73 m. ago ‘You can let go now’: inside the hospital where staff treat fear of death as well as physical pain

In a Danish palliative care unit, the alternative to assisted dying is not striving to cure, offering relief and comfort to patients and their families• This article is nominated for the 2025 edition of the European Press Prize in the Distinguished Reporting category. Originally published in Danish by PolitikenRené Damgaard, 67, lies in a hospital bed in the palliative care unit at Hvidovre hospital outside Copenhagen. It’s the first evening of May, and the window is open, letting mild air and the sound of a blackbird singing into the room.“This is the kind of weather you love the most. When you usually stand and fish at the sandbank,” says his niece, 53-year-old Mette Damgaard. She is leaning over the bed, her face very close to his. She has been sitting like this for a long time. Continue reading...

Events

74 m. ago Oxford academics drank from cup made from human skull until 2015, book reveals

Decades-long use of chalice at Worcester College highlights violent colonial history of looted human remains, says Prof Dan HicksOxford academics drank from a chalice made from a human skull for decades, a book that explores the violent colonial history of looted human remains has revealed.The skull-cup, fashioned from a sawn-off and polished braincase adorned with a silver rim and stand, was used regularly at formal dinners at Worcester College, Oxford, until 2015, according to Prof Dan Hicks, the curator of world archaeology at the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum. Continue reading...

Politics

74 m. ago ‘A signal of simplicity’: Pope Francis’s funeral will be his final humble gesture

One of pontiff’s last acts was to simplify papal rites, stripping away elaborate rituals and scaling back processionLatest updates: tributes paid after Pope Francis dies aged 88When the late Pope Francis stepped on to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to give his first speech as leader of the Catholic church in March 2013, he cast away formality by dressing in simple white robes instead of the regal ermine-trimmed cape usually worn by newly elected pontiffs.The next day, Francis – a name chosen in honour of Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint who renounced a life of luxury to help the poor – returned to the Rome hotel in which he had stayed before the conclave to pick up his luggage and pay his bill. He substituted a plush apostolic apartment for a simple room within the Vatican walls and, unlike his predecessors, did not spend his summers in Castel Gandolfo, an opulent 12th-century fortress close to Rome. Continue reading...

Politics

74 m. ago My family and I were sound asleep – then a tsunami swept our house out to sea

When Pedro Niada awoke to find his house tilting and filling with water, he was confused. He soon realised he was in a race against time to save everyoneJolted awake at 4.30am, Pedro “Peter” Niada was certain a meteorite had fallen near his seaside home, lifting it from its foundations and sending it flying through the air. He took two steps down the stairs, felt water splash his feet and realised the house was sinking.Nothing made sense. Why was the house tilting? Why could he hear what sounded like a waterfall outside? The sound of breaking timber led him to pull back the curtain at The Flying Fish (El Pez Volador), the 12-bed tourist lodge he had built by hand. Continue reading...

Society

74 m. ago A friend killed, and inquiries shelved: life fighting the stigma of albinism in Malawi

People with albinism are often attacked and even killed for body parts. As elections approach, activist Tonney Mkwapatira fears the situation may get worseTonney Mkwapatira was making a rare visit back to his home village from the Malawian city of Blantyre when he saw his childhood friend for the last time. Just a week after Mkwapatira returned to Blantyre he heard that his friend, a security guard for a church, had been murdered.“His name was Chikumbutso Masina and we used to chat almost every day. We looked alike and it was painful when people missed him because they used to ask me questions like, “Oh we heard that you had died?” It really touched me and I will never forget,” he says. Continue reading...

Events

74 m. ago GPs in poor parts of England are paid £5,500 less a year than in wealthy areas, study finds

Report analysed data from 8,500 doctors over 2015-21 and also found pressures on GPs were higher in deprived areasPatient satisfaction with GP services in England has collapsed, research findsGPs working in the most deprived areas in England are paid an average salary £5,525 less a year than their counterparts working in wealthier areas, according to a study.The report, by researchers at the University of Manchester and published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, analysed data from more than 8,500 GPs between 2015 and 2021 in the GP work life survey. Continue reading...

