When I heard that King Charles had a film made about himself – a sometimes ‘elegiac’ film, to quote the BBC website – it seemed like such a very vulgar thing to do (and I speak as a highly vulgar person myself) that I thought it must be a joke. Imagine the late Queen doing such an egotistical thing. She did, of course, allow the BBC to make a 1969 ...

Soon, social media may be banned for under-16s. But the real addicts are mums. I was a sitting duck for the doomscroll as I fed my baby through the day and night. I was firmly pulled into the orbit of the ‘mumfluencers’: content created by and for mothers. Instagram has been a faithful companion through my whole pregnancy, birth and post-partum period. ...

Shabana Mahmood’s announcement that facial recognition is to be rolled out across the nation is no vague statement of aspiration. Part of wider policing reforms and backed by the promise of fifty more camera-topped vans, the Home Secretary’s announcement signals the government’s determination to make mass surveillance part of daily life. Combined with ...

South Asian communities across Canada are being terrorised by gangs – and city officials in Surrey, BC are calling on the federal government to declare a national state of emergency. The crimes follow a distinctive pattern. South Asian gangs demand money from members of their own communities. Intimidation, threats and even shootings follow. Gang ...

Occasionally, the leader of a political party will be asked to name a favourite book. For years, this has produced a dispiriting response. Keir Starmer told an interviewer that he didn’t have a favourite novel or poem. On other occasions, he said that the comic Roy of the Rovers was his favourite book, and, more plausibly, two stories of helpless ...

There are actors who dominate the cinema screen, and actors who deepen it. There are stars who are ‘bankable’ and have names above the titles, and there are artists who, almost invisibly, give a film its weight, its texture, its lasting emotional impact. Catherine O’Hara, who has died at the age of 71, belongs emphatically to the second group. She was ...

Recent weeks have seen a political and military earthquake in Syria. Nearly 14 months after driving Bashar al Assad from Damascus, President Ahmad al Sharaa is on the point of extending his transitional government’s complete control over the third of Syria east of the Euphrates. For all practical purposes, this will mean the end of the ...

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark and a close confidant of Pope Leo, called for the defunding of ICE during an interfaith prayer livestream. “If we are serious about putting our faith in action, we need to say ‘no,’” he said. As Congress debates ICE funding this week, Tobin urged Catholics to write to their lawmakers and encourage them to ...