Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tahani Mustafa, Lecturer in International Relations, King’s College London

An uneasy ceasefire is still in place in Gaza despite Israeli strikes on what it called “Hamas terror targets” in response to what the Israel Defense Forces said here rocket attacks on its positions.

But there appears to be continuing violence between Hamas fighters and members of various armed clans that has increased since the withdrawal of Israel from parts of Gaza. In the days following the ceasefire agreement being struck on October 13. Most notably, videos circulated which appeared to show Hamas executing members of some of the clans. The killings appear to have been brutal and conducted without even the pretence of an impartial legal process.

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Read more:
Hamas is battling powerful clans for control in Gaza – who are these groups and what threat do they pose?

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Speaking to my contacts in Gaza developed through 15 years of research, including one employee of an international organisation who has advised Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, it appears many Gazans may support these executions. One source in the office of the security coordinator in Gaza told me this week that many people in Gaza believe this show of force could pave the way for the reestablishment of law and order and the effective distribution of aid.

In part, this reflects the situation in Gaza since Israel began its assault two years ago, after the Hamas attack of October 7 2023. That day saw an estimated 3,000 Hamas fighters pour across the borders into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.

The months and years that followed saw Israel launched an overwhelming military assault on Gaza, killing more than 68,000 and wounding more than 170,000, according to estimates from the Gaza health ministry. Israel’s declared intention was the destructio of Hamas as both a government and a military force. The civilian population of Gaza witnessed growing chaos and lawlessness as the conflict led Hamas forces into hiding.

But a significant number have survived. AN estimated 7,000 Hamas fighters have now been deployed across the territory. In seeking to crack down publicly and brutally on the most serious forms of lawlessness Gaza has seen over the last two years – including murders, revenge killings, trafficking, kidnappings, robbery, theft and drug dealing – Hamas appears to be demonstrating its resolve to establish an effective monopoly on the use of force in Gaza.

Hamas faced a similar situation in 2007, when it abruptly inherited governance of the Gaza Strip. Fatah, the Palestinian faction that has controlled the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its creation in 1994, moved with the backing of the US, against the then newly elected Hamas government.

After a protracted struggle, Hamas lost control over the West Bank, but expelled Fatah from Gaza. In Gaza, Hamas inherited an administration in the process of being rebuilt after its virtual destruction.

The group addressed the yawning security vacuum and lawlessness in a way similar to the way it appears to be doing now. It employed brutality establish a monopoly on the use of force. It disarmed the various armed factions and established a civil administration. Its administration was based on that of the PA, but was generally recognised to be more effective and less corrupt than the PA and its security forces.

It worked with other political factions in the Strip, including Fatah, in rebuilding Gaza’s administration. Many of the civil servants, judges and even police it employed were not members of Hamas – and were not required to become so.

This is not to say there weren’t limits to important freedoms under Hamas rule – there were. But these were arguably no more authoritarian than those imposed by Fatah in the West Bank.

Who are the clans?

At the centre of the criminality in Gaza today are armed gangs, whose members are often drawn from the territory’s powerful clans. These clans are extended families that have historically played leading roles in their communities – but have also, at times, operated like local mafia.

During the recent conflict, clans have settled old scores with violence. Gangs associated with the clans have expanded into racketeering, drug dealing, kidnapping, robbery and extortion.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed his country has armed some of the gangs, following reports of Israeli forces handing over weapons directly or leaving weapons for them to claim hoping they would use them against Hamas. Hamas has made much of this, characterising the men it publicly executed as “collaborators”. The largest assembly of clans, the Palestinian Tribal Committee, has supported Hamas’s crackdown and condemned the criminality of the gangs.

Hamas is reported to have offered an amnesty deal to the clans and gangs, calling on them to surrender their weapons and for any involved in criminality to hand themselves in to face trial. Thus far, the Dogmush and Majaydah clans have complied, days after 26 members of the Dogmush were killed in clashes with Hamas.

US approval

While the US president, Donald Trump, has said that Hamas has to disarm “within a reasonable period of time”, he has also stated that he has given them a green light to reestablish law and order in the Strip “for a period of time”. Flying back to the US from Egypt on October 14, Trump told reporters: “Well, they [Hamas] are standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time.”

It is true that order needs to be restored if aid is to reach those who need it. It is also essential if some form of civil administration to provide for the most basic needs of Gazans is to be reestablished in the interim, before a final deal on what to do with Gaza, Hamas and the Israeli occupation of Gaza is agreed.

But by arming these clans, Israel has arguably further destabilised the territory and contributed to the discord and civil strife that threatens to overwhelm the Gaza Strip as Hamas conducts its brutal campaign. The worse things get, the more likely that Gazans will be willing to accept Hamas’s form of order, based not on law but on extrajudicial violence.

Tahani Mustafa is affiliated with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)

– ref. Hamas turns to executions as it tries to establish a monopoly on force in Gaza – https://theconversation.com/hamas-turns-to-executions-as-it-tries-to-establish-a-monopoly-on-force-in-gaza-267558

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Connor Leslie, Assistant Professor in Criminology, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Humans have been fighting each other since the earliest stages of our species’ history.

Scientists believe that these fights changed how we evolved, particularly men. This is known as intrasexual selection, where competition between members of the same sex shape how they evolve. My new research raises the possibility we may have evolved to detect clues about whether a man is dangerous from the way he walks.

As it was men who were more likely to engage in physical fights in our early history, it would be beneficial for them evolve to win and survive a fight. Men are still more likely to be the perpetrator of violent crimes, and men account for a higher proportion of victims of violence when the perpetrator is a stranger.

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Read more:
How much do we actually know about the psychology of violence?

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Men on average not only have 80% more arm muscle mass and 50% more lower body muscle mass than women but also tougher skulls to help them survive their fights.

