: English local elections on May 1 mark the first time widespread voting has happened in the UK since last year’s general election. They are therefore the first big test for the Labour government – but also for Reform’s Nigel Farage. Farage has …
Building Zambian homes with local materials delivers benefits that imports don’t: study: People spend up to 90% of their lives in buildings. How these are designed and built has a profound influence on our economies and how we live and work. Traditionally, buildings were constructed by local craftspeople, from readily available materials. The result was …
Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group seeks local power in DRC, not just control over mining operations: The violence wrought by the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 Movement is often narrowly framed as intended to control eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s resource-rich mining sites. The rebel group launched its most recent offensive in 2021 and currently controls vast …
Senegal’s remote Bassari people talk about climate change, and how their local knowledge is key to coping strategies: The Bassari people, a farming community of about 20,000 people, live in an area between Senegal and Guinea. During French colonial rule, the Bassari lost part of their communal land to a national park and were subjected …
African countries could unlock billions in local and global trade – what’s working and what’s not: Africa’s share of global trade remains disproportionately small, hovering around 2%-3%. Countries on the continent trade more with the rest of the world than they do among themselves. Africa needs to improve its share of trade to boost growth …
School results, smoking rates, shop closures? New statistics tool helps you compare local areas in the UK: Stephen Plaster|Shutterstock If you’re not a die-hard numbers person, government statistics can often go right over your head. That is, unless the data is easy to access and directly speaks to your everyday life. A new online service …
Getting climate funds to conflict zones – a case for working with armed groups and local communities: Conflict-ridden and fragile countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change and least prepared to deal with it. They are largely excluded from climate adaptation programmes and funding. This is partly because funding is channelled through national …
Africa’s new online foreign exchange system will enable cross-border payments in local currencies – what you need to know: The high cost of making cross border payments on the African continent has driven governments on the continent to seek options of settling trade and other transactions in local currencies. This has given birth to the …
Local police officers on the decline: what happened to bobbies on the beat?: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock The neighbourhood officer was key to the founding tradition of policing in Britain. The concept of “policing by consent” depended on the view of police as citizens in uniform – visible, local figures there to watch, listen and intervene …
Netflix is still growing its subscriber base – here’s how a local approach is helping: Netflix had a tough year in 2022. Big rivals such as Disney and Amazon Prime were circling, and viewers seemed to be rethinking their streaming habits amid rising prices in a turbulent global economy. Netflix lost subscribers, and its share value …
Local SEO Revolution: Optimising Google My Business in 2023: Are you looking to revolutionise your local SEO? Google My Business is essential in 2023, and this article will show you how to optimise it. We’ll cover market analysis, keyword research, GMB optimisation, photos and videos, reviews and ratings, SEO strategies, branding guidelines, reporting and analytics, …
Shops can’t save UK high streets but a dose of local character could help them thrive again: High St, Conwy, Wales. Some places have already started to inject some local flavour to their high streets. James Clarke/Shutterstock Cratering consumer confidence and the collapse of major UK retailers like Wilko are causing concern about the future …
Guerilla gardening: how you can make your local area greener without getting into trouble: What are your rights if you want to become a guerrilla gardener? Goami/Shutterstock When Richard Reynolds first started gardening around London’s streets, he was so worried he might be arrested that he worked under the cover of darkness. Reynolds was one …
Birmingham’s bankruptcy is only the tip of the iceberg – local authorities across England are at risk: The city of Birmingham has issued what is known as a section 114 notice. This signals that the council is unable to balance its budget, due to lack of financial resources. That the largest local authority in Europe …
Local journalism: why a tiny news operation could inspire a different approach and is attracting big name support: It started as a one-person operation, funded by personal savings and based in a bedroom, with a mission to provide a new format for local news in Manchester, and now The Mill is attracting £350,000 of funding …
Edwardian local press invented the ‘middlebrow’ with a lively mix of local news, reviews and fiction: Our First Tiff by Robert Walker Macbeth (1878). Walker Art Gallery As the provincial press has declined in Britain, so too has local arts and cultural criticism. In the 19th and early 20th century, regional newspapers regularly published reviews …