Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Darling, Professor in Human Geography, Durham University

Over recent weeks, the interim injunction to halt the housing of asylum seekers at the Bell hotel in Epping has thrown government plans into crisis. The Home Office has now successfully appealed this judgment but does still need to come up with another plan for housing asylum seekers in the longer term.

The case has highlighted the need to rebuild relationships with local government. In trying to stop the Bell hotel from housing asylum seekers, Epping Forest district council argued that an initial ruling in its favour was an important step in “redressing the imbalance” between the priorities of the Home Office and the interests of councils and residents. Long-standing concerns about a lack of consultation over where, and how, asylum seekers are housed suggest we should expect to see further legal challenges in places where these hotels are located.

The lack of communication with communities over the hotels has generated fertile ground for anti-migrant protests. The outcome has been an accommodation model that works for no one and increasingly fraught relationships between central and local government.

Hotels are used as emergency accommodation because the last government failed to process asylum claims, leaving a backlog of people trapped in the asylum system. They are unable to work or secure their own housing.

The Labour government has made a commitment to end the use of hotels by 2029 and has made some progress in reducing hotel use since its peak in 2023. But there are no easy alternatives.

It has tried to use former RAF bases and military barracks as sites for mass accommodation but conditions are extremely poor. The short-term holding facility at Manston has seen outbreaks of disease, severe overcrowding, and accusations of racism by contracted staff. Accommodation at RAF Wethersfield in Essex has been likened to a prison by those housed there with charities warning of a mental health crisis unfolding as a consequence of insufficient support. And the costs of running these sites are greater than hotels.

Alternatives

The government could instead look to European neighbours like Germany and Sweden, where asylum seekers are able to work after set periods in the asylum system. This means a reduced reliance on the state for housing and greater pathways to integration. Despite campaigns to support the right to work for asylum seekers, the UK continues to deny such a right. This limits the ability of asylum seekers to secure their own housing. In the current political climate, willingness to change course and grant asylum seekers the right to work seems unlikely.

The Epping Forest case should force the government to rethink. The immediate priority must be to work closely with local government to provide safe and secure community-based housing for people seeking asylum.

Achieving this will require ending the privatisation of asylum accommodation and returning control to local authorities. Empowering councils to have a stake in the future of asylum accommodation will mean that the asylum system can benefit from the knowledge and expertise of local government on housing conditions, markets and standards.

Moving asylum accommodation back under public control means an end to the excessive profiteering of private contractors. It can also offer scope for experimenting with housing models that have been ignored by profit-driven housing providers.

For example, approaches to co-housing show how investments in accommodating asylum seekers can be shared with other groups in need of housing. In Amsterdam, co-housing projects have provided accommodation for young refugees alongside Dutch students who choose to live in specially designed housing units with shared facilities and social spaces. In Berlin, co-housing accommodates asylum seekers alongside residents with German citizenship and dedicated community hubs. These models show that alternatives can both involve the local community and deliver dignified housing.

Respecting refugee rights

This summer the government has shown no leadership on asylum. Reform UK and an increasingly radical Conservative party have promised simplistic and hardline policies that show no respect for the lives and rights of asylum seekers.

In response, the government should be bold. To change the failing asylum accommodation system the government needs to make a public case for why housing asylum seekers with dignity matters. The government should communicate the importance of respecting international law and the right to asylum. That means defending the 1951 Refugee Convention against those who are seeking to remove protections for people fleeing conflict and persecution.

It also means rejecting the idea that those seeking asylum in Britain are “illegal” – a term that has become mainstream. Asylum seekers have a legal right to seek safety and their actions in doing so are not illegal. Calling asylum seekers “illegal” makes it easier to dismiss their need for protection and to justify their poor treatment.

Leadership involves challenging the divisive language used to describe asylum seekers, rather than allowing terms such as “invasion” to remain uncontested. Divisive language pits vulnerable groups in society against one another.

Legally, and morally, the state has responsibilities to support all those facing homelessness. Denying these responsibilities and restricting the rights of asylum seekers will not advance the rights of others. Instead, focus should be on developing public housing options that combine resources for all those who are homeless.

Innovative and inclusive ways to provide safe, secure, and dignified accommodation to asylum seekers and other people are available. The Epping Forest case should give the government the imperative to explore them.

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Jonathan Darling has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. He is affiliated with the No Accommodation Network as a trustee.

– ref. After the Epping Forest case, the government needs to be bold and build asylum housing that works – https://theconversation.com/after-the-epping-forest-case-the-government-needs-to-be-bold-and-build-asylum-housing-that-works-264060

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nicole Bulawa, Lecturer in Marketing, Lancaster University

Charging your electric car for the first time can seem confusing. The whole process just isn’t very intuitive. There are different plug types and charging speeds, plus various ways of charging at home, at motorway stations or in car parks.

Despite how complex it may seem at first, most people find it pretty straightforward once they get used to it. One reason for this is explained in my research which shows how imitation helps people get to grips with new technology. In this case, electric car charging copied the well-known: refuelling a car.

That might seem obvious, but not all countries opted for a recharging infrastructure. China, for example, is focusing on battery swapping. As the name suggests, the battery in your electric car is swapped for a charged one. So, while imitation is not the only option, it is the approach that has made the UK’s electric vehicle infrastructure feel less alien to us.

As a result, large charging stations in the UK could easily be mistaken for petrol stations simply because of their design. They are located on or near motorways, are often sheltered, and have rows of parking spaces. Not to mention, there is usually a shop, as one would expect at any typical petrol station. Rapid chargers also resemble their petrol counterparts. These are the ones that can charge an electric car up to 80% in just 20 to 60 minutes and look like a fuel pump with their boxy, towering design and cable connections.

The basic principles of charging and refuelling are also very similar.

To refuel your car, you drive to a petrol station, park next to a fuel pump, connect the nozzle to the car, pay and drive off again. Now, imagine swapping the petrol station for a charging station and replacing the fuel nozzle with a plug. Nothing much has changed except you are now charging an electric car instead of filling a tank with petrol – apart from the environmental impact perhaps.

