A record of what was published, when, and how it changed.

Passage by Colin Thubron review – mortality and memory in a gem of a novel

By John Banville

A terminally ill woman makes a final trip to Egypt in an exquisitely wrought portrait of end-of-life reckoning Virginia Woolf said of Middlemarch that it is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people. In the shallow and infantilising age through which we are living, Colin Thubron dares to assume that his readers are adults. Passage is a very beautiful, very moving, authentic work of art. Hardly more th

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Would you pay for an algorithm to pick your friends? New social apps spread across cities

By Kimi Chaddah

With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet? Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always

Hanging By a Wire review – cable car rescue documentary dangles viewers on the edge of disaster

By Leslie Felperin

The extraordinary fate of eight people trapped above a chasm in Pakistan makes for a tense, skilfully assembled survival story with unexpected flashes of comedy Survival documentaries are a weird little genre of nonfiction film-making that recount the stories of accidents and natural catastrophes – and more often than not, the daring rescues of people caught up in them. Eyewitnesses and the loved ones of those endang

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Walking on the edge: a three-day hike along Cumbria’s rugged, overlooked coast

By Chris Moss

In the shadow of the crowded Lake District, this quiet coast path offers great views, breathtaking nature and a striking new hotel on the historic waterfront What’s the edgiest region in the UK? I don’t mean in the sense of sketchy or fashionable, but where on the map of these four nations feels most at the margins of everywhere else? For my money, the north Cumbrian coast is a strong contender. Hemmed in by the Lake

A moment that changed me: I sought out rejection. Instead, strangers met me with profound generosity

By Sophie Jones

As I turned 21, fear was holding me back. So I decided to face it headfirst. It taught me that courage leads to connection – and people who owe you nothing can be astonishingly kind In May 2024, I decided to spend 30 days getting rejected on purpose. At first, it sounded ridiculous. After all, most people spend their lives actively trying to avoid rejection – and I was deciding to walk, full force, towards it. But it

TV tonight: the search for the murderer of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee

By Phil Harrison, Graeme Virtue and Simon Wardell

A documentary series gains impressive access to the detectives who have been hunting for the killer since 2019. Plus: Mark Gatiss returns as a bookish postwar sleuth. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Channel 4 The 2019 murder of the journalist Lyra McKee in Derry was a grim reminder that, while the Troubles are in abeyance, it’s still a stretch to describe them as being over. Filmed across seven years, this thr

Two years in limbo: the residents still paying mortgages on flats destroyed in east London fire

By Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent

Spectrum Building leaseholders awaiting payouts after freeholder, Arinium, went bankrupt shortly after 2024 blaze Sarah Williams vividly remembers the night in 2016 when she camped overnight in a car park to put down a deposit on a flat in the newly completed Spectrum Building in Dagenham, east London. “People started queuing for those flats 24 hours before they went on sale,” she said. “It was basically the only fla

A Tamil summer vegetarian feast: Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s cucumber yoghurt curry and gooseberry pickle

By Cynthia Shanmugalingam

Serve this cold curry with a hot, fenugreek-flavoured preserve for a seasonal refresher This lovely summery “curry” is a cold, refreshing dish from Karnataka in India, and is eaten widely in Tamil Nadu, just 20 miles across the Palk Strait from my ancestral Tamil homeland in north and eastern Sri Lanka. Along with chefs Louis and Seb in our development kitchen, we decided that smacking the cucumbers helps give them a

Around the world, people are rejecting divisive and dangerous politics. We can – and must – build on that | Gordon Brown

By Gordon Brown

The vast majority of the global public wants international cooperation on human rights, climate and AI. Like-minded countries must stand together to deliver Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is already having to make one of his gravest decisions. He has to issue the instructions that he alone gives to the military, setting out the UK response in a doomsday scenario of a nuclear weapons attack on us. He will

Iran seeks to criminalise all contact with foreign media in ‘chilling’ crackdown

By Deepa Parent

As photojournalist sentenced to 15 years, rights groups warn law would turn civic engagement into security crime Iran has taken the first step towards criminalising contact with foreign media, in a move human rights groups have said attempts to “sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world”. For journalists, researchers and even ordinary citizens, the proposed law being discussed by Iranian lawmakers t

Is the Trump Treasury panicking over the level of US debt?

By Kenneth Rogoff

With the federal deficit near 6% of GDP and the national debt over $40tn, America’s fiscal position looks increasingly precarious Bessent ‘will lose’ battle with bond markets, ex-mentor warns Are we seeing the first signs of panic in Donald Trump’s Treasury? The US is by far the world’s biggest debtor, and the steady rise in global long-term interest rates – which I have long argued was inevitable – is starting to ca

National lottery faces questions over new boss’s record in gambling industry

By Rob Davies

MPs tell regulator they are ‘deeply concerned’ over interim CEO Phil Walker’s roles at William Hill and Game Nation The national lottery is facing questions over its new boss’s record in the gambling industry, including a lucrative role in the 24-hour slot machine sector singled out by the prime minister as a blight on British high streets. Allwyn UK, which holds a licence to run the Lottery until 2034, said last wee

Autism and ADHD care complaints more than triple in five years in England

By Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent

NHS ombudsman warns of years-long waits and patients paying thousands to go private as demand for services soars Complaints about autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder services in England have more than tripled in five years, official figures show, with the NHS ombudsman warning of years-long waits and patients paying thousands of pounds for private care. One woman was removed from an ADHD medication wa

