CATEGORIES

Urdu phrase in fashion ad sparks ire of nationalists

Released just as festival season was kicking off across India, it looked like your average advert for celebratory attire. Models posed, resplendent in red and gold, showing off the newest collection by Fabindia that was said to “pay homage to Indian culture”.

World leaders agree deal to halt deforestation

Historic declaration at Glasgow climate conference commits countries to ending major cause of CO2 emissions

High and dry

The Middle East is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, but oil spoils keep its regimes in power. Can the Gulf states find a way to transition away from fossil-fuel exports and thus avoid their own self-destruction?

With infections rising, , the Tories are running a deadly experiment

A pandemic is a political event. It exposes who is vulnerable and who can afford to escape, who is prioritised for treatment and who is neglected. The politics of a pandemic are both large-scale and intensely personal. How we behave towards each other, what balance is struck between safety and freedom, how blame is distributed, what a country considers an acceptable level of illness and death: questions that may once have been philosophical have become frighteningly real.

“Thanks, I rented it! Why fashion rental is hotter than Balenciaga

Backstage after one of the London fashion week shows, I complimented the editor of a glossy magazine on the trouser suit she was wearing. She thanked me, and added - raising her voice a notch, glancing around - "It's rented, actually.” Then she said that my dress was very pretty, too. To which I was, thankfully, able to respond while possibly raising my voice just a smidgen - “This is rented, too.”

Don't send the'wrong signals', China warns Biden

China has urged the US to "avoid sending any wrong signals” after President Joe Biden for a second time in three months said the US would come to Taiwan's defence if it was attacked.

Lock him up! Report says Bolsonaro faces jail for Covid deaths

Jair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and jailed for his "macabre” reaction to Covid outbreak that has killed more than 600,000 Brazilians, including a disproportionate number of indigenous citizens, a congressional inquiry found last week.

Cultivating peace

George Orwell's love ofgardening inspires a volume that should appealto both the green-fingered and politically keen reader

Why is Jeff Bezos losing the billionaire space race?

The Amazon founder’s firm has galaxies of cash but is plagued by safety concerns and a toxic workplace culture

Washington tells London to placate Paris after sub snub

The US has urged Britain to follow its example and try to repair its relations with Paris in the wake of the row over France’s loss of its submarine contract with Australia.

The rise of autarky: How self-reliance is redefining trade

Suspicion and strained supply chains were already testing the global system before Covid-19 heightened isolationist impulses

Squid Game mirrors South Korea's real-life debt crisis

‘Why would I want to watch a bunch of people with huge debts? I can look in the mirror’ Choi Young-soo Debtor

Beijing makes plans for a green future

Is ‘ecological civilisation’ an empty slogan or a call to arms? Xi Jinping’s vision for a sustainable future was showcased at the opening of the UN biodiversity summit in Kunming last week, but the country remains dependent on coal

‘Ray of light' Shell liable for Nigerian oil spills in legal fi rst

A landmark ruling in London may allow communities to sue corporations for damage caused by their subsidiaries

Steaming in The fight for Darjeeling's cliff top train

‘Darjeeling ko san o rail, hirna lai abo tyari cha / Guard le shuna bhai siti bajayo” (Darjeeling’s dainty train is all set to chug off / Oh, listen to the guard blowing the whistle): these lines are familiar to generations of children in Darjeeling.

From pundit to president? The far-right rise of Éric Zemmour

He has been convicted for inciting racial hatred, attacked for claiming the Nazi collaborator Marshal Pétain saved French Jews rather than aiding their deportation to death camps, and was last week described by the French justice minister as a dangerous racist and Holocaust denier.

The woman who stood up to Facebook

Frances Haugen has been hailed as a hero after exposing the social network’s harmful practices. Can her testimony force it to change?

War rages on in the town at the heart of Iran's ambition

From a ridge known locally as Baghouz Mountain, the most contested corner of the Middle East resembles an oasis: it’s a splash of green on a desert horizon stretching from the banks of the Euphrates to a sprawling area of new homes and unruly neighbours.

Off message How Twitter expulsion left Trump in wilderness

It was just like old times. Last Wednesday alone, Donald Trump issued pronouncements on a potential war with China, what Congress should do about the debt ceiling, false claims of a stolen election and his Fox News ally “the great Sean Hannity”.

Fresh hurdle for Ardern as Covid strategy alters

New Zealand’s locked-down cities last week woke to a brave new world of lifted restrictions: state-sanctioned picnics in parks, the prospect of re-opening schools, a chance to reunite with friends and family.

Could the global death toll be far higher than we thought?

For the past 18 months, hunkered down in his apartment in Tel Aviv, Ariel Karlinsky has scoured the internet for data that could help him calculate the true death toll of Covid-19.

Could coffee price spike be a taste of the future?

Scientists have long warned climate change is coming for our morning coffee, and a recent spike in global bean prices could be the first sign it’s actually happening.

Christians live in fear amid claims of ‘forced conversions'

Hindu nationalist vigilantes terrorise minority over unproven rumours in an apparent political ploy by BJP

What's Next For US Foreign Policy?

Anniversary of 9/11 and fall of Kabul trigger questions over Washington’s interventionism

Women And Girls Face New Restrictions

Taliban says women at university must study separately, sparking concerns over more measures to come

Hook, line and sinker

Billed as the most secure messaging device on the planet, An0m became a viral sensation in the underworld. There was just one problem for those using it for criminal means: it was run by the police

The Earth is at breaking point, yet those in power wish reality away

OPINION

Sail of the century

Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didn’t work out.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

She’s already broken out of Nashville to become an unconventional pop superstar. Now Kacey Musgraves is stretching the limits of country again – with the help of psychedelics and a four-poster bed in her studio

Elections loom, but the Ahr valley has little interest

Two months after 133 people died in floods, residents of stricken western German region say they feel abandoned by politicians