News and Opinion

High school students in Skellefteå, north east Sweden, have been banned from buying goldfish over fears that they will eat them while still alive.

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the woman behind an 80-year-old masterpiece, one of the most important books about Europe of the last century A couple of weeks ago a tweet by the American novelist Jake Wolff made me laugh out loud. It read, “Creative nonfiction writers be like: I first ate a hotdog when I was six […]

The Foghorn’s Lament focuses on an unusual subject that inspires a spellbinding book One of my earliest memories is of foghorns. It’s of my sister and I being wrapped in warm clothing and lifted into wellington boots, sleep-dozy because it’s nearly midnight, and taken by our parents out of the front door of our house […]

A rugby league international who has been selected to fight the Batley and Spen by-election for the Green Party says he feels “in tune with the attitudes, needs and wants” of the community. Ross Peltier, 29, is a prop forward with Doncaster Dons and has represented the Jamaica international team nine times as well as […]

Labour has called on the political party spending watchdog to investigate claims that the Tories accepted donations from companies that were defunct. Anneliese Dodds, chairwoman of the Labour Party, has written to the Electoral Commission asking it to “urgently investigate” two donations made to the Conservatives that “do not appear to comply” with the law. […]

It has been another gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain – although sadly not gloomy enough for residents of Ashford, Kent. After voting 59.4% to Leave in the referendum, Ashfordians have been rewarded with a light show. Alas, rather than fireworks celebrating our independence from the EU, the nightly display comes from […]

In his work, and in his life, Joseph Roth chronicles the old order that was swept away in the first half of the 20th century According to Joseph Roth his earliest memory was of watching his mother give away his cradle to a woman he’d never seen before. She “holds it to her chest, as though […]

Such is Liverpool’s immense musical heritage that the city is not overshadowed by its most famous sons Liverpool makes its own mythology. In February 1967, the Beatles released the double A-side Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever, not only creating a new paradigm for Britishness in pop on one side and all but single-handedly creating psychedelia on […]

Boris Johnson “paid entirely” for his wedding, Number 10 has insisted, following scrutiny of his finances. Johnson and Carrie Symonds married in a private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday and plan to have a larger celebration next year when Covid restrictions are likely to be relaxed. His spokesperson also confirmed the couple spent two days […]

Gender bias means that the history of art has been written by men, about men. But there are some signs that the tide is finally beginning to turn It’s been 50 years since the pioneering feminist art historian Linda Nochlin posed the provocative question ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ – a ground-breaking […]

The job of the Covid-19 vaccination programme is not yet “done”, an immunisation expert has said as scientists are split on whether the Government should press ahead with the final stages of easing social restrictions later this month. Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said there are still many […]

An NHS worker who has spent the pandemic helping save lives on a Covid-19 ward says Priti Patel’s immigration plans will see refugees like her turned away from the UK. Mariam, from Eritrea, is determined to help people and has been working exhausting 12-hour shifts in a Leeds hospital assisting coronavirus patients, sometimes four days […]

Global health leaders have announced new names for Covid-19 variants using letters of the Greek alphabet. Experts working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) developed the labels for variants which are often colloquially named after the places where they are first detected. Many variants of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – have been […]

Carrie Johnson rented three “decoy” dresses to ensure extra secrecy surrounding her wedding to the prime minister on the weekend, it has been reported. Along with the white dress the former Carrie Symonds wore for the ceremony, she hired three other outfits from a favourite eco-fashion business, My Wardrobe HQ, without saying she would be […]

A new national flagship, the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, will promote British trade and industry around the world, Boris Johnson has said. The vessel will be used to host trade fairs, ministerial summits and diplomatic talks as the UK seeks to build links and boost exports following Brexit. It will be the first […]

The EU’s ambassador to the UK has accused new DUP leader Edwin Poots of making comments about the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol that lack “adherence to reality”. Joao Vale de Almeida was asked about Poots saying that the agreement was “demonstrable harm to every individual in Northern Ireland” and is having a “devastating impact”. The […]

Allowing the health secretary to keep his job after committing a “minor” breach of the ministerial code could give “carte blanche” for further rule-breaking at the top of government, Labour has said. A probe by Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministerial standards, found that Matt Hancock was guilty of a “technical” breach of the […]

How the friendship of tragic poets Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, forged over long, cocktail-soaked lunches, paved the way for the rest of us In 1950s America, white, middle-class women were not supposed to be ambitious. In fact, women were respected for not pursuing their own careers and instead focusing their attentions on the home […]

Theatre reviewer TIM WALKER sees an old favourite returning to the stage after lockdown The Mousetrap St Martin’s Theatre, London ***** There was a lot of talk of a new kind of theatre emerging after the lockdowns – edgier, more relevant and representative – but maybe, after a traumatic experience, there’s something to be said […]

Against the backdrop of Sinn Féin’s seemingly inexorable electoral rise and the prospect of a border poll also increasing, MAX McGUINNESS reviews a timely book on the political history of the IRA Over the past four decades, Sinn Féin has built one of the most extensive and effective political machines in Europe. Having originated as a front for the Provisional IRA, […]

Was 18th century Scotland visited by people from the frozen north? RICHARD LUCK picks over the accounts of the men who might have made it all the way from Greenland. History is filled with tantalising theories of human endurance and exploration. Could the Vikings have crossed the Atlantic, for instance? Could Polynesia have been populated by migrants who crossed the […]

Netflix series Master of None has successfully negotiated a change of focus after its creator was caught up in a #MeToo scandal The first two seasons of Master of None sound awful when described – “an actor bops about New York dating beautiful women and eating at nice restaurants” – and sometimes they are. Aziz Ansari stars as Dev, […]

As club football’s strangest season comes to an end, photographer Stuart Roy Clarke shares images of fans taken during the pandemic I started The Homes of Football photography series more than 30 years ago as a love letter to this country, yet I knew that the Germans and Scandinavians and latterly the Americans revere our […]

As it faces its latest crisis, triggered by Belarus, a looming leadership vacuum threatens to condemn the EU to years of stagnation behind other global powers

The spread of English as a narrative language now includes the Asian island nation. Singapore, the large island off the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, is separated from the mainland by the Johor strait which is less than a nautical mile wide at its narrowest point. A number of fascinatingly different mother tongues have […]

Celebrating a dreamlike cult British take on the American road movie… with German influences We begin in a flat in London. We end on a train to nowhere somewhere in the south west. In between times, a man half-heartedly investigates his brother’s suicide, listens to some very good music, takes a detour with a nice […]

Its 10-year anniversary has just passed unheralded, so what did we learn from another divisive single-issue poll? When the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum rolls around in 2026, it’s a fair bet it will pass amid much clamour. The celebrations – and the criticism – are likely to be loud. Yet the ten year anniversary of another […]

Leading pollster PETER KELLNER offers his analysis of why so many centre-left parties are floundering, and where their best hopes now lie Are the glory days over for social democracy? Do voters now take for granted the great progressive reforms of the post-war era – pensions, education, healthcare, social insurance etc – and see no […]