You may win a fight, but if you win with a broken jaw, it will not feel like much of a victory when you try and eat. So evolving the ability to tell if someone can hurt us would have allowed our ancestors to ready themselves for a fight or try and avoid the confrontation if the risk seemed too high.

And it seems that we are good at this, according to research over the last two decades. In a 2009 study participants from several countries including Bolivia, Argentina and the US were asked to look at photographs of men’s faces and bodies.

They could tell when a man was strong, even from just looking at the face pictures. When they looked at photographs of women, the participants could still assess strength, but less accurately compared to the photographs of men.

Voices hold important information about other people’s strength too. A 2010 study
had participants listen to voice recordings of native speakers in English, Spanish, Romanian and indigenous Bolivian language Tsimane. Participants could accurately estimate the speakers’ upper body strength, although they were less accurate when it came to female speakers than men.

But when a fight is coming our way, it is unlikely that we would only see the person’s face, or just hear their voice.

Research, helped by modern day motion capture techniques, has started to show humans can detect a potential threat from body language. These techniques can produce a computer-generated representation of someone that hides certain physical features. It can make a tall person and short person look the same height or make a person with a lot of muscle look like someone who has very little.

Researchers using these techniques in a 2016 study found that participants could still detect when someone is strong, even though they couldn’t tell what the person looked like. This suggests that there may be something in the way we move that shows to someone else that we can harm them.

For our new research, my colleagues and I used similar motion capture techniques to represent how 57 different men walked without showing their size. We then asked 137 participants to watch three-second (on average) representations of the models walking.

On average the participants rated the men who were physically bigger (a combination of BMI, bicep, shoulder, chest, and waist circumferences) as higher in physical dominance, even though they couldn’t see how big they were. Higher physical dominance means they are more likely to win a fight.

What we may have found are specific movements that could indicate someone’s size and so their potential ability to cause physical harm. Men who were perceived as being more likely to win a fight had more of a swagger to them, where their shoulders moved more in a swaying motion. This is almost the stereotypical walk of the western movie hero.

The exact nature of this link isn’t clear. Might we simply have evolved to spot bigger men, who tend to walk with a confident swagger? Or are we alert to signals that these men might want to do us harm?

Previous research has suggested men may, consciously or subconsciously, try to give off intimidating signals through their walk.

A 2003 study by cognitive psychologist Nikolaus Troje of people’s perception of other people’s gait used this style of walking as a caricature of male walking style. He pointed out that male animals often try to occupy as much space as possible to appear bigger than he is.

“Like in pigeons where the male puffs up his feathers or like in lions where the male evolves its mane, we find in our species sex-specific differences in the way to move which eventually result in men to appear bigger and heavier.”

It’s also worth noting we found other factors could affect people’s perception. Women participants were more likely to rate the men in the videos as high in physical dominance than the male participants. And older people rated the men’s movements as higher in physical dominance compared to younger participants.

However, our natural movement, our walk, is surprisingly hard to change. So being able to read the signs of danger in someone walking towards us would be a very valuable skill to evolve.

Connor Leslie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Could your walk be a signal about your ability to win a fight? – https://theconversation.com/could-your-walk-be-a-signal-about-your-ability-to-win-a-fight-262649

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachel Woods, Senior Lecturer in Physiology, University of Lincoln

The basic principle of weight loss is straightforward: if you consume fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. In practice though, this isn’t usually so easy or simple.

Alongside counting calories or eating smaller portions, many people add exercise into the equation when trying to lose weight to help tip the balance. Yet research shows that exercise may only have modest effects on weight loss.

But before you ditch your workouts, it’s important to note that exercise still plays a really important role when it comes to health – perhaps especially in keeping the pounds off after reaching your goal weight.

There are several processes that help explain why exercise doesn’t always result in huge amounts of weight loss.

Exercise can stimulate appetite, leading to increased food intake. People may also subconsciously move less throughout the rest of the day after doing a workout, which means exercise may have less impact on their overall calorie deficit.

The body also becomes more efficient over time – burning fewer calories while doing the same activity. This process, sometimes called “metabolic adaptation”, reflects the body’s tendency to defend against weight loss.

From an evolutionary perspective, conserving energy during periods of intense physical activity probably protected our ancestors from starvation. But in today’s world, metabolic adaptation is one of many factors that can make weight loss difficult.

The importance of exercise

Although exercise may not be the main driver of weight loss, it seems it might play a role in maintaining weight loss.

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Seven techniques to avoid weight regain, approved by experts

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In a study of over 1,100 people, physical activity was shown to have little effect on the amount of weight a person initially lost. However, doing higher levels of activity after losing weight was strongly linked to maintaining the weight loss.

It’s worth noting that exercise was also associated with measurable health improvements – including better cholesterol, lower inflammation, better blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, all of which are associated with lower risk of health problems, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

These many health benefits show just how important it is to exercise both while losing weight and maintaining weight loss.

Evidence also suggests that combining exercise with weight loss drugs (such as Saxenda), may help people maintain their weight loss better than using the drug alone.

Why exercise works

It may seem confusing that exercise isn’t especially effective for losing weight but can help prevent regain. The reasons behind this paradox aren’t fully understood, but several mechanisms may offer an explanation.

The first has to do with our resting energy expenditure (the amount of calories our body burns when doing nothing).

When we lose weight, our resting energy expenditure decreases by more than you would expect for the amount of weight lost. This is thought to contribute to weight regain. But exercise raises total daily energy expenditure, which can help to partially offset this.

A second factor relates to muscle mass.

Weight loss usually results in the loss of both fat and muscle. Losing muscle lowers resting energy expenditure, which can contribute to weight regain.

But exercise, especially resistance training (such as Pilates or lifting weights), can help preserve or even rebuild muscle mass. This can boost our metabolism, which may aid in long-term weight maintenance.

