Introduction A UK-France summit was held in Paris on 10 March 2023. Former Prime Minister Sunak and President Macron agreed a bilateral energy partnership focusing on the transition to a net zero energy system. The partnership included working on hydrogen. Seizing this opportunity and aligning this with our research priorities, SIN France brought the UK’s 2 national hydrogen research hubs, UK HyRES and UK HiACT, on board to organise a brokerage event between the hubs and their equivalent in France. Reaching out to the French national hydrogen research network (FRH2), which boasts an extensive ecosystem of over 300 researchers and…
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With each Olympic Games athletes are expected to break new records. Sport science experts have been speculating for years whether we are reaching the limits of human ability. But they may be overlooking the fields where there’s untapped potential: women’s sports. The rates of improvements in female athletic performance appear to be exceeding that of their male counterparts. For example, between 1985-2004 the records of female marathon runners improved at a rate three times greater than men’s. This has led many people to question whether, despite a 10-12% performance gap in all distance sports, women may surpass men at endurance…
Recently returned from the Gaza Strip, Sigrid Kaag, the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza was speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters in New York via video link from Jordan (► play video). She said that UN teams and partners are working to address the severe shortages of waste management and sanitation facilities, amid the risk of outbreaks of communicable diseases. While in Gaza, she also visited a mobile maternity ward, run by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the non-profit International Medical Corps. “There are truly brave women doctors, nurses, working to ensure safe deliveries as well…
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), five gathering sites and reception centres in the provincial capital Kassala town and Gharb Kassala are among those impacted. More than 10,000 IDPs who fled fighting in neighbouring Sennar state have been affected. Flooding has also been reported in Aj Jazirah, East Darfur and North Kordofan provinces, affecting about 280 households. Since the outbreak of war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces in April last year, thousands of civilians have been killed, and more than 10 million have been driven from their homes,…
Nangarhar province, including its capital Jalalabad, is reported to be the hardest hit. This province also suffered from devastating floods in April. Other affected provinces include Badakhshan, Kunar, Laghman and Nuristan. During the daily press briefing in New York, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reported that a reception centre at Nangarhar’s Torkham border crossing, a primary entry point for people returning from Pakistan, has been heavily impacted by the storm. “While assessments are ongoing, our humanitarian partners have deployed nine mobile health and nutrition teams, while our health partners have provided medical supplies to Nangahar Regional Hospital and Fatima Zuhra…
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. I have a question about ice on the Moon. How is this possible? – Olaf, age 9, Hillsborough, North Carolina We’re lucky to live on a water world. More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Earth is about 94 million miles from the Sun. That’s within the Goldilocks zone: the place in our solar system where a planet has just the right temperature for water to exist in oceans and rivers…
I’m a palaeontologist. That means I study fossils and learn about the ancient history of life on Earth. People ask me lots of questions about being a palaeontologist. What do palaeontologists do all day? Why do they do it? How can I become a palaeontologist? And, of course, Where can I see some fossils? Here are some answers about being a palaeontologist, and some tips for people who might want to become one. What is a palaeontologist and what do they do? Palaeontologists are scientists who study the history of life on Earth using fossils. Fossils represent the remains or…
Responding to foreign disinformation poses many challenges. Recent revelations about foreign interference in Canada illustrate some of them. Malign foreign entities and witting and unwitting domestic officials have complex roles that are in constant flux. An uncertain government is paralyzed by partisanship and communication problems. Both foreign interference and government confusion threaten to further erode fledgling public confidence in government institutions. My forthcoming article, to be published soon, examines how the Canadian federal government is addressing Russian disinformation pertaining to the war in Ukraine. It reveals the benefits, limits and potential dangers in government responses. It also builds on my…
The Government announced that the 2024 edition of the UK-France Local Government Forum will take place in Leeds on 12 and 13 December, co-hosted by Leeds and Bradford City Councils and supported by the West Yorkshire Mayor. This will be the third edition of the forum, following on from the successful 2022 event in Nancy. The forum is an opportunity for mayors, leaders, cabinet members, councillors and officers from sub-national government – be that district, borough, city, unitary or county councils, as well as combined authorities – to meet and exchange with French counterparts on subjects of common interest,…
Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails. New York’s Third Avenue Bridge, which swings open for ship traffic on the Harlem River, was stuck for hours after its metal expanded in the heat and it couldn’t close. Roads have buckled on hot days in several states, including Washington and Wisconsin. Amtrak warned passengers to prepare for heat-related problems hours before a daylong outage between New York and New Jersey; the risks to power lines and rails during high temperatures are a growing source of delays for the train system. It doesn’t help that…