Etikett: Theconversation.com

In a surprising turn of events, Leeds-based guitar band English Teacher won the 2024 Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas, marking a triumph for indie rock.

This four-piece group, formed in 2020 while studying at Leeds Conservatoire, have quickly risen to prominence on the UK music scene, capturing the hearts of listeners and critics alike with their distinctive sound and northern charm.

English Teacher’s music sets them apart from their post-punk contemporaries. Their sound is a product of diverse influences including The Beatles’ melodic sensibilities, Siouxsie and the Banshees’ gothic allure, and Amy Winehouse’s raw emotion. A unique blend of surrealism and social commentary in their lyrics plus subtle musical experimentation offers a fresh take on the classic guitar-band format.

This innovative approach has not gone unnoticed, with the Mercury Prize judges praising the album for its creativity and personality. Lily Fontaine, the band’s lead vocalist, expressed their astonishment at winning the prestigious award: “It’s surreal, feels like a dream – we must thank [producer] Marta Salgoni. She made so many great sounds.”

Salgoni’s expertise in crafting intricate soundscapes contributed to the album’s “subtle integration of musical experimentation”, according to the judges.

Fontaine’s reaction reflected the band’s genuine surprise at this high-profile recognition of their artistic endeavours. English Teacher’s success story is intertwined with their signing to Island Records, a major label – home to the likes of Ariana Grande, Drake and fellow nominees The Last Dinner Party – that played a crucial role in launching their debut album.

This collaboration has not only birthed a prize-winning album but reignited discussions about the vitality of indie rock in an era dominated by algorithmic playlists and ephemeral viral hits.

The victory underscores indie rock’s enduring appeal and potential impact on the contemporary music scene. As the genre continues to evolve, bands like English Teacher push boundaries and challenge conventions, creating music that resonates with audiences and critics alike.

The band’s success also highlights the importance of regional music scenes in nurturing talent. By honouring figures from the Leeds music scene during their acceptance speech, English Teacher acknowledged the supportive ecosystem that helped propel them to national recognition. The band is the first act from outside London to win the prize for a decade.

The 2024 Mercury Prize ceremony also marked a significant shift in the award’s presentation format. The event was held in the more intimate space of Abbey Road Studios for the first time, moving away from its traditional venue at the Hammersmith Apollo.

This change, and the decision to broadcast the ceremony on BBC Four, reflect the Mercury Prize’s adaptation to changing times and its commitment to profiling new music for a broader audience. As Jo Twist, chief-executive of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) which oversees the Mercury Prize, told MusicWeek:

For the 2024 Mercury Prize we will work imaginatively with the BBC to deliver a premium programme of music content and digital engagement that will, as ever, benefit all 12 artists in reaching a wider audience, providing an important platform for their evolving career and musical journey.

The move to a more intimate setting at Abbey Road, and the focus on recorded performances, may have enhanced the prize’s ability to showcase the nominated artists’ music in a more direct and accessible manner.

But, while English Teacher’s win is undoubtedly a cause for celebration, it also sheds light on the challenges bands face in today’s music industry. The stark reality is that it’s common for these accomplishments to coexist with being on universal credit, living at home, or sofa surfing. It’s a precarious business.

On the upside, as English Teacher bask in the glow of their £25,000 award, the music world eagerly anticipates their next moves.

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As the sun sets on the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, and we wait another four years for the Los Angeles games to begin, a simple question hangs in the air: should the UK consider a bid for the Olympics and Paralympics? Australia will host in 2032 in Brisbane, and it is being reported that Qatar will host in 2036 in Doha. So, the next opportunity to secure the hosting rights is 2040 and 16 years out, plans for bids are already underway.

As UK-based sport researchers studying the impacts and legacies of international sporting events, we can see four clear reasons why hosting another Olympics would be a positive opportunity, rather than a burden, for the UK.

1. Different bidding and hosting requirements

The Olympic bidding process has changed. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the governing body responsible for allocating the hosting rights, has introduced “Agenda 2020+5” in acknowledgement of the need to build more sustainable games, and the ongoing cost overruns of past Olympics.

Among many other reforms, Agenda 2020+5 has replaced the traditional, competitive bidding process with an ongoing, open dialogue between candidate host nations. The “new norm” is an initiative to reduce the burden of prospective hosts in a range of games-related areas – for example, placing more emphasis on mega-event sustainability, and giving host cities and countries more flexibility when it comes to event programming and venue usage.

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.

2. The way hosts deliver the games has changed

Recent mega-event bidding trends suggest a shift towards more flexible hosting models. Only two new venues (Porte del la Chapelle and the Aquatics Centre) were constructed for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, demonstrating it is possible to host with preexisting venues.

The IOC and other agencies are now open to the possibility of multi-city, regional or even multi-country bids – evident in the recent awarding of the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps, as well as the 2026 Fifa World Cup to North America (Canada, Mexico and the US). These and other examples show innovative, more sustainable ways to host beyond a traditional single-city extravaganza.

Findings from our recent feasibility study for a UK “capital of sport” found a strong appetite across all four UK nations to continue to host events of different scales in the coming decades. A number of UK cities – including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff – have a strong track-record of hosting major events since London 2012, so any UK 2040 bid would need a constructive discussion around the locations and effective use of infrastructure.

