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Birmingham has an ambitious plan up its sleeve. Announced last month, the English city aims to comprehensively transform its urban transport network by 2031. The goal is to make of the city centre a supersized low-traffic neighbourhood. This will involve building a new ring road to keep private cars out, and promoting alternative transport options to keep inhabitants active and on the move.
Quite how this will work, though, as civil engineering expert and Birmingham-based research fellow Joanne Leach explains, hinges on whether the city can overcome its poor track record. The last ring road it built was despised, ineffective and ultimately destroyed. Can it follow through on its pledge to improve public transport, support land-use changes and provide people with the services they need, where they need them? After all, as Leach points out, a city centre serves purposes a simple neighbourhood cannot.
Elsewhere, a moral philosopher and an ethicist ask whether selective lockdowns, like those set to be imposed on the non-vaccinated in Austria and Russia, is ethically justifiable. And three development specialists unpick why Peru – a country which, on paper, seemed well-equipped to face the pandemic – has the world’s highest COVID death rate.
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Dale Berning Sawa
Commissioning Editor
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New transport plans aim to remove private cars from Birmingham city centre.
Chris Baynham | Shutterstock
Joanne Leach, University of Birmingham
When it comes to ring roads, Birmingham has a poor track record. Can the city’s new transport plan buck that trend and benefit both its inhabitants and the environment?
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Spitzi-Foto/Shutterstock
Jonathan Pugh, University of Oxford; Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford; Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford
Austria has imposed a lockdown for the unvaccinated. Russia is considering the same measure.
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Photos of Peruvian doctors who died of COVID, posted outside of the medical college in Lima, Peru.
Paolo Aguilar/EPA-EFE
Camila Gianella Malca, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú; Jasmine Gideon, Birkbeck, University of London; María José Romero, SOAS, University of London
The country moved quickly to contain the virus, but its health system struggled to look after those who got sick.
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Environment + Energy
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Wim Carton, Lund University; Inge-Merete Hougaard, Lund University; Kirstine Lund Christiansen, University of Copenhagen
Removing carbon from the atmosphere raises political questions that should be addressed by democratic institutions.
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Sebastien Chastin, Glasgow Caledonian University
As well as helping to save the planet, climate action provides huge opportunities to enhance people’s health, security and economic prospects.
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Science + Technology
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Steve Taylor, Leeds Beckett University
In my research, I’ve seen how people can feel a new sense of gratitude, meaning and purpose. They often take up new hobbies and careers. They become less materialistic and more altruistic.
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John Quinn, University College Cork; Jenny Coomes, University College Cork
We discovered that the ability to be flexible and change behaviour in certain circumstances is just as important for birds as people.
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Politics + Society
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Suat Cubukcu, American University; Erdal Tekin, American University; Nusret Sahin, Stockton University; Volkan Topalli, Georgia State University
Police body-worn cameras increase disciplinary action against officers and reduce racial bias against citizen complainants, according to a recent study.
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Giovanni De Gregorio, University of Oxford
Big tech is increasingly capitalising on opportunities to consolidate their power, raising constitutional questions about legitimacy, rights and democracy in the digital age.
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Education
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Conrad Hughes, Université de Genève
School closures have immediate and long-term effects on students, both emotionally and economically. They will also have a ripple effect on a country and on income inequality.
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Business + Economy
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Peter Levell, Institute for Fiscal Studies
These two groups bounced back more quickly in the jobs market than certain other groups, although they may still experience lasting consequences.
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Health + Medicine
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Sara Cooper, South African Medical Research Council; Alison Swartz, University of Cape Town; Bey-Marrié Schmidt, University of the Western Cape; Charles Shey Wiysonge, South African Medical Research Council; Christopher J Colvin, University of Cape Town; Evanson Z Sambala, University of the Witwatersrand; Natalie Leon, South African Medical Research Council
Vaccination uptake is influenced by many factors and carries a variety of meanings – social, political, economic, ideological, moral as well as biological.
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Arts + Culture
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Enrico Bonadio, City, University of London; Magali Contardi, Universidad de Alicante
Symbolic recognition will boost the marketability of the Valencian delicacy.
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Featured events
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— Museum of London, 150 London Wall, Barbican, London, EC2Y 5HN, London, London, City of, EC2Y 5HN, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Gresham College
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— Online, University of Reading, Reading, Reading, RG6 6AH, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Reading
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— Oxford Martin School (and Online), 34 Broad Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3BD, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Oxford
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— Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Royal Holloway University of London
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