31 h. ago ‘It’s a place of healing’: the man on a mission to restore Britain’s ancient rainforest

Dealing with PTSD, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison retreated to his family farm in Cornwall. There, working to revive a rare fragment of rainforest, he found a way to heal himselfA straight-backed, well-spoken former management consultant and ex-soldier in a wax jacket might not resemble much of a tree wizard, but the man leading me into a steep Cornish valley of gnarled, mossy oaks is called Merlin. He possesses hidden depths. And surfaces. Within minutes of meeting, as we head towards the Mother Tree – a venerable oak of special significance – Merlin Hanbury-Tenison reveals that he recently had a tattoo of the tree etched on his skin. I’m expecting him to roll up a sleeve to reveal a mini-tree outline, but he whips out his phone and shows me a picture: the 39-year-old’s entire back is covered with a spectacular full-colour painting of the oak. “It took 22 hours. I was quite sore,” he says, a little ruefully. “But I was in London afterwards, feeling quite overcome by the city and I had this...

Events

4 d. ago In search of the South Pacific fugitive who crowned himself king

Noah Musingku made a fortune with a Ponzi scheme and then retreated to a remote armed compound in the jungle, where he still commands the loyalty of his Bougainville subjectsOne autumn morning, I boarded a plane from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Buka, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. A collection of islands and atolls the size of Puerto Rico, Bougainville is located 600 miles east of Moresby, across the Solomon Sea. Its southern shore is just three miles from the politically independent Solomon Islands, and its people share a culture, linguistic links and dark skin tone with their Solomon neighbours. But thanks mostly to European colonisers, who drew the borders, Bougainville is the farthest-flung province of Papua New Guinea, whose lighter-toned inhabitants Bougainvilleans often call “redskins”, betraying a sense of otherness in their own country that partly explains why I am writing about them here.I say partly because if not for the islan...

Politics

5 d. ago I stayed in two stunning Zimbabwe safari retreats and witnessed 'the rarest thing local guide had ever seen'

Siobhan Grogan checks into Wilderness Linkwasha, in Hwange National Park, and Wilderness Ruckomechi, on the banks of Zambezi River in Mana Pools National Park.

Politics

6 d. ago Markets tumble as Trump's tariffs against Canada and China come into effect and both countries hit back with Beijing saying 'we won't be bullied'

European stock markets retreated at the open Tuesday, with the possibility that similar levies could hit Europe. Shares were mixed Tuesday in Asia.

Economics

6 d. ago Markets tumble as Trump's tariffs against Canada and China come into effect and both countries hit back and Beijing comes out fighting saying 'we won't be bullied'

European stock markets retreated at the open Tuesday, with the possibility that similar levies could hit Europe. Shares were mixed Tuesday in Asia.

Economics

7 d. ago Schumer says cyber operations pause against Russia gives Putin ‘free pass’

Top Democrat calls Trump’s move to retreat from fight against Russian cyber threats ‘a critical strategic mistake’A senior US Democrat has hit out at Donald Trump’s attempt to reset relations with Russia following revelations that the president’s administration is retreating from the fight against Russian cyber threats, calling the reported move “a critical strategic mistake”.In a statement on Sunday making reference to the Russian leader, New York’s Chuck Schumer – the US Senate’s Democratic minority leader – said Trump was “so desperate to earn the affection of a thug like Vladimir Putin he appears to be giving him a free pass as Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure, threatening our economic and national security”. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago ‘He contains the whole of literature’: is Dickens better than Shakespeare?

After rereading the entire works of the great Victorian novelist during the pandemic, Peter Conrad became convinced – whisper it – that Dickens is an even greater writer than that other British literary giant, the BardWho is better, Dickens or Shakespeare? We asked nine prominent writersEarly in 2020, as society shut down, I retreated behind closed doors with Charles Dickens, who kept me company and cheered me up throughout the pandemic. Carried along by narratives that Dickens thought of as speedy locomotives and warmed by a combustible imagination that he compared to an industrial forge, I soon felt no need for tame timed circuits of the local park, and I even stopped fretting about the imminent end of the world. But although Dickens saved from me one disease, he infected me with another: escaping Covid-19, I contracted an incurable monomania instead.Emerging after the last lockdown, I buttonholed any friend who would listen and began to claim that Dickens contained the whole of l...

Politics

1 week ago Golden beaches and hidden havens for the ultimate family getaway

Skip the crowds this summer and explore Europe’s hidden treasures with Jet2holidays. From lesser-known Greek islands to stunning Spanish coastal retreats, Jet2holidays has you covered

Society

1 week ago Stock market today: Asian shares skid, hit by AI doubts and Trump tariff hikes

Shares have retreated in Asia, with benchmarks in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea falling more than 2% after Wall Street indexes fell sharply on doubts over the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology

Politics

1 week ago Trump pits immigrants against other working people. But we have a common enemy | Alejandra Gomez and Greisa Martínez Rosas

Billionaires have sown a myth that citizens are losing at the expense of undocumented people. The real solution is to empower all workersOver the last few years, we have witnessed some leaders of the Democratic party retreat from delivering bold policies that would address people’s struggles and aspirations, from a pathway to citizenship for all to a higher federal minimum wage, in favor of Republican-light talking points about the border and those seeking asylum – which only eroded trust with the American people.Right now, 60% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Families are drowning in debt, whether it be from trying to pay for unaffordable childcare, exorbitant student loans, costly medical bills, or months of missed rent payments. Homelessness has skyrocketed. Millions are struggling to survive another day and are penny-pinching to be able to afford rent and groceries, while billions of our taxpayer dollars are being spent on turbocharging mass abductions of our neigh...

Events

2 w. ago How OnlyFans's sex revolution failed: Adult site was hailed for 'empowering women' at its inception

Former Love Islander Megan Barton-Hanson previously praised the app for 'changing the power dynamic for sex workers' and 'empowering women' in December 2020.

Sport

2 w. ago No matter how distasteful we find Trump and Vance over Europe, they speak a blunt truth | Simon Jenkins

The US has chosen the worst possible moment and the worst possible way to say it, but it is right to call for a realignmentIt’s tough being rightwing these days. You have to find something nice to say about Donald Trump. That is hard. He thinks Kyiv started the Ukraine war and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is a “dictator”. But what about JD Vance? The US vice-president thinks that Europe’s “threat from within”, which is putting “free speech in retreat”, is worse than any threat from Russia or China. These men are deranged. What more is there to say?The answer is quite a lot. John Stuart Mill warned that “he who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that”. We must try to understand the case they are making, whether we agree with it or not. Continue reading...

Politics