Writing
Kılıçdaroğlu goes head to head with strongman Erdoğan
It’s set to be a close contest. Kılıçdaroğlu is leading the polls by a hair’s breadth but needs to convince voters that the decency he exudes in his campaign videos filmed in his modest kitchen and in posters featuring his earnest mien against a backdrop of pink blossom does not equate to weakness.
Finding light in darkness
Focus on the work of Iraqi photographer Ayman al-Amiri. The son of a photographer, Amiri helped his father to document everyday life after the invasion – “in all sorts of situations, with water shortages, power cuts, a lack of food, the people crazy and scared.”
From ashes of conflict, Mosul University rises
When Sayf Al-Ashqar was tasked with rebuilding the library of the University of Mosul in Iraq, he was given a free rein – but no cash. Islamic State had burned the prestigious library to the ground, destroying what remained of its vast collection of books and ancient manuscripts.
'Iraq is now a teenage country'
Twenty years on from the US-led invasion, three Iraqi artists explain how, after decades of being held back, they are taking back control of their country's narrative.
Undaunted young Iraqis yearn for change
The revolution is not over. Three years on from Iraq’s Tishreen – or October – uprising, which saw more than 600 protesters assassinated by security forces and Iran-backed militias, many of the movement’s young protesters are broken but far from unbowed.
Iraqis tire of Iranian influence
Walking through Baghdad, you could easily be forgiven for thinking Iraqis are hell-bent on wreaking vengeance on the US. At least, that was the message conveyed by the hanging of a cardboard Donald Trump on Tahrir Square. But, taking to people on the street, a parallel, more convincing reality emerges
Lessons in wartime
Business is booming for Ukraine’s English teachers. Far from diminishing demand, war has turned “global English” into a tool for survival. But teachers can often find themselves acting as therapists to students who have experienced severe trauma, while struggling to avoid burnout themselves.
Escape from Iran: 'My dream was to be a primary teacher. Now I'm holding a gun'
Facing capture by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Rezan fled to Iraq and joined a group of freedom fighters.
Iran protests: 'We need the people to move and take down this government'
On the Iran-Iraq border, Iranians speak out against Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, which has left hundreds dead.
'Prophet of God': Kurdish opposition groups feel wrath of under-pressure Iran
Facing the gravest threat to its survival since 1979, the Islamic Republic is pointing the finger of blame for abroad, bombing Kurdish opposition bases in Iraq.
French teen seeks justice after policeman beats, urinates on him
The latest in a long line of police abuses which have come to light in France in recent times, often targeting Black and Arab men, demonstrating what rights groups term systemic brutality and racism.
'I have a big job to do for my people'
Airlifted out of Kabul in 2021, Zahra Joya has been running a news agency in exile, managing a team of undercover journalists in Afghanistan. Her work has won her a number of awards, but has also created new dangers for the family she left behind.
France: Police killing weighs in the banlieues before run-off vote
Chagos: Islanders caught in game of political football
The Chagos islanders have waged a decades-long battle with the UK to return to their homeland, which was wrangled from Mauritius in a cut-price independence deal in the 60s and leased to the US as a military base. Now, following a ruling by the UN maritime court last year, Mauritius has planted its flag on the territory.
Yazidi women and girls still enslaved
Lahur Talabani was the south London boy who brought the fight to Islamic State in his native Kurdistan, playing a leading role in intelligence and counterterrorism. Now his Surrey-raised cousin wants to boot him out the country.
Internecine feud in Kurdish ruling clan
Lahur Talabani was the south London boy who brought the fight to Islamic State in his native Kurdistan, playing a leading role in intelligence and counterterrorism. Now his Surrey-raised cousin wants to boot him out the country.
Relatives of family killed in M6 crash thank Irish people
The story of Karzan Sabah Ahmed and Shahen Qasm, who died with their baby in a crash in Galway. People from across Ireland raised funds to send them home to their family in Erbil.