Inspiration for designing charging stations was taken from more than just the car industry. When it comes to payment options, you can still make one-off card payments, just as you would at any petrol station. Or, to save on charging costs, you can use one of the many charging apps and subscriptions. We often use these in everyday life, so they make the whole process of electric car charging a bit more familiar.

The limits of imitation

But new technologies also bring change and change means that we can’t just copy everything. One of the main points of difference is that charging takes longer than refuelling.

Since changes, especially those involving longer waiting times, are not very well received, something had to be done. Spoiler alert: it was not done by imitating something. Quite the opposite, in fact.

While navigation maps showed petrol and charging stations along the route, information on charging station availability had to be added to avoid electric car drivers arriving at a particular station to find it full, with hours of waiting time ahead. This allows people to see how many chargers are being used in real life. So, it shows that certain adaptations are needed for technology to be integrated into everyday life effectively.

These add-ons are usually introduced to address hiccups caused by unexpected consumer behaviour, such as blocking charging stations even when the car is nicely charged. Originally, the rules for charging were very similar to those for refuelling (as a reminder: you park your car, fill it up, pay and leave).

But since charging an electric car typically takes longer than refuelling, drivers took the liberty of overstaying their welcome. In other words, drivers failed to return to their electric car once it was charged, causing a bottleneck of frustrated drivers. As a result, new rules were introduced to specify how long an electric car can remain at a bay once charging is complete, particularly for rapid charging.

We usually think of innovations as being new and exciting. However, many innovations, from Thomas Edison’s electric lightbulb to the modern circus, contain features that we have seen or used before. The traditional circus tent, for example, is still used in modern circuses, but theatrical and acrobatic performances have replaced animal shows, which was a novelty at the time. While the concept of imitation may not always have the best reputation due to its apparent lack of originality, it has played a significant role throughout history and will probably continue to do so in the future.

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The study was supported by ERF funding from ESCP Business School. The funding body did not exert any influence over the study or its subsequent dissemination.

– ref. Similarities between recharging and refuelling make the switch to electric cars an easier choice – https://theconversation.com/similarities-between-recharging-and-refuelling-make-the-switch-to-electric-cars-an-easier-choice-262000

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rafeef Ziadah, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy (Emerging Economies), King’s College London

Entire neighbourhoods in Gaza lie in ruins. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into tents, struggling for food, water and power. Despite this devastation, a leaked 38-page document from Donald Trump’s administration – the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (Great) Trust – proposes to “fundamentally transform Gaza” folding it into the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (Imec).

While framed as a reconstruction plan, it outlines “massive US gains,” Imec’s acceleration, and consolidation of an “Abrahamic regional architecture” – a term that refers back to the 2020 Abraham Accords, US-brokered agreements that normalised relations between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

In many respects, the document echoes the “Gaza 2035” plan promoted by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the 2024 proposal that envisioned Gaza as a sanitised logistics hub linked to Saudi Arabia’s Neom mega-project and stripped of meaningful Palestinian presence.

As my co-authors and I trace in a recent book Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine, this continues a pattern of policies that deny Palestinians political agency and reduce Gaza to an investment opportunity.

Imec was launched at the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi. Signed by the US, EU, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it was billed as a transformative infrastructure project. It comprised a chain of railways, ports, pipelines and digital cables linking South Asia to Europe via the Arabian Peninsula.

Israel was not formally a signatory, but its role was implicit. The corridor runs from Indian ports to the UAE, overland through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the Haifa Port in Israel, then across the Mediterranean to Greece and Europe.

Like many such mega-projects, Imec is marketed in the language of efficiency – faster trade times, lower costs, new energy and data corridors. But its deeper significance is political. For Washington it serves as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) while binding India into a US-led system. Europe views it as a hedge against the Suez Canal and Russian pipelines.

The Gulf monarchies see a chance to position themselves as the region’s main centre for trade and transport. Israel promotes Haifa as a gateway for Euro-Asian trade. India, meanwhile, gains quicker access to Europe while tightening its ties with both Washington and the Gulf.

Gaza as obstacle and gateway

The plan casts Gaza both as an Iranian outpost undermining Imec and as a historic crossroads of trade routes linking Egypt, Arabia, India and Europe.

By invoking Gaza’s history as a trading route, the plan presents the territory as a natural logistics gateway poised to “thrive once again” at the centre of a “pro-American regional order”. The blueprint proposes extending Gaza’s port from Egypt’s al-Arish, integrating its industries into regional supply chains, and reorganising its land into “planned cities” and digital economies.

What is being imagined is not recovery for its residents, but the conversion of Gaza into a logistics centre serving Imec.

Perhaps the most radical element of the Great Trust is its model of direct trusteeship. The plan envisions a US-led custodianship, beginning with a bilateral US–Israel agreement and eventually expanding into a multilateral trust. This body would govern Gaza, oversee security, manage aid and control redevelopment. After a “Palestinian polity” is established, the trust would still retain powers through a Compact of Free Association.

Even the most ill-fated US occupation plans in Iraq and Afghanistan did not so openly imagine territory as a corporatised trusteeship for global capital.

‘Voluntary’ relocation

Another striking feature of the plan is its provision for “voluntary relocation.” Palestinians who leave their homes in Gaza would receive relocation packages, rent subsidies and food stipends. The document assumes a quarter of the population will depart permanently, with financial models showing how the scheme becomes more profitable the more people leave.

In reality, the notion of voluntary departure under siege and famine is not voluntary at all. Israel’s blockade has produced what UN officials describe as engineered mass starvation. To frame out-migration as a choice is to sanction ethnic cleansing.

The plan also shows how the language of the Abraham Accords has been grafted onto Gaza’s imagined future. Nearly every element is dressed in “Abrahamic” branding: an Abraham gateway logistics hub in Rafah, an Abrahamic infrastructure corridor of railways, even new highways renamed after Saudi and Emirati leaders.

Techno-futurist gloss is added through smart manufacturing zones, AI-regulated data centres, luxury resorts and new digital-ID cities, planned “smart cities” where daily life, from housing and healthcare to commerce and employment, would be mediated through ID-based digital systems.

