This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
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Covert surveillance, blatant coercion
ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM HELLEWELL and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT take a look at what it means to live in an algorithmic society
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
TEN months ago, in April 2023, Google discontinued a device that it had worked on and publicised for 10 years. Google Glass looked like a pair of clear wrap-around glasses with a chunky bit at the top of the frame. The “chunky bit” was a tiny projector which projected onto part of the glasses themselves so that the user could see a screen in their field of vision. In September Google stopped updating or maintaining the Google Glass products that it had already sold.
What happened? Although the product had been through significant development since the original headset design, it was clearly not a moneymaker. The project started off at “X Development” (not associated with Elon Musk, but at the Alphabet subsidiary that Google uses for development projects).
The company trialled the product on a range of test users in an attempt to make the Google Glass technology seem useful and not creepy; for example, publicising its use by doctors to get a “surgeon’s eye view,” and also by a group of breastfeeding mothers who could apparently use the device to talk to experts and read advice while breastfeeding their babies.
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A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
