Alter (2004), Robert, The Five Books of Moses, W. W.Norton 2004 ' Through a distinguished career of critical scholarship and translation, Robert Alter has equipped ua to read thr Hebrew Bible as a powerful cohesive work of literature. In this landmark work, Alter's masterly translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of the Five Books of Moses. 
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic unification of physics and theology, Austin Macauley Publishers 12025 ' This book is a personal narrative of those events and a defense of the belief that the universe itself is divine. The central argument is that by embracing this reality and abandoning notions of supernatural deities, humanity can resolve its problems. The universe, it is argued, is self-creating, and a proper understanding of physics leads to a plausible scientific theology. The natural intelligence inherent in the universe, from cellular organization to ecosystems, far surpasses any artificial intelligence. Comprehending this natural order, the author suggests, would make achieving world peace relatively straightforward. The book contends that modern theologians should recognize the physical world, rather than ancient texts, as the foundation for credible theology. It also addresses the historical entanglement of religion and politics, asserting that the model of creation presented herein fundamentally rejects the imperialistic ambitions that have fueled genocidal holy wars.'  
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Teilhard de Chardin (1965), Pierre, The Phenomenon of Man, Collins 1965 Sir Julian Huxley, Introduction: 'We, mankind, contain the possibilities of the earth's immense future, and can realise more and more of them on condition that we increase our knowledge and our love. That, it seems to me, is the distillation of the Phenomenon of Man.'  
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Aatish Taseer (2026_05_14), Life, Death and Rebirth in the Land of the Buddha, ' I started my Buddhist journey last October at the birthplace of the Buddha in Lumbini, near the frontier of modern-day India and Nepal. I was intrigued by the fact it was a place of pilgrimage for nearly a thousand years, attracting monks, scholars and kings from every corner of the Buddhist world, before totally vanishing from view for centuries. To me, this lost locus of Buddhist sanctity was like a metaphor for the disappearance of Buddhism from India, the land of its birth and development, and the country where I had grown up. I wanted to know why Buddhism was abandoned there yet flourished in so many other places.' back

ACT Heritage Council, Signadou and Blackriars precinct eligible for registration, Under thr administrztion of the National Capital Deelopment Commission (NCDC) tasked weith completling Canbera as the Seat of government, Canbrra grew from a population of 40 000 to 300 000 with the population boom accelerating in the kate 1950s. On avderage, the NCDC was building a primary school eery year and a high school every second year. The Catholic population was also growing, ans the Archbishopof the Canberra and Goulbourne becaame cocerned about the Lack of Orders of Sisters and Bothers availsble o staff schools.Furthr, the Aposrolic Delegate in Australia, Archbishop Romolo Carboni, hoped for many of the religious Orders in Australin to amalgmate and to eventually base thsir heduarters in the National Capital. back

Albert-László Barabási (2016_05_14), Hungary’s chance to rebuild science, ' Last month’s parliamentary elections ended Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule, giving Hungary something more consequential than a change of government: a chance to show the world how to rebuild science after political control. With a two-thirds parliamentary majority, the new leadership has the mandate and the constitutional power to rebuild Hungary’s scientific enterprise around merit, and resistance against future interference. If Hungary gets this right, it will offer a model that matters far beyond its borders. back

Alex Lo (2026_05_14), Beijing had already won before the Trump-Xi summit even started, ' “Who defeated Napoleon during his Russian campaign?” a professor once asked our class when I was in college. It was a trick question to check who had read their assignments. Unlike dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler in the next century, Napoleon didn’t lose; he actually won most of the major battles in Russia, much like the Americans did in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But it was also a very deep question, the answer to which gets to the heart of the novel – and Mother Russia herself.
One answer was Russia’s General Kutuzov. Technically, he lost the crucial Battle of Borodino, which, however, sealed the fate of the Grande Armée. Overextended and without looted provisions from a burned down Moscow, Napoleon’s army that was once the terror of Europe retreated and disintegrated.
[. . .] Washington under Trump is doubling down on fossil fuels while the rest of the world transitions to green energy, with China leading the way and dominating the markets for wind, solar and hydrogen power.
By going toe to toe with Trump over his tariff threats, “China emerged from the 2025 trade war in a position of relative strength”, wrote Henrietta Levin, a former senior official of the US Department of State and the National Security Council in a new issue of Foreign Affairs.
Under such circumstances, Xi doesn’t have to do much to look like a genius. Whether many Americans still believe Trump is making America “great again”, it seems pretty clear he is working hard to make China great again.
Like Kutuzov waiting out Napoleon, Beijing just needs to sit, wait and hope Trump gets to complete his full term before being replaced by someone more competent.' back

