CATEGORIES

Crude insult Recovery is slow from a Gulf War act of vandalism

Oilwells set alight by Iraqi forces in 1991 were put out within months, but insidious pollution still mars the desert

Can't find a PS5 console? Just head to Gaza City

It is surrounded on all sides, regularly bombed, and plagued by shortages of vital medicines. Yet in the lead-up to Christmas, the isolated Gaza Strip has had ample supplies of something the rest of the world craves but can rarely find: a brand new PlayStation 5. Sony’s flagship video game console is hot property this holiday season, although most people who have asked for one will be disappointed on Christmas morning.

Boosters What makes them more effective than the first two jabs?

Only recently, the rollout of boosters to older age groups was seen as contentious. Now they’re the single biggest focus. So why do boosters help so significantly compared with first and second jabs, and are we on a conveyor belt towards needing an ever-increasing number of top-ups?

For Trump's appointees, judgment day comes ever nearer

The growing gap between what the six conservative judges say and do threatens to ruin the court’s legitimacy

The next wave

Is the pandemic likely to fizzle out... or get much worse?

Johnson faces rising tide of voter distrust over sleaze

Trust in politicians to act in the national interest rather than their own has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to figures in a disturbing study of the state of British democracy.

True colours

How abortion focused white evangelical anger

‘No quick fix'

Ultra-violent gang crime shocks a liberal nation

Nurdles: the worst toxic waste that you've never heard of

Billions of tiny plastic pellets are fl oating in the world’s oceans – and causing as much damage as oil spills

OUT OF THE BLUE

Before the pandemic, planes were in constant motion, pinballing between continents. But in March 2020 all that came to a halt. What did a year without flying do to our jobs, our horizons – and the planet?

Roe, Wade and America

The conservative-dominated US supreme court is considering a case that could lead to the reversal of the 48-year-old ruling on a woman’s right to choose. What damage would such a verdict do to the nation – and how did it come to this?

Unsettlers

As attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank worsen, Donald Macintyre and Quique Kierszenbaum speak to farmers, settlers and Israeli human rights activists – and the mother of a three-year-old boy injured in a raid

‘No standing down, no giving up': resistance to junta grows

Last Sunday morning, a small group of protesters walked together in Kyimyindaing township, Yangon , waving bunches of eugenia and roses. They carried a banner reading: “The only real prison is fear and the real freedom is freedom from fear.”

The world is ignoring Tigray's year-long nightmare of war

On 4 November 2020 the world was occupied with the US election. For myself and many others with family and friends in Tigray, however, that day marked the beginning of a continuing nightmare. And it’s one that the world has, mostly, ignored.

Lockdown protests turn violent as restrictions get tougher

Coronavirus europe

Global predators are circling a weak and unstable continent

Is Europe entering a dangerous new age of instability? Not since the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union has it looked so vulnerable to hostile forces.

Can they kick it?

A year from now, the tiny, super-rich Gulf nation plans to send a message to the world by hosting world football’s showpiece event. But the jury is still out over whether the message is one of real change, or just image projection

Action pledge after English cricket says sorry to Rafiq

English cricket has issued an unreserved apology to Azeem Rafiq, saying the racism he experienced is a blight on the game, before promising to take swift measures to restore trust.

‘We'll never forget' Wanjiru's family still seek justice

Allegations that a British soldier confessed to a Kenyan woman's murder in 2012 have deeply affected relatives in her hometown

Without alternatives, ditching coal is impossible

It was a dramatic 11th-hour decision, portrayed by some as a devastating blow to the success of Cop26.

Tennis player missing after sexual assault accusation

Feminist groups and tennis stars raised concerns over the whereabouts of the former doubles pro Peng Shuai after she accused the former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault.

Fortress Europe: EU policies have turned migrants into a resource to be exploited

A company of men in dark uniforms and balaclavas, all carrying clubs.

Cold comfort: The lucrative route from the Middle East to Minsk

Travel agents and migrants who have reached Poland describe how thousands are making the journey

BELARUS/POLAND: Human collateral

Belarus's despotic leader has created a migrant crisis to goad the EU. But what happens next may be at the whim of Vladimir Putin

A fragile agreement Inside the final hours of Cop26

A sweary delegates trudged into the Scottish Event Campus on the banks of the Clyde last Saturday, few realised what a mountain they still had to climb.

#FreeBritney Why a band of superfans are carrying on the fight

The liberation last week of Britney Spears from her nearly 14-year conservatorship was a landmark moment for the pop star.

Dozens dead after renewed gang violence in prison

At least 68 prisoners were killed and 25 injured in a jail in the city of Guayaquil after bloodletting between rival gangs broke out last Friday, the attorney general’s office said.

Biden and Xi warn each other over future of Taiwan

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has warned Joe Biden in a virtual summit that Beijing was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan makes any moves towards independence that cross his country’s red lines.

To avert climate disaster, we need resilient societies built on love, not just technology

When things look especially bleak for humankind, it’s worth reminding ourselves who we are – what makes us such a special species.

The royal we Queen's rest reveals a roadmap to succession

With the 95-year-old monarch taking a break on doctor’s orders, a potentially fraught transition of duties has begun