CATEGORIES

The small town that's teaching Japan about immigration

An unassuming industrial town in Japan, far from the busy tourist hubs of Tokyo and Kyoto, is in the middle of an unprecedented social transformation. Õizumi, rather than the country's capital, is at the forefront of Japan's foreigner-friendly future.

Newcomers threaten Patagonia's paradise

Anational park has drawn hundreds of people tosettlein the remote area, witha potential threat to wildlife and a way of life

How Jokowi's son could go from food seller to vice-president

Indonesia's next vice-president could be a familiar face. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, is the son of the current president Joko Widodo and his swift rise to the top of the country's political echelons is proving controversial, raising questions about dynasty-building and the strength of the country's democracy.

Las Vegas is model for gambling sector purge

Ukrainian officials seeking to oust Russian actors from the country's gambling industry are going to emulate the methods of the US authorities in the 1980s when they rooted out the Italian mob from the casinos of Las Vegas.

'I feel guilt' Deserters urge Russian soldiers to join them

Men tell of escape to Armenia and feelings ofremorse as growing numbers of troops flee criminal war’ in Ukraine

Party protest Labour faces Muslim backlash at Gaza stance

'I was a Labour party member for 31 years. The Palestine crisis was the end of the tether for me. I cannot tolerate Keir's policies any more,\" said Waheed Akbar, the former mayor of Luton.

Human shields How has Hamas been accused of using them?

In audio released by the Israel Defence Forces, a member of the Military Intelligence Directorate can be heard calling a Palestinian man in Gaza urging him and his family to evacuate south. But the man says it is hard to comply because Hamas is blocking roads, and \"sending people back home\". He adds that Hamas is shooting at Palestinians trying to leave the area.

A matter of time Israeli troops are now on the ground in Gaza - but for how long?

The heavy fog that cloaked Gaza's agony on the morning after Israeli troops arrived was burned away by the sun - only to be replaced by the smoke of hundreds of bombs, and between the blasts, there was a new sound: machine gun fire. The taking of Gaza territory had begun.

Ghosts of Gaza Phones flooded with news of dead

Last Sunday morning, phones belonging to the 2.3 million people trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip slowly came to life again, inundated with updates, messages and missed calls after the lifting of a 36-hour neartotal communications blackout imposed by Israel.

Rewards v risks It's not luddism to rein in Al's undreamed-of power and potential

Will it destroy us, or will it save us? An age-old debate between tech optimists and tech pessimists that has played out over centuries as the steady march of human progress delivers new technologies, from the wheel to the printing press to the smartphone. Today it is a conversation being conducted with increasing urgency about artificial intelligence.

Bots and robbers What is AI, and will it make us all redundant?

What is artificial intelligence?

Hope or horror?

The great AI debate dividing its pioneers

Stories from the edge

Film-maker Gessica Généus kept her cameras rolling through Haiti's deadly upheavals of 2019 and is working on her next film as the violence continues

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