#world news

Crossings: Laura Pannack’s award-winning images of South African youth – in pictures

The British visual artist and photographer Laura Pannack has been named the winner of the inaugural Tom Stoddart award for excellence 2025. A collaboration between Gost Books and the Ian Parry photojournalism grant , the award supports photographers engaged in long-form documentary work. South Africa has one of the world’s highest levels of social inequality and a rapidly growing youth population; Pannack’s project Crossings looks at the journey to and from school and its physical and psychological challenges for young people Crossings by Laura Pannack is available now Continue reading...

Guardian Culture · EN

Would you pay to have the ‘best baby’? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection

For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise For a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was a

The Guardian Long Read · EN

Cryosphere faces permanent damage when world overshoots 1.5C, scientists warn

UN-backed report finds even temporary rises above Paris agreement target could cause harm to glaciers and polar ice sheets Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting global temperature targets, a UN report has found. Permanent and widespread losses of snow and ice expose a “persistent myth” that overshooting the 1.5C target of the Paris climate agreement – to 2C or 3C – could be manageable or even preferable to urgent cuts to emissions, the report found. Continue reading...

Guardian Science · EN