The UK’s Government Art Collection (GAC) is to open its first public display space in London. A room in its new headquarters in the Old Admiralty Building, which is between Trafalgar Square and Horse Guards Parade, has just been refurbished as a viewing room. Presently only open to invited guests, plans are being made to...
The list of best-sellers on Amazon is different day-to-day – and it is not merely new trends replacing old ones. Instead, it is brands that did not exist until very recently pushing out other newly-launched and short-lived brands in order to take the top spots. What do almost all of these brands have in common?...
Rising inflation (and corresponding shifts in consumer spending), enduring supply chain disruptions, market volatility in China due to stringent COVID policies, and mounting unsold inventory are among the issues that retail companies are currently facing, putting them in precarious positions amid fears of recession. Luxury brands are known to generally weather economic downturns better than their mass-market retail counterparts, and those in other industries, but how well...
Die Antwoord is a South African band that uses hip-hop music to create a style it calls “zef”. Since it first appeared in 2009, Die Antwoord has been criticised for cultural appropriation (using cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative way). It’s accused of copying the lyrics and styles of Cape Town artists...
As I opened a recent email from my local grocery store chain advertising Hispanic Heritage Month – it runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year – I was surprised to see it highlighting recipes from four distinct regions: Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. The advertisement rightly noted that while corn...
Teenagers who misuse alcohol may struggle more with drinking problems in their 20s and 30s, be in poorer health and feel less satisfied with their lives, according to a study led by Rutgers and Virginia Commonwealth University. Published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, researchers defined adolescent alcohol misuse based on responses about frequency of...
Amid much speculation and research about how our genetics affect the way we age, a University of California, Berkeley, study now shows that individual differences in our DNA matter less as we get older and become prone to diseases of aging, such as diabetes and cancer. In a study of the relative effects of genetics,...
An oft-quoted question attributed (probably wrongly) to the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”, still resonates as an indication of Europe’s lack of unity and leadership. It also signals a disconnect in transatlantic communications that is due, in part, to the lack of...
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was held by Iran’s morality police for not complying with the country’s hijab rules has drawn global attention to the repression of women in Iran. Neighboring Saudi Arabia, a Sunni country, theologically and politically opposed to Shiite Iran, has similar restrictive rules when it comes to women....
On the 70th birthday of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Nobel prize committee has recognised the work of three winners who are all battling against Putin or pro-Putin regimes. The peace prize has gone to imprisoned Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. These winners...
