Every year, hundreds of thousands of students apply through Ucas for university, and many join the annual clearing scramble after their A-level results to grab remaining places. In the process, the admissions service collects a wealth of data that researchers would find invaluable in tracking social mobility.
In the first 10 years of my life, half of Africa’s elephants were killed to supply the West with billiard balls, piano keys and hairbrushes. It took a huge public outcry, common cause and an international trade ban to stop that slaughter.
At its worst, the soldiers roaming through Uganda’s national parks were killing elephants with hand grenades: taking turns to pull the pin and toss their little bombs into the herds cowering amid the remaining undergrowth. Then the troops would drive up to the carcasses to hack out the ivory with machetes.
Fans of Benedict Cumberbatch started queuing for tickets to see their hero as Hamlet almost 20 hours before the box office opens and releases more tickets early on 5 August.
“How is Julia doing?” That was the question my husband was repeatedly asked after our first miscarriage. And after our second; and third; and fourth. We had lost baby after baby, but it was my state of mind and health – the devastated mother who had lost her child – that was uppermost in the thoughts of our family and friends. Almost nobody asked my husband the other obvious question: how are you doing?
Gawking is not considered impolite in Uganda. For a first time visitor, in fact, it is entirely expected, because there is much to gawk at.
A friend and I, as befits emotionally stunted middle-aged men, spent the other night channel-hopping in the search for televised sport. Eventually, we settled on an unimaginably dull snooker match from Riga, played in sullen silence before an audience of five snoozing Latvians. Then we spent 30 bemused minutes failing to understand the point-scoring system of an Australian Rules football match in Melbourne.
Do you and your colleagues constantly fight about the temperature of your office? Do you bring in an "office jumper" because you’re constantly chilly, or end up fanning yourself with your quarterly sales numbers because it’s baking? If you’re looking for someone to blame, have you considered blaming men? Because you should.
The most powerful person in the land accused of the most abhorrent of crimes. It does not get much more serious, or the stakes much higher, than the allegations of paedophilia against former Conservative prime minister Sir Edward Heath.
If you looked at the front pages of Tuesday's newspapers you may have noticed that someone has finally been convicted for fixing the Libor rate. ''14 years for the Rain Man Trader'', one headline reads, and many run along similar lines. Seeing them all, you may be confused. Has a banker with supernatural weather-changing powers has been arrested? No, although that would make for a better story. The media's widespread use of "Rain Man" actually refers to the fact that Tom Jayes has mild asperger's... Читать дальше...
The first year of the international Coalition’s air war against Isis has already seen more than 17,000 bombs and missiles dropped on Iraq and Syria, as part of 5,700 air strikes. This is a brutal and challenging conflict. As John Hesterman, the US general leading the air campaign recently noted, “[Isis] wrapped itself around a friendly population before we even started.” The air strikes have followed the enemy into those towns and cities under their occupation – and friendly populations have paid a price. Читать дальше...
<p>Style your pooch in one of these</p>
We are trade unionists and anti-poverty and justice campaigners. Over the past 32 years, we have lobbied, marched and picketed alongside Jeremy Corbyn MP. Jeremy’s dedication to peace and social justice has won our respect, as has his personal integrity and commitment to socialist values.
James Fox and his 29 year old son Jack star in this two-hander based on the best-selling letters that Roger Mortimer, upper-crust “racing hack and long-suffering father” sent to his wayward son Charlie.
In October 2014 a new museum gained planning permission by promising ‘the only dedicated resource in the East End [of London] to women’s history’. With insulting irony, the museum has now been unveiled as a venue dedicated to the violent crimes of Jack the Ripper. The original application, upon which Tower Hamlets Council gave its approval, states: “The museum will recognise and celebrate the women of the East End who have shaped history, telling the story of how they have been instrumental in changing society. Читать дальше...
When it dared to halt the production of a gold mine, the government of Romania found itself facing a massive lawsuit from a corporate mining giant in a secret "court". There's nothing about the case that makes any sense – the corporation has said it may seek up to $4 billion in "compensation", which is half of Romania’s annual public healthcare budget.
Robin Parisotto, whose conclusions have left the World Anti-Doping Agency “very alarmed”, according to its head, Sir Craig Reedie.
Tom Hayes has become the first banker to be convicted by a jury and jailed for one of the scandals that emerged from the detritus of the financial crisis. That will be seen in many quarters as a cause for celebration – none more than the Serious Fraud Office, the very future of which was arguably at stake when it launched its prosecution of a man portrayed as the kingpin behind a global conspiracy to defraud through manipulation of Libor interest rates.
Although not yet Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn has succeeded where his predecessors have failed. For while there was no such thing as Milinomics or Brownomics, thanks to the shadow Chancellor, Chris Leslie, we have a delightful neologism – Corbynomics.
Sometimes the chance for a cluck is simply too inviting to pass by. So it is with the Times Educational Supplement’s list of the Top 100 works of fiction that “every student” should read before they leave secondary school – and childhood – behind.
When the project was first announced by the Labour government in 2008, it was predicted that Hinkley Point C could produce a sizeable chunk of the UK’s future energy. It was billed as a new type of nuclear power station, capable of generating safe and reliable low-carbon electricity for five million homes.
Lamine Diack’s world must be a hilarious place to live, this latest scandal being only the most recent “joke” that others might consider no laughing matter.
In what will be one of his final acts as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack has dismissed the allegations of widespread doping in the sport as a “joke”, and defended his organisation’s role in the long-standing fight against the practice.
Politicians seeking enduring legacies have to be lucky with their timing. I believe history will show Barack Obama has.