Saudi Arabia and the fig leaf of Palestinian statehood

A central ambition of the Great Trust is to channel Gulf capital into Gaza’s redevelopment under its trusteeship. The plan forecasts US$70–100 billion (£50-£74 billion) in public investment and another $35–65 billion from private investors, with public–private partnerships financing ports, rail, hospitals and data centres.

Saudi Arabia, though not formally part of the Abraham accords, signalled its acceptance of the overall framework when it backed Imec. For Washington, Gaza’s reconstruction is imagined as the final step in persuading Riyadh to make normalisation official – a prize that would anchor the “Abrahamic order”.

The Trump plan is designed to smooth this path, offering Saudi Arabia a custodial role in Gaza’s redevelopment and lucrative stakes in Imec. To make the deal more palatable, it even floats the idea of a Palestinian “polity” – a limited governance entity under trusteeship.

While such an arrangement may be billed as a step towards Palestinian statehood recognition by Saudi Arabia, this is precisely why any future gestures of recognition must be treated with caution. The real question is what, exactly, is being recognised, and in whose interest.

The Great Trust is, at its core, an investment prospectus. The document values Gaza today at “practically $0” – but projects it could be worth $324 billion within a decade.

Gaza is described less as a society than as a distressed asset to be flipped. This is disaster capitalism at its sharpest. It is devastation reframed as the precondition for speculative profit.

Yet visions of free-trade zones and futuristic cities quickly collide with reality. Palestinians have consistently rejected such schemes. What this leaked document makes clear however, is that Gaza’s future is being framed within this broader US effort to reshape the region.

Rafeef Ziadah 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. Donald Trump’s vision for Gaza’s future: what a leaked plan tells us about US regional strategy – https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-vision-for-gazas-future-what-a-leaked-plan-tells-us-about-us-regional-strategy-264899

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Silver, Professor of Urban Geography, University of Sheffield

The US and Israel have sparked international condemnation over their leaked vision for the reconstruction of a shattered Gaza. The urban development plan seems to have evolved since its emergence earlier in the year. It now includes economic drivers such as blockchain-based trade initiatives, data centres and “world-class resorts”.

And its alignment to the proposed regional logistical network, the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (Imec) aims to put it at the centre of a pro-American regional architecture.

The images and details that have emerged in the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (Great) Trust blueprint indicate a vision that clearly pays homage to Gulf urbanism. Similar mega-projects, towers and speculative real estate ventures have driven the transformation of Dubai and other Gulf cities since the 1980s.

The 38-page document, initially published in the Washington Post, is an architectural fantasy of a hyper-modern, coastal enclave. Its planning origins seem twofold. First, it’s rooted in the libertarian ideologies of what’s known as a charter city – urban development spaces with different laws and institutions than the jurisdiction they sit within, such as Prospera in Honduras.

Second, it appears to take inspiration from the authoritarian control of oil-rich monarchies such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These states are now intimately aligned with US president Donald Trump and Israel itself.

The plan was reportedly aided by the Boston Consulting Group, with staff from the Tony Blair Institute apparently privy to previous discussions. Boston Consulting Group has since said that two of its former partners took part in the work without its knowledge. The Tony Blair Institute has also distanced itself, saying it has never “authored, developed or endorsed” plans to relocate residents from Gaza.

The US$100 billion (£74 billion) investor-led plan has all the standard ingredients of a new city. This includes prestige waterfront developments for the international elite. It envisages apartment blocks owned by international real estate developers, whether Saudi state-owned funds or US corporate trusts.

Special economic zones with favourable tax conditions supposedly promise advanced manufacturing potential. And various kinds of green and sustainable technologies are also proposed – potentially greenwashing the massive carbon footprint of the conflict.

Gaza is unlikely to be the next Dubai though. The plan includes massive Israeli security buffer zones, suggesting the likelihood of resistance from Palestinian militant groups to occupation. In all likelihood, it would also finally extinguish any prospect of a two-state solution.

The risks for financial investors will be massive. These include possible legal liabilities around land theft and potential incorporation into court proceedings on genocide at the International Court of Justice should these happen. It’s no wonder the plan has been described as “insane” by a senior associate at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, and opposed by some parts of the Israeli media.

Understanding the urban dimensions of the “Gaza Riviera” plan needs more than a planning lens though. It involves placing its development within the wider history and geography of Palestine. Doing so arguably positions the initiative less as a reconstruction effort and more as the next step towards the erasure of the Palestinian presence in the territory.

Scholars of settler colonialism have shown that its logic is one of elimination. This, it’s explained, is to enable territorial control and to establish a new settler society on the land. As Theodor Herzl, founding father of Zionism and held in high regard by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, argued: “If I wish to substitute a new building for an old one, I must demolish before I construct.”

Israel has previously asserted territorial control over Gaza, including the forced transfer of Palestinians to the territory in 1948, which they refer to as the Nakba (the catastrophe), as well as with illegal settlements between 1967 and 2005, and the blockade of the strip from 2007. All these forms of control should be understood within the logic of elimination. The most recent military onslaught in Gaza demonstrates the latest phase in this process.

The plan is reliant on two on-the-ground factors beyond the financial and geo-political – urbicide and expulsion. First, establishing this new society involves demolishing centuries of historical built environment and the support networks of urban life. This urbicide of Gaza is the deliberate destruction of its civil infrastructure, built environment, roads and hospitals, removing its physical character and functionality as a settlement.

What the plan would mean for Palestinians

Forensic Architecture is a group of researchers who use architectural techniques to investigate state violence and human rights abuses. Its Cartography of Genocide database has documented that the Israel Defense Forces’ spatial violence has been nearly complete in many areas of Gaza. This sets the necessary conditions for the plan to proceed.

The plan has little space for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza. There are reports of residents being offered up to US$5,000 to make way for the “Riviera”, supposedly on a temporary basis.

Meanwhile the Israeli military continues killing Palestinian civilians and pushing massive displacement within Gaza itself, while far-right Israeli politicians make public their desire to remove Palestinians from the territory.

Claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – including from the International Association of Genocide Scholars – are becoming more widespread. Israel’s actions have resulted in death and injury to tens of thousands of Palestinians. The plan for the redevelopment of Gaza can also be understood within this settler colonial logic: an urban idea that, in order to be achieved, necessitates the erasure of all that stood before through the expulsion of the population and urbicide of the built environment.