Physical activity also helps our body to maintain its ability to burn fat. After losing weight, the body often becomes less efficient at using fat for energy.

But intense exercise can improve fat burning and metabolic flexibility – the ability to switch between burning carbohydrates and fat depending on what’s available. This helps the body continue burning fat even when calorie intake is low or weight is lost.

Exercise improves insulin sensitivity as well. This reduces the amount of insulin required to regulate blood sugar. This is beneficial as higher insulin levels can promote fat storage and reduce fat breakdown.

Exercise has many indirect effects on us that can aid in weight maintenance. For instance, exercise can improve sleep, mood and reduce stress levels. These all reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which could lower the amount of fat the body stores.

Regular activity can also help regulate appetite and blood glucose, which may help reduce cravings and limit overeating.

It’s important to acknowledge that everyone is different. This means we all respond differently to exercise in terms of how many calories we burn or whether a workout makes us feel hungrier later in the day.

Different types of workouts also confer their own benefits when it comes to health and weight maintenance.

Aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking, cycling or running) burns calories and, at higher intensities, may also enhance the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel.

Resistance training, on the other hand, helps build and preserve muscle mass. This supports a higher resting energy expenditure, aiding long-term weight maintenance.

Exercise may not be the most powerful tool for losing weight, but it could help sustain hard-earned weight loss. Perhaps most importantly, it offers many physical and mental health benefits that go far beyond the numbers on the scale.

Rachel Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The exercise paradox: why workouts aren’t great for weight loss but useful for maintaining a healthy body weight – https://theconversation.com/the-exercise-paradox-why-workouts-arent-great-for-weight-loss-but-useful-for-maintaining-a-healthy-body-weight-266715

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matthew Wright, PhD Candidate, Department of Atmospheric Physics, University of Oxford

For most Brits, January 8 2025 was an uneventful Wednesday, albeit slightly cold. But these low temperatures, coupled with a significant drop in wind speed, contributed to a spike in the real-time electricity price to over seven times the 2024-25 winter average.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso), the organisation responsible for balancing electricity supply with demand minute-by-minute, highlighted “weather driven factors” as a major challenge on January 8. Neso’s costs to produce enough electricity to balance the system on this day reached £21 million – costs that increase consumer bills.

A new report, coordinated by the Royal Meteorological Society and supported by the energy team at AECOM, a global infrastructure consulting company, highlights how Britain’s electricity system is sensitive to seemingly benign weather conditions. This report highlights the importance of predicting and responding to these events – and provides evidence to inform how the future energy system could be designed to ensure it remains resilient to the weather.

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Read more:
What Europe’s exceptionally low winds mean for the future energy grid

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Every minute, Neso monitors weather conditions to make decisions about how best to balance supply and demand. If the forecast suggests a drop off in wind speed, then Neso can use a range of tools to make up for the resulting reduction in wind generation. This includes interconnectors (importing excess electricity from neighbouring countries), stored energy or gas generation.

Electricity demand also fluctuates depending on changes in weather. In winter, when the weather is dull and cold, people tend to use more heating and lighting (alongside increased kettle usage for more cups of tea). In summer, heatwaves can increase demand through fan and air conditioning usage.

The most difficult periods occur when there is an increase in demand at the same time as a decrease in wind generation. Weather that causes these cloudy and still conditions is referred to as dunkelflaute – German for “dark and still”.

Dunkelflaute conditions are also known as anticyclonic gloom. This has recently been affecting the UK’s weather. Researchers at the University of Reading have shown that dunkelflaute is usually associated with stationary high pressure over the UK. These systems get in the way and “block” wet and windy weather from hitting the British Isles.

Thanks to the accuracy of modern weather forecasting, there is usually plenty of warning about when these situations will occur. But there is a cost associated with requesting additional electricity generation at relatively short notice, as only a few power plants can switch on quickly, and they’re expensive to start and run. That puts the overall system price of electricity up.

These dunkelflaute episodes can be brief and intense like on January 8, when the price spiked so dramatically because forecasts gave limited warning. Or, they can be less severe but last for a longer period, for example in early November 2024, when there was an extended wind drought lasting several weeks. This leads to an extended period of high system prices for electricity.

Dunkelflaute conditions are not unique to the UK. They can stretch across multiple countries, as shown by researchers in Germany. More cables are being built to connect European energy systems and share power across borders. But if countries are experiencing wind droughts simultaneously, the ability of these connections to help balance supply and demand is reduced. Grids need to be resilient even if nations can’t import energy from their neighbours.

Future-proofing the energy system

In the future, wind and solar capacity is set to increase and electricity demand will jump due to more heat pumps and electric vehicles. The report models what the consequences of January’s extreme drop in wind speed would be in such a future energy system – increasing the number of wind turbines and solar panels alone is not enough. Other strategies are required to keep the lights on in a low-carbon electricity system.

Importantly, getting more of our electricity from weather-dependent sources does not mean that plans for a low-carbon energy system are impossible. But other technologies will be needed to plug the gap between the renewable generation at any given moment, and the demand at that time.

One option is increasing the amount of energy storage, using excess electricity at times of high winds to store energy for future wind droughts. Energy storage comes in many forms including pumped hydropower (pumping water uphill and letting it fall to release energy later), batteries and potentially green hydrogen (generated from the electrolysis of water).

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Read more:
Quantum computers can accelerate the transition to net zero power grids

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Other options include interconnection with other countries’ networks and building other forms of low-carbon generation, like nuclear power stations. An interconnector to Denmark – Viking Link – came online at the end of 2023. This means Britain can import energy from Denmark when domestic wind generation is low, and export energy in the other direction when there is a surplus of renewable power, smoothing out electricity supply fluctuations in both countries.

Further new interconnectors, between the UK and the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, are planned.