This is possible, as we are seeing with the Uefa Men’s Euros 2028 ten-stadium consortium between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

3. The UK has learned from past mistakes

The UK has learnt a great deal from hosting previous mega-sporting events, from infrastructure development and organising committee effectiveness to securing long-term social legacies. However, research has consistently shown that despite government rhetoric, no mega-event anywhere in the world has fully realised its legacy ambitions.

For example, our 2021 study found no evidence that hosting an Olympic Games leads to an increase in sport participation. At the same time, we identified several key lessons about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to achieving a legacy.

One example from London 2012 was the creation of Spirit of 2012, a £47 million endowment fund set up to create a positive social legacy for the games. This fund has invested in over 200 projects across the country since 2012.

Crowds watching the London 2012 opening ceremony.
Diego Azubel/EPA

Many of the team behind the fund are optimistic about a 2040 bid, citing the potential soft-power benefits, such as growing the GREAT campaign that seeks to enhance the UK’s global reputation and drive economic growth.

But others are more cautious, imploring any future bid to think about finances, future generations, sustainability and, perhaps most intriguingly, whether the Olympics are the “right” mega-event to host next in the UK.

Careful planning will be required to create the desired social outcomes, such as continuing to raise the profile of the Paralympic movement – which the National Paralympic Heritage Trust has championed since its post-London 2012 inception – or offering young people the chance to curate their 2040 version of “inspiring a generation”, the motto for London 2012.

Some of this is already being done. Work is underway on a legacy partnership between Spirit of 2012, the London Legacy Development Corporation and other partners to ensure “the perspective and experience of young east Londoners continues to shape the legacy of the London 2012 Games”.

4. Readiness to host mega-sporting events

Some politicians and sporting officials have already backed the UK to host future mega-sporting events. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, recently spoke of his desire for London to host the 2040 games. Khan made bidding for the Olympics part of his recent re-election campaign, arguing that London is the “undisputed sports capital of the world”. He said there was “no reason” why other parts of the country could not also host certain events.

Olympian Tom Daley agrees, saying recently: “I feel like London is one of the few cities on the planet where you would be able to host the games tomorrow.” And the prime minister, Keir Starmer, was spotted in Paris wearing a Team GB tracksuit and discussing the need to invest more in elite sport funding.

UK Sport, the government agency responsible for delivering medal success at the Olympics and Paralympics, has also been looking to build a case for the UK hosting future mega-events. This includes the Women’s Football World Cup, which has been called “the biggest sporting event the UK has never hosted”.

Voices from the UK’s event sector, academia and political sphere all demonstrate a readiness to discuss hosting the 2040 Olympics and Paralympics. However, we also know from recent research that opinions and ideas from all parts of the UK will need to be gathered, if any plan to host the games is to prove both inclusive and visionary.

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To paraphrase some of the very first words grumbled out of the mouth of crotchety leader of rejects, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), “another series has dawned of MI fucking useless”, also known as Slow Horses. Yes, the funny, fast-paced spy thriller is back and the ragtag crew of undistinguished spies has more on its plate than ever.

The Apple+ series has been a bit of a sleeper hit. The streaming platform doesn’t do a lot of marketing – an odd business move in this day and age. Its best shows become popular through fans evangelising about them. (If you’ve not watched Severance, what have you been doing?).

The person who evangelised Slow Horses to me was my dad. So great is his love for the show that when he found out the fourth season was being filmed in his local area, Crystal Palace, he attempted to track down Oldman through tip-offs he found in neighbourhood groups. His intel was correct, to be fair, and I have the grainy pictures of Oldman wearily walking up a hill to prove it. While my dad might not be an expert in intelligence, our reviewer is and he loves the show too.

Robert Dover is a professor of intelligence and national security and he says Slow Horses is one of the best things on TV right now. While he wouldn’t wish any of the characters on the real MI5, he believes they are sharply observed and complex and he enjoys the show’s antipathy to government intelligence agencies – and those who run them. As someone who has consumed a lot of spy drama, he said: “Balancing complex drama and clever comedy is difficult but perfectly executed here.”

Read more:
Slow Horses: high drama and comedy abound in this gripping spy thriller about reject spooks

Reunions and revolts

The biggest and most exciting return recently has been that of Oasis. The feuding brothers have got it together to go on tour next year, something that fans never thought would happen. They are doing 19 nights across the UK and Ireland in 2025 and getting tickets has been a complicated and anger-inducing experience. The discourse around their return has also been infuriating with old and new fans clashing over who deserves to see the band more.

While it’s been hard to get away from this ugliness, we want to focus on the music. Oasis’s songs bring people together. They are catchy, easy to play and oh so singable. I can’t tell you how many times I have belted the worlds to Wonderwall or Don’t Look Back in Anger with strangers.

Oasis’s debut album Definitely, Maybe turned 30 this year and Glen Fosbrey, an expert in song lyrics, writes about what has made it such a modern classic.

Read more:
Oasis reunion: five things that made Definitely Maybe a modern classic

If you’re looking for easier tickets to get, we recommend heading to Women in Revolt! at National Galleries of Scotland’s Modern Two in Edinburgh. Art meets social history as the show, which is organised chronologically, examines the feminist waves of the 1970s and 1980s. From film and painting to sculpture and printmaking, it is a colossal exhibition featuring more than 100 artists that sought to interrupt the status quo in art and society at the time.

As our reviewer Katarzyna Kosmala, an expert in visual arts says: “In Women in Revolt!, the private is political, everyday life is political, and the art of women’s struggle is political.” This is an exhibition to take your time at, it is detailed, diverse and meticulous. It deserves your attention and you’ll be glad for giving it.