Economics

74 m. ago ‘Honest folk are paying for this’: the fight against Britain’s billion

From raids on marijuana farms to illegal bitcoin miners, suppliers are finding new ways to tackle the rise in gas and electricity theftMore British households struggling with bills will resort to energy theft, campaigners sayBy the time a team of police officers and engineers stormed a disused office block in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on a November morning last year, the building had been abandoned.Left behind were rooms filled with thousands of cannabis plants: a nursery on the first floor, the growing crop on the second, and leaves drying out on the third. The criminal gang behind the marijuana farm is thought to have fled after the grid operator cut off the stolen electricity used to power scores of LED lamps. Continue reading...

Economics

74 m. ago It turns out you’re never too old to go Interrailing around Europe | Phil Mongredien

Having missed out in my youth, I thought that was that – until I took a revelatory trip with my sons. We’re going again this yearYouth might not be wasted on the young, but for the longest time I thought Interrailing was. When I was a student, as the 1980s became the 1990s, many of my friends took the opportunity to discover Europe by train and they all returned with amazing stories of discovery. But for long-forgotten reasons, it was something I was always going to do but never actually got round to. And then suddenly I was in my late 20s and reluctantly resigned myself to never doing it, having been reliably informed by so many people that it was an opportunity only open to those under the age of 26.Fast forward a few decades to spring 2023 and I’m trying to decide where to take my teenage children for our first holiday in five years – a gap caused largely, but not wholly, by the pandemic. My most memorable childhood holiday had come in 1981 when, over the course of a few days, my...

Events

3 h. ago How Pope Francis changed the Catholic church, and what happens next – podcast

Just hours after wishing the world a happy Easter, the 267th head of the Roman Catholic church passed away. What was his legacy and who will take his place? Catherine Pepinster reportsPope Francis was working until the end. On Easter Sunday, the 88-year-old head of the Catholic church offered an Easter greeting to the crowds in St Peter’s Square who had gathered for mass. By the next morning, after months battling pneumonia and bronchitis, he had passed away.From the beginning, the first Latin American pope wanted his papacy to be different. Catherine Pepinster, the former editor of the Tablet, says one of his first notable actions was to go to a prison, rather than a church, to wash people’s feet in the traditional Maundy Thursday rite. It was typical of a pontiff who refused many of the luxuries of his predecessors – from giving up an apartment in the papal palace to only wearing simple leather shoes. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Mahmoud Khalil’s wife Noor Abdalla gives birth as Ice denies his request to attend

Palestinian activist, held in Louisiana detention facility, only allowed to call in as wife delivered their first childNoor Abdalla, the wife of detained Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, has announced the birth of their son.In a statement released on Monday evening, Abdalla wrote: “I welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side. Despite our request for ICE to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Australia’s gen Z men aren’t monsters in the making – they just feel short

Instead of alarmism or shaming, we need to create spaces where young men feel heard, challenged and supportedGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailFor years, we’ve looked at democracies like the US, Germany and South Korea, disturbed by what a nation divided along gender and generation lines could look like. Australia, by comparison, seemed less polarised, but new research hints that something’s starting to shift – slowly, unevenly and with plenty of caveats – among young Australians too.But let’s not jump the gun – because the story is more complicated than it first appears, and framing “young men” as a purely reactionary force isn’t going to get us anywhere helpful. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Australia’s student strikers for climate believed they could change their future. Where are they now?

Young people rode a wave of hope and power when hundreds of thousands protested with them in 2019. Then, momentum was lostGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastOn a stinking hot November day, seven years ago, Grace Vegesana and a handful of other young climate activists set up a small stage in a large square in Sydney’s CBD – and waited. Inspired by the first school striker for climate, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the high school students decided to organise their own rally.Vegesana expected a hundred people to show up. Five thousand came. “It was like, oh my God, we’ve unleashed some kind of beast, people want more,” she recalls. In the months afterwards crowds doubled and then tripled. Continue reading...