Jonathan Silver 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 ‘Gaza Riviera’ is a fantasy plan that relies on urbicide and expulsion – https://theconversation.com/the-gaza-riviera-is-a-fantasy-plan-that-relies-on-urbicide-and-expulsion-264811

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dominic Bryan, Chair professor, Queen’s University Belfast

Flags – particularly the union flag and the St George’s Cross – continue to appear in towns and cities in England, at times in response to the housing of migrants and asylum seekers in the local area.

Groups such as Operation Raise the Colours, the Weoley Warriors, Flag Force UK, and the Wythall Flaggers have claimed responsibility for putting the flags up. In many places the flags seem to be in place for the foreseeable future. In Brighton and Hove the local council began to remove flags, only to be forced to leave some up when the contractors sent to take them down were abused.

Displays of flags on street furniture and buildings, such as pubs, are not unusual. But while they are common around the celebration of royal events and major sporting occasions, it is more exceptional to see them put up in reference to political issues. This appears more coercive as an action. There is a sense of territory being marked.

We’ve heard predictable claims that the flags are just a display of pride in a British or English identity. This is an easy claim to make as it clearly is, in part, to do with nationalistic pride. The point is that they are being hung in particular places, by particular groups of people and in a particular way that clearly links them to the ongoing debates and hostility to migration.

As any anthropologist would tell you, symbols are multi-vocal. They offer a range of meanings that depend on who is using them and the context in which they are being used. If the symbols are being used to send a message, the intended recipient of that message adds another layer of meaning.

The use of flags, in what political scientist Marc Howard Ross calls the symbolic landscape, carries significant cultural value – or what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would have termed symbolic capital. They are displays of patriotism that are common in different forms, in nations around the world. They are used by nation states in rituals and public spaces, by the elite, by politicians and by companies selling their products. They’re waved at sports events and displayed as part of everyday, banal, practices. They are the stock and trade of how the nation is imagined and performed.

Anthropologists Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Richard Jenkins’s book Flag, Nation, Symbolism in Europe and America shows that the use of flags can vary quite widely. In Denmark, the national flag adorns birthday cakes. In Canada it is the essential addition to any large cottage around the lakes of Ontario. And in the US, one of the most flag obsessed countries, it is flown at sporting events big and small.

Flags in Northern Ireland

Generally the British are seen as being more reserved in their use of the Union flag, in part because of its complex relationship with Englishness, Irishness, Scottishness and Welshness. But in Northern Ireland, flags fly from lamp-posts nearly all year around. Union flags, the Ulster Banner (the former flag for the Northern Ireland government), and Scottish Saltires often fly alongside the paramilitary flags of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

Many of these are put up in the summer and, while some are taken down in September, others remain through winter, becoming tatty as the weather turns colder and wetter, and ultimately being replaced in the spring. Flags have long been put up to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne on July 12, but the commemorative season now includes the Battle of the Somme (July 1), local band parades in June and goes through to Ulster Day (September 28) and Remembrance Sunday in November.

Flags are put up predominantly by groups of men in working-class areas. The expansion of the practice seemed to date from around 2000 when a feud between the UVF and UDA flared up and each group used flags to demarcate the areas they controlled. This was predicated on the available of cheap, mass-produced nylon flags imported from Asia.

Irish Tricolours fly in Irish nationalist areas, but not with the same density or frequency. They, too, are sometimes used as signs of demarcation between different Republican groups. The Tricolour has also recently been put up on lamp-posts in Dublin by rightwing groups.

In Northern Ireland the practice has many detractors. Some feel the flag is being disrespected (particularly as the flags quickly become tatty and dirty) while others see their presence as part of a practice of coercive control by paramilitary groups. Others long for more shared public space without these symbols and some fear their presence might reduce the value of houses in the area.

There is in fact clear legislation in Northern Ireland making it unlawful for a flag to be affixed to a lamp-post. However the Department of Infrastructure, which has authority over the lamp-posts, steadfastly refuses to remove the majority of the thousands of flags. Despite the coercive control invoked and the displays of flags by organisations proscribed under terrorism laws, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) rarely intervenes.

A five-year, all-party Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (of which I was co-chair), published a report in 2021 concluding that “citizens do not have lawful authority to put up any flag on lamp posts or road signs” and calling for better coordination on the issue that should include local councils. But no new policies have developed.

Despite a dozen research and policy reports over more than two decades (including at least six with me as one of the authors) funded by British research organisations, the Northern Ireland government the Irish government and charities, the numbers of flags on lamp-posts remains in the tens of thousands.

Authorities find it difficult to decide how to handle flags in part because “policing” the use of the national flag looks unpatriotic. Nationalism and patriotism are so embedded within the discourses of nearly all of the major political parties that it’s impossible for politicians to tell the general public that they aren’t allowed to wrap themselves in the same symbols.

And so even if it is obvious the symbols are used as leverage in a racist or sectarian act of territory marking, those with authority are loathed to do anything about it.

Short of the legitimacy of “tradition” that is so powerful in Northern Ireland, the practice in England, Scotland, Wales or the rest of Ireland, might fade away. Or it might become embedded in a world of increased chauvinistic and xenophobic nationalism.

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This article contains references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and this may include 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.

Dominic Bryan receives funding from the ESRC and I have received funding from the AHRC, the Government of Northern Ireland and the Irish Government in the past.

I am a member of the Green Party.

– ref. I’ve researched the politics of flags in Northern Ireland for decades – here’s what England needs to understand – https://theconversation.com/ive-researched-the-politics-of-flags-in-northern-ireland-for-decades-heres-what-england-needs-to-understand-264203

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Carolina Machado Oliveira, Filmmaker, Senior Lecturer in Factual, Bournemouth University

Deep in the Amazon, sound designer Eric Terena has been capturing the sounds of the rainforest while sitting silently beneath the dense, towering treetops with his recording equipment. He has noticed some huge changes.

“What the environment once spoke, what biodiversity once sang, has shifted to sounds from industrial projects that have arrived in our territories,” said Terena, co-founder of Mídia Indígena, a Brazilian media and communications network which promotes and preserves Indigenous cultures.

His words describe more than a change in sound – they show how nature is gradually being replaced by machines. Ancestral songs have been drowned out by industrial noise. Terena shares these changes using digital tools to bring local stories to global audiences, turning lived experience into climate knowledge.

In our research with Indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon, we examine how film and other media technologies, from smartphones to social platforms, are being used to document environmental change, defend land rights and influence climate debates. Together with Indigenous leaders and the Intercultural Faculty in Mato Grosso, Brazil, we explore how “educommunication” – which combines media education with active community participation – can build the technical skills and political capacity that young communicators need to tell their stories to different audiences, from local villagers to global leaders.

As Cop30, the UN climate summit, comes to Brazil this November, our research shows how these digital tools are enabling Indigenous voices to help reshape global understanding of the climate crisis – ensuring their perspectives are present not only in cultural storytelling, but in international environmental decision-making.

A pivotal shift

This shift didn’t happen overnight. It began with a few voices that grew into a movement. Terena co-founded Mídia Indígena in 2017 at the Free Land Camp, a yearly Indigenous rights gathering in Brasília. Alongside him, a group of young Guajajara leaders (Indigenous peoples from Maranhão, Brazil) launched the platform, training 128 young Indigenous people how to report, record and share their stories. Mídia Indígena has grown quickly – its videos now receive more than 10 million views each year.

At the heart of this work is a powerful idea: “Nothing about us, without us.” Indigenous people can now tell their own stories without relying on outsiders to speak for them. They decide what to film, how to tell a story, and who sees it.

The impact of this shift became clear during the Yanomami humanitarian crisis in early 2023. The Yanomami, one of the largest Indigenous groups in the Amazon, live across northern Brazil and southern Venezuela in territories deeply affected by illegal gold mining. That year, reports emerged of severe malnutrition, child deaths and mercury poisoning caused by mining operations contaminating rivers and destroying forest ecosystems.

Because Mídia Indígena’s reporters were already present in the territory, they were the first to document and publish evidence of the crisis. Their coverage not only exposed the immediate health emergency but also linked it to broader issues of environmental destruction and climate change. National and international outlets eventually followed with their own reports – but only after Indigenous journalists had already broken the story.

This was more than journalism; it was lived truth, rooted in a deep knowledge of the land. Mídia Indígena’s reporting had an authenticity that no outsider could match.

And they are not alone. Young communicators from Xingu+, a network from the Xingu River basin and surrounding Indigenous territories in Brazil, created a powerful video called Fire is burning the eyes of Xingu, showing illegal fires destroying parts of the Amazon. Their video caught the attention of the US Agency for International Development and the EU, emphasising how local stories can prompt global awareness.

Films by the Ijã Mytyli Manoki and Myki Cinema Collective, founded in 2020 by two neighbouring Indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso, show how traditional knowledge and rituals are being praised in Europe, even if they’re less known in Brazil. As filmmaker Renan Kisedjê said in the short film Our Grandparents Hunted Here, “we are digital warriors”. Where once bows and arrows defended the land, today cameras and smartphones continue the fight for land, rights and justice.

Challenging outdated ideas

Collectives such as Mídia Guarani are another part of this digital resistance. Their videos challenge outdated ideas about Indigenous life and show how deeply these communities are connected to both nature and technology.

But this storytelling is not only about identity – it’s about survival. These creators shine a light on urgent threat such as Brazil’s “devastation bill”, which seeks to weaken environmental safeguards by expanding environmental self-licensing and eroding protections for traditional territories. Such measures open the door to unchecked pollution and land grabs.

By reporting on dangers like this, Indigenous communicators seek to hold governments and corporations to account. Their stories do more than inform – they generate public pressure and demand change.

This shift matters internationally too. The UK has pledged £11.6 billion in climate finance between 2021 and 2026, including £3 billion for nature restoration and £1.5 billion for forests. Yet the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, an organisation that scrutinises UK aid spending, warns that changes in accounting may have “moved the goalposts”, inflating apparent spending without ensuring impact on the ground.

Much of this funding has traditionally flowed through large international charities and foundations, such as the Rainforest Foundation UK and the International Institute for Environment and Development, which work with Indigenous communities on mapping, monitoring, advocacy and sustainable policy.

Increasingly, however, Indigenous communities are speaking directly to funding donors and shaping allocations. This shift matters because they collectively manage vast areas of land critical to conservation. While many governments invest in expensive climate technologies, these communities have long protected ecosystems through practices proven over generations.

For the first time in the history of UN climate summits, large numbers of South American Indigenous people will attend Cop30 in November – both in person and online. For a long time, they’ve been building networks to fill the gap left by mainstream media. Now, these once silenced voices are loud, clear and deeply informed.

In late August, a hundred Indigenous reporters gathered in Belém for the 1st National Meeting of Indigenous Communication. Under the motto “Indigenous communication is resistance, territory and future”, they strengthened their networks and prepared collectively for COP30.

As the world’s most experienced environmental defenders gain more power in climate talks, their stories, and the way they tell them, will help shape the decisions that affect us all.

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The digital movement that enables Indigenous people to show for themselves how the Amazon region is changing – https://theconversation.com/the-digital-movement-that-enables-indigenous-people-to-show-for-themselves-how-the-amazon-region-is-changing-261616

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachael Jolley, International Affairs Editor, The Conversation

Republican political activist Charlie Kirk was killed as he spoke at a Utah Valley University event on September 10. Just three months earlier, Minnesotan House Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed by a masked gunman.

According to a thinktank, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, violence against those in US political life in the four years to 2024 was nearly triple the number of incidents in the previous 25 years combined.

Historically the killings of significant political figures has sometimes been the precursor to dramatic repression or further violence. The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 led precipitously to the beginning of the first world war. The murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Jewish refugee was used as a pretext for the slaying of Jews in Berlin and the justification for unleashing a wave of violence and destruction across Nazi Germany in what became known as Kristallnacht.

There are, of course, alternative lessons from historic moments. When British MP Jo Cox was slain on the streets of Birstall, near Leeds, in 2016, politicians from across the divide condemned it. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative prime minister David Cameron visited the town where Cox was murdered together: a symbol of political unity against violence.

