Category: Academic Analysis
-
London Film Festival: a hit year for human dramas – the films to look out for in 2026
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louis Bayman, Associate Professor in Department of Film Studies, University of Southampton It was a classic year at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, which took place earlier this month. If there was any observable shift, it was the number of filmmakers who turned to smaller-scale…
-
From monkey glands to ‘young blood’: the long, strange history of chasing immortality through transplants
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Stratton, Lecturer Biomedical Health Science, The Open University Chizhevskaya Ekaterina/Shutterstock When Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Beijing in September 2025, he told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that repeated organ transplants might make a person “get younger” and even live to 150. The remark was widely…
-
Voices from the sea, part four: when the survivors and their dreams reach land, what’s next?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Morgane Dujmovic, Chargée de recherche CNRS, Géographe et politiste spécialiste des frontières et migrations, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) As the Ocean Viking approaches the Italian coast, the prospect of a new life in Europe becomes more concrete. Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur This is…
-
What are V-levels, England’s new post-16 qualification, and will they improve vocational education?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Elizabeth Gregory, Lecturer in Education, University of Manchester adriaticfoto/Shutterstock The government has announced that consultation will begin on a new vocational qualification for England: V-levels. These are intended to replace a number of existing technical routes currently available to post-16 learners, and make it possible for…
-
Companies now own more than $100 billion in bitcoin – but the shine may be wearing off crypto treasury companies
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation Mehaniq/Shutterstock One American company called Strategy owns more than 3% of all bitcoin in existence. Its executive chairman, Michael Saylor, is the pioneer of a new business model where publicly listed companies buy cryptocurrency assets to hold…
-
Russia turns to an old ally in its war against Ukrainian drones: the weather
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Peter Lee, Professor of Applied Ethics and Director, Security and Risk Research, University of Portsmouth Russia has long used harsh weather as a defensive ally. During Napoleon’s 1812 invasion, his Grand Army was defeated as winter closed in – the ground became impassable and logistical support…
-
Sanctions on Russia have failed to stop the war so far – will Trump’s latest package be any different?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sergey V. Popov, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Cardiff University Donald Trump has finally decided to hit Russia with sanctions – the first package he has imposed since he came back to the White House in January. The sanctions target Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil…
-
Ancient antelope teeth offer surprise insights into how early humans lived
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Megan Malherbe, Research Assistant Scientific Collection Institute of Evolutionary Medicine Faculty of Science, University of Zurich Understanding what the environment looked like millions of years ago is essential for piecing together how our earliest ancestors lived and survived. Habitat shapes everything, from what food was…
-
Japan’s sumo association turns 100 – but the sport’s rituals have a much older role shaping ideas about the country
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jessamyn R. Abel, Professor of Asian Studies and History, Penn State Sumo wrestlers Daieisho and Roga compete in a Grand Sumo Tournament bout at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 19, 2025. AP Photo/Frank Augstein A visitor to Japan who wanders into a…
-
Trump assault on US justice department independence revisits a Nixon-era problem
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Vince Pescod, Senior lecturer, The University of Law The Trump administration is coming under fire for politicising the Department of Justice (DoJ) and undermining the US government’s enshrined separation of powers, which relies on an independent system of justice. This is a central principle of the…