Read more:
Women in Revolt! Exhibition showcases the feminist activist artists who used art to change lives

Maternal ties

If you’d rather stay home, why not curl up with a book? Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker is a tale of trauma and motherhood. Clove has an adoring husband, two healthy, happy children and a comfortable home in Portland, US. However, this carefully maintained veneer is a pretty dam against her abusive childhood, a past she is keeping (along with her real name) secret. Unsurprisingly, the dam is not made of hardy stuff. When she receives a letter from her mother, who is in a women’s prison in California, leaks quickly start to form and no amount of expensive vitamins or sustainable clothing can stop it.

Clove is forced to confront her feelings about the mother who couldn’t protect her or leave her violent father. Most of all she must confront what happened on the fateful night that landed her mother in prison. With small shocks and many turns, the story moves to and fro between her past with her mother and her present intense relationship with a charismatic woman called Jane.

Oneworld publishers

Our reviewer, Sally O’Reilly, found it a breathless examination of madness and the ties between women, and a raw depiction of the reverberations of domestic violence in survivors’ lives. While there are some improbable twists, the pacing and writing will have you gripped until the end.

Read more:
Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: a tumultuous examination of the impact of domestic abuse on motherhood

If you’d rather watch something, our summer of sport is coming to an end this Sunday with the Paralympic closing ceremony. It’s been an intense summer with so many highs (and many lows). These Paralympic games have been thrilling. I couldn’t stop watching the viral clip of India’s 17-year-old Sheetal Devi getting a bullseye, in particular.

In this piece, media academic Andy Miah writes about the history of the games and the spirit Paris’s have hoped to embody, as outlined in an exhibition that is on at the Panetheon until the end of the month. As he writes, these games have highlighted that “difference doesn’t require us to make comparisons in order to evaluate worth, but to recognise that it is an inherent feature of a progressive, equitable and well-rounded society.” The closing ceremony is sure to project this further.

That’s it from us this week, let us know if you end up watching, visiting or reading any of our recommendations.

Read more:
’Differently abled’: new Paris exhibition reveals how attitudes to paralympic sport have changed

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Black and Asian women are severely underrepresented in senior leadership positions in the UK. The obstacles they face, for example being overlooked or underestimated, often result in a perception that career success is beyond their reach. It’s no surprise then that these women can end up feeling invisible and powerless.

Unlike white women, who face “glass ceilings”, research shows ethnic minority women, who have less support and even fewer opportunities to advance, encounter “concrete ceilings” or “concrete walls”, which are more difficult to break.

These women often find prejudices blocking their path and impeding their progress to senior positions. Unsurprisingly, being constantly overlooked despite being competent can severely damage their leadership aspirations.

So how do these women shield themselves from the frustration and marginalisation that comes with the racial and gender prejudice they face? And how do they actually achieve career success?

To understand this, in our recent research we interviewed 50 ethnic minority women in senior leadership positions. Our findings revealed persistent discrimination from early career stages right through to the upper echelons of the workplace.

Early in their careers the women faced discriminatory experiences such as lack of management support, being openly mocked for their aspirations and being overlooked for promotion. They also reported a lack of opportunities for development, progression or networking. And they were often left with the sense that other staff were preferred.

This evolved at later career stages into harsher and more derogatory experiences such as excessive scrutiny, invisibility, isolation, not being supported and being undermined. Sometimes, they were simply dismissed as a “diversity hire”.

Contrary to the belief that once you reach the pinnacle of your career, you’re less likely to experience discrimination and microaggressions, our findings showed that for Black and Asian women in the UK the opposite is true.

Some participants in our study especially felt they had faced more hostility later in their career, with one saying she “really began to feel the heat” when she reached a senior level. Another said the negativity became clearer as she progressed, noting: “there’s definitely a sense of … let’s say, ‘how did you get this position?’ It can be quite frustrating that people don’t think you’re senior.”

Rather than enjoying a “shield” from the power they had earned, they felt it opened them up to further scrutiny, discrimination and subtle forms of racism and harassment. These experiences had a negative effect on their health, wellbeing and career outcomes. They even caused some to leave their job.

Strategies for success

Our study did however offer some positives. Through exploring Black and Asian women’s career journeys and pathways, we identified strategies and attributes that enabled them to climb the career ladder. This contributed to our understanding of Black and Asian women’s agency and the motivation that empowers them as they pursue their career goals.

Particularly, our findings revealed certain cognitive processes such as making strategic career decisions, self-advocacy and resilience, helped these women challenge boundaries, especially in the face of knockbacks.

For these women to be successful it was important to have leadership aspirations and goals from very early on in their careers. As one participant told us: “It is very important to set yourself a personal goal and work to achieve it … so long as you have your eye on that goal, you pick yourself up and continue, you would achieve it.”

Participants in our study also emphasised the importance of having the confidence to ask and self-advocate. One of our interviewees stressed that Black and Asian women cannot wait to be “offered something on a plate” but should put themselves forward for opportunities when they meet the criteria.

Strategising also helped participants navigate challenges and excel in leadership roles. As one participant put it: “I decided which rooms I wanted to be in, and I make sure that I’m in rooms which give me something and which nourish me.”

Resilience and emotional intelligence became particularly relevant at late career stages, and this included having strong personal and professional networks. This was because of the increasing experiences of discrimination as they reached the upper levels of their careers.

Some signs of progress: Kamala Harris is of Indian and Jamaican heritage and could be on her way to the US presidency.
Maverick Pictures/Shutterstock

There are, of course, actions that organisations need to take to support Black and Asian women in progressing in their careers. First, they need to develop an environment that prevents double standards, where Black and Asian women attaining leadership positions is normal and openly accepted.

Second, organisations should look more closely at performance, recognising Black and Asian women for extra work that they do that is often unacknowledged.

Third, we encourage organisations to create an effective reporting system, which is safe and confidential so that women can raise their concerns without the fear of backlash.

Finally, accountability is key and employers should have mechanisms to tackle people, systems and processes that are discriminatory.

By exploring the career success stories of these trailblazing participants, we have uncovered suggestions that could improve the representation of ethnic minority women in leadership positions at work. Our research also offers an opportunity for young Black and Asian women to reflect on their own career goals, and chart out strategic routes to achieving them. Läs mer…

We have used machine learning to identify the biggest plastic pollution hotspots across more than 50,000 towns, cities and rural areas worldwide. Our new global model reveals the most detailed picture of plastic pollution ever created with the highest environmental concentrations in India, predominantly because so much of its waste isn’t collected.

Plastic has been found everywhere – from deep ocean trenches to the highest mountain tops, but these observations only reveal isolated snapshots of the overall plastic pollution picture. A bigger challenge is to find out where and how this plastic reaches the environment in the first place, so pollution can be prevented at source.

This is no easy task. The most challenging aspects to measure are the “emissions” – the macroplastic (anything bigger than 5mm in size) that escapes or is released from material systems and activities. This includes waste blowing from rubbish bins or falling off collection trucks plus litter being dropped by people, either accidentally or intentionally.

We found that littering is the largest emission source in the developed world where waste management systems are highly controlled. Conversely, in developing countries uncollected waste is the dominant source.

Angeliki Savvantoglou (https://bearbonesscience.com/), CC BY-NC-ND

Using artificial intelligence, our new computer model shows how plastic moves from a controlled system into the environment where it becomes very challenging to recapture and contain. We had to work out how plastic escapes from the controlled system and found that, of the 52 million tonnes of waste (equivalent to the weight of 8.7 million African grey elephants) which enters the environment each year, uncollected waste is the biggest source. That’s about 68% by weight of all pollution or 36 million tonnes each year.

So it’s a misconception that plastic pollution is caused by people’s irresponsible behaviour. The main reason is that 1.2 billion people do not have their solid waste collected at all. Instead, they have to burn, bury or scatter it on land or in the water.

Angeliki Savvantoglou (https://bearbonesscience.com/), CC BY-NC-ND

Open burning of waste is prolific, accounting for 57% of all plastic pollution worldwide by weight. This involves burning waste on open fires without any controls to prevent hazardous emissions from reaching the environment or harming our health. This practice is popular, possibly because it seems to make the waste disappear, reducing the burden on waste management authorities and reducing the unsightliness of waste dumped on land.

India has emerged as the largest plastic polluter, emitting 9.3 million tonnes of plastic into the environment each year – one fifth of the total. That’s 2.7 times more than the next two largest polluters, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Angeliki Savvantoglou (https://bearbonesscience.com/), CC BY-NC-ND

India comes top because only 81% of its waste is collected. But, it also generates a lot more waste than some previous models have assumed. Official government sources estimate 0.12kg per person per day, but these estimates exclude many rural areas, so the real number is closer to 0.54kg per person per day. The combination of such a large amount of waste, large population and low collection rate creates the conditions under which plastic pollution flourishes.

Targeted action

Pinpointing these pollution hotspots helps policymakers design more targeted ways to deal with plastic pollution. Countries with higher plastic pollution usually have fewer resources, in terms of money and infrastructure. So they tend to be least well-equipped to curb their emissions.

Having a more detailed understanding of how waste is managed and emitted in every corner of the world enables governments to target their scarce resources at the areas where plastic pollution is most acute. Our model will also help them to develop action plans that can feasibly meet the targets agreed in the global plastics treaty, an international agreement that’s currently being negotiated to reduce plastic pollution worldwide.

Reducing our consumption of plastic is one solution to curb plastic pollution. But plastic does not exist in isolation. It’s part of a complex mixture of materials in waste and we need to consider all of them together. For example, food waste, along with other biodegradable materials, produces most of the climate emissions from the waste management system when it is deposited in land disposal sites.

If we cut down on plastics, we will need to think of ways to reuse materials or replace them with others. But our previous research has shown that the opportunities to do so are limited and in practice – we’ll be making plastic long into the future. Right now, we need to manage our plastic waste more effectively. Finding ways to extend waste collection services could dramatically reduce plastic pollution and benefit billions of people. Läs mer…

More than 700 million years ago, the Earth was plunged into a state that geologists call “snowball Earth”, when our planet was entirely encased in ice. This happened when the polar ice caps expanded so far that they joined up around the equator.

Several lines of evidence show that the snowball Earth happened, but we have previously lacked rocks showing the landscape entering this big freeze. We may now have found this on tiny islands known as the Garvellachs, off the west coast of Scotland.

Sedimentary rocks are in layers that can record major events on Earth. For example, there’s a clear boundary 66 million years ago where rocks contain unusually high concentrations of the element iridium, which is often found in meteorites. This boundary marks the asteroid impact at Chicxulub in Mexico that wiped out most dinosaurs (sparing only birds).

