At 27, Verena Bahlsen entered the leadership of the family company that had produced biscuits for generations. Two years later, she was gone. The departure marked the end of an unusually public
In Burkina Faso, even a photograph of a person receiving a sack of rice is becoming a matter of state regulation. This summer, the Council of Ministers approved a decree that prohibits
More
For Giorgia Meloni, staying in power has become an achievement in itself. On Friday, the Italian prime minister will celebrate a political record that would be unremarkable in many countries but carries
More
France’s far right entered the 2027 presidential race with a carefully balanced partnership. Now ideological differences, personal tensions and competing ambitions are exposing its fault lines. The formula was supposed to be
More
The battle over Torreciudad, the spiritual heart of Opus Dei in Spain, has moved from a local dispute into a revealing test of power inside the Catholic Church. Newly disclosed handwritten letters
More
For millions of Japanese children, the end of the summer holiday marks a familiar transition: uniforms are put back on, alarm clocks are reset and classrooms fill again after weeks away from
More
The disaster that struck the Nepal-China border on August 26 has forced scientists to reconsider how high-mountain hazards are assessed. What began with the collapse of a glacier-rock system near Langtang Lirung
More
Deep beneath dense undergrowth, beneath a bridge near Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt, investigators found a hole in the damp earth. The location, close to the Saale and only a few kilometres from Leipzig/Halle
More
China’s grip on the world’s rare-earth supply is often described in deceptively simple terms: Beijing has the minerals, the processing capacity and the leverage, while Western countries allowed their own industries to
More
More than halfway through 2026, the West Asia crisis continues to expose deep vulnerabilities in the global energy system, with Asia bearing a disproportionate share of the risk. The International Energy Agency’s
More
Anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder are usually treated as distinct psychiatric conditions, each with its own symptoms, diagnostic category and specialised therapy. But David Barlow, one of the most influential psychologists of
More
by Durga Velayudham For much of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s military posture in Europe rested on a stark premise: if war came, Soviet forces would advance rapidly into Western Europe.
More
China’s biggest box-office surprise this year is about to face a very different test. Dear You, a low-budget Teochew-language family drama that has grossed nearly US$300 million in mainland China and become
More
As BRICS prepares to meet in New Delhi, it would do well to understand not only what the United States is doing, but why. The reported American move to gain majority control
More
Meta has finally fallen over the legal precipice towards which it had been edging for years. This week’s agreement with 52 US attorneys general, under which they will withdraw their lawsuit accusing
More
More than 3.6 million people pass through room number 12 of Madrid’s Prado Museum each year to admire Diego Velázquez’s La familia de Felipe IV, better known since the 19th century as
More