CATEGORIES

Secrets of a YouTube chess king

Levy Rozman has racked up more than a billion views on his Gotham Chess channel, introducing the game he loves to new audiences

'They call me Lucky Jim'

Photographer James Barnor documented Ghana's move to independence, but was only recognised in his 80s. Now 94, he has been reflecting on a body of work spanning eight decades

Inside the Taliban's luxury hotel

Once the site of legendary parties, Intercontinental the in Kabul is still a potent symbol of who rules Afghanistan - and what its future might hold

Machado, the outsider hoping for an electoral tilt at Maduro

The last time Venezuelans went to the polls, in 2018, the political opposition to Nicolás Maduro, the president, deemed the election so farcical it walked away from the contest. Since then, a fractured opposition has largely resigned itself to watching helplessly as Hugo Chávez's successor tightened his grip on power and the country fell ever deeper into chaos.

Bleak House - Deadlock lays bare Republican dysfunction

Death threats. Screaming matches behind closed doors. A futile cycle of votes that put internecine warfare on full public display. The Republican party last week sank into new depths of disarray and dysfunction - with no remedy in sight.

Youngest MP looks to ancestors to build new future

On her first day in New Zealand's parliament, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the country's youngest politician, made a beeline to a wall of photographs to seek an image of her ancestor - the first Māori minister to the crown.

Super-rich seek an exit plan as Xi cracks down on elites

Billionaires are notoriously hard to track. It's no surprise - the easier they and their assets are to find, the easier they are to tax. But by all accounts, the number of uber-wealthy people in China is in decline. Of the world's estimated 2,640 billionaires, at least 562 are thought to be in China, according to Forbes, down from 607 last year.

'There is no hope here' - Young Africans explain why they would risk death to leave home

Five African reporters talk to people from their home countries about why they are willing to chance everything to start a new life abroad

Can market gardens help rewilding take root?

I find rewilding an inspiring idea. But, alongside its critics, I'm also troubled by some implications - particularly the idea that farmland will have to be cultivated even more intensively to produce food because other fields are turned over to nature. Is it realistic?

Sir Bobby Charlton 1937-2023

Prolific midfielder and part of English football folklore with Manchester United and the 1966 World Cup-winning team

Double despair - Byelection routs portend calamity for Sunak's Tories

Brutal as they were, last week's twin UK byelection losses in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire did not necessarily change the plight faced by the Conservatives. But they shone so bright a beam on the situation that even the most self-deluding Tory MP can no longer pretend.

UN reveals more details of Russian war crimes

A United Nations investigation has found further evidence that Russian forces committed \"indiscriminate attacks\" and war crimes in Ukraine, including rape and the deportation of children to Russia.

Fast tracked - The young Serbs signing up to fight in Putin's war

Anti-war whistleblowers' leaked list and first-hand accounts appear to show plan to enlist fighters from Serbia

Tel Aviv's dilemma - Peacekeepers, Fatah or anarchy: what would follow an Israeli 'victory' in Gaza?

For weeks, Israel has pounded Gaza with missiles, as it gathers tanks and troops for a ground invasion with one stated goal: to destroy Hamas. It is a deceptively simple target, one that sounds urgent and necessary to many in a nation profoundly traumatised by the massacres of 7 October, hoping to reclaim their sense of security, and a military determined to restore its damaged authority.

'A lot of pain' - Europe's Jews fear rising antisemitism after Hamas attack

A Jewish student in France had his clothes ripped as he came out of the school toilets

'The strikes are everywhere' - The terrified Gazans who have been pushed south

Many Palestinians wonder if they would be better taking their chances at home

One false move

The high-level visits and diplomacy of recent days have all been to one end: containment. Because if the conflict spills over, the consequences will be global

Lightning conductor

Joana Mallwitz is the first woman to lead a Berlin orchestra. And no, despite the inevitable comparisons, she still hasn't seen the film Tár

A tribal injustice

For his new true-crime drama, Martin Scorsese enlisted a chief of the Osage Nation to make sure it was authentic. Steve Rose talked to them both

The day my mother was murdered

Everyone in Malta read Daphne, the fearless reporter - until a car bomb killed her. Paul Caruana Galizia recalls how her assassination shook his family and shocked the world

UNITED THEY FEEL

WHY DID SO MANY OF THE HUGE STREET PROTESTS OF THE 2010S LEAD TO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY ASKED FOR?

Pip pip - Time's up for much-loved institution of airwaves

A series of crackly pips and beeps broadcast to radios across Canada outlasted two monarchs, 13 prime ministers, 27 sessions of parliament and various fractures to national unity. They provided a comfort to citizens abroad, and inspired music and art.

Why the world should be wary of 'Wolverine' Javier Milei

40% Argentina’s current poverty rate, with inflation standing at 138%. The prospect of a Milei presidency has seen the peso’s value plunge further in recent weeks

Poles apart? - Xi branches out in bid to build an alternative world order

It was a difficult summer for China's leader, Xi Jinping. He was faced with natural disasters, economic uncertainty and a roster of disappearing ministers.

'Our time will come': Poll winner still hopes to become PM

Pita Limjaroenrat is playing the long game. \"Our time will come,\" he said confidently. Dressed in a crisp striped shirt, the 43-year-old Harvard graduate has a breezy, business-like manner.

Swan songs - At Kharkiv's opera house, the show must go on

Crouched on the edge of a park in central Kharkiv, 30km from the Russian border, the city's vast brutalist opera house resembles a battered spacecraft that has crash-landed after some epic intergalactic battle.

Toxic lake a symbol of Northern Irish decay

It is a grim milestone for Northern Ireland that some of its problems are now visible from space. A vast bloom of blue-green algae is choking Lough Neagh, which supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water, owing to farm slurry, human sewage discharges and other management blunders.

'Boring' Labour plot a conference course to government

MPs stayed on-message, and businesses queued up to get involved, at a gathering that passed with barely a hitch

Ardern's legacy - Some Labour policies are safe. A lot are on the chopping block

The most common and cutting critique of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government was that it couldn't get anything done.

'A knife in your heart' - Soul-searching over Indigenous vote loss

Heavy referendum defeat seen as a bitter blow in the struggle to advance reconciliation and improve the lives of First Nations Australians