Alexandra Witze (2026_05_14), Are we really headed for a ‘super’ El Niño? What the science says, ' Headlines have been proclaiming that one of the strongest El Niño weather patterns in recent decades might be starting up later this year. If a big one kicks in, as forecasts currently suggest, it could bring floods, droughts and other weather extremes to many parts of the globe, as well as potentially boost 2027’s temperatures to record highs.
But how sure are meteorologists that this ‘super’ El Niño is on the horizon?
In the past few months, sea surface temperatures in parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean have warmed more than usual, which is the hallmark of an emerging El Niño. Still uncertain, however, is whether winds and other weather factors will either ratchet up that ocean heat or temper it — and therefore weaken the possibility of a strong El Niño.
The latest forecast from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released today, suggests that there is a strong chance of an El Niño developing between May and July this year, but that there is much uncertainty over its peak strength. This will become clearer during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. (El Niños typically reach their maximum from October to February.) [. . .]
Winds could have a large effect, says Emily Becker, a climate scientist at the University of Miami in Florida. Just a few days of strong east-to-west trade winds in the equatorial Pacific Ocean could cool waters and weaken a fledgling El Niño, she notes. Conversely, if the trade winds slacken, that “could really kick things into gear”, she says.
Forecasters should know more in the coming weeks, once they get past the notorious ‘spring predictability barrier’, which refers to spring in the Northern Hemisphere. During this period, it is unusually difficult for forecasts to accurately capture the weather variability that can lead to El Niño.' back

Ayelett Shani (2016_05_09), 'Multibillion-shekel Empires and a Slave Economy': Inside Israel's ultra-Orthodox Parallel State, ' Naomi Abraham, a lawyer and economist who grew up in – but later left – the ultra-Orthodox world, asserts that Israeli society is oblivious to what really drives Haredim. '
[. . .] You don't see my neighbors in the building, housewives with 13 children who take so-called mehadrin [gender-segregated] bus lines. You see the politicians and functionaries; they are, in a sense, already outside the community's rules. Anyone who sat with me during my years in public service had already violated community norms. Sitting near a woman is a big no-no.
[. . .] You run a project called "On Hypocrisy," where you publish texts exposing the inner workings of Haredi society. It's a kind of mapping of the political economy, power structures and resource distribution.
I write "On Hypocrisy" for Israeli society, which for 75 years has been having the wrong argument with the Haredim. I write for the gatekeepers: the High Court of Justice, lawmakers, regulators, bank executives, treasury officials and businesspeople in general.
What do you want them to take away from your writing?
That when they look at Bnei Brak, they don't understand what they're actually seeing. I want them to understand that everything that happens in Haredi society ultimately translates into money flowing into the pockets of functionaries. This isn't about sanctity. It's a slave economy, if not outright human trafficking. I think the time has come to stop talking about ideology and start reading balance sheets and land registry records. The wheeler-dealer oligarchy running Bnei Brak isn't dealing in theology. It's dealing in real estate, land registration and shadow banking
[. . .] By the way, the Independent Education Network is currently running a deficit of 400 million shekels. People need to understand that, until recently, they were connected directly to Merkava, the government payment system. They received funding shekel for shekel. So where did the 400 million go? I have no idea.
You're dealing with very powerful people here. Are you afraid? Have you been threatened?
I don't underestimate their ability to crush people. When I was inside that world, I was terrified of them too. But outside Bnei Brak, their threats don't carry much weight. Today I live in a world of law, regulation and proper governance. They have no jurisdiction there. And beyond that, I already feel that I've beaten them. The Lithuanian Haredi establishment built a racist and cruel system designed to ensure that a woman like me, a young Mizrahi woman, would remain invisible, poor and dependent on them.
Are your family members being threatened?
The standard tactic is to retaliate against family members in order to punish anyone who speaks out. So let me make this clear: My family has absolutely no influence over what I do and bears zero responsibility for the criticism I voice. Anyone who wants to challenge the numbers and facts I present should come directly to me.' back