Violent speech

Political violence is defined by the United Nations as that which is intended to achieve political goals or intimidate opponents through the use of physical force or threats to influence a political outcome or silence dissent. Katie Pruszynski, who researches political violence at the University of Sheffield, finds that the use of polarising and extreme language in debate has stoked up something she calls “hyperpartisanship”, where opponents have become “enemies” and those with different worldviews have become “traitors”. This tension stokes distrust and radicalisation, she warns. So then, this fits within the framework of the US president’s immediate reaction. In a video published on X, Trump vowed to root out “the radical left” whose rhetoric is “directly responsible” for Kirk’s killing.

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Read more:
Charlie Kirk shooting: another grim milestone in America’s long and increasingly dangerous story of political violence

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Melissa Butcher, a professor emeritus at Royal Holloway, University of London, researches political polarisation, and its causes. She also spent time listening to Kirk’s speeches at the conservative rally AmericaFest in 2021.

As part of her work on the political and ideological divides in the US, Butcher has listened to conversations in all sorts of locations, from social clubs to shooting ranges and offices. Those discussions suggest a widespread feeling that community is breaking down. She has talked to Americans who believe that the promise of an affluent future is disappearing in the face of environmental collapse and successive financial crises.

Her research suggests that some Americans now see the world as scary and unsafe. And these emotions can provoke rage as well as despair. But more hopefully, she found, that many people want hope, safety and to live in a caring community.

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Read more:
Charlie Kirk was emblematic of a country polarised and imploding

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Religion and debate

To outsiders the significant role of religion in US politics can come as a shock. Quotes from the Bible regularly make an appearance in speeches and questions about church attendance are thrown at candidates. Gordon Lynch, a professor of religion at the University of Edinburgh, has studied Kirk’s leadership in the white Christian nationalist movement within the US.

For Christian nationalists, the idea of the separation of church and state acknowledges not having an official state church. But the complete separation of Christianity from public institutions is anathema and secular institutions such as public schools and universities are often regarded as hostile ground, says Lynch.

Lynch notes the role of Kirk’s organisation, Turning Point USA, in calling on students to name and shame professors who they judged to have problematic or socialist views, and creating a watchlist. But he also feels that a different part of Kirk’s legacy could be acknowledging the activist’s commitment to debate with, and listen to, those whose views he disagreed with. And this could be extremely valuable in the current climate, if stressed by Republican leaders.

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Read more:
Charlie Kirk: why the battle over his legacy will divide even his most ardent admirers

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On the borders of Europe, an emergency

Meanwhile, another crisis which needs the US president’s attention is unravelling on the other side of the Atlantic, on the Polish border with Russia. Putin’s drones ventured into Polish airspace and were shot down by Nato fighter jets. Many see this as Russian president, Vladimir Putin, testing the mettle of the Nato allies to find out the level of their response.

Poland immediately invoked article 4 of the Nato treaty. The alliance’s members met to discuss the threat and the UN security council are due to meet on September 12 about the incident. Stern words have been issued and troops dispatched to Nato’s eastern border. But Stefan Wolff from the University of Birmingham, believes that Putin will not be worried by the west’s response. As Wolff observes, the Russian leader will be buoyed by his military’s recent advances on the battlefield. He’ll also be basking in the warmth of recent talks with Xi Jinping of China, Narendra Modi of India and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. So Nato’s response is hardly likely to have him rattled.

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Read more:
Russian drones over Poland is a serious escalation – here’s why the west’s response won’t worry Putin

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Russia’s future plans to add more territory (not just areas that it currently controls within Ukraine) were laid out in detail by the University of Aberystwyth’s Jenny Mathers, who researches the war in Ukraine, this week. At a briefing given by Russia’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, that has now come to light, a map was shown in the background suggesting Russia’s intention to claim the areas around Odesa and Mykolaiv along the coast of the Black Sea. These would give Moscow important economic and strategic control of sea routes but also potential to create a land corridor to Transnistria, a pro-Russia breakaway region within Moldova that seeks independence.

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Read more:
Russia has provided fresh evidence of its territorial ambitions in Ukraine

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The upcoming Moldovan election on September 28 must be recognised as another struggle to maintain European security in the face of Russian aggression, says Amy Eagleston, a political scientist at Leiden University. Eagleston points to Russian cyber interference in a past Moldovan election as evidence for worries about what could happen this time. She stresses Moldova’s strategic position as a support for Ukraine, under its current government. Things could change fast, she warns.

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Read more:
Why Moldova’s election is important for the whole of Europe

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Israel’s unprecedented strike

Another strike that shook the world this week was Israel’s unprecedented airstrike on the Qatari capital of Doha where Hamas officials were discussing a peace deal. This was the first time that Israel had directly attacked a Gulf state.

Scott Lucas, an international politics professor at University College Dublin and an expert on the Israel/Gaza crisis, argues that this showed the current Israeli government was not willing to engage in any kind of peace negotiation. It was, he said, clearly ready to level parts of Gaza City, kill Hamas’s leadership and completely break up the organisation. Lucas believes there will be no more talk of a ceasefire with Hamas, only capitulation.

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Read more:
Middle East leaders condemn Israel’s attack on Qatar as Netanyahu ends all talk of Gaza ceasefire – expert Q&A

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Long arm of the law?

In a week when international law was being tested to its outer limits, James Sweeney, a professor of law at Lancaster University, spoke up for its long-term relevance and his belief that it would outlast political careers.

History shows that leaders who once seemed untouchable have eventually faced justice in one form or another, said Sweeney, pointing to the Nuremberg trials of Nazis and how former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet died awaiting trial for human rights abuses to house arrest. Pinochet may well have believed that would never happen to him. It did.

Something for today’s leaders to contemplate carefully.

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Read more:
International law isn’t dead. But the impunity seen in Gaza urgently needs to be addressed

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– ref. Charlie Kirk and the politics of rhetoric and division – https://theconversation.com/charlie-kirk-and-the-politics-of-rhetoric-and-division-265149

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dai O’Brien, Associate Professor, BSL and Deaf Studies, York St John University

Deaf is a deeply emotional examination of what having a baby can mean for a mixed deaf and hearing couple. Spanish director Eva Libertad’s film explores where access, language and trying to keep a family together under the extreme pressure of new parenthood and social expectations come to a point.