Kurdistan: a shot at statehood
Foreign aid and oil money have been key to the survival of Kurdistan’s two mafia-like ruling clans, the Barzanis and the Talabanis. And poverty, lots of it. For their success depends on them being the ones with all the cash to splash.
Covid-19 and an IS comeback
Could it happen again? In Mosul, locals still feel the presence of Islamic State, hidden in the cracks and seams of city life.
Mosul’s new masters
After Isis, came the mafia. In Mosul, a jumbled assortment of Iran-backed militias, known collectively as the Hashd al-Shaabi, compete for their share of the spoils of war.
The vapers of Mosul
BBC Radio 4 (03/20) @11.14mins
Out on the hustle with three buccaneering entrepreneurs, selling vapes in war-torn Mosul. Moslawis are born entrepreneurs. Given half the chance, they can make their city great again.
Syrian Kurds face bleakest winter
Syrian Kurds, who fled Turkish bombing last year, adjust to life in an Iraqi camp. Mercenaries have looted, burned and confiscated properties back home. They know they’re never going back.
‘We are only 1,000, but we fight like 10,000.’
In the hills of northern Iraq, I meet showman general Hussein Yazdanpanah, whose Iranian Kurdish fighters are fighting against a resurgent Islamic State and the Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias.
The best weapon against war in Iraq is a waistcoat
For the dapper young men at Mr Erbil, style is survival. In their emporium of hip, espressos are sipped and style flaunted as chaos and menace swirl outside. No talk of religion or politics permitted.
‘You live with these men as a slave. It’s free for them to do anything’
Naveen Rasho endured five years of hell at the hands of Islamic State. She survived the fall of the caliphate in Baghuz, only to face the fresh horror of detention at Al Hawl camp in Syria with her captor’s three brides.
Cherry: A life stranger than fiction
Nico Walker served as an army medic in Iraq’s ‘Triangle of Death’. Returning home with severe PTSD, he turned to heroin and bank robberies. Now in prison, he has reinvented himself as a bestselling novelist.
Lives shattered, Syria’s Kurds flee to Iraq
Dependent on what she describes as a “spider’s web” of drivers and smugglers, Gulistan and her family pushed blindly through the confusion of an eight-year civil war that had recently taken yet another deadly turn.
Global Ear: Dé:Nash
Hungarian rapper Dé:Nash mines his country’s collective consciousness, satirising the Fidesz regime’s use of ancient legend, historical grievances and conspiracy theories to craft a new national narrative.
UK
The King and Us
When Charles is crowned on 6 May, the nation officially enters a new era. The spell cast by his mother, who maintained the mystique of the royal family through a gazillion megabit memes will finally break …
Is Britain broken?
No future, no future, no future for you,” snarled the Sex Pistols back in 1977, when Britain was known as the “sick man of Europe”. Fast forward to 2023 and Britain is in a right old mess again.
Who is the man driving UK’s ongoing rail strikes?
Interview with Mick Lynch, the most talked about man in Britain. A social media phenomenon, his ability to tell simple truths about equality and social justice have captured the imagination of millions
From pandemic heroes to underpaid workers
In Southport, an old seaside town in the northwest of England, bus drivers congregated under a bus stop, now three weeks into an acrimonious standoff with bus operator Arriva North West …
XR – A wake-up call for the world
Was ist Britisch?
The DUP’s Belfast heartland
Where is Britain heading?
Britain’s Trump?
Brexit blog
Island mentality
Scotland post-ref
Scots referendum blog
L’Écosse à la veille du référendum
The morning after …
Orange parade in Edinburgh
Scotland’s youth vote
Scottish artists project new confidence
Interview with Alex Salmond (in French)
Patriotes, mais pas indépendantistes
Faire revivre l’art écossais
Culture
The Great stink of London
Travel feature taking us right back to London in 1858, just as the city's inhabitants are 'isolating' indoors from a hot fog of pestilence rising from the sewage-filled Thames . Highlight is a visit to The Rookery, aka Little Ireland, where residents are dying en masse from cholera.
