Milestone developments at four years old help children tell lies, play hide-and-seek and read maps: ANURAK PONGPATIMET/Shutterstock At the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development. One of these is a leap forward in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. Another is in spatial thinking – understanding how objects are positioned and …
Three years on, the COVID pandemic may never end – but the public health impact is becoming more manageable: Antonie S/Shutterstock Three years ago, on March 11 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus first formally described COVID-19 as a pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on all aspects of society has been …
The marketing tricks that have kept Barbie’s brand alive for over 60 years: TY Lim/Shutterstock Rejected by the toy industry at first, Barbie is now one of America’s most trusted brands. “She” – the 11.5 inch blonde doll, but also her brand persona – generated worldwide sales of around US$ 1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) in …
Reporting Ukraine 90 years ago: the Welsh journalist who uncovered Stalin’s genocide: Ninety years ago, a young Welsh investigative journalist uncovered the Soviet Union’s genocide in Ukraine, Stalin’s attempt to stamp down on rising nationalism. The Holomodor, as it became known, was responsible for the deaths of some 4 million Ukrainians through deliberate starvation. Gareth …
After 70 years, Stalin’s shadow still looms over Russia and Ukraine – but Putin is a tyrant in his own right: Joseph Stalin took his last breath 70 years ago. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on March 5 1953, aged 74, at his dacha – or country house – west of the Kremlin in …
Niger is Africa’s fastest growing country – how to feed 25 million more people in 30 years: Most of Niger is infertile. Two-thirds of the country is located in the Sahara desert. Issouf Sanogo/AFP/GettyImages Niger, a landlocked country in the dry Sahel region of Africa, struggles to feed its 25 million people. It currently ranks …
Get Rich or Die Tryin’: 50 Cent’s seminal hip-hop album 20 years on: It is January 2003 – many years before I began researching popular music professionally – and I’m flicking around the music channels on TV. Disillusioned by the usual paint by numbers chart fodder and ready to call it a day, I chance …
100 years of the BBC in Wales: an uneasy start and unclear future: Three months after the BBC’s first transmission from London, public service broadcasting in Wales began at 5.00pm on February 13 1923. The small studio above a cinema in the centre of Cardiff also served audiences in the west of England. This may …
60 years since Sylvia Plath’s death: why modern poets can’t help but write ‘after Sylvia’: This year marks the 60th anniversary of Sylvia Plath’s death. Had Plath enjoyed the longevity of her poetry, she would have turned 90 in October 2022. So significant was Plath’s contribution to modern poetry (her most recent biographer, Heather Clark, …
Newport ship: after 20 years’ work, experts are ready to reassemble medieval vessel found in the mud: An artistic impression of how the Newport Medieval ship may have looked . David Jordan/Newport Museums and Heritage Service When construction work began on a new arts centre in Newport, south Wales, in 2002, the builders on site …
The world’s first environmental clean-up happened 400 million years ago: One of the biggest environmental challenges today is to treat land that is contaminated by toxic elements from industrial activity, elements like arsenic, antimony and tungsten. But these same elements can be brought to the Earth’s surface by natural processes such as the bubbling up …
I’ve spent years studying happiness – here’s what actually makes for a happier life: Pexels/ajay donga It’s one thing to know what makes people happy, but quite another to live a happy life oneself. I didn’t get a true taste of happiness until I quit my decade-long career as a happiness academic, packed all I’d …
Myanmar: two years after the military seized power the country is mired in a bloody civil war – but there are grounds for optimism: Two years on from the latest military coup that deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected government, what began as a wave of national protest against the army’s power grab has descended into outright …
Children lost one-third of a year’s learning to COVID, new study shows – but we need to think about the problem differently: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Children’s learning progress has slowed substantially during the pandemic, roughly equating to a loss of around 35% of the typical learning in a school year, according to a new study. …
Gandhi’s image is under scrutiny 75 years after his assassination – but his protest principles are being revived: Harshit Srivastava S3/Shutterstock Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi remains, even 75 years after his assassination, a useful symbol for many in India. For secularists, the leader of the country’s independence movement represents an imagined India of the past. …
Modern mafia: Italy’s organised crime machine has changed beyond recognition in 30 years: The arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, one of Sicily’s most infamous mafia bosses, has reminded many Italians of the extreme violence he was associated with when operating as a leading figure of Cosa Nostra. Denaro appears to belong to another time – …
It’ll take 150 years to map Africa’s biodiversity at the current rate. We can’t protect what we don’t know: Niassa Special Reserve in Northern Mozambique's is just one of the continent's under-mapped biodiversity areas. Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq The African continent is bursting with biodiversity. In a 2016 report, the United Nations Environment Programme wrote: …
Ernest Cole: South Africa’s most famous photobook has been republished after 55 years: Men wait for at a railway station for transport to a mine. Ernest Cole/© Ernest Cole Family Trust/Courtesy Wits Historical Papers/Photography Legacy Project Photographer Ernest Cole was born in 1940 in the Pretoria township of Eersterust, just before apartheid was formally introduced …