An alternative is to adjust demand to match the available supply. This is called “demand flexibility”. For example, consumers may be offered very cheap – even free – electricity during periods of excess renewable electricity generation, encouraging them to use more electricity when there is plenty of it.
Businesses may also be incentivised to reduce usage when supply is tight.

New technologies can help reduce energy use at peak times, making it easier to match supply levels. For example, smart car chargers communicate with the grid and operators to adjust charging times to when there is less demand. Demand flexibility is already being trialled, and is likely to become more common in the future.

Britain needs the right mix of these solutions to maintain a system that continues to provide electricity in the ever-changing British weather. Much of Britain’s electricity will come from wind when it blows. But storage, interconnectors and flexible electricity use – informed by research into the frequency and severity of dunkelflaute – are vital components.

With this mix in place, days like January 8 will become much easier to manage.

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Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

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Matthew Wright receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council through the Oxford NERC DTP.

Ben Hutchins receives funding from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the Scenario training programme.

James Mollard receives research funding through a Network Innovation Allowance Project with National Grid Electricity Transmission. He is affiliated with the Royal Meteorological Society.

– ref. How a more flexible energy grid can cope better with swings in Britain’s weather – https://theconversation.com/how-a-more-flexible-energy-grid-can-cope-better-with-swings-in-britains-weather-267577

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matthew Barnfield, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London

Whatever the Labour government is doing, it doesn’t seem to be working, yet. Economic growth – its number one priority – hasn’t taken off. The party is trailing far behind Reform in the polls. It risks presiding over an outright decrease in living standards.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer responds to criticism by reminding us that, from the outset, he has been clear that short-term pain is needed in order to secure long-term gain. He recently repeated this message in his speech to the Labour party conference, proclaiming: “Our path, the path of renewal, it’s long, it’s difficult, it requires decisions that are not cost-free or easy.”

The trouble with this politics of patience is that, funnily enough, many voters care a lot about how things go in the short term. And recent polling data suggests a failure to make improvements in the near term could drive Labour supporters to other parties at the next election – especially those voters who focus more on the short term.

Some admittedly important immediate improvements have been delivered since Labour came to power in 2024. These include public sector pay rises and overall wage growth. But without more meaningful change, including on measures that could make a big difference on living standards, rather than “short-term pain, long-term gain”, what some people might think they are really getting is “all pain, no gain”.

Tackling child poverty is a case in point: a promised strategy from the government did not appear in its first year in office, despite the urgency of the problem.

Polling data I recently collected with my colleagues Philip Cowley and Karl Pike, as part of our ongoing research into short- and long-term policymaking, reveals that the patience this government expects from the British public might be incurring a major electoral cost. Those of its 2024 voters who focus more on the short term in their political thinking are more likely to intend to vote for a different party at the next election.

We tested whether people were short-termists or long-termists by explicitly asking whether they focused on the short or long term when they voted. We also tested this more implicitly by asking a series of other less direct questions about what psychologists call “future orientation”.

We found slightly over a third of Labour voters were more short-termist than long-termist. And the more focused on the short term our participants said they were, the more likely they were to indicate they would vote for a different party in the next election, not vote at all or are not sure how they will vote – that is, do anything other than vote for Labour again next time around.

This ranged from those with the most short-term views having around a 75% chance of saying they would abandon Labour, to those who saw themselves as the most long-termist having a 43% chance.

Self-declared short and long-term thinkers:

Similar results were in evidence for the implicit measures. According to our model, of the most short-termist, Labour are losing around 83%. Of the most long-termist, they are losing just 35%. In each case, the differences are so great that we can be sure the overall effect is not purely down to chance.

All these probabilities (and margins of error) come from statistical models where we account for people’s age, gender, ethnicity and left-right political views, ruling those other factors out as explanations of what we find.

Implicitly measured short and long-term thinkers

We also asked respondents whether they think the UK is heading in the right or wrong direction. In line with polling in recent years, a huge 70% of our sample says the country is (still) heading in the wrong direction. Only 15% said it is heading in the right direction.

But we found that those voters who focus more on the short term are much more likely than long-termist people to think the country is heading in the wrong direction. A shortage of short-term wins makes it hard to see how the country can be on the right track.

What’s more, of Labour’s 2024 voters, those who think the UK is heading in the wrong direction have about a 74% chance of switching to another party in 2029. But only around 28% of 2024 Labour voters who think the country is heading in the right direction intend to vote for a different party.

The government is right that meaningful change, or “fixing the foundations” of the country, does not happen overnight. But equally if change takes as long as Keir Starmer says, a year into his government it should soon be getting underway.

For the politics of patience to be persuasive, especially to the short-termist voters the party is losing at an alarming rate, a positive trajectory must become clear soon. Otherwise, Labour might not remain in power long enough to secure the gains it is promising in return for patience.

The government should not give up on its long-term missions, but seeing out its “decade of national renewal” by winning the next election will require more obvious short-term change, too.

Matthew Barnfield receives funding from the British Academy.

– ref. Keir Starmer needs to give voters short-term gain to persuade them he can deliver long-term renewal – https://theconversation.com/keir-starmer-needs-to-give-voters-short-term-gain-to-persuade-them-he-can-deliver-long-term-renewal-267404

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aislinn Clarke, Lecturer in Film Studies, Queen’s University Belfast

When I think of my first encounter with horror, I don’t think of a vampire, a witch, or even a possessed girl’s head spinning round (I saw The Exorcist at the age of seven). I think of a Sun God, I think of teeth and claws slicked with blood, I think of the Black Rabbit of Death. And he wasn’t even the bad guy.

I’m not talking about some campy folk horror from the 1960s. I’m talking about the 1978 animated version of Richard Adams’ Watership Down.

