By Professor Ann Fitz-Gerald, Cranfield University  While politics in the western world have stood relatively dormant over the Christmas and New Year period, unprecedented events have emerged in Ethiopia’s political scene. Significant decisions have been taken.  There are grounds for hope and optimism, but only if views on anticipated change do not become as polarised as the positions of different political parties to date. The principal questions concern Ethiopia’s ability to sustain its remarkable economic growth record amidst the discontent...

A football used to score the only ever hat-trick in an FA Cup Final is expected to net the owner up to £5,000 at auction. The iconic leather ball hit the back of the net a stunning seven times in the 1953 ‘Matthews Final’ which saw Blackpool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3. Blackpool’s Stan Mortenson scored three times but the game was better known for the incredible performance of his team-mate, the legendary Stanley ‘The Wizard’ Matthews. The ball is currently...

Experts in a city nicknamed Britain’s 'Brexit Capital' are predicting a spike in racist attacks when the country leaves the EU next year. The people of Stoke-on-Trent showed their strength of feeling when 69 per cent voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. In the two months following the shock result, Staffordshire Police dealt with 227 complaints of racial abuse – compared with just 50 in May of that year. Experts fear racist attacks will rise again across...

Amidst the furore of the tragic Colman's closure in Norwich there's a white elephant in the room that has yet to surface; Brexit. Despite some of the production moving to Burton some of the production will be shifted by Unilever to Germany in a move that is likely to become commonplace for such companies who rely on the single market. The factory that has been the home of Colman’s Mustard for 160 years is to close, with Clive Lewis, Labour MP...

Tens of thousands of ambulances were dispatched with single crew in Scotland over the past four years. Despite the Scottish government previously saying single-crewing should occur only in "exceptional circumstances", a FOI request has today revealed that paramedics were sent out on their own to 2,204 emergency call-outs in 2016/17, and 3,514 went out the year before. The numbers have followed an upward trajectory since the data was first collected in 2013, when 1,644 ambulances were sent out with a...

Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty was the richest man in the world when his grandson was kidnapped on the streets of Rome in 1973. It is an intriguing episode that serves as inspiration for Ridley Scott’s latest feature, All the Money in the World. The film begins with the kidnapping and quickly details the events leading up to it, showing us how J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) made his riches, as well as the breakdown of his son’s marriage. By...

The idea of Ben Stiller playing a self-pitying white dude is not a particularly original one, yet here he finds himself once again in this new film by School of Rock writer, Mike White. Essentially a comedy drama, Brad’s Status is a film that yearns to be thought-provoking and rewarding, but how much you buy into this is dependent on how much you care about Ben Stiller’s titular character. Stiller plays Brad Sloan, a 47 year old in the grips...

Corporate parties are a great way to meet your colleagues in a more relaxed and unconventional environment, and it can be especially helpful for those that haven’t had much time to mingle during office hours. Nonetheless, they tend to include larger groups of people, which could potentially cause conflict in individual preferences regarding food, drinks or even the music selection. In order to avoid such disharmonious situations, it is best to choose a single theme and stick to its elements....

There's a new Jeff Rosenstock record. Since when? Since now, that's when! Jeff Rosenstock wrote POST- in a double-wide trailer in the Catskill Mountain town of East Durham, the snow-covered hills surrounding him like a landscape of blank pages. The serene, empty space was a big change of scenery for a guy who bounces around the world like a human comet, playing super-catchy, super-devastating shout-alongs to dedicated fans around the world. "2017 kinda felt like the year when we snuck...