Donald Trump returned to the site where he narrowly escaped assassination in July, pushing the emotional buttons of his supporters and suggesting that his political opponents “maybe even tried to kill me” to stop him regaining the White House. The Re

Stage craft Performing on the Graceland tour in 1987 Tapping in As a teenager, Simon wrote songs in his parents’ bathroom. The experience inspired The Sound of Silence AS A STRUGGLING YOUNG SINGER-SONGWRITER IN 1960S QUEENS, New York, Paul Simon woul

Night shift Lives are illuminated and sent off kilter by a bright star Signs are taken for wonders,” TS Eliot’s speaker observes soberly in Gerontion. But what is the difference between a wonder and a sign – and which do we prefer? Such questions flo

After keeping vigil all night, Jason Fesperman, 32, decided it was finally safe to sleep. By 6am on Friday 27 September, he figured the worst of the rain from Hurricane Helene had passed. Jonathan Creek, the normally ankle-deep stream that runs throu

At 6am on 1 October 1964, two trains set off in opposite directions in a daring experiment that would turn them into symbols of Japan’s transformation from militarist pariah to global economic powerhouse. Footage shows smartly dressed men, women and

Deer and now ‘To the back of our house is a small wood, to the front a fast road. Last summer I watched twin fawns grow and become more courageous. In July 2023, one was run over. This year, there are twins again, but the mother is taking care that t

✱ All solutions published next week 8 Religious organisations need to tour biblical hill (8) 9 About 100 left over individual giving latitude (6) 10 Subatomic particle finally seen after smoke disperses (1-5) 12 Effort of flowing into two rivers to b

THIS SUMMER, the Nobel laureate Prof Aaron Ciechanover joined a group of prominent Israelis gathered at Nir Oz kibbutz to demand a hostage release and ceasefire deal. Nir Oz was the worst hit of the communities targeted by Hamas on 7 October, with a

AT THE BEGINNING of September, the discovery that six Israeli hostages had been killed by their Hamas captors as troops operated near the tunnel where they were being held propelled crowds onto the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities. The focus of t

Ukraine has said that its forces have withdrawn from the eastern city of Vuhledar, a defensive bastion that had resisted repeated attacks since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. The military command in Kyiv said its troops left late last Tuesday. Th

Listing buckets Farmers in Huai’an, Jiangsu province, harvest water chestnuts, a popular ingredient in Chinese dishes that can be eaten raw or ground into a flour to make a dim sum cake. The large floating buckets are a traditional method of collecti

The White House moved last weekend to quash claims that government officials control the weather, including a far-fetched rumour circulating on social media that Hurricane Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine lithium deposits.

Bronze aged Guhyasamaja Akshobhya A small Buddhist object sits quietly, its three-headed masculine figure locked in tantric union with a feminine one. But the nitty gritty of their enlightened sexual activity isn’t the only thing that this 15th-centu

AT THE START OF ISRAEL’S WAR on Gaza, when the intensive bombing of civilians began, the thought in my mind was: how will we Palestinians live with the Israelis after this? A year later, the question has only become more pertinent. Many atrocities ha

I’ve tried cooking polenta the traditional way, but always end up with a burn ed hand from the hot lava glooping away in the pan. Now I whisk the cornmeal into the desired amount of cold water, then cook it on a moderate heat until it thickens to a n

Rather than feeling the pain of loss, many of those who attended the Conservative party conference in Birmingham last week said they felt another emotion in the aftermath of July’s cataclysmic general election defeat: one of overwhelming relief. “To

At around midday on 19 August 1949, wreathed in thick mist, a British European Airways DC-3 going from Belfast to Manchester flew into a hillside on Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District, near Oldham. All the crew and 21 of the 29 passengers died on

‘Blue, our sky is for ever blue!” effuses the official anthem of Rondônia, a chunk of the Amazon in the western reaches of Brazil. But the “pure crystalline” heavens celebrated by those lyrics have vanished in recent months. Huge tracts of South Amer

The echoing screech of swifts hurtling between the houses is a distant memory. Some swallows and martins have hung around, wittering away on telephone wires over the Cheshire Lines, or hunting flies above the salt marsh north of Southport’s defunct p

The view from the decaying jetty on the atoll of Peros Banhos takes in a vast lagoon surrounded by palm trees and sun-bleached beaches. From there, more than 50 years ago, some of the last Chagos Islanders were forcibly deported by British colonial a

One year ago, nearly 400 young Israelis were massacred at the site of the Nova music festival during the 7 October Hamas attack. As mourners gathered at the site of the festival to commemorate the victims on Monday, their sobs and prayers were punctu