Billie Eilish, Jupiter, ' “JUPITER” is a haunting alt-pop/alt-rock song about being emotionally pulled toward someone who always felt just out of reach — like a planet you can orbit, but never truly touch.
Built around intimate vocals, cinematic production, and cosmic imagery, the song explores gravity, distance, obsession, and emotional collision. It captures the feeling of loving someone who changes your entire universe while slowly drifting further away.
From empty train rides and sleepless nights to glowing skies and endless space, “JUPITER” feels like floating through memories you can’t escape.
This track is for the people who still feel someone’s gravity long after they’re gone.' back

Carlos Gershenson (2025_12_12), AI’s errors may be impossible to eliminate – what that means for its use in health care, ' For AI in particular, errors might be an inescapable consequence of how the systems work. My lab’s research suggests that particular properties of the data used to train AI models play a role. This is unlikely to change, regardless of how much time, effort and funding researchers direct at improving AI models.
As Alan Turing, considered the father of computer science, once said: “If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.” This is because learning is an essential part of intelligence, and people usually learn from mistakes. I see this tug-of-war between intelligence and infallibility at play in my research.
In a study published in July 2025, my colleagues and I showed that perfectly organizing certain datasets into clear categories may be impossible. In other words, there may be a minimum amount of errors that a given dataset produces, simply because of the fact that elements of many categories overlap. For some datasets – the core underpinning of many AI systems – AI will not perform better than chance.
[. . .] To put it more generally, what limits prediction is complexity. The word complexity comes from the Latin plexus, which means intertwined. The components that make up a complex system are intertwined, and it’s the interactions between them that determine what happens to them and how they behave.
Thus, studying elements of the system in isolation would probably yield misleading insights about them – as well as about the system as a whole.
Take, for example, a car traveling in a city. Knowing the speed at which it drives, it’s theoretically possible to predict where it will end up at a particular time. But in real traffic, its speed will depend on interactions with other vehicles on the road. Since the details of these interactions emerge in the moment and cannot be known in advance, precisely predicting what happens to the the car is possible only a few minutes into the future.
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Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Profile, back

Emily Schultheis (2026_05_08), Ukraine’s Weirdest Front Line, ' WILHELM ARCHIPELAGO, Antarctica — Sometimes, in the middle of a long workday or as she’s falling asleep, Anzhelika Hanchuk sees her phone jolted to life by a bright notification that means Kyiv is under attack from Russian missiles.
The meteorologist is about as far as she could be from the Ukrainian capital and the conflict raging in her home country. Surrounded by the jagged glaciers and towering peaks of the Antarctic Peninsula with only a colony of gentoo penguins for neighbors, Hanchuk is leading a group of 14 Ukrainians helping the war effort in an unlikely way: by keeping its Antarctic program afloat.
“Stopping the base for even one year and then trying to restart it is simply impossible,” she said. “To stop the base for a year would mean losing it forever.”
Maintaining a permanent scientific presence at Vernadsky Research Base, the mint-green structure perched on a remote, rocky outcropping nearly 10,000 miles from Kyiv, might seem an unusual priority for a country fighting for its existence at home. But Ukrainian officials see their small polar foothold as not just a scientific endeavor, but also a crucial bulwark in their fight for survival and against Russia’s expansionist plans.
That’s because its very existence secures Ukraine a seat at the table where major world powers govern the vast white landmass entirely by consensus — giving the besieged country an important forum to draw attention to Russian aggression in all its forms. A long-term polar strategy adopted this year by Ukraine declares its Antarctic presence a “platform for protecting national interests".' back