Interview with William Sitwell
Interview with William Sitwell, restaurant critic for The Telegraph, whose book on eating out was published just as every restaurant in the world had closed.
London's top 40
North, south, east and west - tips for glorious views and open spaces, exciting markets and museums, unusual places to eat and places to think – and much more.
TV dinners
They never taste quite like they look on the box. But there’s still something irresistibly novel about bung-it-in-the-micro TV dinners. Binge-watching telly during successive lockdowns, teas on knees have made a comeback.
Critics’ choice
What to read and watch in summer 2020. Tips from two women in the know: Lucy Scholes, who writes about books for The Telegraph and the FT, and Clarisse Loughrey, chief film critic at The Independent. TWO-PAGE SAMPLE.
Crafted in Edinburgh
A tour of the Edinburgh crafts scene. We launch in the Grassmarket, home to the highest concentration of pubs in the city. Encounters with a post-punk milliner, a teenage bagpipe maker and a canine couturier. ONE-PAGE SAMPLE.
Laughter is the best medicine
Interview with Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt, on the gruelling realities of working as a doctor in Britain’s National Health Service, and the likely impact of Covid-19 on the system. ONE-PAGE SAMPLE.
The pursuit of happiness
Feature on happiness in the era of the ubiquitous smiley. It’s boom time for sales of self-help books, now the fastest-growing genre in the publishing world. ONE-PAGE SAMPLE.
Books beyond borders
Interview with Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher detective series, ahead of a “friendship” tour of Europe with fellow rock-star authors Ken Follett, Kate Mosse and Jojo Moyes. ONE-PAGE SAMPLE.
South London walking tour
From low life to the high life. A few hundred years ago, the smelly “sarf” was known as a lawless land of loose morals, home to gambling dens, brothels and – shock horror! – theatres. SAMPLE PAGES
Bloomsbury/Holborn/Soho walking tour
My home is my castle
Big little screens
London walks: 5 classic sights
Elvis – still calling the tune
Travel reviews
Ancestral tongues
What does it mean to be Canadian?
Fur flies over Canada’s identity
Remembering Square Deal
Meet the Beatlemaniac
Pige: objectif monde!
They’re speaking our languages
Surreal sounds of the city
Offbeat
The Banjul Brits
Hunger games
Bucharest’s dictator tours
Trouble in paradise
In search of Philip Marlowe
‘Illegal’ midwives on call
Trekkies descend on Vulcan
Ghost towns of Alberta
Deadly Secret
Spirits of a community
War and peace
Holiday in Asbestos
Don’t hold your breath for Asbestos to catch on
Holy rivalry over Kateri
Business
A land of rising opportunity
Mauritius: China and India invest in island
Bored of Bonds? Try Madonna’s famous bustier
Social network economy leaving business behind
Law firms slash perks
Aboriginal law a vibrant field
No more Mr. Nice Guy
How far will parents go to keep kids in private school?
To the haggler goes the spoils
A bailout under every tree
Mad about saffron
Common attacks on common enemies
Microsoft’s judgement day
Google takes a hit over data privacy
Memory-lapsed chip battles
People
Jay Blades: Learning to read at 51
Harry Styles – a man for our time?
Pakistan’s A-list hairdresser
Liberia – Her mother’s passion
Good works in Gambia
Out of Dublin and into Monrovia
Scotland – He has the key
Scotland – The ideas man
Full marks to Foley as GAA goes to Scotland
Norway – Carving out a niche means having the best of both worlds
Oslo move a career booster
Canada – Zig-zag trajectory led to online teaching
Island life – Touria Prayag, editor of Mauritian newspaper Express Weekly
Toronto’s Irish pantry
Canada – Student rebel with a cause
Belfast boy becomes Montreal local legend
Canada – Irish publican drinks to his success
