Soaring inflation piling pressure on country already struggling with shortages and stirring memories of Mugabe chaos Zimbabwe’s central bank will start selling gold coins this month as a store of value to tame runaway inflation, which has considerably weakened the local currency. The central bank governor, John Mangudya, said in a statement on Monday that […]

From cyberspace to AI, Steven Lisberger’s 1982 sci-fi classic was way ahead of its time. The team behind it explain how they made a game-changer Back in 1982, computers meant one of two things in the popular imagination. Either they were room-sized machines used by the military-industrial complex to crunch data on stuff like nuclear […]

Simon Jenkins Celtic grievances have erupted once more, and can no longer be waved away by Whitehall The legendary Welsh rugby star Phil Bennett, who died last month, would rouse his team against England, calling them “bastards … taking our coal, our water, our steel … They exploited, raped, controlled and punished us – that’s […]

‘Infuriating’ exclusions made just weeks before Joe Biden’s Saudi visit and expected rapprochement with the crown price Family members of several US nationals who are being held in Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not invited to attend a recent call with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, in a move that was called “infuriating and […]

Kenneth Rogoff Supply and demand shocks seem likely to keep prices up despite fears of recession in US and Europe Over the past two and a half years, world oil and gas prices have been subject to demand shocks and supply shocks – and sometimes both simultaneously. The resulting volatility in energy markets is a […]

The party has shown little enthusiasm to help those affected by unplanned pregnancies – is anything likely to change? Republicans across the United States cast the supreme court’s decision last month that allowed states to ban abortion as a victory for “life”. Left unsaid was the quality of life that families and mothers set to […]

West’s response to effects of Covid and Ukraine war condemned as shortsighted ‘collective failure’ to invest in future human capital The international community would be “playing with fire” if it failed to help Africa recover from Covid and the impact of the Ukraine war, the International Monetary Fund’s director for the continent has said. Failure […]

With a de facto ban across much of Turkey, women are having to beg from hospital to hospital or seek private terminations – if they can afford it When Esra*, a 27-year-old from Istanbul fell pregnant by mistake, she knew she had no choice but to get an abortion. Abortion is legal on request in […]

Jonathan Horn The Australian excels at winding people up but the conversation could be about to shift – even if we’re not quite ready to deal with that When I was a kid, all my sporting heroes were volcanic individuals. I’d get up in the middle of the night and Greg Norman would be storming […]

Jury still out on role played by global heating, but hotter ocean temperatures off Australia could have fuelled the NSW storms Sydney flood levels could exceed recent records as NSW premier warns crisis ‘far from over’ Comment: Australia is woefully unprepared for consecutive disasters See the NSW floods’ record-breaking rainfall in two charts Get our […]

AI system identifies currents and bathers, and sends a warning to lifeguards via a smart watch Early July is the cue for Japanese surfers and sun seekers to descend on beaches across the country – and one beach on the Pacific coast is turning to artificial intelligence to ensure that their time in the water […]

Signs that Omicron surge is becoming ‘more intense’, with cases rising steadily and more people in hospital than at any time since April New Zealand is on the brink of another Omicron wave, experts warn, with average cases rising as immunity wanes, more infectious variants arrive, and winter sets in. Public health experts, however, are […]

The police strip-search at school of Child Q caused outrage. But experts say it is just one example of how black children are perceived as more mature – and culpable – than white peers Ahmed has a recurring nightmare. The specifics change, but the script stays the same: he is in terrible danger, he tries […]

After apartheid, when black people were given back their land, many felt driven to prove they could farm as well as white South Africans. But even before they had begun, the system was stacked against them by Eve Fairbanks The tiny plane banked and headed north. It was a sunny morning in 2015, and the […]

Greenhouse gas has undergone rapid acceleration and scientists say it may be due to atmospheric changes Methane is four times more sensitive to global warming than previously thought, a new study shows. The result helps to explain the rapid growth in methane in recent years and suggests that, if left unchecked, methane related warming will […]

Polly Toynbee A new report shows household income growth in the UK has plummeted. This is hardly the prosperity we were promised Read this, and you may just put your head in your hands, gather up your family and plan to emigrate. This year’s annual living standards audit from the Resolution Foundation contains graphs that […]