Dr Sue Onslow , deputy director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies ( ICWS ), and senior research fellow Martin Plaut , highlights, in the New Statesman and Daily Maverick , newly released cables that reveal a surprisingly close relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Robert Mugabe.

Professor Barry Smith , director of the Institute of Philosophy ( IP ) and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Senses ( CenSes ), discusses whisky and food, herring, meringues, aphrodisiacs and roasted peaches on BBC Radio 4’s Kitchen Cabinet . And in a talk forming part of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s exhibition,  Plato in LA: Contemporary Artists' Vision , he brought together ancient philosophy and modern neuroscience for a multisensory exploration of wine and a discussion about how we perceive flavour and evaluate taste.

Martin Plaut , senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies ( ICWS ), features in the Guardian article ‘ Ethiopia hails its charismatic young leader as a peacemaker ’. On the historic meeting between Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, and the Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki, he says ‘The entire history of [Isaias] is as a ruthless Marxist-Leninist … Enemies were shot and killed. Economically, his position has always been: we are completely self-reliant. Is this guy going to become a happy-clappy liberal?

Professor Henning Melber , senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies ( ICWS ), examines the current situation in Zimbabwe in the Nordic Africa Institute’s article ‘ Military-backed Mnangagwa faces fragmented opposition ’.