A spectre is haunting Rachel Reeves. It has the tonsure of an abbot and a jawline kept taut by intermittent fasting, but any trace of asceticism is dispelled by its perma-smirk: a half-smile, half-jeer that taunts “I’ve got one over you!” It is the spectre of George Osborne. I am not the only one to … Read more
It is 9am in a suburb of Kabul when two women in powder-pink burqas ring the doorbell of a drab building. The exterior is a silent reminder of the gloomy atmosphere that prevails in the capital. “Can you let us in?” they whisper. A woman called Sonia* opens the door. Before the Taliban’s takeover of … Read more
For a guy who recently turned 85 (the character debuted in the pulpy pages of Detective Comics in March 1939), billionaire vigilante Bruce Wayne shows little sign of slowing down. The most recent film adaptation – 2022’s angsty The Batman starring Robert Pattinson – has a streaming spin-off centred on roly-poly gangster The Penguin launching … Read more
Abdullah Alshanti. Composite: Guardian Design; Supplied image Abdullah Alshanti, 26, is a user experience and interface designer. Before the war, he worked with a travel technology startup called Fluxir. He also worked in the electro-mechanical department of a hospital, building medical sterilisation devices. Can you describe an average day in your life before this war?I … Read more
Running a finger over a row of books in a Delhi library one afternoon, I stopped at a title that promised danger. The stacks were abundant in books like True Story of the RSS, RSS Misunderstood and Is RSS the Enemy?, which often turned out to be self-published polemics that were too long, however short … Read more
Nicolás Maduro has gone on the offensive after suspicions that he stole last Sunday’s presidential election plunged Venezuela into turmoil and diplomatic isolation, blaming the unrest on a far-right conspiracy being spearheaded by “perverse and macabre” political foes. Addressing foreign journalists at the presidential palace in Caracas – as international condemnation of the allegedly rigged … Read more
Scammers are duping Australian taxpayers out of thousands of dollars by fraudulently accessing online government accounts during the annual rush to complete tax returns. Federal government platforms are not immune to scams – with users of myGov being targeted in recent weeks. How do victims fall prey to those criminal scammers and how can people … Read more
Jess Fox stares straight ahead, her fate bubbling and swirling and whirling in front of her. She glances calmly to her right, then back towards what lies ahead. Blinking slowly, deliberately. Pursed lips hide her trademark grin, the dimples gone but not forgotten. That glare – through icy blues eyes – bending the world to … Read more
Imagine a university student paying someone else to sit their exam, take their tests, and write and submit all of their assignments. We call this “contract cheating” because the student enters a contract to outsource their work, whether formal or informal, with another person. This is the most serious type of university cheating. My team’s … Read more
It’s 10:10pm and my heels are sinking into the mud as I heave a wooden box from the depths of a duck pond. I pull at a rope until at last it emerges; my companion rushes forward with a key he found hidden in a picture frame behind a photo of a dog. The key … Read more