Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

WORLD

Society

Science & Health

A shopkeeper displays women's wigs at his shop in Kabul on March 13. Until the Taliban took power, Afghan women could freely sell their hair to be made into wigs, bringing in crucial cash. But last year Taliban authorities imposed vice and virtue laws regulating everyday life for men and women, including banning sales of "any part of the human body" such as hair.

WORLD / Society

Mar 25, 2025

Afghan women risk Taliban wrath over hair trade

By Claire GOUNON

A ban imposed last year has forced women to brave punishment by covertly trading hair for crucial cash.

People gather at the National Covid Memorial Wall on the COVID-19 Day of Reflection, marking 5 years since the start of the pandemic, in London on March 9.

WORLD / Society

Mar 18, 2025

Debt, job loss and eviction weigh on parents of children with long COVID

By Emma Batha

Five years after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the families of over 111,000 children in the U.K. sick with long COVID feel invisible.

Chelsea Shubert stops traffic for pedestrians to cross the road during her shift as a school crossing patrol outside a school in Chatham, Britain, on Thursday.

WORLD / Society

Mar 17, 2025

U.K. faces hard choices over soaring disability costs

By David Milliken

Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds the country's defense budget.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators camp out at an encampment at Columbia University in April last year.

WORLD / Society

Mar 14, 2025

Harvard, Yale, Columbia fall in line after funding threats

By Janet Lorin and Maxwell Adler

U.S. universities are taking a harder line following threats of funding cuts by the White House over their criticized handling of pro-Palestine rallies last year.

Federal law enforcement agents led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepare to conduct an arrest south of Atlanta, Georgia, on Feb. 5.

WORLD / Society

Mar 12, 2025

Amid Trump deportation threats, U.S. communities prepare

By Carey L. Biron

The harsh rhetoric and detentions are intensifying into a pounding drum beat that is prompting new action from civic groups.

Clinic director Oleksandr Feskov poses for a photo in one of the operating rooms at the Feskov clinic in Kharkiv on Feb. 17. Many more Ukrainian civilians are freezing their sperm and eggs — procedures that were rare before the war — with demand rising every time the war takes a turn for the worse.

WORLD / Society

Mar 6, 2025

Ukrainians waiting for peace before having children

By Lea DAUPLE

New legislation means that Ukrainian soldiers can freeze their sperm for free, and many clinics are already offering the service.

A worker paints a robotic elephant model at a workshop in Thrissur, in India's Kerala state on Feb. 25.

WORLD / Society

Mar 4, 2025

Animal rights activists in India offer robot elephants to replace real ones

By Satish BABU

Accidents involving spooked elephants trampling crowds are common in India, leading some temples to switch to the robot versions.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports