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Maps are, and always have been, a crucial part of war. They convey the movement of troops and control of territory in a way that is easy to understand. Countless maps have been produced to help us visualise the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. But within maps also lies a potential for manipulation.
Doug Specht, a reader in cultural geography and communications at the University of Winchester, explains how the history of warfare is rife with instances of maps being used to dehumanise the enemy. In Rwanda, for example, extremist Hutu media outlets produced maps that starkly divided Hutu and Tutsi areas. These maps often used symbols like machetes or snakes to depict Tutsis, portraying them as violent and dangerous, thus justifying a genocide that claimed the
lives of over 800,000 people. Such problems are being replicated in conflicts today, including in Ukraine and Gaza – not always so deliberately but with equally devastating repercussions.
Also today, new research has highlighted the havoc artificial sweeteners can play with your gut microbes. And we hear why China is risking US sanctions by arming Russia in its war against Ukraine, partly to contain North Korea but
partly to keep the west busy.
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Sam Phelps
Commissioning Editor, International Affairs
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kirill_makarov/Shutterstock
Doug Specht, University of Westminster
Maps can shape how we see conflict.
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Ground Picture/Shutterstock
Havovi Chichger, Anglia Ruskin University
The new generation of artificial sweeteners was meant to be less harmful than the previous generation. A new study suggests they might be just as harmful.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing on April 26.
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein/Alamy
Chee Meng Tan, University of Nottingham
China’s need for allies is driven by its worry about neighbouring North Korea and concern about western dominance.
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Environment
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Helen Hooker, University of Reading
The current cold springtime weather explained by a meteorologist.
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Randa Lindsey Kachef, King's College London
Some littering is conscious, some is created unintentionally. Tackling the reason it was created could make clean-up tactics more effective.
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Politics + Society
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Murray Leith, University of the West of Scotland
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has suddenly terminated the Bute House agreement, the pact between the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Greens, which ensured a majority for the Scottish…
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Oliver Gough, University of Oxford
The Labour MP was friends with Margaret Thatcher, but certainly didn’t agree that there’s ‘no such thing as society’.
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Melanie Griffiths, University of Birmingham
Each year the UK incarcerates thousands of asylum seekers in prison-like immigration detention centres.
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Mark Bennister, University of Lincoln; Ben Worthy, Birkbeck, University of London
Infamy, infamy everyone’s got it infamy. Truss’s book turns out to be great textbook on leadership.
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Health
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Duane Mellor, Aston University
Freezing bread can not only cut down on food waste, it may also have modest benefits for your health.
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Arts + Culture
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Audrey H Small, University of Sheffield
Her stories and essays unpicked the complexities and after-effects of colonialism in searing and incisive ways.
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Francesca Stocco, Nottingham Trent University
The bright pink fabric swaying gently in the wind stands in stark contrast to the grey tones of the brutalist architectural complex.
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Business + Economy
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Sambit Bhattacharyya, University of Sussex
Australian mining giant BHP has kicked off a new round of mergers by bidding for Anglo American.
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Chris Parry, Cardiff Metropolitan University
It may seem like a long time away but having an idea of how much income you’ll need to survive on in future is crucial.
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