CATEGORIES

Playing for survival Blind woman who keeps music alive

Rieko Hirosawa sits on a stone bench outside her home and takes a deep breath. She unleashes an impossibly high note while her bachi plectrum slaps the three strings of her shamisen, a traditional instrument.

Solo women look abroad to get round ban on egg freezing

When Yang Li* turned 30, she gave herself three years to decide if she wanted children. But as the years ticked by, working a busy job in Beijing, Yang remained unsure. So last year, a month shy of her 34th birthday, she decided to freeze her eggs.

Nature wins after Moscow's dam strike

Newly created miracle’ on Dnipro hosts animals, birds and saplings ina landscape of ponds and forests

‘Bittersweet’ Bereaved families’ cool welcome for Covid report

Relatives relieved at inquiry's damning analysis ofa lack of preparedeness but believe many issues not addressed

Israeli troops tighten their grip on lifeline to Egypt

In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.

Right march Religious recruits challenge IDF values

Israel's army, the country's preeminent secular institution for much of its seven decades, is increasingly coming under the sway of a national religious movement that has made bold moves across Israeli society in recent years.

Anactof grace Biden's selfless choice to drop out sets stage fora different election

Legend has it that when King George III heard that George Washington, the first US president, had decided to retire after his second term, he remarked: \"If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.\"

Lame duck? How Biden announcement could affect US foreign relations

After last Sunday's bombshell decision not to seek re-election, Joe Biden still has six months left as the US president and commander-in-chief, and foreign leaders could be expected to write him off as a lame duck.

BID FOR HISTORY

Kamala Harris faces an unprecedented task after Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the US election race. The vice president now has a party majority for the Democratic nomination, but she needs to ramp up her campaign to win over voters before November

Trump Deserves Our Sympathy But Not Our Support In November

I was on the phone with my daughter when emails started streaming through.

Steep Decline Palestinians Fear Eviction From East Jerusalem

On the wall of the living room of Zohair Rajabi's house is a map showing his neighbourhood: the stepped alleys winding down the steep slopes facing Jerusalem's Old City, and the flat roofs of houses.

Question Time Biden Touts His Record, But The Doubts Refuse To Go Away

In the shadow of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump officially became the party's nominee, two days after surviving an attempt on his life, Joe Biden was still confronting a question he thought he'd answered: will he be the Democratic nominee in November? "1,000%," the president said in an interview, which aired on Monday but was recorded before a would-be assassin shot at Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday. In the roughly 36 hours that followed, the presidential contest was suspended.

Labour Can Easily End Austerity At A Strokeby Taxing The Rich Hard

Never let your opponents define the terms of a debate.

Get Out Of Jail Could Britain Solve Its Prison Problems By Going Dutch?

Earlier this year, before he became the UK prisons minister, James Timpson described how Britain should follow the Dutch example of mild sentencing to help solve the prisons crisis.

China Leads World With Growth In Solar And Wind Power

The amount of wind and solar power under construction in China is now nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined, according to a new report.

Beat goes on Changüí musicians defying Cuba's crisis

In the city of Guantánamo, a festival celebrates a vibrant and joyful hyperlocal musical tradition holding out despite economic hardship

New York's wheelie bin revolution is exciting for everyone but rats

Last year, 200 composting bins were rolled out in New York City, with a unit on every other corner you could open and close via an app. This was exciting for those of us who have hit an age when rubbish disposal is something we think about.

Money for nothing

Would universal basic income create a kinder, more fulfilled society and is it a solution to the feared AI 'jobs apocalypse'?

Heat of the moment

David Azevedo was keen to impress in his new job in construction. But a heatwave in France made working conditions outdoors unbearable. Two years later, his family are still waiting for answers about his death.

Court drama Shock end to Baldwin trial fit for Hollywood

When Alec Baldwin set out to make the western Rust in 2021, it was a passion project for the veteran actor.

Bride and joy Billionaire spends $600m as son weds

The marriage of the son of India's richest man, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, to the daughter of a millionaire was never going to be a humble affair.

Drug boss accused of ordering churches in Rio to close

Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist religious beliefs ordered Catholic churches near his stronghold to close have spooked worshippers and security experts and exposed the advent of a \"narco-pentecostal\" movement made up of heavily armed evangelical drug traffickers.

Increasing violence and displacement deepen crisis

In a friend's house in BoboDioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city, Maimuona* remembers the night her son was born.

'I imagine how I used to walk in peace'

More than a year since the civil war started, 7 million people have fled their homes and had their lives uprooted

"Ticking timebomb': fears of collapse as prisons fill up

With Labour's early release plan not in force until September, ex-governor says emergency measures can only 'keep a lid on things'

Number of missing grows as hostilities continue

About 6,400 Palestinians reported as missing to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on 7 October are yet to have been found, the group has said.

'Perfect storm' Disinformation spreads after rally shooting

Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers described the polarised, conspiracy-driven noise on social media in response to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as \"a self-sustaining spiral of shit\".

Dodged bullet Security response raises questions

Demands for answers have been mounting as to how an armed man was able to get into position on a roof overlooking a rally and fire shots at Donald Trump - the 2024 presumptive Republican nominee - despite federal and local law enforcement presence and witnesses reportedly alerting police.

Political tinderbox

Donald Trump says he wants to focus on unifying the country after surviving an assassination attempt but the US remains awash with guns and his base is fuelled by political grievances

Why Is The Pundit Class Desperate To Push Joe Biden Out Of The Race?

I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I've never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the US media is suffering from severe memory loss.