To predict future sea level rise, we need accurate maps of the world’s most remote fjords: The 10km wide Petermann Fjord in northern Greenland. The author's icebreaker ship is a small dot in the middle. The cliffs on either side are a kilometre high. In the distance is the 'ice tongue' of the glacier flowing …
How to build financial resilience: insurance and retirement savings are the most effective tools in South Africa – study: Employment and education increase financial resilience. Getty Images Imagine you’ve found yourself in a difficult financial situation and needed to raise R40,000 (more than US$ 2,000) on the spot. Where and how would you raise these …
One of 2023’s most extreme heatwaves is happening in the middle of winter: Temperature anomaly on Wednesday August 2 2023. Red areas of Chile and northern Argentina are much hotter than the long-term average for this time of year. ClimateReanalyzer.org, CC BY-SA Temperatures in parts of Chile and northern Argentina have soared to 10°C-20°C above …
Tower of London’s Crown Jewels: colonial diamonds overshadow reopened exhibition’s most interesting objects: The Tower of London’s Crown Jewel exhibition, which reopened in May, is a turning point in the museum’s narrative. As British institutions have increasingly made moves to investigate their connections to slavery, there has been a gradual acceptance of the complicated nature …
Debunking migration myths: the real reasons people move, and why most migration happens in the global south – podcast: People in motion in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alf Ribeiro/Shutterstock Around the world, borders between countries are getting tougher. Governments are making it more difficult to move, especially for certain groups of vulnerable people. This comes with …
Asteroid City: Wes Anderson’s cosmic tale is his most engaging in years: Wes Anderson’s new film Asteroid City (2023) is a sci-fi dramedy following a grieving family stranded in a rural US town during a star-gazing event in the summer of 1955. However, it’s also a text by fictional playwright, Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the …
Expanding gay sex pardons to women won’t help most prosecuted lesbians: Stephm2506/Shutterstock More than a decade after launching a scheme to disregard and pardon convictions for historic “gay sex” offences, the government has now announced the scheme will apply to women. But a look at the history of lesbians convicted for same-sex activity shows that …
Sierra Leone elections: survey reveals what voters care about most: A man casts his vote at a polling station in Freetown during the 2018 general elections. Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images Sierra Leoneans go to the polls again on 24 June, in the country’s fifth post-conflict electoral contest. For more than two decades following its …
How scammers use psychology to create some of the most convincing internet cons – and what to watch out for: Scammers are blending different types of fraud to persuade people to hand over their cash. Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Online fraud is today’s most common crime. Victims are often told they are foolish for falling for it, but …
Silvio Berlusconi: the property developer who became a media tycoon – and Italy’s most flamboyant prime minister: Silvio Berlusconi, who has died at the age of 86, was born into a middle-class family in Milan, a city heavily affected by the second world war. He attended a private school belonging to a religious order, and …
Five reasons Adam Smith remains Britain’s most important economist, 300 years on: June 5 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith, the 18th-century British economist widely hailed as the father of modern economics. Born in Kirkcaldy, on the east coast of Scotland, Smith studied at the University of Glasgow and at …
Car thieves are using increasingly sophisticated methods, and most new vehicles are vulnerable: shutterstock Car theft is on the rise, according to AA Insurance Services. Worryingly, thieves are increasingly using high-tech tools to target weaknesses in the same sensors and computerised systems that were designed to help make our journeys safer and more comfortable. In …
Kosovo government must take most of the blame for the latest violence, but any long-term solution will require a constructive response from Serbia as well: Renewed violence in northern Kosovo reminds us that parts of the western Balkan region have a long way to go on the route to recovery from the wars of the …
Ethiopia has one of Africa’s most ambitious housing policies – but the lottery-based system is pulling communities apart: New apartments blocks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images The shortage of adequate housing in cities is an issue around the globe, particularly among developing countries that are rapidly urbanising. …
Souleymane Cissé is honoured as one of Africa’s boldest and most pioneering film-makers: Mali-born director Souleymane Cissé is best known for his film Yeelen. Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Dubai International Film Festival Souleymane Cissé is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest African film-makers of all time – and the world’s most prestigious film …
Most east African refugees are hosted close to borders – it’s a deliberate war strategy: The Burundian flag flies at the head of a convoy of buses moving refugees back home from Tanzania in 2019. Tchandrou Nitanga/AFP via Getty Images There are close to 4 million people living in refugee camps across Africa. Of the …
Voter ID: most people are terrible at matching faces to photos, making polling checks unreliable: On Thursday May 4, for the first time, members of the public voting in local council elections in England were required to bring photo ID to their polling station. Initial reports suggested that a few people were turned away because …
‘Statistically impossible’ heat extremes are here – we identified the regions most at risk: Ed Connor / shutterstock In summer 2021, Canada’s all-time temperature record was smashed by almost 5?. Its new record of 49.6? is hotter than anything ever recorded in Spain, Turkey or indeed anywhere in Europe. The record was set in Lytton, …