The Guardian
China expected to get London embassy go-ahead this week after years of wrangling
Decision expected on Monday or Tuesday, potentially smoothing relations before Keir Starmer’s visit to ChinaWhy Chinese ‘mega embassy’ is not such a worry for British spiesA decision on China’s proposed mega embassy in London is expected on Monday or...
Geopolitical football: Iran? Trump? How the game can stand strong in a fractured world
The 2026 World Cup is set to be a polarising event but, even if it will not be the first to be politically contentious, it will expose a growing uneaseFive months out from the World Cup the politics are...
’How do you really tell the truth about this moment?’: George Saunders on ghosts, mortality and Trump’s America
The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his lifeLike his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker prize in 2017,...
China’s London super-embassy almost certain to get go-ahead next week
Approval shortly before Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing would come despite widespread concern among Labour MPsA vast new Chinese embassy complex in east London is almost certain to be formally approved next week despite renewed worries among Labour MPs...
State of Statelessness review – Dalai Lama presides over intimate dramas about Tibetans’ life of exile
Tibetan directors, who all live outside Tibet, deliver a quartet of films that explore the pain of separation and migrationThe wrench of exile is the theme of this quartet of short films from Tibetan directors, who themselves all live...
Books to look out for in 2026 – fiction
Maggie O’Farrell, Yann Martel and Julian Barnes are among the authors publishing new novels this year The beginning of the books calendar is usually dominated by debuts, but January 2026 sees releases from some of the year’s biggest authors....
China has set a bear trap for Keir Starmer – and our naive PM is walking straight into it | Simon Tisdall
The conviction of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong is another hostile act. How can Britain ignore Beijing’s provocations and human rights abuses?The UK pushed hard to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the newspaper publisher and British citizen who...
How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison
Arrested in 2013 on India’s Himalayan border after fleeing Beijing’s ‘genocide’ against Muslims in Xinjiang, the siblings have been imprisoned indefinitely ever since thenOn the evening of 12 June 2013, according to court documents, three “Chinese intruders” were arrested...
The dangerous rise of Buddhist extremism: ‘Attaining nirvana can wait’
Still largely viewed as a peaceful philosophy, across much of south-east Asia, the religion has been weaponised to serve nationalist goalsIn the summer of 2023, I arrived in Dharamshala, an Indian town celebrated as the home of the Dalai...
This Nepal village has survived for 1,000 years. Now recurring floods threaten its future
Til, the remotest of three villages in the Limi valley on the Tibetan border, was already wrestling with a dwindling population but a series of natural disasters has led many to consider where their future should beOn the night...














