Schools have been forced to shut on the island
© Getty Images/iStockphoto
With the little homes the passengers build for themselves out of laptops and crisps, it’s microcosmic
Yesterday I was on a train for six hours – three there, three back, through two time zones and three weather conditions, and all of it without my headphones. Around me, passengers built little homes for themselves out of laptops and crisps, a whole universe on a plastic fold-down table. The computer screen acted primarily as a barrier, an emotional-load-bearing wall. Objects and arms were removed from sleeves and erected in delicate piles – illusions of privacy were magicked in the quiet coach. Rooms were fashioned on laps behind seats, or ideas of rooms; walled, breaded concepts – here is a kitchenette formed from Pret a Manger baguettes and precarious coffees, here is the memory-foam neck pillow, a portable bedroom, and here onscreen at 250km an hour is a working office, fizzing with legitimacy and blue light. I looked around with love at this side of us, we silly animals, building homes out of sticks anywhere we sit for longer than 20 minutes.
On smaller screens, my travelling neighbour pecked at a two-hour game of Candy Crush, while across the aisle a young man (blue jumper, skin that appeared to be enamelled) was playing blackjack. I looked over occasionally – through his window I could see the newbuild flats with their enclosed balconies, each one filled with boxes, and duvets and pillows pressed face-like against the glass – but for a long time I couldn’t tell if the man was winning, his face remained terribly still.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
The Louvre’s proposed two-tier fees are a better way to fund museums than iffy corporate sponsorship deals
Introducing, five years on, another Brexit bonus: the chance to support the renovation of the Louvre. President Emmanuel Macron has proposed paying for the “renaissance” of the Paris museum, in part, by increasing entrance fees for visitors from outside the EU.
After some initial attempts to represent this as a direct insult – “Brits will be forced to pay more than EU residents” (the Mail) – even the rabidly pro-Brexit press appears to have accepted that the scheme applies globally, to all non-EU visitors: an exceptionally cunning way of Brit-targeting, even for the French.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Jacovides Dominique/Abaca/Rex/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Jacovides Dominique/Abaca/Rex/Shutterstock
The Man Who Pays His Way: Rapidly losing patience with airlines that ground flights and make passengers foot the bill
© Simon Calder
After a troubled start, this family-run Yemeni outpost in York has won a loving following in the local community
Yemen Heaven, 98 Walmgate, York YO1 9TL. Meze £7, large dishes £15-£21.95, desserts £6-£9, wines from £23
Some restaurants are just a nice place to go for dinner. Yemen Heaven in York is obviously that. You will eat well there. The black seeded flatbreads, the breadth of over-sized dinner plates, are soft and crisp. There’s a pleasing creaminess to the spice-dusted, oil-dribbled, tahini-rich hummus that comes topped with a single shiny black olive, the savoury equivalent of a cherry on top. But the restaurant is more than that. Much like Arabic Flavour in Aberystwyth, which I visited last year, it is both the story of exile and an act of memory. It is the product of one woman’s determination to maintain her family’s traditions; to free the country of her birth from a single narrative of war and hardship, however overwhelming that narrative might seem right now.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
The chancellor’s apparent volte-face in backing a third runway has left many in her party disillusioned and led them to label it as an act of desperation
In 2020, Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey, was clear why she opposed expansion of nearby Leeds Bradford airport. It would, she said, “significantly increase air and noise pollution”, so on environmental grounds, it should not happen.
By the autumn of 2021, as shadow chancellor, Reeves was the senior Labour figure chosen to lead her party’s hugely ambitious plans for a green industrial revolution.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Avpics/Alamy
© Photograph: Avpics/Alamy
A growing number of older women are taking up the nomadic lifestyle, challenging traditional views of ageing. While grey nomad stereotypes persist, many say it’s the best decision they ever made
Seven years ago, Robyn Drayton stood out the front of her home in Newcastle, north of Sydney, and felt overwhelmed with a desire to get out.
“Something came over me. I just burst into tears,” Drayton, now 63, says. “I’d done a lot of travelling overseas and had a caravan and knew it was time.
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Continue reading...© Photograph: Dean Sewell/The Guardian
© Photograph: Dean Sewell/The Guardian
Seeking a decadent holiday balanced by high-energy activities, Benjamin Parker flew to Arizona’s on-trend desert gem to see what’s going on years after the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe graced the city
© Roger Naylor
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