CATEGORIES

The Russian minister who became a US truck driver

The former minister drove his big white truck north until he reached Michigan. The Great Lakes provided a welcome relief from the scorching Texas heat.

Fukushima fish traders fear effects of water release

Awa-jinja is a place of pilgrimage for the more superstitious fishing crews of Shinchi-machi, a coastal town in Fukushima, who come here to lower their heads and ask the Shinto gods to look kindly on them as they prepare to steer their boats into the Pacific Ocean.

Bombed out The island idyll where atomic tests reverberate

Oppenheimer has reminded the world of the impact of nuclear weapons testing. One Pacific archipelago never forgot

Monster, Inc Loch Ness's most famous local keeps head down

Around Loch Ness last Saturday, the hope was for sunshine. Would-be champions prepared for the Glenurquhart Highland Games, dedicated runners warmed up for the Loch Ness 24 endurance race - and volunteers readied their binoculars and notepads for the biggest search for the Loch Ness monster in 50 years.

How football president's kiss led to a #MeToo moment

When Jenni Hermoso arrived in the stands, the standing ovation was thundering. On the field below, Atlético de Madrid and AC Milan were battling it out for the Women's Cup, but the message - scrawled on posters, temporary tattoos and a metres-long banner unfurled by the players - was unanimous at the stadium in Madrid last Saturday night: \"We're with you, Jenni Hermoso.\"

Female suicides on rise under Taliban regime

First, her dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed by the Taliban's ban on women's education. Then her family set up a forced marriage to her cousin, a heroin addict. Latifa* felt her future had been snatched away.

Touch down Moon landing is another leap in the global space race

For all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon's surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.

Labrador dawn A future where culture meets conservation

A plume of red erupts in the grey-blue waters and Martin Shiwak accelerates his boat to grab the seal he has shot before it sinks out of sight. Shiwak has hunted for years in the waters of Lake Melville, close to the Inuit community of Rigolet in Nunatsiavut.

The next movement Prigozhin is gone, but the Sahel will not be free of Wagner soon

Last week, before Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash, the founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner appeared bullish in a publicity video, holding a rifle and dressed in desert camouflage.

The cost of speaking out The not so mysterious deaths of Putin's opponents

The attacks have varied, from underwear tainted with the nerve agent Novichok or polonium-laced tea to the more straightforward assassinations by a bullet but, throughout Vladimir Putin's 23-year rule, Kremlin critics, journalists and defected spies have been killed and targeted for opposing him.

Patriot, traitor, martyr ...

After his apparent assassination, Yevgeny Prigozhin's legacy is still to be determined. The Wagner chief's reputation will be dictated by two linked factors-Putin and the result of the war

Village people - A celebrated court case links Victorian England with slavery in Jamaica in Zadie Smith's gripping historical novel

Zadie Smith has spent a long time concertedly not writing historical fiction.

Carry on screaming Film studio is back from the dead

Amicus, which mastered the art of the gleefully ghoulish cinematic short-story collection in the 60s and 70s, is set to make a glorious return

For 25 years, my weekly game has been about so much more than sport

It’s the middle of summer, which means a new football season. The glory game hardly sleeps these days: the Women’s World Cup has only just concluded and there is the constant spectre of the Saudi power grab on men’s elite football.

Biden's Middle East policy aims seem delusional and out of time

It’s uncanny, the way America’s declining influence across the Middle East seems to be tracking the previous, humbling retreat of the British empire from the same area.

THE 600 BILLION DOLLAR MEN

From the star-studded Pro League to golf, F1 and cricket, Saudi Arabia's dizzying strategic investment in global sport is as cynically ambitious as it is controversial.

Pulse of life Ancient folk music is still whipping up a frenzy

When Antonio Castrignanò listens to pizzica, he hears much more than tambourines and drums.

75 years on, Franco's cruel punishment still haunts village

Half an hour's drive uphill from the busy beaches of Nerja, on Spain's Costa del Sol, lies the isolated village of El Acebuchal, pretty but spookily quiet on a summer's morning. Seventy-five years ago, its people were victims of a grievous injustice.

Kennedy Jr dismays Democrats - but pulls in populists

It was standing room only when Kevin O'Keeffe, wearing a Robert Kennedy Jr campaign T-shirt, joined the audience to welcome the candidate, introduced as \"Bobby Kennedy\", who walked across the sunbaked stage decked with hay bales to whoops and applause.

Hawaii alert Non-native grasses 'raised risk of fires'

Scientists and academics say they have been warning for several years that invasive grasses covering a quarter of the Hawaii islands are a major fire risk.

Crackdown on illegal goldmines brings hope

Armed agents are destroying illicit camps in response to the rampant deforestation permitted under Bolsonaro

Windows of opportunity Lack of glass hits homes

Shortage of glazing materials is impeding efforts to restore normality in areas damaged by Russian artillery attacks

Netherlands and Denmark pledge fighter jets for Kyiv

The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited both countries after months of entreaties to bolster the Ukrainian air force.

'Obscene' Guards accused of mass border killings

Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a campaign that rights advocates suggest may be a crime against humanity.

How one of the UK's worst child killers went undetected

Before Lucy Letby's arrest and conviction, it took almost two years for the police to be called in over suspicious baby deaths at a Chester hospital

The next goal... How long until we see this spectacle not as 'women's sport', but simply 'sport'?

This Women's World Cup has been compelling viewing. Fans enjoyed a heady mix of breathtaking skill, dramatic incidents and unexpected results, with record attendances and viewing figures at every stage of the tournament.

How England's Lionesses are changing the game for girls

In five years, 100,000 more girls have taken up the sport in England, shattering myths about their relative abilities

Kick on

A month-long spectacle, culminating in Spain's thrilling triumph, is another landmark moment for the women's game, in which Europe is the new leader of player development at elite and grassroots levels

Marvel story

This tale of a pianist who finds love and renewal before mystical forces intervene is a reminder of Neil Jordan's gifts as a writer

The invisible woman

George Orwell's first wife has been ill-served by his own biographers, yet here the witty and fierce Eileen is stripped of agency all over again