Sue Prideaux begins her biography of Paul Gauguin with an account of his long-lost teeth. Four of them were discovered in the year 2000 in a well near the site of his last bamboo hut in French Polynesia. The artist had secreted them there in a jar, for whatever reason, and investigation by the Human … Read more
The sky is clear as I sit sipping coffee in the sunny courtyard of an 18th-century house – now a boutique hotel – in the small Lanzarote town of Teguise. But Óscar Cubillo, my host, sees something different. Looking up, he says: “The planes are always there. They never stop.” Lanzarote, an island shaped by … Read more
BBC As invading Russian forces near Pokrovsk, Maria and her cats have finally decided to leave Fleeing the town she has lived in most of her life, Maria Honcharenko is taking just one small bag, and her two tiny kittens. After stubbornly staying on in the east Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the 69-year-old is now … Read more
BBC/Imogen Anderson Baby Bibi Hajira was fighting for her life when the BBC visited Warning: This story contains distressing details from the start. “This is like doomsday for me. I feel so much grief. Can you imagine what I’ve gone through watching my children dying?” says Amina. She’s lost six children. None of them lived … Read more
Once Rob McKeon had accepted that his decisions would mean some people would die in prison, it made things easier. “My job is not to get people home,” he says. “Once you realise that ‘life’ sometimes does mean life, you can get on with the job.” In the 12 years that McKeon has been a … Read more
The UK’s most prominent politicians were subjected to a deluge of abuse on X during the general election period, one of the most comprehensive studies of online abuse in politics has found. Five politicians – Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Diane Abbott, Suella Braverman and Sadiq Khan – were, between them, sent more than 85,000 clearly … Read more
When a place becomes a meme, you know it is having a moment. This is what is happening to Marseille, which found its name plastered on a satirical Instagram account this week. “‘Mate was finkin’ of goin’ Marseille? Apparently it’s poppin’ off!?’,” read the caption on the viral Socks House Meeting fashion account that satirises … Read more
Six years ago, as officials at the Netherlands’ Calvijn College began considering whether to ban phones from their schools, the idea left some students aghast. “We were asked whether we thought we were living in the 1800s,” said Jan Bakker, the chair of the college, whose students range in age from 12 to 18 years. … Read more
“Call me Yakov,” the burly, red-bearded settler told the Palestinian villagers who lived in his shadow. They should, it was understood, consider him their mukhtar, their chief, mayor and sheriff. It was only after he was singled out for sanctions by the US government last week that they learned his real name: Yitzhak Levi Filant. … Read more
A landmark study has uncovered corruption “red flags” in government Covid contracts worth more than £15bn – representing nearly one in every three pounds awarded by the Conservative administration during the pandemic. The analysis, billed as the most in-depth look yet at public procurement during the crisis, warns that systemic bias, opaque accounting and uncontrolled … Read more