CATEGORIES

A frail truce The battle for Tigray is not over

Despite a peace deal last year, Eritrean troops remain in border areas, and the Irob community pays the price

Why Taliban is desperate to silence musicians and artists

Hardline Islamist leaders have imposed brutal restrictions on cultural expression and the Afghan people are suffering

Shore bet Artwork with a mission to restore reefs

In the turquoise waters of Nacula Island, steel sculptures sit on the seafloor, adorned with coral. The artworks are part of a conservation effort to help grow and restore coral reefs as they face the threat of bleaching because of warmer seas.

Florida's united effort to turn the tide on coral bleaching

A race is under way in Florida to rescue corals being bleached at alarming rates as a result of historic heatwaves and rising water temperatures.

Thousands missing at sea as use of deadliest route rises

The number of people taking the world's deadliest migratory route-across the central Mediterranean - to reach the EU has more than doubled, driving irregular crossings at the bloc's external borders to their highest level in seven years.

Fresh anger over asylum policy after Channel boat deaths

Calls this week mounted in the UK and France for the introduction of safe routes for refugees crossing the Channel after a French organisation said it had received multiple distress calls from people making the crossing.

Questions fly after paradise is reduced to streets of ash

Atleast 99 people have died in the fire that consumed the historic town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and officials warned that the effort to find and identify the dead was in its early stages. Meanwhile, residents raised questions over aspects of the government response, from warnings during the fire to aid distribution in the days since.

Phone apps hit home in Beijing's bid for hearts and minds

Ariel Lo spends a couple of hours most weeks sharing anime art and memes on Chinese apps, often chatting with friends in China in a Mandarin slightly different from the one she uses at home in Taiwan.

Great leap backwards? Deflationary slide sparks global fears

When two core indicators of Chinese inflation turned negative last week, alarm bells rang as the world's second-largest economy started sliding into deflation. According to Joe Biden, China's economy is a \"ticking timebomb\".

'You don't survive that' Sappers dice with death to clear mines

Oleksandr Slyusar, a Ukrainian sapper with a ready smile, had spent the past 30 hours under Russian shelling in the recently liberated village of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. A rocket fired at them from a Grad system had peppered the legs and back of a fellow landmine-clearer with shrapnel.

Tech bosses issue threats to workers who shun office life

Amazon workers in the US are being tracked and penalised for not spending sufficient time in the company's offices, an email sent to employees revealed, as tech companies push back against work-from-home practices that flourished during the pandemic.

Desk jockeys - Why Britain has felt this seismic shift more than many countries

Working from home is a seismic shift in employment patterns that has rocked charities, businesses and public sector organisations across the world.

OUT OF OFFICE

Covid-19 transformed the way we work. But as lockdown memories fade, firms are pushing back against homebased employees. Who will prevail?

My legacy? I'm Ferris Bueller

The actor best known for playing a teenager talks about his new very grown-up role in the tale of OxyContin and the film that will always define him

People are kinder than our cynical politicians will give us credit for

An expiring Tory party lashing about for electoral resuscitation by doubling down on pugnacious policies. A Labour opposition that has straitjacketed its pledges and ambitions with its fears of blowing its strongest chance in years to gain power. That is the slim space that now defines Westminster, making the preoccupations and tones of our politicians seem more remote than ever.

My escape from China's mass arrests

When Uyghurs started disappearing into 're-education camps', I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be detained. So I got ready to run

'What about Hunter?' Why Biden's son is a GOP target again

The difference between six and seven is slight but, in the mouth of Joe Biden, it meant everything. \"I have seven grandkids,\" the US president said in a recent podcast interview.

'Endless possibilities': On a mission to create the materials that don't exist

Synthetic chemists are moving forward with a breakthrough method known as skeletal editing, which could pave the way for revolutionary advances in medicine and sustainable plastics

Boom time: The fraught rise of the retail apps

An online shopping revolution is transforming consumer habits but not everyone has a good deal

Till truths Prices go up to factor in 'real costs'

A leading discount supermarket in Germany temporarily raised prices to reflect products' real cost on people's health and the environment.

Rents soar as bid to attract foreign money backfires

Government incentives and deregulation have brought digital nomads, Airbnbs and 'golden visas' - but steep housing costs for locals

'This is weird, it's strange'

Sea ice has fallen so fast from record highs that it has left the continent exposed to destructive elements and scientists are baffled

'Should we cheer?': support for port arrivals

After weeks of local strife and national buildup, the sparsely filled coaches entering the Dorset port where the Bibby Stockholm is moored were a boost to pro-refugee demonstrators.

'A floating prison' First asylum seekers go onboard Bibby Stockholm barge

‘Inhumane’ government accused of reverting to the Victorian era with up to 500 spaces for people fleeing to escape war and persecution

Reality check: Ukraine's push on three fronts is measured in metres

The first casualty of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was wishful thinking. Any hope that Russian troops would abandon their trenches has been left far behind on the battlefield.

China backs peace talks after Jeddah summit

China is said to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine after a meeting of senior officials from about 40 countries in Saudi Arabia last weekend.

French disconnection France's empire in Africa is crumbling while Russia circles

Retreats from crumbling empires are inevitably characterised by hastily arranged evacuations. Panicked civilians make their way to rickety airport terminals in the hope of an emergency flight out of the chaos. This was the postcolonial scene in Niamey, the capital of Niger, last week, as hundreds of French nationals joined other EU citizens in scurrying away from the west African nation.

Sahel crisis: Military coup adds to chaos but may also offer hope

An intrepid traveller would now be hard-pressed to traverse the African continent at its widest point, passing from the Red Sea to near the Atlantic, while staying within a country that is not being torn apart by a civil war or recovering from one, has not suffered a military coup since 2021, or is not a failed state occupied by a toxic mix of rapacious politicians, militia and Russian mercenaries.

'These people are diehard': Trump fans shrug off his indictments

Many in Iowasee prosecution of the former president as a Democratic political move - and they say it will backfire

Jack Smith, prosecutor 'If I could be cowed...I would find another line of work'

A grand jury indicted Donald Trump on 1 August on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The 45-page indictment against Trump - which includes one count of conspiracy to defraud the US, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights - was filed by special counsel Jack Smith in federal district court in Washington DC.