CATEGORIES

THE SAVAGE SUBURBIA OF HELEN GARNER

Over 50 years the Australian has become one of her country's most revered and beloved authors, writing as if readers were her friend, party to her most candid thoughts. Is she finally going to get worldwide recognition? By Sophie Elmhirst

Israel's block on aid raises health fears for underfed population

Briefing the Israeli press after Benjamin Netanyahu’s order last Sunday to turn off the aid supply to Gaza - in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a change in the ceasefire agreement to allow for the release of hostages without an Israeli troop withdrawal - government officials claimed the Palestinian territory had several months’ worth of food stockpiled from earlier deliveries.

Dam it! How eager beavers became the farmer's friend

A Cornish farmer is behind a change in the law to release wild beavers in England after witnessing the incredible benefits on his land

Call of duty

This rural English village phone box was used fewer than 10 times in the whole of 2024-but Derek Harris sees it as a lifeline and is determined to save it.

Santa Fe mourns the mysterious loss of Gene Hackman

As New Mexico authorities investigate the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, their adopted home town of Santa Fe is grappling with the mystery of what happened to the couple.

Ramadan should be a time for reflection, not date-scented shopping

Supermarkets have wheeled out the 20kg bags of rice. High-street stores have popped hijabs on mannequins. Cosmetic companies are churning out products scented with pomegranate, cardamom, saffron and “sticky date” - at Lush you can buy Salam shower gel, Noor lip butter and a massage bar that apparently smells like a turmeric latte. All this can only mean one thing in our modern, consumerist world: Ramadan is upon us.

Days of Gracie

After dodging toxic fans, 'nepo baby' jibes and her own projectile vomit, pop star Gracie Abrams explains why she's writing about our uncertain future

I'm upset by my troubled mother-in-law's extreme views

I've had a terrible run in with my mother-in-law and don't know what to do about it.

Only connect - The NigerianAmerican author returns with an ambitious, astute and moving exploration of female experience

Novels had always felt to me truer than what was real,\" declares a character in Dream Count, the highly anticipated new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Labour's aid cuts are wrong morally - and economically, too

Get right down to it and there are two reasons for thinking that cuts to Britain's aid budget to pay for defence are a seriously bad idea.

This will cost lives'

Western countries are slashing global development funding, despite warnings that the health and security consequences will be felt worldwide for generations to come

Trump has changed the rules of engagement. It's time to wise up Simon Tisdall

It's not only about Donald Trump. It's not just about saving Ukraine, or defeating Russia, or how to boost Europe's security, or what to do about an America gone rogue. It's about a world turned upside down - a dark, fretful, more dangerous place where treaties and laws are no longer respected, alliances are broken, trust is fungible, principles are negotiable and morality is a dirty word.

'Threat logic' Nations acting as dumping grounds for US immigrants

Central America has long been a source of immigrants, and in recent years, it's also become a major transit route for those from around the world heading to the United States.

Rags to ruin Market struggles to rebuild after blaze

Stallholders count the cost of a devastating fire that ripped through one of the world's biggest secondhand markets

Thoroughly modern Mikey owns Oscars night

An exhilarating triumph for Anora and its newly minted star as political metaphors were the dark undercurrent in this year's crop of winning films

'The chaser of a disappearing world'

The Quarry Hill flats in Leeds were once the largest social housing complex in the UK. A utopian vision of homes for 3,000 people. Built in the 1930s, they were modelled on the Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna and La Cité de la Muette in Paris. However, after just 40 years, the buildings were crumbling and largely deserted. Over five years in the 1970s, Peter Mitchell documented their demolition, from smashed windows and wrecked apartments to abandoned wardrobes and solitary shoes.

Breaking point Is the world ready for bigger waves?

In some seas, swells are growing noticeably larger. Scientists say coastal communities should be prepared for damaging consequences-but also potential opportunities

Mind over batter: tips for great vegan yorkshire puddings

I can never get my vegan yorkshire puddings to work - help!

The final chapter of Delhi's famed Urdu book bazaar

Inside one of the oldest bookshops in Delhi's Urdu Bazaar, Rafiq Ahmad, a film critic and writer, is scrutinising the bookshelves for material to help with his next project. Ahmad often travels from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh to Urdu Bazaar in search of the books he needs.

The world must unite now Trump's threats to global tax reform have backfired

Donald Trump's Oval Office tirade last Friday laid bare his instinct to harangue and bully those even supposed allies such as Ukraine who dare to disagree.

Hot yoghurt soup with dumplings

To make the dumplings, put the bulgur, salt and chilli in a large bowl, then pour over enough just-boiled water to cover by half a centimetre.

Blimped up Could 'the flying bum' signal return of airships?

It's a dreary day in Bedford, but on a flight simulator the skies above San Francisco airport are blue and the wind is low. That is a good thing, because there is an amateur at the joystick of the world's biggest aircraft.

'A bridge to Trump' After Zelenskyy's White House calamity, can Keir Starmer plot a route to peace in Ukraine?

As Keir Starmer and his aides discussed their response to last Friday's White House meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which the Ukrainian president was berated live on camera by the US president and his deputy, JD Vance, Starmer's team pondered whether to issue a statement on social media.

In Odesa, shifting dynamics provoke fatigue and anger

Russian attacks on civilian targets in the Black Sea port city have increased since the political thaw between Trump and Putin

War and peace Anatomy of the Oval Office meltdown

Inside the Trump White House, officials blamed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the meltdown in the Oval Office last Friday, and expressed frustration that he pushed for security guarantees even though the US had made clear they wanted to negotiate that later.

Turning point What next for Kurds after PKK leader calls for peace?

Within days of an appeal by the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) for the group to disarm and dissolve, its executive committee announced that it would do just that. It paves the way towards ending the 40-year conflict between militant Kurdish groups and the Turkish state and has far-reaching implications for the rest of the Middle East.

Peace hopes Divisions remain at every turn, on all sides

Britain and France are trying to develop a peace plan to end the fighting in Ukraine with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the aftermath of the latter's disastrous White House summit.

Human cost Cuts leave agencies in fear and lives in peril

Overnight, the rug was yanked out from under us, slashing the services we can provide.

Catharsis Journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad castigates complacent liberal responses and western hypocrisy over the war in Gaza

'Where's the Palestinian Martin Luther King?\" Journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad has heard this question a lot lately, \"the implicit accusation [being] that certain people are incapable of responding to their mistreatment with grace, with patience, with love, and that this incapacity, not any external injustice, is responsible for the misery inflicted upon them\".

The US's former friends need to realise the old global order is over

A resonant phrase during Donald Trump's first administration was the advice to take him \"seriously, but not literally\".