CATEGORIES

Last dance Rival parties scramble to unite against the far right

France's left and centrist parties are scrambling to cobble together a united front. Rival parties were engaged in frantic bargaining and tactical voting plans on Monday in an attempt to stop the rise of Marine Le Pen's National Rally's (RN).

Macron's failed gamble How Le Pen destroyed the centrist project

When Emmanuel Macron strolled through the seaside resort of Le Touquet last Sunday afternoon, near his holiday home, dressed in a leather jacket with his collar up and aviator shades, smiling and asking passersby how they were doing, he seemed a world away from the fact that his gamble of a snap election was about to dramatically backfire.

Pressure is mounting on US President Joe Biden after a faltering debate performance against Donald Trump. Once-friendly media heavyweights have joined the chorus of derision.Is it time for Joe to go?

Amid a howling chorus of derision over Joe Biden's substandard debate performance against Donald Trump last week, one voice seemed to resonate more powerfully than others.

Dangerous Alliance Putin And Kim Are The Odd Couple With A Dual Mission

They make an odd couple. One is smiley-faced and chubby. The other is thin-lipped and scowls a lot.

Evangelicals On Crusade To Return Trump To Presidency

God's army is on the march. And many of its foot soldiers are wearing Make America Great Again regalia, sensing that their unlikely standard-bearer, former US president Donald Trump, is once again close to the promised land.

Friends Reunited What Can Russia And North Korea Do For Each Other?

China accounts for more than 90% of North Korea's trade and has been its most dependable aid donor and diplomatic ally.

Tensions Rise On Border As War Looms

Doctors prepare for casualties, people flee their homes and apprehension hangs in the air as threat grows of conflict with Hezbollah

The Prosecution Of Roy Is A Stark Warning From Modi To His Critics Salil Tripathi

This month, the highest ranking bureaucrat of the state of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, permitted the Delhi police to prosecute Arundhati Roy (pictured), and Sheikh Showkat Hussain for remarks they made at a public event 14 years ago.

Heads up Road deaths prompt a rethink over bike helmets

When 42-year-old Myrthe Boss gets on her bike to go shopping in the Dutch town of Ede, she pops on a helmet.

How Easter Island is swamped by deluge of plastic

Ocean currents are dumping tides of multinational rubbish on to the shores of one of the world's most remote habitats

Bold ideas for a well-dressed salad - and without the need for oil

It's hard to deny the transformative power of a good salad dressing, but you don't need much oil, if any. Honey, for example, will give \"a natural stickiness that helps adhesion to your salad, while the sweetness balances the acidity of vinegar\", says Tony Rodd, head chef at Pomus in Margate

The German theatre that puts climate centre stage

As part of a wider project to reduce its carbon footprint, a Potsdam theatre is reusing props, recycling costumes and doubling up tickets as transport passes

Out of the shadows

Anthony McCall made his name with 'light sculptures' that people could enter. But a show in Sweden led to 20 years in the wilderness

Sons of the guns

Can children born into Italy's mafia families be saved from lives of crime? One judge is helping them to establish new lives in a bid to break the cycle

You asked me questions that I've never asked myself. That may seem funny, but part of being Keir is just ploughing on' The man likely to be Britain's next PM

WHAT ABOUT A QUICKFIRE ROUND, Isay to Keir Starmer, who is pushed for time on the campaign trail, a few snapshots to help glimpse the man likely to be PM? Starmer is nodding. He's keen to be helpful, keen to be a sport, although a little unsure of this magazine profile business and the need to talk about feelings. We are in the green room, all mirrors and concrete, backstage at Labour's Scottish launch in Inverclyde, and unless I'm mistaken he still has on a layer of foundation. Ready? He folds his arms across his chest. \"Yes, by all means.\"

How smooth operators reclaimed 'moonshine' palm spirit

Since the pandemic, Lola Pedro has been spending a lot of time at an eco-tourist hamlet in Badagry town, on the outskirts of Lagos, surrounded by coconut and African apple trees next to chalets with showers open to the sky.

Fears of skills shortage as departures hit new highs

When New Zealand opened its borders after the pandemic, the departures began immediately.