I was perhaps four when I saw it. The opening sequence remains a core memory: the myth of the Prince with a Thousand Enemies, the Original Rabbit, rendered in gorgeous animation that evoked Aboriginal art via the films of New Zealand artist Len Lye. Then the great crimson wave of blood flowing across the fields. Death, cold and indiscriminate, was coming to the gentle slopes of Watership Down.

That was the moment I first felt awe and terror at the fragility of life. And the utter indifference of death. The kind of awe and terror we assume children’s minds can neither comprehend nor bear.

And that was just the beginning.

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This article is part of a series of expert recommendations of spooky stories – on screen and in print – for brave young souls. From the surprisingly dark depths of Watership Down to Tim Burton’s delightfully eerie kid-friendly films, there’s a whole haunted world out there just waiting for kids to explore. Dare to dive in here.

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It’s easy to assume that because Watership Down is a cartoon about woodland animals, it must be gentle. It isn’t. And that’s why it’s so powerful. My parents had already let my older siblings and I watch the campy spectacle of Hammer Horror at Halloween, but they couldn’t have guessed the deeper impact of Adams’s rabbits – they let me watch alone from the safe distance of the shag rug one sunny afternoon in 1984.

Nothing terrible had yet happened to me. I hadn’t known grief or loss. Watership Down cracked that open. For the first time, I understood, viscerally, that all the earth’s creatures – including myself – are mortal, and that death was coming for us all.

But don’t let that put you off sharing it with your four-year-old.

The value of horror is that it gives us a safe space to process fear. It takes the anxieties we can’t name and turns them into something we can face. I watched horror films with my family every weekend – Poltergeist, Day of the Dead, The Evil Dead.

Afterwards I slept like the actual dead. Soundly. Peacefully. I didn’t have nightmares, even if I did dream of rabbits. I didn’t need nightmares. For, what is a horror film, after all, if not a nightmare you share with people you love – a nightmare that can be switched off and tucked back into its case?

And, yes, I am saying that Watership Down is a horror film. Like Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, like The Thing or Alien, the terror of Watership Down arises from mortal insignificance. We too are small, powerless, unmoored, no different to the rabbits fleeing the down.

The film’s horror depends on empathy, the recognition that every creature wants what we want: to live, to love, to survive. Children understand that we are not special.

However, it is perhaps the most primal and defining characteristic of humanity that, not only do we fear death, but we know it is coming. Such darkness is part of being human and we can’t insulate children from the fullness of being human.

If we try, the chances are that the darkness will come out anyway in their nightmares, understood as a terrible thing that their own mind created in the dead of night. To share a film like Watership Down with them is to say: “I trust you with this. You are ready for awe, wonder, and yes, for fear too. And it is because we fear that we hope.”

Richard Adams opened his novel with a gruesome quote from the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus and added: “If that makes the child put it back on the shelf, then to Hell with the child.”

His provocation was not contempt but a refusal to patronise. Children, he argued, deserve stories that take them seriously. Indeed, to live without curiosity, without discomfort, without provocation, is the stuff of nightmares. That is hell.

Both the book and the film trust their audience to confront mortality honestly. That trust makes for stronger children – and stronger adults. Adams rejected allegorical readings of his story, insisting that this gut wrenching heroes’ journey, with its keen sense of justice, really was about rabbits.

Children understand that not everything has to be about us. Only adults insist on being the default main character. Children know that in this beautiful, terrible world, everything – even us – just wants to live.

Perhaps all of this is more than one would expect from a cartoon film about woodland animals. Maybe we could all use a sunny afternoon on the rug, watching Watership Down, and remembering what it is like to be small and afraid and full of hope.

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Watership Down has a PG rating, which means some material may not be suitable for young children, so parental guidance is advised.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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Aislinn Clarke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Scary stories for kids: Watership Down made me aware of my mortality at age four – https://theconversation.com/scary-stories-for-kids-watership-down-made-me-aware-of-my-mortality-at-age-four-267052

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Manuel Corpas, Lecturer in Genomics, University of Westminster

Global mortality continues to fall. Life expectancy has improved to unprecedented levels and deaths in young children have plummeted. Yet for adolescents and young adults, especially those aged 15 to 24, little progress has been made according to data from the latest Global Burden of Disease study. In parts of North America and eastern Europe, mortality in those aged 15-24 has actually risen in the past decade.

This latest study also showed the main causes of death among young people aren’t disease or poor health. The main causes were shown to be injury, violence, suicide, road traffic accidents and substance abuse.

This shows us that health systems worldwide are still ill-equipped to prevent or intervene effectively in social and structural causes of youth mortality.

The Global Burden of Disease study is one of the largest studies on the picture of health, disease and mortality worldwide. The study analysed more than 310,000 data sources collected between 1950 and 2023 from 204 countries. Using death registries, censuses and household surveys, the research team estimated age-specific mortality trends across the lifespan.

The overall picture is one of uneven progress.

For children, especially in low and middle-income countries, vaccines, improved sanitation and better nutrition have saved millions of lives. In east Asia, for instance, mortality in under-fives fell by 68% between 2011 and 2023.

For older adults, the global mortality rate declined by 67% between 1950 and 2023, thanks to better screening, medication and chronic disease management.

Deaths from cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of death globally) have also improved substantially. But cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases (such as cancer and diabetes) still account for nearly two-thirds of all deaths ariund the world.

For young people aged 15-24, the risk profile was different. For them, the main causes of death were primarily preventable ones.

In North America, deaths among people aged 20 to 39 rose by as much as 50% in the past decade – largely due to suicide, drug overdose and alcohol-related harms. The picture was also similar in some parts of Latin America.

But in other parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, infectious diseases (such as as tuberculosis) and unintentional injuries were the main drivers of youth mortality.

The study also highlighted stark inequalities in mortality risk for youth from marginalised, low-income or Indigenous groups. For instance, the study found that mortality in young women aged 15-29 living in sub-Saharan Africa was 61% higher than previously estimated, mostly due to maternal mortality, road injuries and meningitis.

