CATEGORIES

Tears of joy as Kansas celebrates abortion rights win

In a conference room at the Sheraton in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, people screamed, whooped, cheered and cried as a vote to protect abortion rights in Kansas's state constitution came down late last Tuesday night.

The simple life: outdoor cooking that's faff-free and delicious

KITCHEN AIDE

Reality is only make-believe

Comedian Nathan Fielder's experiment in reality TV is a high stakes game that exposes the building blocks of the genre while creating its own elaborate fictions

Do the math

Can learning algebra in your 60s make you smarter and unlock new parts of your brain?

A change of heart

Pig-to-human transplants promise to solve an organ shortage and change the way we think about human longevity, but they also raise a host of questions

Beijing makes its ånger clear

China showed its huge military might in response to Nancy Pelosi's visit but in Taipei calm prevailed

Could hemp help wean farmers off their opium crops?

The smell seemed unmistakable, the dried buds looked familiar and the Taliban checkpoint guards, who had never heard of CBD, a nonpsychoactive cannabis compound, were disgusted by Amin Karim's cargo.

Why migrant workers are turning to evangelical Christianity

The Pentecostal church is flourishing in Gulf states as low-paid expatriate labourers seek rescue from abuse

President's downfall raises hopes of justice for war crimes

Onan April day in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was enjoying the afternoon with his family in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.

Widow urges activists to 'go forward' after four are executed

The wife of Kyaw Min Yu, a prominent democracy activist whose execution by the Myanmar junta caused global outrage, has urged the country's people not to stop their fight for democracy, but "to go forward with a victory spirit".

England’s win against Germany is only the beginning

England won. In the end, perhaps that was the only thing that mattered.

Grain export resumes, easing fears of widespread hunger

Analysts express tentative hopes that international efforts to allow ships to cross Black Sea blockade will hold

'I hate them' Medvedev's slide from boyish liberal to bitter hawk

Joe Biden is a "strange grandfather with dementia".

‘Nobody wants to hear about the war’

Moscow residents are determined to enjoy the summer as public indifference to the conflict grows

Chaos and fear, one month after Roe v Wade reversal

Severe new restrictions upend reproductive care across the US. Patients report delays for procedures, as doctors fear vague new laws with criminal penalties. A 10-year-old rape victim was forced to travel out of state to terminate a pregnancy. And activists promise more restrictions to come.

String theory

Renowned cellist Abel Selaocoe reflects on his life journey from a South African township to the elite world of classical music

A new migration wave is coming-and Europe is not ready for it

After a week when Russia threatened to annex more territory in Ukraine, gas shortages loomed, and inflation and Covid surged across Europe, it seems almost unkind to remind EU and UK leaders of another crisis that is unfolding, largely unremarked, right under their noses. As Claudius laments in Hamlet: "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions."

The Tories' inglorious leadership fight ought to fill Labour with joy

The Duke of Wellington, surveying his troops, said he didn't know what effect the spectacle would have on the enemy, "but, by God, they frighten me". What's left of the serious elements of the Conservative party are frightened as they view the battlefield ahead - and they don't expect to win a Waterloo.

Catching up: Why are those who dodged the virus for so long now getting it?

Having somehow dodged Covid so far, those who have never seen the two red lines appear on a rapid test have become a shrinking minority. Last week, the White House announced that the US president, Joe Biden, tested positive for Covid, becoming the most high-profile figure yet to join the increasingly exclusive club of people who are only now, in the third year of rife disease, notching up their first infection.

Laughing matters: Refugees forge links through the art of comedy

In Athens, a handful of novice standups are at the mic after taking part in a series of comedy workshops. One of the organisers, Vasileia Vaxevani, compares the experience to the first time you have sex. "It ends quickly. It hurts a little.

A sofa, $4m and a rising scandal for Ramaphosa

Local media have called it "Farmgate". Astonishing details have leaked over months, embroiling Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's affable president, in a plot that might be lifted directly from a gritty TV crime series.

Meloni twist: Draghi's fall from power may open door to the far right

If last Wednesday marked an undignified end for Mario Draghi's government, one person who enjoyed the spectacle from the sidelines was Giorgia Meloni. The leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, is in pole position to become prime minister after elections this year.

Between bombings and air raids, life in Odesa goes on

Barely 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Ukraine to allow monitored grain exports from Ukraine's southern ports, Russia targeted the country's main port of Odesa - through which grain shipments would take place with cruise missile strikes.

Capitol crimes: A conspiracy was laid barebut where does it end for Trump?

During its landmark hearings, the House select committee investigating the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has sought to show that Donald Trump was at the centre of a conspiracy to seize a second term in office, accusing him of having "summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack".

Prima facie?

The Capitol riot hearings have set out shocking evidence against Donald Trump - but in the key swing state of Wisconsin, Republicans aren't changing their views of the ex-president

Lucky dip Bathers flock to cleaned-up beaches

0n the beach in Sheikh Ijlin, a neighbourhood south of Gaza City, no one is paying attention to a nearby] Islamic Jihad military drill.

Anger rises in Jenin, two months after murder of journalist

It's early morning in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, but the summer sun is already hot.

In Trump's footsteps Does Carlson want to be president?

He entered to rapturous applause, flattered his hosts shamelessly, told them about his political vision and sold them merchandise bearing his name.

Biden forced to tread a pragmatic path back to Saudi Arabia

For all the careful choreography of Joe Biden's Middle East tour last week, the White House made a major miscalculation when the president finally came face to face with Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for the first time.

Treat your guests to salty nibbles that leave them hungry for more

Ixta Belfrage, whose debut book Mezcla was released this month, is also a big fan of tinned fish.