University of Birmingham

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joked about numerous Ukrainian drones in Moscow when asked by U.S. President Donald Trump if he would travel there for talks. Professor Stefan Wolff criticized the idea of Trump and Zelensky visiting Moscow, calling it a wasted effort if Putin merely repeated demands.

The University of Birmingham is accused of weakening its restrictions on investing in arms companies by replacing a policy that aimed to minimize such investments with new 'investment principles' focusing on financially material ESG factors. The updated policy, adopted in 2022, requires considering ESG issues but removes specific exclusion criteria for companies involved in weapons systems, cluster munitions, and anti-personnel landmines.

The University of Birmingham has weakened its restrictions on investing in arms companies by replacing a policy that excluded weapons, tobacco, and alcohol with weaker 'investment principles' focused on 'financially material' ESG factors. This makes it the first British university to loosen such restrictions amid Israel's actions in Gaza.

Researchers led by the University of Oxford discovered two 'super-puff' planets, TOI-791 b and c, with densities lighter than cotton candy. The planets orbit a dwarf star in the constellation Volan and are the lightest known planets of their size, according to the study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham developed a perovskite-based catalyst that splits water into hydrogen at lower temperatures, enabling industries to convert waste heat into clean fuel. This breakthrough could reduce the cost and complexity of producing clean hydrogen.