However, these groups remain systematically underrepresented in global health datasets. The study found that more than 80% of countries lacked nationally representative data across key health domains, including mental health and child health. This meant most of the data was drawn from high-income regions.

Latin Americans, for example, make up over 8% of the global population but represent less than 1% of some global reference datasets. Such a systemic lack of representation from these groups renders their health needs invisible – including the health needs of those affecting the young.

Emerging trends

Today’s young people face unprecedented economic insecurity, social volatility, violence and pressures from social media – all of which can have an extraordinary toll on both mental health and wellbeing.

Mental health challenges underlie many of the leading causes of adolescent death reported in the study. It’s clear from this and other studies that youth mental health urgently needs to be addressed.

For instance, research from Spain which looked at over 2 million adolescent hospitalisations between 2000 and 2021, found admissions for mental health conditions more than doubled – surging especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For teenage boys, substance use, ADHD and psychosis were the most common causes of hospitalisation. For girls, eating disorders, anxiety and depression were more prevalent.

A related study found admissions for adolescent anorexia nervosa rose by almost 90% after 2020 – with cases overwhelmingly concentrated in girls aged 13-17.

Health survey data from 2023 also showed that half of US young adults aged 18-24 reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression. Additionally, a separate US survey also found that more than one-third of 18-24-year-olds reported they’d recently thought about self-harm or suicide.

Other factors which may also have contributed to high youth mortality rates may include a historical lack of preparedness by health systems in focusing on adolescent health issues, as well as a lack of interventions aimed at reducing the actual leading causes of youth death (such as road safety, violence prevention and meaningful mental health care).

The response to youth mortality cannot be medical alone as the leading causes of death in this age group require interventions that sit outside healthcare and require coordination across sectors.

Data systems must also change. Youth from low-income countries, Indigenous people and marginalised groups are underrepresented in research. This means we don’t fully understand the needs of these groups and the problems they face – making it difficult to plan and implement effective interventions.

Youth health must be re-framed as an equity issue, as well. The current model treats young people as responsible for their own poor outcomes, when research shows that, overwhelmingly, these issues can be caused by conditions that young people do not control: poverty, exposure to violence, unsafe road environments, inadequate mental health services and lack of economic opportunity.

These deaths are preventable. We cannot celebrate global health gains when youth mortality is stagnant – and even worsening in many parts of the world. Preventing adolescent and young adult deaths is the next frontier for a fairer, healthier future.

Manuel Corpas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Rise in youth mortality fuelled by mental illness, drugs, violence and other preventable causes – https://theconversation.com/rise-in-youth-mortality-fuelled-by-mental-illness-drugs-violence-and-other-preventable-causes-267459

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Griffiths, Reader in Political Geography, Newcastle University

Minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin and tungsten, which are all abundant in central Africa, are essential to the comforts of everyday life. Our phones, laptops and electric vehicles would not function without them.

These minerals are also tied intimately with conflict. For decades, military and paramilitary violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on its borders – particularly with Rwanda – has been shaped and financed by control over some of these sought-after commodities.

Many of these minerals, including those that have supposedly been sourced responsibly, are linked to violence at the other end of the supply chain too. As we found in our recently published research, minerals sourced in central Africa play a crucial role in the waging of modern wars.

Extensive campaigning and lobbying over the past two decades has focused on the idea of “conflict-free minerals” as a way to address links between extraction and armed conflict in mining regions.

This has resulted in a suite of legislation in the EU and US obliging tech manufacturers that use minerals from the DRC and surrounding countries to submit so-called “conflict minerals reports” to national authorities.

In the US, for example, tech firms file what is known as a “specialized disclosure form” to the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing all sources of four key minerals commonly associated with conflict in Africa: tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold.

The form requires a declaration that trade is compliant with the due diligence guidelines set by the OECD on responsible supply chains in the DRC and neighbouring states. This guidance has, in turn, given rise to an industry of regulators that seeks to ensure minerals connected to conflict do not enter supply chains.

Tech companies worldwide – big and small – now comply with conflict minerals policies. The fact that these firms can be held under a critical spotlight, and that attention is falling on how bloody wars are connected to consumer products, is a positive development. But there are many flaws to this system of accountability.

One issue is the difficulty in proving that mineral supply is truly conflict free. Many of the “conflict-free” minerals sold through Rwanda, for instance, are very likely to have at least some connection to war.

In the early 2000s, when Rwandan forces were involved in armed conflict in the DRC, the UN estimated that the Rwandan army controlled between 60% and 70% of all the coltan (tantalum ore) produced there. It is widely accepted that Rwandan influence has persisted in the DRC since.

Another issue is that, under conflict-free mineral legislation, “conflict” is associated with minerals only at source. There is no oversight on how minerals are connected to conflict at the other end of supply chains in modern weapons of war.

Conflict minerals

Weapons are no longer fashioned only with lead, iron and brass. They now depend on a range of advanced technologies: lithium batteries, cobalt cathodes, tantalum resistors, nickel capacitors, tin semiconductors, tungsten electrodes and so forth.

In fact, everything advanced militaries do nowadays – whether it involves a fighter jet, drone, guided bomb, smart bullet, night vision or remote sensing – utilises these components.

As we outline in our study, conflict-free minerals are essential to the waging of modern wars. We traced the movement of ores from the DRC into Rwanda, from where they are then sold to some of the world’s largest weapons makers as “conflict-free” minerals.

A coterie of defence contractors source minerals via this route. These minerals, as our previous research shows, are used as “volumetrically minor yet functionally essential” ingredients of the products these firms sell to militaries worldwide.

To draw focus on two “conflict-free” minerals traded through Rwanda, tin and tantalum are vital to the function of a wide range of military wares. According to the US defence department, tin is present in “nearly all military hardware”.