Throughout the film, there is a clear divide in deaf and hearing spaces, and clear differences in how people are treated in each one. A key element of this is the thoughtful effort to facilitate communication by adapting to people’s different abilities.

At home, Ángela (played by deaf actor Miriam Garlo) and her partner Héctor (Álvaro Cervantes) communicate easily and comfortably in a mixture of sign and speech. Ángela’s experience in work is similar. While her work colleagues don’t sign fluently, they obviously value her and care about her and put effort into their communication and relationships. This care is reflected in the baby mobile they give Ángela, which has carefully moulded hands in different configurations so that Ángela’s language is represented in her baby’s toys.

Ángela is made to feel safe and valued at home and work thanks to the care and respect everyone shows to each other when communicating, whether in speech, sign or a mixture of both. The same is true of the deaf communities in which she and Héctor are involved – Héctor is embraced, teased, accepted and treated as an equal. But when their relationship encounters the hearing world, this all changes.

Despite Héctor’s efforts to help Ángela communicate with healthcare staff, the indifferent medical system and emotional strain take their toll on him.

The issue comes to a head when the gynaecologist demands that he stops interpreting and moves out of Ángela’s line of sight while Ángela is giving birth. This leaves her alone, scared and with her hands restrained by anonymous medical professionals whom she can’t understand.

This deeply traumatic experience of giving birth is something that is very common for deaf women, which makes it extremely uncomfortable to watch on screen. It’s an impossible decision that is forced on Héctor: does he insist on staying when the full power of the medical institution is drawn against him, possibly putting Ángela in further danger? Or does he acquiesce and leave his partner alone during this horribly traumatic ordeal?

It’s a choice that colours their relationship. It is also a taste of what is to come. Together, they will have to make similarly impossible compromises, which are forced upon them by the discriminatory institutions and attitudes that surround them and their own emotions and beliefs.

The separation of the environments in which Ángela feels able to exist as a mother becomes increasingly stark as the film progresses. Her lack of access to speech and the lack of accommodations offered to her are cruelly highlighted in several of the interactions she has with hearing people, resulting in her growing alienation and isolation from the other parents in her daughter Una’s nursery.

The speech- and hearing-centred expectations of the parent group and the nursery itself make her feel unable to be a competent mother in that environment. She is unable to join in with the simplest games and activities the nursery leader does with Una and the other children, as they are all based around sound.

While she is still embraced as herself by the deaf community, she finds it difficult to be a mother in those settings as well. She finds it difficult to integrate the compromises she is having to make at home with who she sees herself to be, and this is affecting every part of her life.

In their home, where previously Ángela and Héctor were able to build a haven of communication based on equality, the invasion of Ángela’s parents and Héctor’s friends, none of whom sign well, unbalances the status quo they have carefully constructed. This disrupts the linguistic care work they each do for the other to the point that their relationship creaks under the strain.

This film isn’t just about being deaf, although that is a huge part of Ángela’s life, and the heartbeat of the film. It will also resonate with those who have multilingual families. It highlights the compromises, the guilt, the heartbreak and the joy that raising kids in multilingual and multicultural contexts can bring, and the huge amount of emotional work that goes with that. It’s an important film, one that takes authenticity and representation seriously, and is one that anybody who works with deaf people at any stage of pregnancy and parenthood should watch.

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Dai O’Brien 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. Deaf: a powerful film about the real struggles of deaf families navigating medical institutions and parenthood – https://theconversation.com/deaf-a-powerful-film-about-the-real-struggles-of-deaf-families-navigating-medical-institutions-and-parenthood-265013

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University

Before resigning from his nine-month stint as French prime minister, François Bayrou had claimed that if France failed to cut its public deficit, young people would pay the price “for the sake of the comfort of boomers”.

This blunt assessment cut to the heart of France’s current economic reality. For behind the country’s growing budget deficit lies a story of generational unfairness. And those who created the problem are unlikely to pay for its solution.

The crux of that problem is that for decades now, the French government has spent much more than it earns. At the moment, it is borrowing around 6% of GDP a year. Over time, these borrowings have added up, so total public debt now stands at €3.3 trillion (£2.8 trillion), equivalent to 114% of GDP.

By contrast, the UK’s public debt is around 101% of GDP, and the EU average is 81%. (There are extreme cases like Japan, where the figure is 250%.)

As Bayrou made clear, the French deficit is mostly a boomer problem, as it has subsidised privileges for a very lucky generation. People born in the 1950s generally paid just a small proportion of their salaries to finance generous pensions, and voted to lower the pension age.

Spending on public pensions now makes up a quarter of France’s budget, with the average payment around €1,500 per month (£1,300, compared to around £1,000 in the UK). But 1.7% of French pensioners receive more than €4,500 per month, and a former senior executive could be receiving over €100,000 every year from the government.

This means that while public pensions in the UK cost around 5% of GDP, in France it is almost 14%. An early retirement age and longer life expectancy means that a French worker retiring now can expect to enjoy around 25 years of retirement, compared to 21 in the UK, or 20 in the US.

The economic impact of this situation is profound. On average, people currently retired in France end up with a pension pot containing double their own contribution – much more than future generations can hope to receive.

So on the whole, today’s French pensioners are doing pretty well.

For the time being the debt remains manageable. France currently borrows at a much cheaper rate than the 12% Portugal or Ireland had to pay during the eurozone crisis.

The trouble is that new debts racked up by France are becoming more expensive. As rating agencies re-evaluate French debt the cost is likely to increase further.

And like the proverbial frog in gradually boiling water, France may not realise that its ability to sustain its public finance is changing until it’s too late.

France v UK

The situation is different from the economic challenges facing the UK, which is experiencing increasing costs to finance its own debt, and is much more reliant than France on international investment.

France tends not to depend on investment and loans from the rest of the world as the UK does, and is able to borrow from French savers and the European Central Bank. It is also part of the eurozone, where that same bank is committed to doing “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. This effectively protects member countries from foreign investors betting on their bankruptcy.