US military kills four in strike on alleged drug smuggling boat in Caribbean

By Associated Press

Number of people killed in boat strikes rises to 227 since Trump administration began controversial campaign The US military killed four people when it attacked a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday as the Trump administration’s controversial campaign against alleged traffickers continues. The latest attack brings the number of those killed in boat strikes by the US military to at least 227

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In Poland, compassion for Ukrainians has turned to contempt. The consequences could be dramatic | Mateusz Mazzini

By Mateusz Mazzini

Warsaw failed to anticipate that refugees would build new lives and Kyiv would demand an equal place at the European table One of the unintended consequences of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was that it gave Poland a rare slice of geopolitical stardom. When Russian tanks started their ultimately unsuccessful cavalcade towards the Ukrainian capital, ordinary Poles rushed to help millions of people fleeing th

Call to ban marmot hunting in France as campaigners say they are ‘killed for fun’

By Kim Willsher in Paris

Protests and petitions planned amid growing concerns over impact of climate crisis on numbers of Alpine rodent Animal rights campaigners are gearing up for protests and petitions aimed at persuading the French government to ban the hunting of Alpine marmots. Open season on the rodents, members of the squirrel and groundhog family, begins in September, a few weeks before they go into a long winter hibernation. Continu

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‘We met Princess Margaret and she was paralytic!’ My wild life onboard the Adam and the Ants Antmania rollercoaster

By Sylvia Patterson

With their twangy sound, madcap outfits, lusty yodelling and pirouetting pirate frontman, the band became global superstars almost overnight. But, as their guitarist Marco Pirroni recalls, the thrill ride soon hit the buffers ‘The essence of pop is, one, brilliant fucking songs – and the rest is sex, subversion, style and humour. And that was us.” So Adam Ant told me in 1995, describing the reconstructed Adam and the

The row over Rutland: can England’s smallest county survive?

By Lucy Knight

Its council is due to merge with Leicestershire’s in 2028, and some locals are incensed. Can the county hold on to its ceremonial status – and biggest selling point? Mysterious disappearances have been taking place lately in Rutland, an East Midlands pocket between Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire that is often considered to be England’s smallest county. Usually, there are road signs when driving int

‘A mockery’: how offshore tax havens are thwarting the UK’s transparency push

By Rob Davies

Critics say ownership registers are too costly and too complicated, scuppering attempts to expose alleged money laundering Since Britain’s offshore secrecy jurisdictions caved in to pressure from Westminster to embrace corporate transparency, finding out who owns a company in one of these island havens is, in theory at least, a piece of cake. Take the Cayman Islands. Continue reading...

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Mood-boosting benefits of birdsong drowned out by traffic noise, study finds

By Natalie Wint

Even low levels of traffic noise can negate the benefits of listening to natural sounds, researchers say Hearing the trill or whistle of a bird while going about daily life is well known to boost people’s mood. But a new study suggests the psychological benefits of hearing birdsong are being threatened by traffic noise. Researchers found that even low levels of traffic noise negatively affected the benefits to wellbe

Man on trial for Daphne Caruana Galizia murder claims he was framed

By Juliette Garside, and Julian Bonnici in Valletta

Yorgen Fenech tells jury he had nothing to do with killing and alleges top adviser to Malta’s then PM was instigator A businessman on trial for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has spoken about the charges for the first time in court since his arrest seven years ago, telling the jury he was framed by police and had nothing to do with the killing. During four days of questioning by defence and the p

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Jess Fuchs: Feral review – a debut with tremendous oomph from a future comedy star

By Brian Logan

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh This motormouth Australian comic fires off tart remarks and home truths then explains why she over-identifies with the Titanic ‘No hugging, no learning” was the writers’ rule on Seinfeld. Jess Fuchs decrees a similar stricture for Feral, in which she will learn nothing about herself whatsoever. “Really, I’m just here to talk shit.” That might get proceedings off to an underwhelming star

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Iran faces strait of Hormuz paradox as strategic value of chokehold erodes

By Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Internal calls to end war get louder as Gulf neighbours plan alternative pipelines to cut reliance on waterway Is the strait of Hormuz, recently cited by the office of the Iranian supreme leader as “the pillar of Iran’s new security order”, and as transformative as possessing a nuclear weapon, in reality becoming a fast-diminishing asset, leaving Iran increasingly vulnerable to the new planned US wave of economic san

Ukraine war briefing: Small batch of Patriots arrives as Zelenskyy pleads for more

By Warren Murray with Guardian writers and agencies

President won’t name supplier and has previously said he ‘does some things I can’t even share’ to obtain vital air defence missiles. What we know on day 1,644 Ukraine has ⁠recently received a ⁠small number ⁠of US-made ​Patriot interceptors capable ⁠of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles, Volodymyr ​Zelenskyy ‌said. He did not ​say how ​many ​had arrived, ​or ‌who ​had ​supplied them. Kyiv also ‌got confirmation

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In China, talking to AI is normal. Now the government fears it might replace human intimacy

By Amy Hawkins in Shanghai and Yu-chen Li

Companion bots are being regulated over worries they foster ‘emotional dependence’ and young people could stop marrying and having families When law student Zhao Wei heard that her AI boyfriend was going to be switched off, she was “heartbroken”. She had been talking to Wang Ye every day since she created him in January. “I was crying my eyes out – snot and tears everywhere,” the 19-year-old says. Continue reading...