Biden set to block Republican moves to hit the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline
Nord Stream 2 also risks exposing divides in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government. The Greens have long been opposed to the pipeline but Mr Scholz has…
Finland and Sweden ‘closer than ever’ to joining Nato after Putin’s threats backfire
Elina Valtonen is a MP and vice-president of the National Coalition Party, which has supported Nato membership for Finland since 2006 and is in opposition. She said,…
Turkmenistan’s president orders closure of the ‘Gateway to Hell’
In November 2013 Canadian explorer George Kourounis launched an expedition to its fury depths – the first ever person to do so – after a year of…
Joe Biden was meant to unite America – but it’s more divided than ever
“We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore….
Record numbers of Cubans attempting Florida crossing as decline accelerates
Cuba appeared to be a low priority for Joe Biden, analysts say, even though there were significant efforts to end the 50-year US trade blockade with Cuba…
Putin-backed Belarus dictator in talks with embattled Kazakh leader as Russia tightens grip on former Soviet orbit
Eyewitnesses said that some shops have opened selling basic foodstuffs but that most people are still hiding in their apartments. From Almaty, one resident told the Telegraph…
Where can UK travellers visit now? The countries with no quarantine or Covid travel restrictions
It’s a mixed picture for travellers as we move into the peak winter sun season. While the UK has rolled back its omicron-related travel restrictions, other countries…
What in-the-know travellers are booking for 2022
Take the Trip As restriction-free travel to Costa Rica returns, so too do British Airways’ direct Gatwick-San Jose flights, relaunching this month. Those with the time to…
Martin Clunes’ ultimate guide to the Pacific islands
Like everything in my life, making travel documentaries was something I stumbled into. Somebody else was earmarked to do a series called Islands of Britain in 2009,…
This could be the most exciting day for British travellers ever
There are two good reasons for this: above and beyond the aforementioned instinct to plan a break to an alluring destination when the temperatures at home are…
Jasmine Harman: ‘I said, “Portugal? I don’t even speak Spanish!””
After the summer, I signed up for a course to learn Portuguese and moved into a farmhouse annex in a lovely little village called Ludo, where I embraced…
Why I’m still in love with the Caribbean after more than 30 years
In my 30s a generous friend enticed me to St Barts: there I tasted life in the fast lane on an island where French sophistication has been…
Why the road trip holiday is better than ever in midlife
Dramatic? You bet. You’ll be treated to some of Norway’s punchiest scenery on this storm-lashed coast, which faces the worst tempers of the Atlantic. We’re talking waterfall-streaked…
The countries that might finally reopen to British travellers in 2022
Vietnam Reopening prospects: Good Unlike some other countries in south-east Asia, which are doubling down on border closures, the outlook for holidays to Vietnam in 2022 is…
20 of the best last-minute winter sun holidays for 2022
With the easing of travel testing requirements announced on January 5, and the mercury dropping to subzero temperatures across the country, now is the perfect moment to…
Elvis Costello: ‘They’ll mark my death with two songs I didn’t write’
Costello’s Irish paternal grandfather “was an orphan who ended up in the British Army in the second battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, wounded in France in…
My mother has dementia – but can still remember the Nazi doctor who gave her ‘medicine’ at Auschwitz
A month after leaving Siberia, Alina and Olga reached Tallinn. The city was bedlam. Six months earlier, the Nazis had been bombing it. Now the Germans were…
What’s on TV tonight: Ant & Dec’s Limitless Win, The Masked Singer, and more
The Green PlanetBBC One, 7pmBack in 1995, David Attenborough’s series The Private Life of Plants broke new ground in nature documentaries, using time-lapse photography to reveal in…
Accidental Gods by Anna Della Subin: was Prince Philip a volcano god?
But were they? They managed, after all, to send up the entire French administration. (“In the absence of a pith helmet,” we are told, “they could fashion…
Harrow by Joy Williams, review: toothless terrorists take on the USA
Joy Williams’s Harrow, her first novel in 21 years, has something basic in common with much recent fiction: it’s set in an America of the near future…
Was Neville Chamberlain more than the coward who kowtowed to Hitler?
The man von Hartmann hopes to contact is the other main confected figure in Harris’s story, a young Foreign Office diplomat, Hugh Legat (George Mackay), with whom he had…
How could a ‘top 100’ of recent TV programmes ever satisfy anyone?
A few weeks before the end of the year, a list was published of “the greatest TV shows of the 21st century”. I found this extremely annoying….
Intensive care doctor tells Sajid Javid: this is why I’m refusing the Covid vaccine
A hospital consultant has told the Health Secretary he refused to be vaccinated because he has immunity from being “antibody” positive after exposure to the virus. Steve…
Ministers warned cladding reforms are ‘not enough’ to end anxiety for homeowners
The letter from Simon Clarke, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to Mr Gove said loans for smaller buildings would be replaced by a “limited grant scheme”….
How the surge of the omicron variant caught the NHS off guard
There are two types of healthcare that senior doctors and Whitehall officials like to talk about: health as it relates to each of us as individuals, and…