9 h. ago Former Scots jewellery designer becomes world's first forensic jeweller

Dr. Maria Maclennan, 36, has become the world's first forensic jeweller - and is able to ID bodies in disaster zones through their rings, necklaces and earrings.

Politics

69 h. ago Thirty years ago we said never again, Srebrenica. How much longer before we declare: never again, Gaza? | Ed Husic

When it comes to the horrors of genocide we say these words with an ironic frequency. How do we short-circuit the re-run of this pitiful, shameful cycle?Today will be a hard day for Sydneysider Mirela Muratovic, a survivor of the only recognised genocide in Europe since the end of the second world war: Srebrenica.During the 1990s Bosnian war Srebrenica was designated a United Nations-protected “safe area” – a label that came to mean nothing. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago From Madonna to New Order and Oasis, one man’s odyssey to make an ‘atlas of album cover maps’

Damien Saunder set out to survey the cartographic influence on album sleeve design. Four years and 400-plus records later, he’s created the coffee table book music fans and map lovers never knew they neededGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailGrowing up in rural Wangaratta in north-eastern Victoria, Damien Saunder spent many a wintry day listening to music on the family’s record player. Just beneath the stereo was a Reader’s Digest atlas. “Anytime we put on a record, I’d get out the atlas,” Saunder recalls. “It was like a gateway to the world – a way to dream, explore and let your mind wander.”Decades later, music and maps have come together again, this time in a coffee table book: Maps on Vinyl, a world-first survey of the cartographic influence on album sleeve design; an atlas of album cover maps. It’s the book most music fans – and map-makers – never knew they needed. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Boots' No7 Future Renew Night Serum at half price for a limited time

The No7 Future Renew Night Serum has a world-first super peptide blend designed to reverse visible signs of skin damage such as fine lines, wrinkles, uneven tone, and texture, and dry skin

Politics

2 w. ago Modern marvel or concrete ‘blob’? Inside LA’s divisive $700m art gallery

Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new building has been a decade in the making and has long vexed critics, but its CEO hopes to turn things aroundAs Los Angeles county’s new $720m art museum building nears completion, it’s still haunted by a single, vexing question: how do you hang art in a gallery where every single wall is made of massive slabs of concrete?Designed by Peter Zumthor, a prizewinning Swiss architect, the new building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has sparked controversy in the art world since its initial designs were made public in 2013. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Anna Wintour: ‘queen of fashion’ steps away from American Vogue editor

Wintour has been both King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, commanding power while pulling strings behind the scenesThe departure of Anna Wintour as editor-in-chief of American Vogue leaves a bigger absence in the fashion world than would be left by the departure of any designer or supermodel.For more than three decades, Wintour has held the official title of editor-in-chief of American Vogue – and an unofficial, but widely acknowledged, title of queen of fashion. At any catwalk show, the best seat in the house is automatically hers. Like Beyoncé and Madonna, she has no need of a last name; everyone refers to her simply as “Anna”, although few are bold enough to address her directly. She has been a constant, regal presence, crowned by the signature glossy bob and ever-present sunglasses. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Anna Wintour: end of an era as ‘queen of fashion’ departs as American Vogue’s editor

Wintour has amplified the place of fashion in culture beyond all recognitionThe departure of Anna Wintour as editor-in-chief of American Vogue leaves a bigger absence in the fashion world than would be left by the departure of any designer, or any supermodel.For more than three decades, Wintour has held the official title of editor-in-chief of American Vogue – and an unofficial, but widely acknowledged, title of queen of fashion. At any catwalk show, the best seat in the house is automatically hers. Like Beyonce and Madonna, she has no need of a last name; everyone refers to her simply as “Anna”, although few are bold enough to address her directly. She has been a constant, regal presence, crowned by the signature glossy bob and ever-present sunglasses. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Extraordinary way Lauren Sanchez chose Parisian pastry chef Cédric Grolet to design world's most extravagant cake for wedding to Jeff Bezos

The world's most in-demand pastry chef has flown to Venice with his model girlfriend to craft a top-secret cake for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's star-studded wedding.

Politics

2 w. ago Google could be forced to change UK search as watchdog takes steps

CMA proposes tightening regulation, which could lead to site giving users option to choose alternative servicesBusiness live – latest updatesGoogle could be forced to make a series of changes to its search business, including giving internet users an option to choose alternative services, after the UK competition watchdog proposed to tighten regulation of the company.The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) is preparing to designate the world’s largest search engine with “strategic market status” – a term that gives the watchdog extra powers to regulate technology companies deemed to have considerable market heft. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago I dressed Oasis in the '90s and worked behind the scenes – even made Liam's wedding suit

Toby Lamb, design and brand director at Richard James, has spent 30 years working in the world of bespoke tailoring and fashion design, and dressed the Gallagher brothers

Culture

3 w. ago ‘A dazzling concrete crown’: Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral gets long overdue appreciation

A genius response bridging of history and modernity with daring interior and exterior, it is shocking it wasn’t already Grade I-listedLiverpool’s Catholic cathedral has listing upgraded to Grade ILiverpool’s majestic cosmic wigwam has always faced a hard time from critics. Classicists lamented that it replaced an earlier swollen baroque design by Edwin Lutyens, which was cut short by the second world war and rising costs. Modernists found it too prissy, a brittle British version of more muscular concrete creations emerging from sunnier southern climes – a piece of Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília lost in translation between the hemispheres.Time has proved them wrong. Frederick Gibberd’s striking upturned funnel is one of the finest postwar buildings in the land, standing as the most prominent Catholic cathedral of any British city, as well as the most original. It is shocking that it wasn’t already Grade-I listed – a fact that reflects a broader antipathy for buildings of the era, which is...

Politics

4 w. ago Club World Cup is designed to deliver stardust as Man City and Chelsea chase £97m jackpot

The revamped Club World Cup kicks off in the US this weekend and promises to be a spectacular event, despite the controversy surrounding FIFA's new-look tournament

Society