Helen Stenger (2026_05_11), One small country set the model for reintegrating ISIS families from Syria. Here’s what Australia can learn, ' After four women and nine children associated with Islamic State returned to Australia from Syria last week, the Australian Federal Police indicated some would be referred to community reintegration and countering violent extremism programs.
Australia is not starting from scratch. Thirty-one Australian women and children have previously returned from Syria, all but six of them with government assistance. None has been linked to criminal acts since coming home.
The pressing question, then, is not whether Australia has the institutional capacity to support these returns, but what makes reintegration succeed or fail.
This is where Australia can learn from the lessons of dozens of other countries that have repatriated women and children linked to ISIS. [. . .]
One country that has done a better job – and has received far less attention – is Kosovo.
When Kosovo repatriated more than 100 of its citizens from Syria in 2019, it became the first country in the world to establish a government department dedicated to rehabilitating its returning citizens. The justice minister declared the government would not stop until every citizen had been brought home.
This department within the Interior Ministry provides medical and psychiatric support, counselling, housing, social services, vocational training and free legal advice to returnees. It also includes female religious leaders from the Islamic Council of Kosovo, who play a central role in working with women and their communities.
What stands out about the Kosovar example is the deliberate work to reduce stigma that returnees face.
The government’s official narrative was that Kosovo had a responsibility to care for its citizens and reintegration was the best approach to public safety.
And before Kosovar citizens returned, civil society organisations and authorities engaged extensively with communities to address people’s concerns and reassure them that safety was a priority. Religious and community leaders were also involved to counter stigma directly.' back

Laplace's demon - Wikipedia, Laplace's demon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In the history of science, Laplace's demon was a notable published articulation of causal determinism on a scientific basis by Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814. According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every particle in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics.
We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past could be present before its eyes.' back

Lynn S. Neal (2026_05_11), 'Devil Wears Prada 2’ shows how Christian imagery circulates in unusual ways through the fashion industry , ' At the world premiere of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” actress Meryl Streep leaned into her character’s devilish persona. She wore the character’s signature sunglasses along with long black gloves and a flowing red leather cape from Givenchy’s Winter 2026 collection.
Streep’s outfit, though, is a small moment in a much larger story – one in which Christianity and fashion have been intertwined for centuries, sometimes as adversaries, sometimes as collaborators.
While neither of the “Devil Wears Prada” movies revolve around Christianity, the invocation of the devil taps into an older moral rhetoric. For centuries, fashion was cast as the troublesome, if not villainous, enemy of a pure and spiritual Christianity – a symbol of putting material desires before holy ones. For example, 18th-century cleric and founder of Methodism John Wesley urged his followers to show their faith by dressing “neatly” and “plainly.”
Yet Christian imagery has come to shape the industry in profound ways. As a scholar who researches the relationship between Christianity and fashion, I have traced how Christian imagery circulates in surprising forms. The devil, for instance, occasionally appeared in fashion advertising to suggest sin, sensuality and transgression.' back

Original sin - Wikipedia, Original sin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Original sin, sometimes called ancestral sin, is, according to a doctrine proposed in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature," to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt by all humans through collective guilt. Those who uphold this doctrine look to the teaching of Paul the Apostle in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 for its scriptural base, and see it as perhaps implied in an Old Testament passage Psalm 51:5.' back

Paul Halsall (Medieval Sourcebook), De Ente et Essentia, English Text: 'This translation follows the Leonine Edition of Aquinas' works, vol. 43 Sancti Thomae De Aquino Opera Omnia 368-381 (Rome 1976).: Prologue: A small error at the outset can lead to great errors in the final conclusions, as the Philosopher says in I De Caelo et Mundo cap. 5 (271b8-13), and thus, since being and essence are the things first conceived of by the intellect, as Avicenna says in Metaphysicae I, cap. 6, in order to avoid errors arising from ignorance about these two things, we should resolve the difficulties surrounding them by explaining what the terms being and essence each signify and by showing how each may be found in various things and how each is related to the logical intentions of genus, species, and difference.' back

Presumption of Innocence - Wikipedia, Presumption of Innocence - Wikipedia, the fee encyclopedia, ' The presumption of innocence is a legal principle that every person accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilty. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which must present compelling evidence to the trier of fact (a judge or a jury). If the prosecution does not prove the charges true, then the person is acquitted of the charges. The prosecution must in most cases prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If reasonable doubt remains, the accused must be acquitted. The opposite system is a presumption of guilt. In many countries and under many legal systems, including common law and civil law systems (not to be confused with the other kind of civil law, which deals with non-criminal legal issues), the presumption of innocence is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial. It is also an international human right under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11.' back