This is an example of a global boundary stratotype section and point (GSSP): a representative point, which can be anywhere in the world, of rocks that mark the onset of a key episode in geological history. At these reference points, a “golden spike” is driven into the rocks to mark the boundary (although in practice the spike may just be a plaque).

Our new research shows that the rocks in the Garvallachs are an excellent candidate for a GSSP marking the onset of the Cryogenian period, about 717 million years ago. This period, which broadly coincides with the snowball Earth, is actually split into two global ice ages: the Sturtian glaciation (or freeze) and the Marinoan glaciation. Our GSSP would act as a reference point for the Sturtian glaciation.

Once the home of monks, the islands are now uninhabited apart from scientists who visit every summer to study their rocky shorelines. These include Anthony (Tony) Spencer who has been leading geological expeditions there for decades. Tony published a key work in 1971 showing that the rocks preserve evidence of an ancient glaciation. However, opinions varied over which ice age in Earth history they were connected with.

Ice sheets covered the entire planet during the Cryogenian period.
NASA

Beginning in 2021, and with Tony’s help, we began to analyse these rocks, as well as their underlying platform, which is made of minerals known as carbonates. Intriguingly, the carbonate layers beneath the surface rocks that record the glaciation seem to transition seamlessly into the glacial layers, suggesting that there is no missing time gap between the two rock units.

In terms of climate, this can be interpreted as warm seas, full of bacterial life, gradually transitioning into a frigid climate, before huge ice sheets scraped over the once tropical shoals.

Elsewhere on Earth, this pivotal transition into the Cryogenian period appears to have been removed by the erosive power of glaciation, resulting in a gap in the record. The Garvellachs are therefore potentially unique, as long as the Cryogenian age can be proved.

An outcrop called ‘the bubble’ on Eileach an Naoimh (Holy Isle). The layering in the carbonate rock has been squeezed tightly under immense pressure and transported by thick ice sheets.
Graham Shields, Author provided (no reuse)

Our research team collected samples of sandstone from the 1.1km-thick Port Askaig formation as well as from the older, 70m-thick carbonate platform beneath.

We analysed tiny, extremely durable minerals in the rock called “zircons”. These can be precisely dated as they contain the radioactive element uranium, which changes into (decays) lead at a steady and known rate. The zircons, together with other geochemical evidence, indicate that the rocks were deposited between 720 and 662 million years ago.

So the Port Askaig formation was likely laid down during the roughly 60 million-year-long Sturtian glaciation.

The Earth is thought to have been covered in ice quite swiftly, over thousands of years, because of something called the “albedo effect” – with more ice, more sunlight is reflected back into space, and vice versa.

Anthony (Tony) Spencer, co-author of the latest study and of a classic 1971 memoir about the rocks, stands on sediment deposited by a glacier.
Graham Shields, Author provided (no reuse)

Complex life

The new age constraints may provide the evidence needed for the site to be declared as a GSSP for the start of the Cryogenian period. There are only 12 other period GSSPs around the world, as they commemorate such exceptional geological events. A Cryogenian GSSP in Scotland would mark the moment when thick ice sheets first reached what were then tropical latitudes.

By comparison, even at the most extreme point of the last ice age, the ice sheets only ever covered 8% of the globe, and then for only a fraction of the time represented by the Sturtian ice age.

The Cryogenian glaciations also represent a critical moment in the history of life. Molecular and fossil evidence suggests that the Cryogenian period witnessed the development of the first complex, multicellular life. For billions of years prior to this period, single-celled organisms dominated. After the Cryogenian period, animal and algal based ecosystems began to emerge.

One theory is that the way that the uneven ice cover isolated ecosystems from each other created ideal laboratories for biological experimentation. Whatever the cause, the sudden retreat of the ice would have been catastrophic, following tens of millions of years of steady adaptation. From the life that survived this came the ancestors of all animals, including ourselves.

This new study, as well as the ongoing research by Tony Spencer and his team, will pave the way toward a new understanding of this enigmatic time. It could allow us to finally find out what caused the snowball Earth and what this can tell us about the climate system. Läs mer…

Former prime minister Theresa May announced a public inquiry into the Grenfell fire just 24 hours after the tragedy in June 2017. That the project was set in motion while emergency services were still at the scene underlined a broad sense of shock and disbelief that a catastrophe of such a scale could have occurred in 21st-century London.

How was it possible for a reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire, to be turned into a death trap for 72 of its own inhabitants?

With the publication of the inquiry’s final report seven years later, the “path to disaster” is now clear, with the report stating:

We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them.

Political science has, for many years, examined blame-avoidance strategies. Ministers, officials, regulators and other public servants are generally to be expected to avoid taking the rap for a crisis, calamity or catastrophe.

Blame is a complex business in the political world. And the Grenfell inquiry report refuses to engage in blame games. It instead asserts that many different acts and failings caused the tragedy. The authors state:

With some exceptions we have not attempted to apportion blame. We have in general asked ourselves whether a particular act or omission contributed in some way to the fire and, if so, to what extent.

What’s provided is a detailed analysis of why different actors and organisations should each be apportioned a different “share” of the blame“ but the risk is that this rather fuzzy approach to accountability may be seen as holding everyone and yet no one to account.

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Learning, blaming and changing

One of the great benefits of launching an independent inquiry is that it enjoys the time and the space to focus on the facts in an environment which is largely free of partisan influences or direct emotional engagement. In theory, the inquiry members can therefore engage in ”slow thinking“ and focus on lessons for the future. They can resist knee-jerk, emotive and punishment-focused impulses and demands to assign blame.