Can left overcome its bitter rivalries to defy the far right?

The 'New Popular Front' of Socialists, Greens and Communists could be the best hope of keeping out Marine Le Pen's National Rally

Poll positions From defeat to total wipeoutthree outcomes facing Tories

Polls that use largescale polling data to extrapolate individual seat tallies, or MRPS-an acronym for multilevel regression and post stratification - have become popular in UK politics.

'Enough is enough' In red wall, Tory support is crumbling

It sounds odd to describe a wellto-do village with neat privet hedges, freshly mown lawns and three cars on each driveway as a no-go area. Yet for almost three decades, the pretty parish of Silkstone, on the edge of the Pennines, was unwelcoming territory for Labour folk.

Partners in crime

Vladimir Putin's defiant friendship pact with Kim Jong-un and North Korea marks a return to cold war politics - and raises big questions not just for Washington and Seoul, but also for Beijing

Grain reaction: is there a culinary reason to use kosher salt?

If a recipe specifies kosher salt, is somebody having a laugh, or is there a gastronomic reason to use it? Pablo, Lancaster, England, UK

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

The best recent crime and thrillers

Burning bright Arundhati Roy talks forcefully about India's 'mad pathology', the self-absorbed west and globalisation

By 2001, when this collection of 12 interviews with US writer and broadcaster David Barsamian begins, Arundhati Roy was already under fire. Leftwing critics, among them Aijaz Ahmad, had attacked her Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things (1997) for its anti-communism. In Kerala, where it was set, she was charged with \"corrupting public morality\".

A disaster foretold The story behind 1986's Challenger space shuttle explosion is a gripping catalogue of underfunding and stifling bureaucracy

In 1986, two catastrophic events occurred on either side of the cold war divide that shocked the world. On 28 January, 73 seconds after takeoff, the US space shuttle Challenger broke apart in mid-air, killing all seven astronauts on board and traumatising millions of viewers watching live on TV. Three months later, on 26 April, a meltdown at Chornobyl sent a radioactive cloud across the USSR and Europe. Two workers died immediately and the estimated death toll over time ranges from hundreds to tens of thousands. It's widely believed to have contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A wild ride Tragedy and farce collide in the Irish author's beautiful, lovable and fun tale of lovers on the run in 19th-century Montana

The hero of Kevin Barry's new novel, The Heart in Winter, is a dope-fiend Irishman haphazardly subsisting in the mining town of Butte, Montana, in the 1890s. Tom Rourke has a poor excuse for a job as assistant to a poor excuse for a photographer, and earns drink money by writing letters for illiterate men luring brides from the east. His spare time is spent haunting brothels, racking up debt through his opium habit, and writing songs along the lines of: Ain't got a dime / But the sun's gonna shine/ Coz we's all bound for heaven/ On the Cal-i-fornee line. In his own mind, he is \"set apart from the hoarse and laughing crowd. He was at a distance of artistic remove from it was what he felt.\"

Alive and Kicken The gallery that's pivotal to how we see photography

Co-founded before the medium was taken seriously as art, this Berlin venue is turning 50 by celebrating its collection-and photography itself

All the rage

The designer and activist has been making waves for decades. Now she's back with an urgent political message

If Starmer is a 'political robot', he's one that has been hardwired to win

No drama Starmer. No surprises at last week's manifesto launch, no rabbits, no hats. Some in the audience are getting restless. Reporters yawn, or laugh, when the Labour leader says, for the millionth time, that his father was a toolmaker who worked in a factory. A voter at last Wednesday's Sky News debate told him to his face that he was a \"political robot\". The complaint is not only about style, but substance too. Opponents on the right lambast the lack of plans and policy detail; on the left they condemn the dearth of radical ambition.

I've swiped away my dating apps-and life feels all the better for it

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. For a while I was swiping so much I was barely thinking. Dating apps had hijacked my fingers, brain and evenings. I'd swipe, mindlessly and without looking, under the table at group dinners or during TV ad breaks. \"This is modern dating,\" I'd tell myself. \"It's a job. I have to keep on going. This is the key to my happy ending.\"