It is crucial in compound forms to defrost screens at high altitudes and to deflect radio waves to enhance stealth. Tin is also used to power the Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits that improve the accuracy of bombs.

Tantalum-based semiconductors comprise the basic circuitry of drones. And among other things, tantalum is the active adsorbent material in the infrared camera tubes that make night vision possible. High-tech wars cannot be fought without these minerals, which are traded under conflict-free mineral legislation.

Researchers have long suspected that minerals can never be conflict free at source. But our findings now turn attention to the other end of the supply chain. If it is to have any purchase at all, the idea of “conflict-free” minerals must be entirely refigured.

Virtually all commentary by journalists, lawyers and scholars focuses narrowly on consumer technologies, with the injustices faced by mining communities in central Africa contrasted with phones and electric vehicles. The source of minerals is the sole focus of ethical scrutiny.

This is an important aspect of minerals supply chains. But there is a growing prominence of other tech companies, in the form of modern weapons manufacturers, whose customers are not the global masses but the militaries of the world’s most belligerent states.

Companies like Elbit Systems – which did not respond to The Conversation’s request for comment – present themselves as complying with ethical standards.

In its 2020 conflict minerals report, Elbit declared a corporate stance against “human rights abuses and atrocities”. It also expressed a commitment “to sourcing materials from companies that share our values with respect to human rights, ethics and environmental responsibility”.

Yet, as our research shows, some companies are sourcing minerals from one war zone and then making profit from another. It should be recalled that Elbit, for example, supplies “hundreds of products” to Israel’s defence ministry.

There needs to be more scrutiny on the use of minerals “downstream” to stem the flow of the raw materials that propel wars in Gaza and beyond.

The research mentioned in this article was published as part of ‘War and Geos: the Environmental Legacies of Militarism’ (UKRI Horizon Europe grant number EP/X042642/1 (awarded as a European Research Council Starting Grant)).

Mohamed El-Shewy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How ‘conflict-free’ minerals are used in the waging of modern wars – https://theconversation.com/how-conflict-free-minerals-are-used-in-the-waging-of-modern-wars-266503

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew White, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King’s College London

The Irish government has announced that a pilot scheme providing artists and creatives with a weekly stipend of €325 (£283) will be made permanent. The scheme, which was first introduced in 2022, was launched in an attempt to mitigate the growing financial instability many in the creative industries face.

The basic income for the arts (BIA) initial pilot ran from 2022 to 2025 and helped 2,000 artists. The results of an independent study found that it had a noticeable positive impact on the lives of those who received it.

There have been many basic income schemes around the world in the 21st century, but virtually all of them have been discontinued upon the ending of their pilot phase. So as all societies face the possible threats to jobs and livelihoods by AI, many policymakers and researchers will be watching the progress of the Irish government’s permanent basic income scheme.

One scheme that survived past the pilot stage is the Alaska permanent fund, which has paid an annual dividend to every Alaskan resident since 1982. But unlike the Irish scheme, the payments fluctuate annually and usually don’t reach the level of income which is needed to support a person’s basic needs – known as a subsistence payment.

So many basic income schemes have failed because right across the political spectrum, people are usually uneasy about how they might undermine the value of working for a living. The perceived cost of basic income schemes is also a barrier to their extension. Support for a basic income in Finland, which ran a pilot in 2017 to 2018, significantly dropped when respondents were informed of the increases in taxation needed to fund it.

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Read more:
How Greek musicians weathered an economic crisis could help UK performers handle COVID fall-out

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This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

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The reason why Ireland has bucked this trend is that it has secured strong support from the general public rather than solely those who are most likely to benefit from it. BIA’s genesis during the COVID-19 lockdowns, whereby the importance of arts and culture was amplified and furlough programmes supported people who could not work, was crucial in solidifying public support.

The report also found that it was successful in helping its recipients. One of the biggest benefits was on the recipients’ mental health, with many stating they were less stressed about their finances and noticed a marked improvement in their general wellbeing. These findings replicate what other basic income schemes have found.

The study also found they were more productive as a result, spending up to four more hours a week on their artistic work, which in turn increased their output levels and financial sustainability.

Crucially, the report found that for every €1 of public money invested in the pilot, society received €1.39 in return.

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Read more:
Computer science culture often means anybody’s data is fair game to feed the AI algorithm – but artists are fighting back

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The demonstrable benefits found by the report boosted political support for the BIA scheme and every party competing in the 2024 Irish election were committed to its extension. However, it hasn’t been without its critics.

Of the 8,200 applicants in 2022 to the ballot for the BIA, only 2,000 were chosen. Despite the government’s pledge to try to expand the number of recipients to 2,200, the basic income will still only benefit a minority of applicants to the scheme.

This has caused some disquiet in the arts and culture sector, with those whose applications were successful reluctant to reveal their good fortune for fear of upsetting the more than 6,000 applicants who were not. Others object at the privileging of artists over other workers in as much need.

The decision to make BIA permanent will put pressure on policymakers to extend it to other sectors. However, a 2019 estimation of a basic income for every Irish resident over the age of 18 was costed at €41 billion (£36 billion) per year, making it politically unfeasible for now.

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Read more:
UK’s creative industries bring in more revenue than cars, oil and gas – so why is arts education facing cuts?

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The current scheme costs a mere €25 million. This low cost does though provide some scope for the BIA’s expansion, which might occur in the event of an existential threat to jobs and livelihoods.

As AI makes work across industries more precarious and the threat of other global disasters loom, economists, politicians and researchers like me will be eagerly watching.

