CATEGORIES

Troubled waters

In an unprecedented deal, a private company bought land in an Arizona town - and sold its water rights to a suburb 300km away. Have the floodgates opened for US corporations to cash in on drought?

Melania is back-but she's still not playing by the rules

Her biggest fashion statement as first lady was a green jacket emblazoned with the words, “I really don’t care, do u?” More recently Melania Trump has given the impression that she doesn’t care whether her husband, Donald, returns to the White House. That is about to change.

Poll prejudice In a big voting year, where are all the female candidates?

With more people set to vote in elections than at any time in history, 2024 is being touted as a test of democracies’ strength around the world. But one thing remains in noticeably short supply – female leadership candidates.

The man who helped scores to flee violence in Darfur

Every night, for weeks at a time last year, Saad al-Mukhtar put a small group of people in the back of his Toyota Land Cruiser and drove them under the cover of darkness from his home in the Sudanese city of Geneina across the border and into Chad.

Track record Paris Olympics of 1924 saved the Games. Can this be repeated?

Paris 1924 was the sixth and last Olympics presided over by Baron de Coubertin, the modern movement’s founder. He had good reason to be pleased with his work.

Under fire IDF is fighting on many fronts-but the hardest may be at home

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, described the conflict Israel was engaged in as a “multi-front war” this month.

The new rules of engagement

The response by Gulf states to the Iran-Israel conflict may well decide the outcome of the crisis - but the Sunni monarchies face complicated choices about the region's future

All together now

Irish post-punk band Fontaines DC's forthcoming album Romance promises to be an arena-filling singalong-and that's how they want it

Out of the shadows A Pandora's box has been opened, and this crisis is far from over

Israel’s retaliation was surprisingly limited. Iran minimised the significance of last Friday’s air attacks on a military base near Isfahan and other targets, denying they were externally directed.

Pacifist who helped Ukrainians dies in jail

Schoolteacher Alexander Demidenko guided refugees back to their homeland until he was arrested and tortured in prison by Kremlin forces

Huck reimagined This bravura rewriting of Mark Twain from enslaved Jim's pointof view is part critique and part celebration

Percival Everett's new novel lures the reader in with the brilliant simplicity of its central conceit. James is the retelling of Mark Twain's 1884 classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave who joins Huck on his journey down the Mississippi River.

Can AI make intelligent art?

Pierre Huyghe's uncanny machine-human hybrids are the latest attempt to find deeper meaning in a technology that leaves many playing catch-up

Ripley: a psychopath made for social media

Patricia Highsmith's charming devil has fascinated film-makers since the 1960s, but his brand of evil seems well suited to the Instagram age

For a year, the bodies have piled up-and still the world looks away

One year ago this week, Sudan descended into war. The toll so far is catastrophic.

A test for US justice as Trump's criminal trial begins

He has been businessman, TV showman and president of the United States. This week, in the sobering surroundings of a New York courtroom, Donald Trump played yet another role in American history when he became the first former White House occupant to stand trial in a criminal case.

Tall tales Children flock to the storyteller of Karachi

Pedalling down a narrow alleyway in Karachi's crowded Lyari Town, Saira Bano slows as she passes a group of children sitting on the ground, listening to a man reading aloud from a book. The eight-year-old gets off her bike, slips off her sandals, and sits on the mat at the back.

The stolen schoolgirls

Ten years on from Chibok, what happened to the 276 Nigerian girls who were snatched by Islamist militants from their school?

Second coming for Notre Dame's salvaged artworks

There was a moment on 15 April 2019 as the flames consuming Notre Dame Cathedral roared into the evening sky when it seemed all would be lost.

How the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert bus was found

After a 30-year hunt, the original was discovered in New South Wales having survived fires and floods

Calls to end 'fear culture' in gender research

Cass review found medical professionals scared to discuss views amid risk of reputational damage and online abuse

Russia 'is waging an energy war' against Kyiv

A dramatic rise in European energy prices is inevitable if the Russian destruction of Ukrainian energy infrastructure continues unabated, the former chief executive of Ukraine's state-owned oil company has warned.

Gamechanger Direct attack on Israel is a crisis that affects us all

The missiles and drones that rained destruction on Israel last Sunday morning gave Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, what he craved - a mandate and justification for openly attacking Iran, a country he has long viewed as Israel's archenemy.

RAIDERS of the LOST ART

At least 2,000 items from the British Museum were reported missing, stolen or damaged last year, and it now faces a massive overhaul. But it's not the only institution that finds it hard to keep hold of its collections - and when that happens, who do they call? Mark Wilding meets the art detectives who track down disappeared treasures

Iran's attack has shifted focus from aid effort

As Israel becomes 'victim overnight', diplomatic efforts are moving away from plight of Gazans displaced by war

SWEPT AWAY

WHEN THE WATERS ROSE, Meike and Dörte Näkel weren't worried. People in this part of the world, the Ahr valley in Germany, are used to it.

Presidents Assemble Obama And Clinton Give Biden Boost

For once showbusiness royalty - Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Lea Michele and Mindy Kaling was not the main attraction. Instead it was a trio of US presidents that enticed people to pay up to half a million dollars for New York's hottest ticket.

How Island Kept Death Toll Low In Massive Earthquake

For Nina Huang, it was the shaking that jolted her awake. "The first thing I did when I woke up was to hold the cupboard next to my daughter. I was afraid that it might fall down on her," she recalled. Then her phone buzzed with a warning about a tsunami.

Anguish Over Tens Of Thousands Of Missing Palestinians

Late one night in March, Ahmed Abu Jalala rose quietly, trying hard not to wake his family, sleeping around him on the floor of a UN-run school in northern Gaza.

Everyday magic From Rafael Nadal's ball-bouncing to wedding and funeral traditions, does ritualistic behaviour serve any purpose?

The adjective \"ritual\", from Latin via French, means related to religious rites. As soon as it appeared, however, the word \"ritual\" could be used in a derogatory fashion to denote things empty of authentic spiritual content.

Not doing well A survivor of a life-threatening illness charts the history of health anxiety, asking if it is a rational response to our flawed bodies

In the 14th century, King Charles VI of France suffered from a curious delusion. He believed his body was made entirely of glass. A relatively new material, both fragile and transparent, glass captures the hypochondriac's acutest fear - brittle vulnerability - with their greatest desire: visceral omniscience.