CATEGORIES

Trump's return is bleak for America and the world

This is an exceptionally bleak and frightening moment for the United States and the world. Donald Trump swept the electoral college and the popular vote -giving him not merely a victory, but a mandate. If many voters gambled on him in 2016, they doubled down this time.

Flower Power

Once a modest sign of remembrance for the war dead, the poppy has increasingly been used as a prop for performative patriotism, and a tool that helps to gauge others' loyalty to an ideal of national sacrifice

When adult children cut the cord

Grownups who cut off contact with their family are often trying to break away after a traumatic childhood. But sometimes the estrangement can be totally unexpected for parents who really believe they've done their best

Battle lines Pyongyang's Russia entente is a dilemma for Xi Jinping

In October 1950, barely a year after the Chinese civil war ended, Mao Zedong sent the first Chinese soldiers to fight in the Korean war. Between 180,000 and 400,000 of Chairman Mao's troops would die in that conflict, including his own son. But it was important to defend North Korea then, Mao reportedly said, because \"without the lips, the teeth are cold\".

The hospital on the frontline of unstoppable gang warfare

It was mid-morning in central Port-au-Prince and already two shooting victims had been rushed into the hospital past a mural instructing visitors to leave machetes and rifles outside.

Small wonders Unravelling the paradoxes of plankton

Scientists are using technology to sequence the DNA of microscopic marine life for the first time-to help us learn more about ourselves

Piecing back together the picture portraits of Ans Westra

When a black-and-white photo of a man and a woman sitting on a patterned sofa outside an old weatherboard house appeared on a billboard in central Wellington recently, Arthur Uruamo's phone lit up.

Turks turn to home comforts of Atatürk's secular rule

A few weeks ago, Ozlem Karakus, her son Ali and cousin Cansu made the long drive from Ankara in Turkey to Thessaloniki in Greece.

False claims and hoaxes surge as floods recede

Home to more than 120 shops, a cinema and 34 restaurants, the Bonaire shopping centre had long been known as one of the largest in the Valencia region. After flood waters coursed through the municipality of Aldaia two weeks ago, it began making headlines for another reason: disinformation over the fate of its vast underground car park.

Why has the government collapsed and what comes next?

Olaf Scholz's sacking of his finance minister has plunged Europe's largest economy into considerable uncertainty

Gulf state suspends role as Gaza talks mediator

The Qatari government has informed the US and Israel it will stop mediation efforts to halt the conflict in Gaza because it no longer thinks the parties are negotiating in good faith.

Veil lifted West Bank weighs up Trump win

Many argue things cannot get any worse but some say US result could add unpredictability to despair

Cop out Odour of oil and return of Trump hang heavy over summit

When more than 100 heads of state and government landed in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan this week the first thing they are likely to have noticed is the smell of oil. Flaring from refineries lights up the night sky, and the city is dotted with \"nodding donkey\" oil wells drawing from the earth. Even the national symbol is a gas flame.

From power to civil war Bereft party turns on Biden as wilderness beckons

JOE BIDEN STOOD before the American people, millions of whom were still reeling from the news of Donald Trump's victory in the presidential race, and reassured them: \"We're going to be OK\"

The last laugh 'Weird' JD Vance gets serious as he passes the ruthlessness test

He was written off as a drag on the presidential ticket, mocked by political opponents as \"weird\", falsely rumoured to have had sex with a couch and pilloried as a misogynist for describing women without children as \"childless cat ladies\".

Money talks Is the world's richest man now Trump's shadow vice-president?

A S DONALD TRUMP WATCHED election results roll in from a party at his Mar-aLago compound, Elon Musk sat arm's length away, basking in the impending victory he had helped secure. In less than five months, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had gone from not endorsing a candidate to becoming a fixture of the presidentelect's inner circle.

The new American psyche

The next Trump era heralds a more inward-looking US where resentment has replaced idealism and nobody wins without someone else losing. Is this the end of the American dream as we know it?

Finn family murals

The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition

I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson

Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.

A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams

The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.

'What will people think? I don't care any more'

At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister

I see you

What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results

Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago

Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.

Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit

Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.

Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping

After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.

'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital

Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order

Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'

High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness

'It's better not to try our luck again'

Why voters back political forces that favour closer ties with Moscow, despite seeing their nations' future in the EU

A new enemy Inexperienced North Korean troops prepare to enter conflict

Depending on whom you ask, they are the boost that Russian forces need to make a significant breakthrough in Ukraine, or they are simple cannon fodder, destined for repatriation in body bags.

Deep blue Badenoch faces multiple challenges as Tory leader

Kemi Badenoch might have avoided the cursed 52%-48% ratio that has riven the Conservative party before, but the nevertheless close-run nature of her 56.5% tally in the members' vote for the party's new leader shows the scale of the task before her.