Whether this balance has been successfully achieved in the past has dogged a number of inquiries. The first inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972, for example, was widely viewed as a deliberate attempt to conceal as much as it revealed. The final report of the 2003 Hutton inquiry which investigated the controversial circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, was also met with accusations of whitewashing.

Grenfell Tower’s construction turned it into a death trap.
Alamy/Gavin Rodgers

It’s easy for an inquiry to be dismissed as a blame avoidance mechanism – ”applying a judicial coat of whitewash to a dirty piece of politics.”

Has the Grenfell inquiry got this balance right? One of the most important elements of the report is that it is not really focused on learning the lessons from Grenfell. It is in fact focused on why there had been a failure to learn from previous fires.

Grenfell was, as the report notes, “the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility”. This might, arguably, raise more pointed blame-based questions.

For those affected by the Grenfell disaster the prime minister’s apology will offer little salve when the Metropolitan Police is so far resisting pressure to speed up the criminal investigation. It is suggesting that it could take at least 18 months before charging decisions are made against those named as responsible in the report.

Following the report’s publication, May admitted, probably in good faith, that everyone, including the government, regulators and companies must “must all acknowledge their part in the history and series of events that led to this tragedy”. But Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, is undoubtedly correct when he notes:

That will be shocking to people reading press reports about the inquiry and its findings, that for decades we’ve had ministers responsible for building safety, for fire safety policy, and prime ministers who have overseen an agenda determined to get rid of regulations, and those regulations were the means by which buildings were kept safe for the people living in them.

What this points to is the need for transformational change and not just post-disaster tinkering. The scholarly literature on public inquiries is not extensive but what it does show is that something quite specific is broken in the system. Although governments are almost duty-bound to implement most of the recommendations they receive from these inquiries, very few have a transformational impact.

Although public inquiries are Britain’s “favoured response” to a crisis, it is not just the recommendations that matter. Change can only happen by following up on those recommendations and maintaining political pressure. The great failure of public inquiries is that too often their recommendations get left on the shelf.

The 1990 Woolf report into prison riots is often held up as a rare example of an inquiry that reframed the way in which a problem was understood and, through this, led to transformational change. Lord Woolf was a canny chair who understood that if transformation and not tinkering was to be achieved, then his role did not end with the publication of the inquiry’s final report.

The government will “carefully consider” the findings of the Grenfell Tower inquiry to “ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again”, the prime minister has said. “Carefully consider” are weasel words in a political context. What can be gleaned from previous inquiries is that if the “systematic dishonesty” uncovered by this inquiry is to lead to systematic change then its likely that Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s work has far from ended. Läs mer…

Enthusiasm for Kamala Harris among key sets of voters – especially young people, women, black people and independents – has been boosted by the spirited activism of new grassroots groups, often using huge Zoom calls.

The varied mix of groups rallying for Kamala Harris’s campaign are doing so with fervour not witnessed for Democrats since Barack Obama’s 2008 run for the White House. They also appear not to be part of the official campaign. Philip de Vellis, an expert on political campaigning and communication, said: “It’s been a while that we’ve had someone to top the ticket who’s got the pulse of younger voters and is very involved and conversant in popular culture.”

Politico reporter Irie Sentner noted that, “Harris is attempting to rebuild the broad Democratic coalition and has made inroads with nearly every demographic compared to Biden before he dropped out.”

On the July evening Joe Biden exited the race for president, a Win With Black Women Zoom call attracted 44,000 participants. A subsequent White Women for Harris Zoom call drew 164,000 participants. And at the end of July a virtual rally hosted by Win With Black Men saw 53,000 people log on and raise US$1.5 million (£1.1 million).

While not officially connected to either Taylor Swift or the campaign, the Swifties for Kamala group is seeking to mobilise Swift’s fanbase to vote for the vice-president in November’s election. At the end of August, 34,000 Swifties joined an online rally that featured Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and singer Carole King. The webinar has so far raised US$144,000.

Swift backed Biden in 2020, but is yet to officially support either candidate in the 2024 contest. The megastar’s endorsement is a highly sought-after prize, with Donald Trump resorting to posting crude deepfake images on his Truth Social platform claiming he had secured Swift’s backing. Even without the singer’s official endorsement, the Swifties seem happy to come out for Harris.

Part of a wave of pop-up Zoom calls supporting Kamala Harris.

Another collective with an emblematic name and significant energy, White Dudes for Harris, is seeking to mobilise a different Democratic demographic. The group received celebrity backing when actor Jeff Bridges, famous for playing The Dude in the film The Big Lebowski, joined a Zoom call, which attracted more than 180,000 people, with donations totalling close to US$4 million.

Other big names that offered their support to the event included actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin and Mark Hamill, who secured a US$50,000 donation after delivering his famous Star Wars line: “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”

Analysis by the Pew Research Centre showed that in 2016 and 2020, Trump won the majority of the white men’s support with 62% and 57% respectively. Democrats are hoping that innovative and online driven grassroots campaigning can make an impact with this key voting demographic. Chairman of the Harris campaign, Mitch Landrieu, said that “if white guys would just show up … if we would talk about what it really means to be a great partner, and a man … all of us are going to be better for it”.

Republican support

Another potential, and unusual, support group for the Democratic ticket is made up of people who have devoted most of their political life to the Republican party. A list of more than 200 individuals, including former staffers for two Bush presidents and former Republican presidential nominees and senators John McCain and Mitt Romney, have published an open letter denouncing Donald Trump and asking their fellow Republicans to vote for Harris.

