Editor's note

Al Gore is a media star and Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Sometimes, it still feels as if a rupture in the space-time continuum has flipped us into an alternate reality in which things are strangely familiar but not quite right.*

But here we are. And the man who very nearly became the 43rd US president is back on our screens. Gore reinvented himself as an environmental champion with his first film, An Inconvenient Truth. The sequel is in cinemas this weekend. For The Conversation, the former vice president sat down with Mark Maslin of UCL to discuss what Trump, the power of big business and the rise of populist politics mean for the future of the planet. Check out the Q&A and video interview.

Gore has also been calling for Trump to stand down as president in the wake of the far-right attack in Charlottesville, Virginia last week. Academics on both sides of the Atlantic have been writing on the events that have rocked America, and plunged the White House into yet another crisis. One image in particular captured the horror of the moment – Jennifer Wenzel of Columbia University took a look.

By the week’s end, Europe was also, once again, reeling from a terrorist attack involving a vehicle. Our analysis of a deadly night in Catalonia continues here.

It is little surprise, then, that “peace education” has become a key plank of international attempts to prevent extremism. But is this valuable approach finding its way into UK classrooms?

Elsewhere this week, we’ve been looking at bees and pesticides, wondering how eggs containing an insecticide found their way into sandwiches and llamas conquered the world, and hearing what lessons should be learned from the demise of the proposed Garden Bridge in London.

*Note/apology to our space physicist readers: the reference to “a rupture in the space-time continuum flipping us into an alternate reality” should not be taken literally.

Stephen Khan

Editor

Top story

La Rambla runs right through the centre of Barcelona. EPA/Armando Babani

Barcelona's Las Ramblas: economic powerhouse and symbolic heart of a city

Mark McKinty, Queen's University Belfast

The boulevard runs through the heart of the city, drives its tourist economy and acts as a symbol of life in Catalonia.

Politics + Society

Environment + Energy

Arts + Culture

  • An American 'Guernica'?

    Jennifer Wenzel, Columbia University

    Ryan Kelly's iconic photograph from Charlottesville evokes a 'Unite the Right' moment from 1937 – and the anti-war masterpiece by Picasso that emerged from it.

  • Elvis's voice: like Mario Lanza singing the blues

    Adrian York, University of Westminster

    Elvis's impressive vocal range and his technical ability made his voice an instrument that even opera singers have lined up to pay tribute to.

Business + Economy

Health + Medicine

Science + Technology

Education

 

Featured events

Join The Conversation at The British Science Festival

Jubilee Library City Centre, Brighton , Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom — The Conversation

Graphene in Energy Innovation Opportunities Workshop

Room 3.08 Scott Russell Building, Research and Enterprise Services, , Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH144AS, United Kingdom — Heriot-Watt University

Can Sustainability Ever Be Mainstream?

New Town Theatre, Freemasons' Hall, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, City of, EH2 3DH, United Kingdom — Bangor University

Global Challenges in Cultural Heritage

University of Stirling, Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom — University of Stirling

More events
 

Contact us here to have your event listed.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here