8 h. ago Even in final years, African women endure long walks for water

Old age may bring new aches and pains, stretched savings and a perspective on life only gained by living it

Politics

67 h. ago I used to judge my mother’s gambling addiction. Now I think she was longing for a fairytale ending

Toni Jordan’s mother gambled fast, ferociously, without any sense of fun. The author has come to realise she was dreaming of a bigger life My mother, Margaret, died in 2018 at 75. It was a good death, all things considered. The very end was savage, as endings often are, but she was in her own home and on her own two feet until the final week. For a woman who’d smoked two packs a day all her adult life, who’d never exercised or even walked to the shops, who refused to drink water (“I’d spew!”) and lived on Coca-Cola, paté on toast, jubes and green olives from a jar – considering all that, she did OK.During my mother’s final days, I had it easy. My sister, Lee, lived closer and is, to be honest, a more nurturing person. She’s caring. Patient. Lee is also better with money than me, but I thought I should at least attempt to help – so at the end, I took charge of Mum’s bank accounts. She lived on the pension and died with a run-down brick veneer villa unit in an over-50s complex, an old...

Events

1 week ago Schwarzenegger’s mission: terminate partisan rigging of California’s electoral maps

Former governor has long campaigned against partisan rigging of electoral districts and is not about to stop now: ‘We are not going to go into a stinking contest with a skunk’Arnold Schwarzenegger brags in his X profile that “I killed the Predator”, but even he was shocked when, as the freshly elected governor of California more than 20 years ago, he saw how unfairly the state’s electoral boundaries were carved up.One district in the eastern part of the state had such a long, thin middle section it was nicknamed the “swan”. Another was known as the “Jesus district” because you had to walk on water to get from one side to the other. Yet another, in LA’s San Fernando Valley, was memorably described by the Stanford law professor Pam Karlan as “a ghastly-looking, multi-headed, insect-like polygon with 385 sides”. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Mysterious 'Jesus boat' found in Sea of Galilee linked to walking on water miracle

A massive wooden boat discovered in the Sea of Galilee could be tied to one of Jesus' most renowned biblical miracles.

Politics

1 week ago We criminalise the political stunt at our peril. It is a crucial art form that is impossible to ignore | Mark Borkowski

At the same time as we applaud the suffragettes and the likes of Peter Tatchell, Britain is losing the right to protestMark Borkowski is a crisis PR consultant and authorWe must ask ourselves: how would the heroic suffragettes or the remarkable Greenham Common women be regarded if active today? The answer is simple: they would be locked up. Just as they were locked up then. A century ago, women chained themselves to railings, set fires, endured prison and changed the world, and we celebrate their victories without thinking too hard about their methods. Yet today’s laws would criminalise them on sight.Last month, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, wore a commemorative sash celebrating the suffragette struggle. Yet this is the same Yvette Cooper presiding over an age of repressive laws and mass arrests. It’s a paradox: we laud the rebels of the past while shackling the rebels of the present.Mark Borkowski is a crisis PR consultant and author. His BBC Radio 4 Archive on 4 documentary, ...

Politics

3 w. ago The Greater Manchester waterside walk ending with a pub that has stunning views

A stunning walk, it boasts large stretches of woodland, tranquil water and an impressive viaduct

Politics

4 w. ago Mum 'traumatised' after dog walker pushes her in canal as she cycles to work

Klaudia Mitura, 34, used to cycle along a canal path to get to work in Manchester, but during one commute she had a row with two dog walkers who resorted to violence and pushed her in the water

Events