Also included are former congressman Adam Kinzinger, former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, former homeland security adviser to vice-president Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, and former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. All have condemned Trump’s lack of moral character and warned of the dangers should he regain the presidency.

The letter reads: “At home another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership … will… weaken our sacred institutions… Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardised.”

Encouraging former Republican voters to switch sides in November’s election is an important part of the Harris campaign strategy. This was witnessed at the Democratic convention in Chicago last month, where several prominent Republican speakers took to the stage to warn of the dangers of a second Trump presidency.

The growing number of grassroots groups has helped raise both money and interest in Kamala Harris. Moreover, they have provided her with something arguably more valuable going into the final nine weeks of campaigning: momentum. This has translated into a huge fundraising haul, with the Harris campaign reporting at the end of August it had raised US$540 million.

The unusual explosion of grassroots action, mostly operating outside the Democratic party machine, appears to have added energy to the campaign, and sparked interest and financial commitment from groups of voters who previously could have stayed at home on election day. Läs mer…

People are not used to thinking of decisions made in boardrooms or by housing authorities as “violent”. Yet the findings of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire show how they can be.

The report lays out how routine decision-making by private construction companies and local authorities prioritised their own immediate economic benefit, in ways that knowingly produced an imminent threat to safety.

To prevent future tragedies like the Grenfell fire, it is important to understand these power relations – between those making the decisions and the tenants who were subject to the deadly outcomes – as a form of violence.

Most people understand “violence” as something that happens between two people or groups of people as a result of sudden or extreme behaviour. Yet often, the most extreme forms of violence occur as a result of mundane decisions made by governments or institutions over a long period of time.

In 2017, we described the practices that caused the Grenfell fire as “institutional violence”. This occurs in the cumulative decisions made by governments, companies, regulators or other institutions that leads to psychological or physical damage to people.

It can be through deliberately harming a group or, as highlighted in the Grenfell report, by ignoring or overlooking information that could prevent harm. Institutional violence does not necessarily involve a deliberate attempt to cause harm to people, but commonly involves making decisions that are likely to lead to harm.

Martin Moore-Bick’s report characterises the root causes of the Grenfell fire as “failures” of government policy and decision-making.

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The inquiry’s report blames several, interconnected institutions that it says were partly responsible for the fire. These include a profit-hungry construction industry, an elitist and cost-cutting local authority, a regulatory system that was completely gutted, the privatisation of building safety testing, and a fire service with inadequate controls.

Along the way, people made repeated decisions to prioritise profit, ignore safety warnings and evidence, and ultimately, to cause violence to the residents of Grenfell.

Describing these institutions as having “failed” misrepresents the reality of why Grenfell happened. Deregulation, cost-cutting and outsourcing were not “failures” of government, but flagship policies of austerity that were carefully planned and coordinated.

Read more:
Grenfell inquiry: how the privatisation of building safety testing led to this tragedy

The violence of austerity

Since 2010, cuts made under the banner of “austerity” have plunged working-class communities into a perpetual state of anxiety and distress. These decisions gave a stamp of approval to all of the institutional violence that produced Grenfell.

Social housing investment has declined by 60%, and social rents in vacant properties have increased by up to 80% of private market rates. Welfare reforms such as universal credit, the bedroom tax and benefit cap have thrown social housing tenants into colossal debt or eviction.

Local authorities and housing management groups chose to ignore tenants’ rights and [downplay their concerns]. This negligence was often linked to “hostile environment” immigration policies.

In tandem with the austerity agenda came a campaign of privatisation and “bonfire of red tape”. The inquiry’s final report puts a great deal of blame on the deregulation drive under David Cameron’s coalition government. But it falls short of criticising Cameron’s plan for austerity. In 1,672 pages, the word “austerity” is mentioned only once.

Since 2010, Conservative-led governments have used austerity to savage the country’s regulatory systems, including the health and safety executive and local council housing inspection schemes.

Fire protection – including jobs, training and fire stations – has been similarly compromised by cuts. Fire risk checks reduced by 25% in the five years leading to the Grenfell fire.

Violence under Labour

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, apologised on behalf of the British state because “the country failed”. He castigated the failures of the local authority, the regulator and the private contractors for their greed, and the fire service for lack of leadership.

All of this is very easy to say. But it is an inadequate response that does not get at the heart of how austerity, privatisation and the bonfire of red tape caused Grenfell.

The prime minister’s response is revealing, as Labour threatens to impose a new series of cuts that will plunge Britain into a new era of austerity. The Labour government’s extension of the two-child limit on benefits, ending winter fuel allowance for pensioners, and the rollout of more fiscal restraint that will put disabled people back “in the firing line”, points to a bleak outlook for low-income households and minority groups.

Read more:
The UK’s two-child limit on benefits is hurting the poorest families – poverty experts on why it should be abolished

The government has been repeatedly warned by experts and MPs about the consequences of these decisions. If it chooses to make them anyway, this too may be a form of institutional violence.

It is clear that without a renewal of public services, a wholesale resetting of our regulatory system and meaningful public investment in housing, the culture of institutional violence will continue. Läs mer…

Astronomers exploring the faraway universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful telescope, have found a class of galaxies that challenges even the most skillful creatures in mimicry – like the mimic octopus. This creature can impersonate other marine animals to avoid predators. Need to be a flatfish? No problem. A sea snake? Easy.