Andrew White does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ireland’s basic income scheme for artists points at how governments could help sectors in crisis – https://theconversation.com/irelands-basic-income-scheme-for-artists-points-at-how-governments-could-help-sectors-in-crisis-267181

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Naomi Joseph, Arts + Culture Editor, The Conversation

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has long served as a parable – a warning against the hubris of playing God, the dangers of motherless creation, reckless parenthood and unchecked scientific ambition. It’s a story that continues to resonate, revealing how little human ego and error have changed over time.

In the latest adaptation from horror maestro Guillermo del Toro, the tale of a mad scientist and his unnatural creation is reimagined with his signature touch. Like Shelley’s original, the film challenges us to ask: Who is the real monster?

Del Toro layers this timeless question with visual and thematic echoes from his own canon. Fans will spot traces of Crimson Peak in the gothic set design, Cronos in the intricate costuming, and The Shape of Water in its emotional core.

This version of Frankenstein is a visual feast – lavishly constructed and meticulously researched. As our reviewer Sharon Ruston points out, it incorporates real elements from early surgical education, including the gruesome 17th-century anatomy guides known as the Evelyn Tables. It also weaves in the history of Arctic exploration; those familiar with the doomed voyages of the Terror and Erebus will recognise their spectral influence.

I strongly recommend seeing this in cinemas. The immersive sound design and Alexandre Desplat’s haunting score pull you deep into this eerie, beautiful world. And if you’re in London, don’t miss the exhibition at Selfridges, where you can get up close to the props and costumes and appreciate the craftsmanship behind the film. It pairs perfectly with a visit to the Hunterian Museum, where the real Evelyn Tables are on display.

Frankenstein is in cinemas now, and will be available to watch on Netflix from November 7.

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Read more:
Guillermo de Toro’s Frankenstein: beguiling adaptation stays true to heart of Mary Shelley’s story

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Bold women

Virginia Woolf has a new book out. No, she hasn’t sent it from beyond the grave. And no, it’s not the product of an AI trained on her oeuvre. The Life of Violet is a newly unearthed early work by Woolf, available to read for the very first time.

This early foray into the genre of mock biography – which she would later explore more fully in Flush and Orlando – is composed of three short, fairytale-like stories chronicling the life of her close friend, Violet Dickinson.

Within these vivid, fantastical sketches, we see the early sparks of themes that would later define Woolf’s work: sharp satire of societal ills, the suffocating constraints of social norms, the joys and limits of womanhood, the quiet power of female friendship, and the deep yearning for freedom and choice.

Short, surreal and bitingly witty, these stories are a treat for new readers and a treasure for long-time Woolf fans who thought they had read it all.

Life of Violet: Three Early Stories is available at most bookshops

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Read more:
The Life of Violet: three unearthed early stories where Virginia Woolf’s genius first sparks to life

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If you’re looking for something binge-worthy this weekend, don’t miss Riot Women, Sally Wainwright’s bold and brilliant new drama.

The series follows five menopausal women who rediscover themselves – and find their voices – through punk at a time when life is pulling them in every direction: children, ageing parents, difficult men and demanding jobs with lousy bosses.

Tonally rich and emotionally layered, Riot Women balances laugh-out-loud moments with poignant, deeply felt drama. It’s a nuanced portrait of midlife – of caregiving, exhaustion, resilience and the fierce beauty of friendship. “These are not neat storylines,” reviewer Beth Johnson writes, “they are ongoing negotiations with life.”

The show’s strength lies in Wainwright’s deft storytelling, and an exceptional cast including Joanna Scanlan, Tamsin Greig and Rosalie Craig.

Riot Women is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now

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Read more:
With Riot Women, Sally Wainwright is turning menopause into punk rebellion

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More than just art

I first encountered the work of Lee Miller last year at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne. I was instantly captivated. Here was a woman far ahead of her time: model, fashion photographer, surrealist artist and one of the few female war correspondents accredited by the US Army during the second world war.

Her photographs are fearless, witty and wide-ranging – from surreal shots of Egypt’s landscapes to scenes of wartime London. As fine art expert Lynn Hilditch notes, the documentation of people in the liberated Holocaust camps and refugees in the aftermath stand out as both harrowing and deeply human.

Now, Miller’s work takes centre stage in the first major UK retrospective at Tate Britain. Featuring more than 250 vintage and modern prints, film and original publications (many never before shown), the exhibition is a long-overdue celebration of her legacy.

Lee Miller is at Tate Britain in London till 15 February 2026.

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Read more:
Lee Miller retrospective confirms her as one of the most important photographers of the 20th century

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If you’re after an autumn city break, Amsterdam makes for a perfect long weekend – and right now, the Van Gogh Museum is offering something truly special.

On show is a remarkable exhibition bringing together 14 portraits of the family of Joseph Roulin – the postman who became one of Van Gogh’s closest friends during his time in Arles, in the south of France. Van Gogh painted Roulin’s wife Augustine and their three children with affection and intensity, transforming ordinary subjects into something universal.

As Frances Fowle writes, Van Gogh wasn’t just painting individuals – he was capturing archetypes. In these enigmatic portraits, we see not just a family but timeless figures: a comforting mother, a boy desperate to be a man, an innocent baby.

Van Gogh and the Roulins – Together Again At Last is at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam until January 11 2026.

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Read more:
Van Gogh and the Roulins: a family reunion of the artist’s greatest portraits

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In other exciting news, The Conversation UK’s arts team is launching a podcast to mark 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth. This series will take you on a  journey through the author’s life and times with the help of the UK’s top Austen experts.

Over six episodes, one per book, we visit a scandal-filled bun shop in Bath, go for a windswept walk along the sea shore at Lyme Regis, and attend a glittering Regency ball in York to find out more about the woman behind the novels. This is Austen as you’ve never known her before. The first episode is out in November, but you can listen to the trailer here now.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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– ref. Monsters, menopause and bold women – what to see, read and visit this week – https://theconversation.com/monsters-menopause-and-bold-women-what-to-see-read-and-visit-this-week-267693