But just because France’s debts are different does not mean they do not to have to be managed. To be sustainable, public debt cannot be allowed to keep on rising as a share of GDP.

If it does, simply paying the interest of the debt becomes unaffordable. To avoid defaulting, France would then need to ask the help of the European Central Bank, and accept reforms imposed by other European countries, just like Greece and the Republic of Ireland had to cut benefits and raise taxes in exchange for bailouts during the Eurozone debt crisis.

And ultimately, there will be no solution to France’s financial problems without talking about – and changing – pensions. The current generational unfairness is so stark that subsequent governments use complex accounting tricks to try to deal with it.

Almost 10% of the schools budget, for example, is diverted to fill the gaps in the entire public sector pension system. But these kinds of loopholes will not be enough in the long term.

Eventually, freezing or lowering pensions and moving to a cheaper system will be unavoidable. Bayrou’s government fell as it tried to do this. It failed to build the necessary coalitions to govern such a divided country. But it may end up succeeding in delivering a message.

And that message is that France’s fiscal future depends on confronting the privileges of those who created the problem. The question is not whether this reckoning will come, but whether it arrives through political choice or economic necessity. The latter would be much more damaging for the younger generations of France.

Renaud Foucart 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 French economy has a boomer problem and is spending way too much on pensions – https://theconversation.com/the-french-economy-has-a-boomer-problem-and-is-spending-way-too-much-on-pensions-264912

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christopher Gaffney, Senior Lecturer in Integrative Physiology, Lancaster University

Running has a huge number of benefits. The popular workout can prevent disease, improve mental health and even slow the biological ageing process.

But around 31% of us aren’t regularly doing enough physical activity – including going for a run. The most commonly cited barrier to exercise is a lack of time.

But what if all the benefits of running could be had but in a fraction of the time? This is where interval running comes in.

Interval running is a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT has been around for almost a century, but gained popularity throughout the 90s and 2000s thanks to workouts such as Tabata (20 seconds of intense exercise, ten seconds of rest) and CrossFit (a high-intensity workout that combines weightlifting, gymnastics and cardio).

The key aspect of HIIT is alternating between bursts of highly intense exercise followed by periods of rest or low-intensity exercise. For instance, during a regular HIIT workout you might perform 30 seconds of burpees at your maximum effort, before resting for 30 seconds. The move is then be repeated a few times.

HIIT principles can also easily be applied to your regular runs if you’re looking to reap the benefits of this workout but in a shorter time-frame.

For instance, with the “10-20-30 method”, runners start with 30 seconds of jogging or walking, followed by 20 seconds of running at a moderate pace – then finishing with a ten second sprint.

Or, the “fartlek” method (Swedish for “speed play”) is another easy way to get into interval running. This involves mixing in a few sprints during your jog instead of just keeping a steady pace.

The benefits of intervals

Interval running HIIT workouts can have numerous benefits – including for your cardiovascular system, your metabolism and your body composition (how much fat you have and where it’s stored).

For instance, research has shown that in overweight and obese people, sprints provided even greater gains in a specific aspect of cardiovascular fitness when compared with those who did a regular, steady pace run. The participants who performed sprints saw greater improvements in their V̇O₂ max – the amount of oxygen the body is able to use to fuel intense exercise.

In those who already run regularly, a 12-week trial found that adding HIIT workouts to a weekly endurance run for 12 weeks improved V̇O₂ peak to a greater extent than when they did longer continuous runs. V̇O₂ peak is a measure of cardiovascular fitness which shows your cardiovascular capacity. A bigger V̇O₂ peak is helpful for performance and also reduces the risk of death from any cause.

Research has also shown that interval walking and running has a more potent effect on your metabolic health – specifically the regulation of blood glucose levels, which can help lower risk of type 2 diabetes – than a continuous walk does.

HIIT workouts such as the 10-20-30 method have a greater effect on the energy-producing parts of our cells (known as the mitochondria) than continuous exercise. This means greater stamina and lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The 10-20-30 method also has the benefit of reducing our “bad cholesterol” and blood pressure more than continuous running does. This means reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Finally, while both continuous running and HIIT can reduce visceral fat levels – the dangerous fat stored around our organs – HIIT can do this in a more time-efficient way.

In each of these instances, the benefits are accrued in a fraction of the time it would take with a conventional run. As little as 18 minutes of sprint interval runs three times a week can lead to health benefits.

How to get started

If you’re keen to give interval running a try, there are a few different ways you can get started.

If you normally run outdoors, you can try sprinting from one lamp post to the next – then recovering by walking or jogging to the next lamppost before sprinting again. This is a form of fartlek training.

In a gym setting, this can be done using both a non-motorised treadmill or a traditional motorised treadmill. The latter usually has interval training programmes that you can select – allowing for sprints then recovery. This can also be done with walking.

Sprints can be completed for just a few seconds to a couple of minutes. The key with interval running is to get your heart rate towards 90% of your maximum during the “intense” part to get the most benefits. Ensure you recover sufficiently between sprints.

Like with any exercise programme, it’s important to build up your activity levels over time.

If you’ve been sedentary for a few years, jumping immediately into interval running probably isn’t a good idea.

It’s also sensible to consult with your GP before starting new exercise regimes, particularly if you have any medical conditions. For instance, HIIT can actually increase blood sugar levels, resulting in hyperglycaemia in those with diabetes, so they should definitely speak to their doctor before giving this a try.

A good rule of thumb is try adding in a few sprints during your next run – be that for a few seconds to a minute. In two to three months, you’ll probably start to see the benefits.

Or, if you don’t care to try sprints, you could do the “10-20-30” method during your runs, or try “Jeffing” (the run a bit, walk a bit method).

Increasing the intensity even just a little bit occasionally during your runs can lead to numerous benefits for your health and fitness.

Christopher Gaffney receives funding from UKRI, NIHR, North West Cancer Research, and the Ministry of Defence.

– ref. How adding sprints to your usual jogs can boost the health benefits of running – https://theconversation.com/how-adding-sprints-to-your-usual-jogs-can-boost-the-health-benefits-of-running-263745