When astronomers analyzed the first Webb images of the remote parts of the universe, they spotted a never-before-seen group of galaxies. These galaxies – some hundreds of them and called the Little Red Dots – are very red and compact, and visible only during about 1 billion years of cosmic history. Like the mimic octopus, the Little Red Dots puzzle astronomers, because they look like different astrophysical objects. They’re either massively heavy galaxies or modestly sized ones, each containing a supermassive black hole at its core.

However, one thing is certain. The typical Little Red Dot is small, with a radius of only 2% of that of the Milky Way galaxy. Some are even smaller.

As an astrophysicist who studies faraway galaxies and black holes, I am interested in understanding the nature of these little galaxies. What powers their light and what are they, really?

The universe is full of countless galaxies, and the Webb telescope has helped astronomers study some of them.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The mimicking contest

Astronomers analyze the light our telescopes receive from faraway galaxies to assess their physical properties, such as the number of stars they contain. We can use the properties of their light to study the Little Red Dots and figure out whether they’re made up of lots of stars or whether they have a black hole inside them.

Light that reaches our telescopes ranges in wavelength from long radio waves to energetic gamma rays. Astronomers break the light down into the different frequencies and visualize them with a chart, called a spectrum.

Sometimes, the spectrum contains emission lines, which are ranges of frequencies where more intense light emission occurs. In this case, we can use the spectrum’s shape to predict whether the galaxy is harboring a supermassive black hole and estimate its mass.

Similarly, studying X-ray emisson from the galaxy can reveal a supermassive black hole’s presence.

As the ultimate masters of disguise, the Little Red Dots appear as different astrophysical objects, depending on whether astronomers choose to study them using X-rays, emission lines or something else.

The information astronomers have collected so far from the Little Red Dots’ spectra and emission lines has led to two diverging models explaining their nature. These objects are either extremely dense galaxies containing billions of stars or they host a supermassive black hole.

The two hypotheses

In the stars-only hypothesis, the Little Red Dots contain massive amounts of stars – up to 100 billion stars. That’s approximately the same number of stars as in the Milky Way – a much larger galaxy.

Imagine standing alone in a huge, empty room. This vast, quiet space represents the region of the universe in the vicinity of our solar system where stars are sparsely scattered. Now, picture that same room, but packed with the entire population of China.

This packed room is what the core of the densest Little Red Dots would feel like. These astrophysical objects may be the densest stellar environments in the entire universe. Astronomers aren’t even sure whether such stellar systems can physically exist.

Then, there is the black hole hypothesis. The majority of Little Red Dots display clear signs of the presence of a supermassive black hole in their center. Astronomers can tell whether there’s a black hole in the galaxy by looking at large emission lines in their spectra, created by gas around the black hole swirling at high speed.

Astronomers actually estimate these black holes are too massive, compared with the size of their compact host galaxies.

Black holes typically have a mass of about 0.1% of the stellar mass of their host galaxies. But some of these Little Red Dots harbor a black hole almost as massive as their entire galaxy. Astronomers call these overmassive black holes, because their existence defies the conventional ratio typically observed in galaxies.

Animation illustrating the James Webb Space Telescope’s discovery of overmassive black holes in the distant Universe. Credit: Timothy Rauch.

There’s another catch, though. Unlike ordinary black holes, those presumably present in the Little Red Dots don’t show any sign of X-ray emission. Even in the deepest, high-energy images available, where astronomers should be able to easily observe these black holes, there’s no trace of them.

Few solutions and plenty of hopes

So are these astrophysical curiosities massive galaxies with far too many stars? Or do they host supermassive black holes at their center that are too massive and don’t emit enough X-rays? What a puzzle.

With more observations and theoretical modeling, astronomers are starting to come up with some possible solutions. Maybe the Little Red Dots are composed only of stars, but these stars are so dense and compact that they mimic the emission lines typically seen from a black hole.

Or maybe supermassive – even overmassive – black holes lurk at the cores of these Little Red Dots. If that’s the case, two models can explain the lack of X-ray emissions.

First, vast amounts of gas could float around the black hole, which would block part of the high-energy radiation emitted from the black hole’s center. Second, the black hole could be pulling in gas much faster than usual. This process would produce a different spectrum with fewer X-rays than astronomers usually see.

A visualization of the temperature of gas collecting onto two supermassive black holes. The black holes are located at the center of the images. The hottest regions are redder and reach up to about 180 million degrees Fahrenheit. The black hole on the left is surrounded by cooler gas, generating far fewer X-rays.
Fabio Pacucci & Ramesh Narayan, 2024

The fact that the black holes are too big, or overmassive, might not be a problem for our understanding of the universe, but rather the best indication of how the first black holes in the universe were born. In fact, if the first black holes that ever formed were very massive – about 100,000 times the mass of the Sun – theoretical models suggest that their ratio of black hole mass to the mass of the host galaxy could stay high for a long time after formation.

So how can astronomers discover the true nature of these little specks of light that are shining at the beginning of time? As in the case of our master of disguise – the octopus – the secret resides in observing their behavior.

Using the Webb telescope and more powerful X-ray telescopes to take additional observations will eventually uncover a feature that astronomers can attribute to only one of the two scenarios.

For example, if astronomers clearly detected X-ray or radio emission, or infrared light emitted from around where the black hole might be, they’d know the black hole hypothesis is the right one.

Just like how our marine friend can pretend to be a starfish, eventually it will move its tentacles and reveal its true nature. Läs mer…