Tom Felle, University of Galway
Media freedom has long been essential to healthy democracy. It is the oxygen that fuels informed debate, exposes corruption and holds power to account. But around the world, that freedom is under sustained attack.
Eva Marquis, University of Exeter and Karen Hudson-Edwards, University of Exeter
On February 18, contamination in the Kafue river, Zambia, led to a mass death of fish. Its water turned a deathly grey and adjacent farmland was poisoned. The drinking water it supplied to half a million residents of the town of Kitwe was suddenly cut off.
Eike Schneiders, University of Southampton; Joshua Krook, University of Southampton, and Tina Seabrooke, University of Southampton
People who aren’t legal experts are more willing to rely on legal advice provided by ChatGPT than by real lawyers – at least, when they don’t know which of the two provided the advice. Continue reading
Arthur Khomotso Mahuma, University of Johannesburg and Namhla Landani, University of Johannesburg
Poultry is one of the cheapest protein sources for the growing population of the east and southern Africa region. That makes soybeans critical to food security in the region, as they are an important input in chicken feed.
Craig Robertson, University of Oxford
When Elon Musk took over Twitter and changed its name to X, many users vowed to move to another platform. First was talk of a shift to Mastodon that never seemed to catch on. Then Meta tried to make Threads appealing by linking the app to Instagram – but this hasn’t had much cut-through either.
Takao Maruyama, University of Bradford and Vincent Charles, Queen’s University Belfast
The state pension age in the UK is currently 66. Yet 9.5% of people aged 66 and older (1.12 million people) were still working, according to the most recent data from the UK’s Annual Population Survey (July 2023 to June 2024). This figure has been rising over the past decade, increasing from 8.70% (880,000 people) in July 2013 to June 2014.
After the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, large stockpiles of the illicit drug captagon have reportedly been uncovered.
The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015)
and almost one in four young people aged 16-24 say they’ve never been readers, according to research by The Reading Agency.
Michael Bankole, Royal Holloway University of London
Kemi Badenoch has become the first Black leader of a UK-wide political party. But her ascent is unlikely to translate into meaningful gains for Black Britons.
Rebecca Brown, University of Oxford
Parents frequently lie to their children. “No, you can’t have any chocolate – it’s all gone,” when there’s a jumbo bar of Dairy Milk in the cupboard. “No, you can’t have my phone to watch YouTube – the battery’s flat,” when it’s at a solid 65%.