Royal has challenged the hierarchical system of the male-dominated French left. Rather than wait around helping the ageing men who run the socialist party – “les éléphants” – she has attracted cult status and an army of devoted supporters of her movement, Désirs d’Avenir – “Wishes for the Future”. They tirelessly campaign […]
The secret police of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu recruited thousands of children to spy on schoolfriends, parents and teachers, according to communist-era archives. They show that the Securitate blackmailed children into becoming informers in the late 1980s, as the whiff of liberalisation in the Soviet bloc prompted Ceausescu to tighten his grip on the […]
not kiss. They were disinclined to cuddle up, even when cajoled by the photographer. This reflects the traditions that persist in many parts of Indonesia. Not only had Yanti, 22, a restaurant cook, and Tri, 24, a farmer, just met, they barely knew anything about each other. “Er, what does he like to do in […]
After his final appeal for asylum was rejected in 2004, Thomas lived rough in Manchester; on friends’ floors and in a disused factory with other failed asylum seekers. One night, five white youths attacked him and left him with bruised ribs and a swollen eye. But he wouldn’t go to the […]
A large container ship, the Australian Star, was making its way across the South China Sea bound for New Zealand. It was evening and Captain Peter Newton left the bridge for his cabin. As the ship passed the Indonesian island of Bintan, nine armed men burst into Captain Newton’s cabin. They held a machete to […]
When Val Salisbury walked down her lane in Herefordshire, in southern England, and into a giant plastic polytunnel where dozens of Ukrainians, Lithuanians and other east Europeans were picking strawberries, the workers were surprised. She was, after all, a 69-year-old Englishwoman using a walking frame. But when she started pulling up the plants and throwing […]
Some carry sacks or rolled-up blankets on their shoulders. They scramble over grassy banks and hurry down the sun-scorched roadside on the way to the night shelters, which are guarded by government troops. In any other country a 14-year-old girl leaving her home and an anxious mother for the night would spell rebellion. Here, it’s […]