Quantum state - Wikipedia, Quantum state - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that represents a physical system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. Knowledge of the quantum state, and the rules for the system's evolution in time, exhausts all that can be known about a quantum system.
Quantum states are either pure or mixed, and have several possible representations. Pure quantum states are commonly represented as a vector in a Hilbert space. Mixed states are statistical mixtures of pure states and cannot be represented as vectors on that Hilbert space, and instead are commonly represented as density matrices.
Common examples of quantum states are the wave functions describing position and momentum, finite-dimensional vectors describing spin such as the singlet, and states describing many-body quantum systems in a Fock space. ' back

Rohner et al. (2026_05_14), Aiding peace or conflict? The impact of USAID cuts on violence, ' Abstract Less than a week after its inauguration, the second Trump administration issued a blanket stop-work order for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest national humanitarian donor. The social and political effects of abrupt aid withdrawal are poorly understood, especially in fragile states where relief is a key safety net. We provide quasi-experimental evidence on the shutdown’s impact on subnational conflict across Africa. Leveraging historical exposure to USAID programs, we show that conflict increased sharply after the shutdown in areas that previously received the most support. The increase spanned incidence and severity, including armed clashes, protests, and riots. The effects appeared immediately and persisted for months. Inclusive local institutions substantially mitigated these harms, underscoring vulnerability under weak governance and the capacity of institutions to buffer humanitarian and economic shocks.' back

Rule of Law - Wikipedia, Rule of Law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The rule of law is a political ideal that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. It is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law". The term rule of law is closely related to constitutionalism as well as Rechtsstaat. It refers to a political situation, not to any specific legal rule. The rule of law is defined in the Encyclopædia Britannica as "the mechanism, process, institution, practice, or norm that supports the equality of all citizens before the law, secures a nonarbitrary form of government, and more generally prevents the arbitrary use of power".' back

Sheldon Axler (2026_05_09), Linear Algebra Done Right (4th Edition), ' You are probably about to begin your second exposure to linear algebra. Unlike your first brush with the subject, which probably emphasized Euclidean spaces and matrices, this encounter will focus on abstract vector spaces and linear maps. These terms will be defined later, so don’t worry if you do not know what they mean. This book starts from the beginning of the subject, assuming no knowledge of linear algebra. The key point is that you are about to immerse yourself in serious mathematics, with an emphasis on attaining a deep understanding of the definitions, theorems, and proofs. back

Stephan Blum (2026_01_29), Rethinking Troy: how years of careful peace, not epic war, shaped this bronze age city, ' Archaeology often speaks loudest when something goes catastrophically wrong. Fires preserve. Ruins cling to the soil like charcoal fingerprints. Peace, by contrast, leaves no single dramatic moment to anchor it.
Its traces survive in the ordinary: footpaths worn smooth by generations of feet; jars repaired, reused and handled for decades, some still bearing the drilled holes of ancient mending. These humble remnants form the true architecture of long‑term stability.
Troy is a textbook example. Archaeologists have identified nine major layers at the site, some of which are associated with substantial architectural reorganisation. But that isn’t evidence of destruction. Rather it simply reflects the everyday reality of a settlement’s history: building, use, maintenance or levelling, rebuilding and repetition.
Instead, I argue that Troy’s archaeological record reveals centuries of architectural continuity, stable coastal occupation and trade networks stretching from Mesopotamia to the Aegean and the Balkans – a geography of connection rather than conflict.
The only evidence for truly massive destruction that can be identified dates to around 2350BC. Against the broader archaeological backdrop, this stands out as a rare, fiery rupture – one dramatic episode within a much longer pattern of recovery and continuity. [. . .]
Reexamining Troy through the lens of peace shifts attention away from moments of destruction and towards centuries of continuity. Archaeology shows how communities without states, armies, or written law sustained stability through everyday practices of cooperation. What kept Troy going was not grand strategy, but the quiet work of living together, generation after generation. The real miracle of Troy was not how it fell – but for how long it endured. Rethinking the cherished narrative of the Trojan war reminds us that lasting peace is built not in dramatic moments, but through the persistent, creative efforts of ordinary people. back

