Category : Articles

Saudi Aramco flotation values oil giant at $1.7tn

The Saudi Arabian state oil firm says 1.5% of its shares will be put up for sale.

Last Christmas review – cliched festive failure

George Michael’s music is wasted in Paul Feig’s comedy of excruciating life lessonsThe music of George Michael and Wham! is hauled out on to the soundtrack of this mouldy tangerine of a movie with about the same level of care and sensitivity that you...

The big picture: alone in the airport

The loneliness of the long-distance traveller, captured by photographer Harry GruyaertThe Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert became famous for breathing originality into colour photography from “exotic” locations. His breakthrough work came on assig...

Jailhouse Rap: Kanye West performs for tearful prison inmates

Never mind dancing to the jailhouse rock, Kanye West moved some inmates to tears during a surprise show at a prison in Texas.

Why US tech giants are putting billions into housing

The booming tech industry has pushed San Francisco house prices out of the reach of ordinary workers.

Conserving Plymouth: the city that dared to dream

Even as the blitz reduced the historic Devon port city to rubble, plans were afoot for major reconstruction. Now its remarkable hybrid city centre has been designated as a conservation areaIt’s a recurrent yearning, after an urban catastrophe, to reb...

‘I’m amazed to be in this company’: the winner of our graphic short story prize 2019

Picking the winner of the annual Cape/Observer/Comica award for emerging cartoonists was easy this year: Edo Brenes’s gentle tale, based on his Costa Rican grandparents’ lives, instantly won the judges’ hearts• Read winner Edo Brenes’s Memories of Li...

Echoes of Swing: Winter Days at Schloss Elmau review – delightful cold comfort

(ACT)If you’re looking for a seasonal album with a touch of class, this is it. Echoes of Swing are a quartet who take delight in exploring new approaches to classic jazz styles. The results are unfailingly witty, affectionate and faultlessly played....

Le Mans ‘66 review – road race biopic fires on all cylinders

Matt Damon and Christian Bale are on sparky form in this retelling of the Ford v Ferrari battle for racing dominanceSlick, thrilling and saturated with vivid hues and 60s can-do optimism, Le Mans ’66, James Mangold’s follow-up to Logan, is a precisio...

Vampire Weekend review – plenty of bite plus a sunny disposition

Alexandra Palace, LondonNew York’s finest uptight post-punk rockers display some new-found California sensibilities in a show happy to have a bit of dumb funFor such an intricate band, Vampire Weekend know well the power of simple joys. During the en...

Tate Britain show to reunite Aubrey Beardsley masterpieces

Exhibition will show the artist had a broader range than the simple black-and-white line drawings for which he is famousThe work of Aubrey Beardsley, master of the stylised ink line, is still popular on postcards and posters 120 years after his short...

'Your throat hurts. Your brain hurts': the secret life of the audiobook star

As the business booms, narrators talk tricky accents, lonely shifts and tackling 100 pages a dayThe author Bill Bryson is sitting before a lectern in Audible’s London headquarters, narrating his latest book, a disquisition on human biology called The...

Abomination: A DUP Opera review – an outstanding new work

Lyric theatre, BelfastClear-eyed, redemptive and entertaining, Conor Mitchell’s finely crafted response to a notorious episode of homophobic hate speech deserves to be seen far and wideDriving over the hills into north Belfast, as fields give way to...

Uber's paradox: Gig work app traps and frees its drivers

Ride pick-up app's algorithm offers drivers freedom while trapping them at the same time, experts say.

Mia Wasikowska: ‘After a while acting leaves you feeling hollow'

The Australian star of Alice in Wonderland on her new film, a feminist take on Punch and Judy, and why her costumes need pocketsAustralian actor Mia Wasikowska trained as a ballet dancer in her teens before switching careers. In 2010 she was the high...