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

Road to conflict - A long history of occupation, uprising and disputed power

The starting point for many is the 1947 UN vote to partition British Mandate Palestine into two states - Jewish and Arab.

'People are terrified' - Gaza's main hospital near to collapse

At Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital, the living sleep between beds filled with patients, in corridors, and even in the grounds, while the dead overflow the morgue.

Seven days of terror that shook the world and changed the Middle East

Since dawn broke on 7 October, thousands have died and the political fallout has spread across the region. Reporters tell the full story of a week that began in bloodshed and ended in fear

Me, mice elf and I

Sly Stone changed the face of soul when he found fame in the 1960s. Now the highly erratic star opens up on drugs, feuds and his treasure trove of unreleased tracks

Talk of your town

The way we speak still defines who we are and causes others to make assumptions about us. People with distinctive voices reveal how talkin' wiv an accent has shaped their life...

This is Sultan Al Jaber. He is the United Arab Emirates' choice to lead the Cop28 climate talks.

He is also the CEO of a fossil fuel company, Adnoc. What's the problem with that, he asks Fiona Harvey

September's 'bananas' record highs stun climate scientists

Global temperatures soared to a new record in September by a huge margin, stunning scientists. The hottest September on record follows the hottest August and July, with the latter being the hottest month ever recorded. The high temperatures have driven heat waves and wildfires across the world.

'He loves it' - Trump takes 2024 bid into the courtroom

The blue suit, white shirt, red tie, and American flag pin looked familiar. So did the TV cameras following every move and reporters hanging on every word. So did the wild hand gestures as he unleashed a torrent of incendiary rhetoric about the elites supposedly out to get him.

How Dhaka is battling to cool down extreme heat

Set in post-apocalyptic Dhaka, Nuhash Humayun's Moshari became the first Bangladeshi film to qualify for the Oscars last year. The thriller follows two sisters and their fight for survival, but for the film's co-producer, Bushra Afreen, the fiction felt closer to reality.

Paddington's move to Colombia makes fur fly

New legislation to revitalise Peru's film industry has been proposed after the makers of the British comedy Paddington in Peru chose Colombia as the filming location for the section of the movie in which the bear finally returns to his home country.