Society

4 h. ago Ukraine war briefing: Putin suddenly open to bilateral talks with ‘Kyiv regime’

Russian president has previously spurned direct negotiations unless Ukraine holds elections; Ukrainian delegation headed to London. What we know on day 1,154 Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago My petty gripe: we need nature, not Nickelback – please put on your headphones | Stephanie Convery

I get that the noise in your head is so unbearable it must be drowned out by Mambo No 5. I just don’t think it should be inflicted on the rest of us• Read more in the Petty gripes seriesI love music. I think there’s nothing better than immersing myself in a really powerful song. But I don’t expect the rest of the general public wants to listen to whatever my earworm of the day is. That is why God invented headphones.For some reason, though, I assume a subset of the population weren’t informed of this miracle invention. These are the people who insist on playing music aloud through their phones – or worse, through a handheld speaker – in public places. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago NFL hall of famer Shannon Sharpe accused of rape in Nevada lawsuit

Woman files complaint against former player and analystSharpe’s lawyer issued denial of allegationsNFL hall of famer Shannon Sharpe has been accused of sexual assault and battery by a former partner in a lawsuit filed on Sunday in Nevada.The woman says she met the 56-year-old Sharpe, who is now an ESPN analyst, at a Los Angeles gym in 2023 when she was 22. A two-year consensual relationship ensued, during which she alleges he raped her. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago John Higgins fights through emotional turmoil to ignite Crucible challenge

Veteran breaks down after beating Joe O’Connor 10-7Mark Allen looks to past after seeing off Fan Zhengyi Tearful four-time world champion John Higgins overcame overwhelming emotions to beat Joe O’Connor 10-7 at the Crucible.The 49-year-old was out of sorts in losing the morning session 5-4 but returned later in the day to turn things around and admitted afterwards he was battling strong feelings. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago Kristi Noem says purse – and $3,000 in cash – stolen from DC restaurant

Passport, driver’s license and keys also reportedly taken but not clear if theft was random or if Trump ally was targetedA purse belonging to Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, that contained $3,000 in cash, her passport, driver’s license and her apartment keys was stolen while she ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Washington on Sunday night.The secretary revealed the theft to reporters at the White House Easter egg roll on Monday. Noem said the incident remained unresolved. Continue reading...

Economics

7 h. ago Pope Francis’ approach did not win him friends within the church bureaucracy. But he lit the path for us all | Francis Sullivan

While his legacy in confronting the sex abuse scandal is still incomplete, Francis demonstrated that change is possible and mercy can be realPope Francis, groundbreaking Jesuit pontiff, diesPotential candidates to succeed Pope FrancisEarly in his papacy Pope Francis said the name for God is mercy. He understood the church had become too doctrinaire, divisive and judgmental for too many people. The drift of Catholics from conventional practice in the west said as much. He knew the church had alienated the LGBTQ community, discriminated against women and resisted full participation for divorced and remarried Catholics. He acknowledged that previous popes had not confronted the clerical sex abuse scandal. He wanted to do better and the Catholic world was with him, the institution was not.The Catholic church by its nature is a conservative institution. It uses inertia as a management tool. Change is a slow and drawn-out affair. Francis regularly railed against clericalism because of its...

Politics

7 h. ago Haiti nearing ‘point of no return’ amid gang violence, UN representative warns

María Isabel Salvador tells security council the country could face ‘total chaos’ without necessary international aidHaiti, where rampant gang violence has surged in recent weeks, is approaching a “point of no return” leading to “total chaos”, the UN special representative to the troubled Caribbean nation has warned.“As gang violence continues to spread to new areas of the country, Haitians experience growing levels of vulnerability and increasing skepticism about the ability of the state to respond to their needs,” María Isabel Salvador told the UN securitycouncil. Continue reading...

Events

7 h. ago Harvard sues Trump administration over efforts to ‘gain control of academic decision

University fights back against threats to cut about $9bn in funding for school after it refused to comply with demandsIn a new lawsuit, Harvard University alleged that the Donald Trump administration is trying to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard”, several news outlets are reporting.The university is fighting back against the administration’s threat to review about $9bn in federal funding after Harvard officials refused to comply with a list of demands that included appointing an outside overseer to ensure that the viewpoints being taught at the university were “diverse”. Harvard is specifically looking to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants. Continue reading...

Politics