Along a small stream in Spain, groups of teenagers are at work. One hovers around a black tarpaulin covered in wet pieces of plastic. Another stands on a small bridge, fishing with a net. Others sort small pieces of plastic, cigarette butts and various other things they’ve recovered from the stream. What looks
Ph. The Dames Point Bridge spans a river in Jacksonville, Fla. Jonathan Zander/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Alex Krasnok, Florida International University Every bridge has parts that drivers never see: steel buried in concrete, welds tucked under girders, and soil packed around foundations below the waterline. A bridge can look fine from the road
Ph. Violet Gibson pictured after her arrest in 1926. wikimedia Giovanni Pietro Lombardo, Sapienza University of Rome and M. Andrea Pisauro, University of Plymouth Benito Mussolini stepped out onto the Piazza del Campidoglio at 10:58 in the morning of April 7, 1926. He had just delivered a speech prepared for him by his
Duncan Garrow, University of Reading The story of Stonehenge starts around 5,000 years ago. But its famous old stones, some of which were transported all the way from south-west Wales to Wiltshire, are just part of the story. Close to the beginning of its use, the site was a cemetery, with dozens of
Hybrid cars are a regular sight on European roads today. Sitting between internal combustion engines and fully electric vehicles, they run on fuel for some of the journey and electricity for the rest. That concept might be about to shake up the aviation industry. Aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions,
Kira Lancker, University of Copenhagen At lakeside markets along Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake by area, choosing fish to eat is part of daily life. A customer might pick a tilapia based on its freshness, size, price, and farmed or non-farmed origin, much like shoppers do in markets and supermarkets around the world.
Odysseas Konstantinakos, European University Institute The world has never had more data, more models, or more economists. It has rarely felt more out of control. Uncertainty, not risk, has become the defining condition of our era. Central bankers invoke it. Political leaders use it to defer decisions and justify extraordinary decisions. Academics are
Hafte Gebreselassie Gebrihet, University of Oslo; University of Cape Town and Dan Banik, University of Oslo Africa faces declining aid, rising debt, climate pressure and a weakening global order. Official development assistance, the technical term for foreign aid, fell by 23.1% in 2025, the largest annual contraction on record. It’s projected to decline
Justin Visagie, University of the Witwatersrand It’s time South Africa faced up to an honest question: what if the formal economy can’t deliver the jobs that are needed? I am an economist who has been working closely with South Africa’s administrative tax data over the past five years – arguably the best way
Ph. A Juneteenth celebration at Franklin Park in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood in 2014. Zack Wittman/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Bobby J. Smith II, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign “Visiting Comanche Crossing on Juneteenth felt like freedom,” my father said as we pulled into Booker T. Washington Park, the site near what used to