Stephan Blum & Stefan Baumann 92026_05_13), Why was an Egyptian mummy stuffed with a fragment of Homer’s Iliad?, ' Archaeologists have found something unexpected inside a 1,600-year-old Roman-era Egyptian mummy: a fragment of Homer’s Iliad. It wasn’t placed beside the body, but inside the mummy’s abdomen. But the real surprise isn’t just where the fragment was found. It’s how it got there. To understand, we must go back – to the Iliad itself, and to what it became in the Roman world. [. . .]
Across the Roman Empire, educated elites learned Homer as part of their schooling. They quoted him in speeches, analysed him in classrooms and used him to signal cultural authority. To know the Iliad was to speak a language that others across the empire understood.
A senator in Rome, a teacher in Asia Minor or a student in Egypt could all draw on the same stories. The poem created a shared frame of reference – one that allowed very different people to situate themselves within a common past. [. . .]
Across the Roman Empire, the Iliad circulated as a living text: copied, taught and read. Egypt, one of Rome’s most important provinces, was no exception. Yet here, Homer circulated within a cultural landscape that differed in important ways from the Greek literary world in which the poem had first taken shape.
For Roman observers, Egypt often appeared as a place where antiquity was materially preserved as well as remembered – through temples, monuments and practices that emphasised continuity with the past. At the same time, it was a deeply hybrid society, where Egyptian, Greek and Roman traditions interacted in complex ways.
Homer was among the most widely copied authors in Roman Egypt – read and taught as a marker of education and cultural belonging and deeply embedded in everyday literary culture.'[. . .]
Its most enduring insight is therefore this: the past is not something simply preserved, but something continuously made and remade – through the stories, practices and materials that carry it across time.' back

The beautiful Game (2024 film) - Wikipedia, The beautiful Game (2024 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Beautiful Game is a 2024 British sports drama film directed by Thea Sharrock and written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The film stars Bill Nighy and Micheal Ward.
The squad of English homeless footballers, including the talented but troubled striker Vinny, are led by their coach Mal, to compete in Rome at the global annual football tournament, the Homeless World Cup.' back

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Home page of The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 'Founded in Rome on 17 August 1603 as the first exclusively scientific academy in the world by Federico Cesi, Giovanni Heck, Francesco Stelluti and Anastasio de Filiis with the name Linceorum Academia, to which Galileo Galilei was appointed member on 25 August 1610, it was reestablished in 1847 by Pius IX with the name Pontificia Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei. It was moved to its current headquarters in the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens in 1922, and given its current name and statutes by Pius XI in 1936. Its mission is to honour pure science wherever it may be found, ensure its freedom and encourage research for the progress of science.' back

Thomas Keegan, Inside Porton Down: what I learned during three years at the UK’s most secretive chemical weapons laboratory, back

Wesley Widmaier , After an opaque summit, China and the US want to work together again. That might not be good news for the world, ' This week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping heralds a different sort of G2. On Friday, Trump claimed the countries had struck some “fantastic trade deals”. But anyone hoping for details of such deals – on tariffs, rare earths or Iran – was left disappointed on Friday afternoon.
Whatever may have transpired, US–China cooperation no longer automatically implies positive spillover effects for the rest of the world. Instead, in 2026, the G2 appears, at best, to be a private bargain between two great powers, imposing hidden costs on those outside, looking in.
The Trump administration has ushered in a noticeable shift in how the US views its economic interests: no longer premised on shared liberal values, but on spheres of influence among great powers. The key question, therefore, is not whether the US and China can cooperate. It is what kind of order their cooperation will produce.
An older economic contrast is useful here.
In the wake of the second world war, the Western bloc (led across the US, the United Kingdom, and Western European states) was united by a shared commitment to a Keynesian global order (under the Bretton Woods system) that sought freer trade in goods while preserving national economic autonomy.
In contrast, the Eastern bloc (led by the Soviet Union) organised trade through what was called the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), trading many goods between countries through planned barter arrangements, instead of for cash.
The irony for the present day is that the Trump–Xi agenda looks more like the old Eastern bloc’s approach.
In this light, the clearest sign that a G2 may be working outside the G20 or larger rules-based order is not that Washington and Beijing are talking. It is the range of issues that may be managed, tying together such concerns as tariff relief, airplane orders, rare-earths access, chip restrictions, Taiwan and Iran.
In each of these cases, it’s reasonable the two countries would want to coordinate their policies. But together, they point to a new global order where two superpowers increasingly call the shots in their own interests.' back