The mountains and valleys may not be quite as dramatic. The swirling fog might need a little more CGI to achieve maximum impact. And the extras may not have been quite as well built. Even so, all things considered, Amazon has decided that the latest season of its epic Lord of the Rings series, one…
Relations between the British and French governments have rarely been so dreadful since the origins of the entente cordiale and the long alliance under Lord Aberdeen in the 1840s. The diplomatic earthquake of Brexit has collided with the political character of Emmanuel Macron, who combines ultra-Europeanist ideology (when it suits him) with Bonapartist methods and…
One British inventor will be watching the birth of Dominic Cummings’ brainchild – the new Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or Aria, with a keen interest. Twenty years ago, Andrew Fentem pioneered a tactile, low cost “multitouch” user interface for small computers that revolutionised how they could be used. The British state’s leading innovation body vowed…
It’s a democratic right. The Scottish people have spoken. And the will of the electorate shouldn’t be ignored by a Government in Westminster they didn’t vote for. Over the next year we will hear an endless series of arguments from the Scottish Nationalists about why there should be a replay of the 2014 referendum on…
The US unexpectedly announced last week that it would join India, South Africa and others in supporting a proposal at the World Trade Organisation to temporarily suspend intellectual property (IP) rights for Covid vaccines. In theory, this would free up other companies to make copies of proprietary vaccines owned by the likes of Pfizer and…
There are few more contentious and confounding moral issues in the modern world than drug patents. It’s hard to think of another area where commercial logic so frequently butts heads with societal need and capitalism can pose such ethical angst. If you have the ability to cure a disease, how can you possibly withhold it…
