Islamic religious practice is deeply entwined with sound, from the call to prayer to memorising the Quran; learning to recite the holy text is very much an oral tradition relying on listening and repetition. All this poses a unique challenge for deaf Muslims. In November 2025, a ...Show more
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM
Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the State of Israel was founded. One of three brothers, Netanyahu spent much of his early years in the United States pursuing his education. But following his older brot ...Show more
Nearly everything we consume is transported by ship. The biggest container ships in the world are among the largest moving structures made by man and can carry over 24,000 20-foot container units. The standardisation of these simple metal containers in the 1950s and 60s marked a ...Show more
The boom in global trade was caused by a simple steel box. Shipping goods around the world was – for many centuries – expensive, risky and time-consuming. But, as Tim Harford explains, 60 years ago the trucking entrepreneur Malcolm McLean changed all that by selling the idea of c ...Show more
A shadow fleet of old and poorly maintained ships is cruising the high seas, often hiding their true identities through a series of shell companies.Their numbers have grown massively since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lloyd’s List estimates as many as 12% of tankers a ...Show more
We explore the twin crises affecting the shipping industry. First, thousands of seafarers are stranded far from home, unable to travel because of the coronavirus. Add to that congestion at ports across the globe and sky-high freight rates. The result? Unprecedented pressures on a ...Show more