CATEGORIES

Magnificent megastructures

Utilitarian as they may be, some civic projects are so monumental they approach the sublime. And one of the most elegant is a power station hidden away inside a mountain in the glorious landscape of north Wales

Indigenous ancestry row tarnishes singer's legacy

Allegations in a documentary that the popular American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie misrepresented her Indigenous roots have rattled First Nations communities in Canada, where she claims to have been born, highlighting the complex legacy of an artist whose decades-long career is defi ned by advocating for Indigenous rights.

One year out, most US voters don't want Trump or Biden

Americans are one year away from a presidential election that's shaping up to be a historically unpopular rematch between the oldest ever sitting president, Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, the twice-impeached, serially indicted Donald Trump.

Ground dispute How a rusting wreck became a geopolitical flashpoint

For more than two decades, a second world war-era ship, BRP Sierra Madre, has stood deliberately grounded in the remote, shallow waters of the fiercely contested South China Sea, carrying the Philippine flag and guarding against Chinese expansion.

Border zone reimagined as a path towards peace

A new tourist trail offers hikers a radical view across the 38th parallel, 75 years after war cut Korea in two

The hope and perils of an AI revolution

Africa lags behind as a global Al power, but is beginning to realise the technology's potential-good and bad

'All we can do now is run away' Is time up for the sinking islands of San Bernardo?

Islanders on this archipelago live only a few metres above sea level, while authorities fail to take action as climate change brings oblivion closer each year

Summit highs Existential threats and a new forum for diplomacy

Rishi Sunak hailed last week's artificial intelligence summit at Bletchley Park, the UK base for second world war codebreakers, as a diplomatic win after it produced an international declaration to address risks with the technology. Here are five things that we have learned from the summit.

Chaos theory Johnson will struggle to reverse account of his Covid reign

Inquiry evidence stacks up against former PM, in repeated references to him being out of control and indecisive

Mone admits involvement with 'VIP lane' PPE firm

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m ($250m) during the Covid pandemic.

Kyiv rebukes general over claim war is at a stalemate

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denied a suggestion from the Ukrainian military's commander-in-chief that the war with Russia has reached a stalemate, and a senior spokesperson for his administration has rebuked the general in question and accused him of making \"the aggressor's job easier\".

Freedom, but no peace Life on the Kherson frontline

On the Saturday, the Russians hit a school and a grain store. On the Sunday, the ceaseless bombardment of Kherson from across the river struck a medical facility. An artillery round landed near a middle-aged man. The doctors did their best but the shrapnel had pierced his brain.

'Get them out' Hostages' families call for concessions to secure release

Relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to make significant concessions to secure the freedom of their loved ones.

The last hope

A long-mooted two-state solution between Israel and Palestine could offer a path to peace after the bloodiest fighting in decades. But how might it look – and would the will still exist to achieve it?

Nature's way - A gripping, semi-historical imagining of the memories and experiences of a French botanist in colonial Africa

Readers of David Diop's previous novel, which won the International Booker prize, probably won't have forgotten the experience. At Night All Blood Is Black is narrated by a young Senegalese soldier recruited to fight for France in the first world war and brutalised in the trenches.

Breezy does it

From Barcelona to Bohemia, artists are using arange of innovative techniques to capture and harness the power of mighty winds

Even the French are giving up on arthouse

Independent cinema risks being sacrificed on the altar ofmarket forces. From Jules et Jim to Blue Is the Warmest Colour, that would be aterrible loss

This malaria vaccine will transform our battle with the mosquito

Want to guess the most dangerous animal in the world? When my team asked children in Edinburgh during a public outreach event with schools, they said sharks, alligators, spiders and lions.

A poverty so vicious that only a grim new vocabulary describes it

It starts slowly. A food bank crops up inside your local mosque. You notice more sleeping bags on the walk to work. Over time, the signs seem to grow.

Fast and furious

Caster Semenya is the Olympic gold-winner whose elevated testosterone levels led people to question her right to compete. With a few choice words for World Athletics, the middle-distance runner talks about labels, leaked medical records and how lowering her hormones affected her body

Root and branch - The battle to save a city's trees

What started outasasmall protest escalatedintoa decade-long battle between Sheffield counciland hundreds of ordinary people, who decided totake radical action to save their neighbourhood trees

'Stick with the fight,' urge young gun control activists

Following 2023's deadliest mass shooting in the US that occurred in Lewiston, Maine, last week, young gun control activists are once again speaking up against the failures of lawmakers amid an all too familiar tragedy.

The small town that's teaching Japan about immigration

An unassuming industrial town in Japan, far from the busy tourist hubs of Tokyo and Kyoto, is in the middle of an unprecedented social transformation. Õizumi, rather than the country's capital, is at the forefront of Japan's foreigner-friendly future.

Newcomers threaten Patagonia's paradise

Anational park has drawn hundreds of people tosettlein the remote area, witha potential threat to wildlife and a way of life

How Jokowi's son could go from food seller to vice-president

Indonesia's next vice-president could be a familiar face. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, is the son of the current president Joko Widodo and his swift rise to the top of the country's political echelons is proving controversial, raising questions about dynasty-building and the strength of the country's democracy.

Las Vegas is model for gambling sector purge

Ukrainian officials seeking to oust Russian actors from the country's gambling industry are going to emulate the methods of the US authorities in the 1980s when they rooted out the Italian mob from the casinos of Las Vegas.

'I feel guilt' Deserters urge Russian soldiers to join them

Men tell of escape to Armenia and feelings ofremorse as growing numbers of troops flee criminal war’ in Ukraine

Party protest Labour faces Muslim backlash at Gaza stance

'I was a Labour party member for 31 years. The Palestine crisis was the end of the tether for me. I cannot tolerate Keir's policies any more,\" said Waheed Akbar, the former mayor of Luton.

Human shields How has Hamas been accused of using them?

In audio released by the Israel Defence Forces, a member of the Military Intelligence Directorate can be heard calling a Palestinian man in Gaza urging him and his family to evacuate south. But the man says it is hard to comply because Hamas is blocking roads, and \"sending people back home\". He adds that Hamas is shooting at Palestinians trying to leave the area.

A matter of time Israeli troops are now on the ground in Gaza - but for how long?

The heavy fog that cloaked Gaza's agony on the morning after Israeli troops arrived was burned away by the sun - only to be replaced by the smoke of hundreds of bombs, and between the blasts, there was a new sound: machine gun fire. The taking of Gaza territory had begun.