‘Tanks, tanks' On the border with Ukraine, citizens sense onset of war

The military train lurched into the rail depot at Kursk, carrying more snow-dusted main battle tanks, self-propelled artillery and other heavy weapons to within a few hours’ drive by car of the Ukrainian border.

Red poets' society

Between 1982 and 1989, a Stasi poetry-writing group met regularly in Berlin. But was it really just an innocent literary club?

Scholz slated for ‘inaudible' position on Ukraine

Germany’s new chancellor Olaf Scholz is waving goodbye to the honeymoon period of his tenure, as his “inaudible” stance over the brewing crisis on the Ukrainian border is failing to impress not only Russia-hawks abroad but also more ambivalent voters at home.

Cold thaw? Xi and Putin attack west in ‘no limits' unity display

While a full alliance between Moscow and Beijing is unlikely, they want to roll back US influence

The Covid culture wars

It began as a protest against vaccine mandates – but does Ottawa’s truck driver blockade signal the birth of a dangerous new political movement?

PM on the brink as ally calls his exit ‘inevitable'

Boris Johnson’s desperate efforts to save his premier ship were undermined last weekend as one of his most loyal backbench supporters said it was now “inevitable” that Tory MPs would remove him from office over the “party gate” scandal .

One year on The striking workers still fleeing from the military

‘For fear of being arrested , we haven’t been able to go home for nine months’

Carrie Johnson No 10 puppet master or easy target?

Some say the prime minister’s wife is pulling the strings at Downing Street while others dismiss such claims as sexist

BREAKING THE ICE

In 1965, Tété-Michel Kpomassie left his village in Togo for a new life in Greenland. Now, at 80, he’s planning to retire to his ‘spiritual home’

Danger Time Partygate Report Adds To Johnson's Jeopardy

PM braced for findings on lockdown breaches, as MPs, ministers and No 10 staff weigh up whether to back him

The Big Story: Russia/Ukraine

The cold front ‘We are ready for whatever happens' | On the precipice Why Russia is so keen to flex its military muscles | Vladimir Putin is a ‘rogue male’ whose wild rampaging must be stopped

Zeroing In Could Covid Burst The Olympic Bubble?

Like many middle class Chinese, the 26-year-old banker from Beijing spent the first two weeks of January celebrating the new year.

Up, up and away

When inventor David Mayman took to the skies with a jetpack, it seemed he had fulfilled an age-old longing for flight. Yet no one batted an eyelid

Word of Honor

After her acclaimed debut in The Souvenir, the actor returns in its sequel, starring alongside her mother, Tilda, and playing a version of her godmother. All good material for her psychology degree, she says

‘I thought I was going to be a millionaire'

Fears rise that the wild promotion of unregulated crypto assets is creating a new generation of addicts

The shape of things to come

Senegal cast-off western influences after gaining independence in 1960, but though its new African style is neglected, Dakar’s buildings still dazzle

THE KILLING OF A GOD

The naval explorer Captain James Cook was worshipped as a deity in the 18th century. Now his statues are being defaced in the lands he visited as his myth is re-examined.

Opinion

Science has defanged Covid – so let’s learn to get on with our lives | Where are the inspiring female leaders? Not where you might think | The social media mob and cowardice have done away with nuance

Fish pills: the hidden catch

The market in this prized commodity is worth billions – but are the supposed health benefits worth the cost to global ecosystems?

‘We're just country bumpkins!'

Wet Leg’s feelgood anthems have beguiled their fans. But, after playing for fun and turning down record labels, do they finally feel they are a ‘real band’?

‘We will fight' Actors and lawyers get ready to take up arms

The mood last week in Ukraine was eerily calm, despite talk of war.

Rock bottom Villagers fear losing land to Chinese mine owners

A convoy of trucks laden with huge black granite rocks trundles along the dusty pathway as a group of villagers look on grimly.

NOWHERE TO HIDE

How insects are losing the race against climate change

No go, Joe? A year on, Biden's big promises hit reality

Enemies within, a radicalised opposition and messaging failure have hamstrung the president’s first 12 months

Is this the end?

Boris Johnson’s lame ‘partygate’ excuses have been mocked by quiz show hosts and sports pundits. But while the UK prime minister is accustomed to ridicule , the deep anger of families who suff ered in the pandemic while obeying the rules will not go away. It’s now just a question of how long he survives …

In the Djokovic circus, it was the players who hit all the winners

Stefanos Tsitsipas learned to listen to Covid science the hard way. Not the really hard way, of course.

I remember 20 May 2020. It was the day I buried my sister

I remember well what I was doing on the evening of 20 May 2020, when more than 100 people were invited to a BYOB party in the prime minister’s garden, “to make the most of the lovely weather”.

Fallen idol? Speculation over silence of the nation's founding father

The question was being asked with increasing urgency last week: where is Nursultan Nazarbayev ?

Ukraine talks Can history help find a path to rapprochement with Putin?

So high have the stakes been set by Russia over the future security architecture of Europe, so imminent is the threat of war in Ukraine, that the three meetings due between Russia and the west this week have drawn comparison with great west-Russia exchanges of the past : Yalta in 1945, Paris in 1960 – over Berlin – and Reykjavík in 1986.

The Trump menace is darker than ever – and snapping at Biden's heels

The problem with coverage of this month’s anniversary of the events of 6 January 2021 is that too much of it was written in the past tense. True, the attempted insurrection when a violent mob stormed Capitol Hill to try to overturn a democratic election was a year ago, but the danger it poses is clear and present – and looms over the future. For the grim truth is that, while Donald Trump is the last US president, he may also be the next. What’s more, the menace of Trumpism is darker than ever.