70 years of data suggest the Conservatives will suffer a big defeat at the next election — here’s how I worked it out: With the UK’s new prime minister in office, it looks like the political turmoil of the last few months is likely to ease, at least for the time being. Rishi Sunak and …
The French-Algerian war: 60 years on, what is behind France’s reconciliation agenda?: If you cross the Seine in the centre of Paris at the iconic Pont Saint-Michel and walk along the promenade, you may glimpse a small plaque on your way towards the steps that lead down to the riverbank. Placed not on the actual …
Apartheid ‘town planning’ created Orlando 90 years ago. It became a hotbed of black resistance: South Africans celebrate the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising of 1976, planned in Orlando East. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Orlando East, a working class community on the periphery of Johannesburg in South Africa, has turned 90 years old. Orlando was …
The Lost King: why are we still obsessed with Richard III after 500 years?: The release of Stephen Frears’ film The Lost King once more focuses attention on one of the most controversial figures in English history: King Richard III. The film is a compelling account of the struggle of a woman called Philippa Langley …
Tigray war: two years on, the AU has failed to broker peace and silence the guns: A damaged tank on the road north of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, in February 2021. Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images The African Union pledged in 2016 to “silence the guns” by the end of 2020, an ambitious agenda …
Tigray has resisted Ethiopia’s far greater military might for two years — here’s why neither side is giving in: Protesters in the UK demonstrate against the war in Tigray, Ethiopia, in October 2022. Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images The Ethio-Tigray war started on 4 November 2020. For almost two years, the governments of Ethiopia …
Angela Lansbury – a storied career sure to touch people for years to come: Album/Alamy I never met Angela Lansbury, but she was one of those icons that felt like a trusted friend and family member. Every Sunday evening, I devoured Jessica Fletcher’s activities in Murder, She Wrote – catching the bad guys and saving …
Uganda’s Owen Falls dam: a colonial legacy that still stings, 67 years later: The sluice gates open at the Owen Falls dam across the White Nile in Uganda on 14 October 1962. McCabe/Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Uganda’s Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country’s independence in 1962. The plant …
‘Sea monsters’ were real millions of years ago. New fossils tell about their rise and fall: Thalassotitan teeth. Nicholas Longrich Sixty six million years ago, sea monsters really existed. They were mosasaurs, huge marine lizards that lived at the same time as the last dinosaurs. Growing up to 12 metres long, mosasaurs looked like a …
Tracey Rose, renegade South African artist: understanding her 30 years of outrage: Tracey Rose ahead of her mid-career retrospective in Cape Town. Photo courtesy Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art When an artist is welcomed into the monumental interiors of a structure such as the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa for a retrospective of their …
Nuclear war: does it take luck or reasoning to avoid it? Lessons from the Cuban missile crisis, 60 years on: The United States and the Soviet Union came dangerously close to war in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. Just ahead of its 60th anniversary, Russian president Vladimir Putin is issuing nuclear threats following …
100 years of innovation and inventions: South African vice chancellor reflects on what’s next: Vice Chancellor Professor Zeblon Vilakazi and others in the IBM Lab at the opening of Wits university's Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct. Lauren Mulligan/Wits University We live in a world characterised by inequality, poverty, economic volatility, globalisation, climate change and ambiguity. In …
How I reunited the most important documents in English theatre history for the first time in 200 years: Most of what we know about the beginnings of English professional theatre as a financial enterprise and artistic endeavour comes from thousands of manuscript pages in the archive of Philip Henslowe (1550-1616) and his son-in-law and business …
To reach net zero the world still needs mining. After 26 years, here’s what I’ve learned about this ‘evil’ industry: On the wooded hill above the Stan Terg lead and zinc mine in Kosovo, there is an old concrete diving platform looming over what was once an open-air swimming pool. Before the break-up of Yugoslavia, …
Fracking: if Liz Truss wants a major shale gas industry, she is 280 million years late: In some respects, the UK has been among the world’s most successful countries at taking action against climate change over the past few decades. Yet that progress could be reversed and thrown away for a few years of slightly …
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17 strikes in 23 years: a unionist explains why Nigeria’s university lecturers won’t back down: A protester holds a placard as workers show solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities. Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images Lecturers at Nigeria’s public universities have been on strike 16 times since 1999. On 14 February …
Liz Truss to become British prime minister: a laser-like focus on delivery is needed after the chaos of the Boris Johnson years: For his recent book on the role of the British prime minister, contemporary historian Anthony Seldon chose the title: The Impossible Office? Liz Truss will soon find out just how impossible the office …